On this week’s Riverdale, as Cheryl catches up with long-lost love Heather, Betty makes some startling discoveries — as do Archie and Tabitha as they try to save Pop’s. Meanwhile, Toni and Fangs continue with the custody battle over Baby Anthony.
Keep reading to find out what happened on “Chapter One Hundred and Ten: Things That Go Bump In the Night.”
A Long-Awaited Catch-Up
Former junior high lovers Cheryl and Heather finally catch up after all these years, even asking each other about their love life. Before Heather leaves to go back to Greendale, Cheryl asks for her help in converting part of Thornhill into Riverdale’s privately-owned library. Heather agrees and tells her she’ll come back tomorrow.
Heather is back at Thornhill and helping Cheryl with the private library with her Wiccan ways. Cheryl tells her that she, too, has been studying arcane arts and has even dabbled in the occult. The two bond over it, and Heather does a tarot card reading on Cheryl. She gets The Queen, The Lovers, and The Tower. The last one is a symbol for disaster, war, and carnage.
“Welcome to Riverdale.”
The Witching Hours
After Heather does necromancy at Pop’s (more on that below), she admits to Cheryl she was taken in by a coven in Greendale after her mother died. She says she’s not just a Wiccan; she’s a witch. And she suggests Cheryl may be a witch as well. Cheryl confesses she feels she’s been dancing around it for a while and shows off her pyrokinesis. She asks Heather to teach her what she knows, and she happily agrees.
The Future of Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe
Tabitha’s request to have Pop’s declared a historical landmark was denied. But Tabitha isn’t giving up. She tells Pop Tate and Jughead she may have come up with a new plan. Tabitha later pitches to Archie about possibly breaking down the diner and moving it to a new location. They can put it into storage until Tabitha figures out a piece of protective land where it is untouched by Percival. Archie agrees and tells her he’ll get a crew together.
Archie and his crew get to work on tearing down Pop’s and putting it in moving trucks. Archie later locks up a truck with Pop’s stuff in it and he and the crew rest in a nearly torn-down Pop’s in the inside. Percival comes in to check in on his property and tells everyone about his railroad project and is looking for long-term crew, with a higher wage, signing bonus, and no union dues. Archie tries to talk on behalf of his crew but Fangs wants in considering he and Toni are drowning in legal dues.
Haunted Diner
When Tabitha, Archie, and the crew come back to the truck the next day, it’s completely empty. Tabitha runs in and sees Pop’s fully furnished with the booths and tables. Tabitha and Archie assume that Percival and the crew work double-time to get everything out again.
Tabitha meets with Percival about what happened and tells him to stop messing with them. Percival genuinely acts like he has no idea what she’s talking about since he wants her off the property. Tabitha reminds him that what he wants is Pop’s and its contents destroyed. She tells Percival it’s not going to happen, breaks a statue, then leaves.
The jukebox at Pop’s turns on, and two workers begin to move it. One of them, Sam, gets electrocuted. That night, Tabitha returns to Pop’s to see it fully open and in use, but when she runs in, the lights are off, and there’s no one in there; though it’s once again fully furnished, it’s like there were people there.
Tabitha meets with Archie and tells him that she talked to her grandfather, who told her that people have died at Pop’s. They’re the ones causing problems. Archie says that a haunted diner is the least of his problems, as he’s been getting calls all morning concerning his crew pulling out after the electrocution. Tabitha tells Archie she’ll figure out the ghost problem, but they still need to move the diner before it’s too late.
Tabitha meets with Cheryl and Heather to find more information on the ghosts, and they both offer to help. Heather calls upon the four ghosts, and one of them, Gilda Snide, tells them they are bound to Pop’s. They must bear witness to the battle that approaches between good and evil. She says that they have to protect the place, as it’s the final battleground. Tabitha tries to reason with the ghosts, and Gilda says that the diner cannot be broken down for long, or else they will dissipate into the Ether. If that happens, there will be no witness, the final battle will not happen, and they won’t be able to defeat the Eldritch evil.
Group Effort
Archie and Uncle Frank have a talk at the bar, and Archie brings up Fred and how he would think of the situation. He takes out a picture of his dad and Frank and pleads for him to put aside things to get the job done in honor of Fred.
Tabitha asks Archie to turn the El Royale into Pop’s, and Archie agrees, even if it means it being haunted for the time being. Frank comes through the door, having changed his mind after thinking about what Archie said, about what Fred would want. He tells Archie he’ll call the crew so they can save Pop’s.
The next morning when everyone arrives at Pop’s, booths, tables, and basically everything that was inside the diner is now sitting in the parking lot. Tabitha sees the four ghosts and figures that good samaritan souls gave them a head start. The group gets to work on dismantling the diner and loading up the truck.
Betty arrives at Pop’s and notices a red aura around Frank. She warns Archie, who confronts him about driving the truck into Sweetwater River or having a bonfire at the town dump. Frank shows his nephew the palladium and punches Archie, but it’s no use. Archie tells Frank to leave.
“And why don’t you tell Percival that the battle’s on. I’m invulnerable again. And we’re ready to fight.”
Final Battleground
Archie and Tabitha show Pop Tate the new and improved Pop’s at the El Royale, looking exactly like the real McCoy. Pop’s is still Pop’s.
“A refuge for lost souls.”
And the final battle will be witnessed by the appropriate parties. The living and the dead.
The Dark Cooper Family Secret
At the FBI office, Betty lets Agent Jillian Drake in on everything about the Cooper family and all the secrets. Jillian tells her she needs to get out of the house ASAP, as it has a lot of trauma in it and wonders if there’s a boyfriend’s house or girlfriend’s house she can stay at. Betty mentions boyfriend, and Jillian just smiles. (Could this be the start of Betty finally having a girlfriend?)
Betty asks Archie if she can move in while she untangles all of her emotional trauma, and Archie… and Bingo both happily agree.
When she goes to the Cooper household to grab her stuff, she finds Juniper and Dagwood (where have they been?!) playing with their new pet cat, Butterscotch. Betty gets flashbacks to when she killed Caramel, and she sees a red aura around Dagwood. She gets Butterscrotch away from the twins, telling them she’s going to make sure he has all of his shots.
Betty meets with Jillian and tells her about the auras she’s been seeing, and Jillian isn’t phased at all by it. She tells Betty she’s most likely sensing hostile energy fields. Betty admits to seeing an aura around her nephew, Dagwood, but not seeing one around his twin sister, Juniper. She put Butterscotch in a shelter, but now she’s worried Dagwood might have some tendencies later on. Betty also mentions how she sees auras around killers, people who are going to do something bad, but it’s not around every bad person, like TBK. She could have a blindspot for some people, one she wants to figure out and remove. Betty brings up her worry about the twins having the MAOA gene, and Jillian tells her to test the twins, so Betty brings them to Dr. Curdle Jr.
Dr. Curdle calls Betty with the test results and tells her that Juniper has the MAOA gene, but Dagwood does not. Betty tries to figure out why and how Dagwood has the aura, but Juniper does not. Jillian theorizes that having the MAOA gene could be Betty’s blindspot, and since Betty saw Cheryl’s aura when she was possessed by Abigail and the guy from the hospital, they could test them. Betty just wants to get the twins away from her mom first; she doesn’t want them crossing paths with Percival.
Cheryl and the orderly do not have the gene, and Jillian tells Betty their best guess is that the gene is her blindspot. Its presence seems to short-circuit her abilities to detect auras. Betty’s brain may work differently to perceive auras now that they know this could be the reason for her blindspot.
“Otherwise, I’ve been meaning to ask. How’s living with the boyfriend?”
The True Villain
Alice storms the FBI office, demanding to know why Betty took the twins from her. Betty tells her there is real evil in that house, and she doesn’t want the twins growing up the same way she did. Alice breaks down and vents to Betty about her being the villain, and Betty sees a red aura around her.
Betty tells Jillian she thinks they were wrong about the MAOA gene being her blindspot, as she saw an aura around her mom. Jillian suggests that with her powers being a byproduct of trauma, her recent discoveries about her mom only expand that trauma, making her sense more auras, both emotional and physical. Betty admits Alice wasn’t the only one.
“I saw another aura that I hadn’t previously. On someone else who has the MAOA gene. The scary part is I don’t know who this person is a threat to. Herself? Anyone who comes close to her? Or even the people that she loves?”
When Betty walked past her mirror, she saw her reflection and the aura around herself.
Custody of Baby Anthony
Toni and Fangs meet with the social worker, Janet, to discuss more about the custody battle. It may not fare too well in their favor due to their criminal records, but with Toni being the birth mother and with her college degree, it could help. Meanwhile, Fangs has a part-time job at the Whyte Wyrm and stays home to take care of Anthony while Toni’s at work. But Janet warns them that they’re going to have to work hard.
Fangs tells Toni he signed up to help Archie on the construction crew to move Pop’s, and he also wants to start pulling his weight. He doesn’t want the judge to think he’s some freeloader. Toni assures Fangs that he’s doing everything he can, but Fangs just wants to make sure he’s doing what he can to provide for Baby Anthony.
“I think it’ll make me a better father.”
Toni comes home to a new car that Fangs got, courtesy of the signing bonus from Percival being used as a downpayment. Toni does not like the fact that Fangs is now working with Percival, who is evil incarnate and could be responsible for Baby Anthony’s kidnapping. Fangs tells Toni that Archie warned him about Percival and his abilities, and told him that he can use an emotional tether — Baby Anthony — to keep him from controlling his mind.
Toni later apologizes to Fangs, admitting she hasn’t had enough faith in him. She’s been independent her whole life, and she realized they need to be equal partners in all things. Toni proposes to Fangs, thinking back to her talk with Janet. Janet told her that she and Fangs need to be stronger and more united than ever for Baby Anthony, as the court will see them as a happy and strong couple.
“Where this is coming from, Fangs, is that I hear you. I hear you. So what do you say? Will you marry me?”
Riverdale airs on The CW on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Stay tuned for our continued coverage on the series, including episodic recaps and more!
