'Riverdale' Recap: Chapter 46 And A New Master Mind Is Revealed

Okay – I’m 35 minutes into Riverdale tonight and I am hoping that this episode is another one of Jughead’s story.  If not, we either will get answers or more confusion.  Yet, this is Riverdale and are there ever any answers?  Of course not!  That’s why we keep coming back. So, let’s get into the story and see just what happens.  By the way, Riverdale producers did you stage the sound mess up intentionally??

Archie the Angry Drunk

Archie has decided that college isn’t for him and he wants to work with Fred.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t go as smoothly as Archie’s anger and drinking get out of control.  Add to that he gets fired and Fred catches him drinking and lectures him (yeah Dylan schooling Archie on drinking is funny — 90210 reference here).  He goes to Veronica’s club and Reggie refuses to serve him because Archie had already had too much to drink.  Josie cools him off in a cold shower and Archie tells her about the dream/vision during the bear attack.  Josie offers him an alternative – music.

Archie decides that he has to confront Hiram and goes to the hospital with a gun (don’t ask me how or where Archie got the gun or how he got it into the hospital).  As Archie gets ready to shot, a masked gunman arrives (more about this later because it’s too confusing).  Archie shots at the masked man who runs (and yes, this will be revealed later).

Archie calls Veronica who comes to the hospital.  Hiram is alive and awake and wants to see Archie (as far as I can tell since the sound messed up and I was reading captions).  Hiram thanks him for being there and saving his life.  Archie says he only wants to live in peace.  They now have a truce sealed with a handshake.  Archie goes to the club and talks to Josie.  Have we got a new romance going?  Or is he going to take her suggestion and do music?  Well, he does want to “jam” with her.

Betty and Her Family’s Mystery

Meanwhile, Betty is off on a new mission because she’s suspicious of all the murders.  Her take is that it is Penelope Blossom.  Betty crashes Claudius’ funeral then meets back up with Jughead.  They decide to work together but Betty gets a call to meet the coroner.  Long story short (and to make the most sense), Claudius didn’t have an autopsy performed but the coroner found Clifford’s records.  Clifford didn’t commit suicide by hanging.  He had been killed by poison (or drugs) prior to the rope being tightened around his neck.

Betty goes back to see Penelope at her sex club, Maple.  Betty’s figured it out.  Penelope has been killing the men who have died but why not women. Penelope admits that she did the crime and only murdered men because of the Blossoms adopting her at eight and her treatment as a child.  If Betty turns Penelope in, Penelope will tell about the person Betty killed.  Betty ends up visiting her father (again) who (again) asks for forgiveness.

Jughead’s Solves a Mystery (Almost) for Ronnie

Let’s be honest! If you know anything about Jughead on Riverdale, you know he writes about everything.  He’s writing when Ron shows up and gives him a case.  She wants to know who shot her dad.  Oh, and like the Philip Marlowe stories, Ron’s willing to pay.  So Jughead has a new mystery to solve (and we begin to get clues on what the surprise is for tonight).

Some of Jug’s clues are tied to Betty’s case but not all. Jughead is very suspicious of Hermione and starts to question her.  She’s the one who will get the most from Hiram’s death but she has an alibi.  Hermione was on a call when he was shot.  Hermione is upset because she had Hiram followed and gotten pictures of him with his mistress (played by Kelly Ripa).  Betty and Jughead cross paths here, but Jughead gets the most details later.  It seems that the runoff from the drug processing plant had ended up in the  Sweetwater Reservoir.  This caused the girls to have a seizure.  Hiram’s mistress had been called in to investigate and wrote the fake report that got the town quarantined (well that’s part of the quarantine mystery, I guess).

Jughead had had Sweet Pea watching Hermione.  Sweet Pea calls Jughead and they find out about a mystery man in her life and the plot to frame FP with Hiram’s murder.  Instead, FP turns the situation around and throws it back on Hermione.  And why may you ask?  Keep reading!

AND THE NEW MASTERMIND IS . . .

Hermione.  That’s right!  Hermione Lodge may have been a party to her husband’s game but says she was against the drugs (yeah, because it hurt Veronica).  She faked Sheriff Minette’s death and they had a “cabin” in the woods.  Jughead and Sweet Pea tracked them to their tryst (read sex) and heard the plan to frame FP for Hiram’s murder in the hospital room.  Only thing was Archie stopped that.

Then the sound on this episode messed up.  From what I read, FP turned the story on her and set up Tall Boy to do the shooting of Hiram Lodge.  Tall Boy was caught and died on the way to jail.  By the way, FP had called Alice to tape the story and Hermione wasn’t happy at that.  Hermione knows that Minette failed so she goes to the cabin and shots him.

Why, you ask?  Well, she wanted the money to pay off someone off for something (which was highly distorted by the sound issue).  Hermione needed the money that Hiram got for protection and the sale of the drug to complete whatever she’s doing.  With Ronnie and Reggie destroying the drugs, Hermione doesn’t have her part of the bargain for the deal (don’t ask me about this because we weren’t told).  Now, Hermione is wanting revenge on both FP and Jughead.  And Riverdale is just Riverdale according to Jughead.