The seventh and final season of Riverdale is set to premiere on Wednesday, March 29, and with the gang in the 1950s, this will be the biggest situation they will have dealt with after the Black Hood, the Gargoyle King, The Farm, Percival Pickens, and more. To get ready, we are taking a look back at the previous six seasons to catch up on the biggest storylines of the series, so take a refresher on what happened in season 3!
Gryphons and Gargoyles
Following the Black Hood debacle, the Town of Riverdale was getting back to somewhat normal … until rules for a particular game were being distributed. Gryphons and Gargoyles, a role-playing game much like Dungeons and Dragons, was soon found out that it wasn’t all that it was meant to be, all thanks to the Gargoyle King.
The game was started by some patients at Sisters of Quiet Mercy and never intended to leave the walls of the asylum. However, it ended up in the hands of Fred Andrews, Alice Smith, F.P. Jones, Sierra Samuels, Hermione Gomez, and Penelope Blossom when they were in high school, and they formed the Midnight Club. Tom Keller, Marty Mantle, Hiram Lodge, and Darryl Doiley were also playing the game and all of them started to play together, but they swore to never speak of it … until it comes back 25 years later.
Gryphons and Gargoyles made some people in town crazy, and it led to some deaths, like Dilton Doiley and Ben Button, who jumped out of a window in his hospital room in order to ascend to the Kingdom with Dilton.
The Gargoyle King inevitably took over, and some were convinced they needed to please him and obey, completing tasks in the game but in the real world as well. The manual found its way to everyone in Riverdale, and everyone would join in for what seemed like innocent fun. But unfortunately, innocent it was not.
The final episode of the season saw the game come together, and it was revealed that Penelope Blossom was behind it all, along with Chic and Hal. She gathers the Core Four together to complete a final night of tasks; if they don’t, they die. From drinking poison to surviving the Gargoyle King and Black Hood, Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica struggled to survive. In the early hours of the morning, Betty was tasked with killing her father, and not being able to do it, Penelope shoots him, and Cheryl, Toni, the Poisons, and the Serpents save them. And the game is over.
Archie’s Dilemma
After Archie was arrested in the season 2 finale, he spent the majority of his summer in a courtroom. Not wanting to drag his family and friends through a long trial, Archie accepted a plea deal despite not committing the murder. He becomes an honorary Serpent so he can get in with the other Serpents in jail and meets roomie MadDog.
It’s later discovered that there is a legit underground fight club at the prison, and of course, Hiram was in on it, as was the Warden. The winner would get food and some perks for a limited time. After finding out about the fight club, Veronica and co. devise a plan to catch Hiram and Warden Norton in the act, and Archie escapes through a drain in an empty pool where the fight club is at the prison. Although he’s stabbed by Joaquin, who was following the Warden’s orders (due to a G&G card marking him as the Red Paladin), Archie makes it and is saved.
Now on the run since he’s a fugitive, Archie and Jughead head to Jughead’s mother’s place. The journey isn’t so simple, as when they’re staying at a farm, Hiram comes after Archie, but luckily, they escape. Jughead reunites with his mother, Gladys, and little sister, Jellybean. After F.P. comes to get Jughead, Archie leaves as well but continues to travel. This is where he is attacked by a bear, but don’t worry, he survives and comes home when it’s finally safe again.
Welcome to The Farm
Where to begin with The Farm? After hearing about it from Polly since the first season, season 3 is where it really takes over, and not in a good way. While at home, Betty finds Juniper and Dagwood floating above a bonfire, with Alice, Polly, and some Farmies surrounding it. We are introduced to Evelyn Evernever, the daughter of the infamous Edgar Evernever, the head of The Farm. She enrolls in Riverdale High and tries to get people to sign up for The Farm. Alice, Kevin, Fangs, and even Principal Weatherby are basically brainwashed into joining, and it’s hard to explain exactly what they joined.
Worried for her family and friends and not really trusting The Farm, Betty once again does some investigating. She goes to an open house at the Sisters of Quiet Mercy, which is now taken over by The Farm, and when she fails to get any intel, she sends in Cousin Cheryl with a microphone. Though that soon turned into a bad idea when Cheryl realized she could talk to Jason and see him.
Things take a turn for the worse when the infamous Edgar Evernever, portrayed by 2000s CW hunk Chad Michael Murray, comes to town. He ropes in more Farmies; Toni, Cheryl, Kevin, and Fangs. He marries Alice, and we find out that Evelyn is not his daughter, but in fact, his wife, and she’s been posing as a high school student in neighboring towns so they can recruit more Farmies because how else can you convince people to join a cult?
When procedures are getting done at The Farm, it’s discovered that Edgar is actually harvesting organs. Cheryl comes to her senses and tries to get her friends out as well. Kevin and Fangs won’t listen, and Cheryl saves Toni just before her surgery. At different times, Choni escapes, partly thanks to Alice. Unfortunately, before the others catch Edgar and the other Farmies, they’ve all picked up and left the Sisters of Quiet Mercy, leaving Kevin so he can tell everyone what happened.
What Else Happened
- The River Vixens, including Toni and Veronica, had random seizures at school, and the entire town went under quarantine.
- After Toni and Cheryl stole back a Glamergé egg from Hiram for Veronica, Jughead kicks the two out of the Serpents. Feeling bad, Cheryl gets Toni her own gang, an all-female one called the Pretty Poisons, much to Jughead and the Serpents’ dismay.
- The school musical was Heathers, and although there was no murder at this one, it did end on a pretty iconic note: Edgar Evernever’s introduction, revealing that much of the town was in on The Farm.
- An FBI agent named Charles shows up out of the blue and tells Betty that Alice isn’t under Edgar’s spell, but instead, she’s been undercover at The Farm to help the FBI take down the whole cult. Not only that, but Charles admits that he’s her brother.
- At the end of the season finale, we get our first glimpse into the fateful Spring Break in which Jughead supposedly dies, and it left us questioning for months.
Stay tuned to our recap of season 4! In the meantime, watch all six seasons of Riverdale now on Netflix before season 7 premieres on Wednesday, March 29 at 9 p.m. EST on The CW! Check out the rest of our Riverdale coverage here.
