Riverdale’s “Chapter Twelve: Anatomy of a Murder” finally reveals who killed Jason Blossom. Now the question is: Why did Jason die? And what else have the Blossoms been hiding?
Was Forsythe Framed?
Riverdale’s “Chapter Twelve: Anatomy of a Murder” begins with Archie and Veronica telling Betty that Forsythe was framed. The problem? Jughead’s missing. So, they decide to tell their parents what happened instead. They’re not buying it though. The sheriff found a gun, which is proof enough. Plus, the kids broke into F.P.’s house illegally, so anything they saw or didn’t see is inadmissible. The kids aren’t giving up that easily though.
After his friends’ betrayal and his dad’s arrest, an emotional Jughead decides to go to Toledo to see his mom and Jellybean. But she doesn’t even want him to come. Poor Jughead is absolutely devastated. So he decides to take the next bus out of town.
4 Actors We’d Like To See Play Reggie on Riverdale>>>
Hermione, meanwhile, isn’t sure if Hiram hired F.P. Either way, the family’s guilty of so many crimes and needs to get rid of anything linking them to the Serpents. Hermione tells Veronica to pack a bag in case F.P. accuses them of something and they need to run.
Archie, Betty, and Veronica later go searching for Jughead. They, of course, find him in Pop’s. They apologize and tell him F.P. was framed.
The sheriff, meanwhile, has been interrogating F.P., who admits that Jason approached him last summer. He was planning to run away with his girlfriend and asked F.P. for a car and cash. F.P. agreed if he’d deliver some drugs first. F.P. explains that once he realized Jason was a Blossom, he decided to hold Jason, tell Mr. Blossom Jason was alive, and ask for ransom money. He also admits to stealing the sheriff’s files and burning the getaway car. The sheriff assumes Jason tried to run and F.P. shot him.
Just then, Betty, Veronica, Archie and Jughead rush to tell the sheriff that F.P. was framed, but the sheriff says that F.P. just confessed.
The Aftermath
The Coopers tell Polly about F.P.’s arrest. Polly’s shocked because she assumed the Coopers did it. Mr. Cooper even says he wants to see F.P., which seems suspicious. But he says they can now have peace.
Archie and the gang are still convinced that F.P. is innocent, though, and that he could have been coerced to confess. A devastated Jughead, meanwhile, comes to school even though he was going to skip the day. He goes straight to Cheryl and apologizes, and she just attacks him.
Betty goes to see Cheryl and Cheryl says that she doesn’t feel any better now that the killer’s been arrested. Betty also tells Jughead they need to prove F.P.’s innocence, but Jughead’s done with his dad.
Jughead later overhears Fred telling Archie that the principal called and said Jughead has to finish the semester out of school. Fred also needs to figure out what to do with Jughead. He’s not Jughead’s legal guardian and the Jones family has too many problems. He just wants to protect Archie. Archie is furious.
What Was Joaquin’s Role?
Mary turns out to be somewhat helpful though. She looks into F.P.’s case and tells Jughead and Archie that things look bad. F.P.’s not changing his story. She also asks about Joaquin. He was F.P.’s one phone call, which they all think is weird. Mary also suggests Jughead visit his father in jail.
So Archie, Veronica and Kevin question Joaquin. Kevin flat out asks if F.P. killed Jason. Joaquin says he assumes he did. He got a phone call the night of July 11th. F.P. needed help with a cleanup job. It was Jason’s dead body! He’d been shot. Joaquin never asked if F.P. did it, but he assumed he did. They put the body in the freezer.
Veronica asks if Hiram hired F.P. Joaquin doesn’t know, but he says he overheard a call between F.P. and another Serpent named Mustang about a rich guy. Mustang also happened to be the Serpent Archie had gotten into a fight with at the bar. They demand to see him.
So Joaquin takes them to see Mustang only to find him dead in the bathtub! Things are getting more and more suspicious.
The sheriff, Fred, and Hermione come to the scene. The sheriff asks how they knew Mustang lives there, but they can’t answer. Then, they find a bag full of money with H.L. on it. It could be Hermione or Hiram Lodge. Veronica reveals Hiram was doing business with the Serpents. She and Hermione are convinced Hiram hired them to kill Jason.
Fred also tells Archie to stop this investigation. It could kill him and Fred tells him that he’s just trying to protect him.
Joaquin also gets on a bus to run away. He tells Kevin that he and his friends need to stop snooping before they get hurt, but he also tells him that there’s “something else.”
Betty And Jughead’s Investigation
Jughead goes to visit his dad. He tells F.P. that he knew trusting him was a mistake. He should have known his new clean image was a lie. F.P. just read the manuscript to make sure that Jughead wasn’t onto him and he wanted to go to Toledo to escape. F.P. says he’s only sorry he got caught and tells Jughead never to come back.
Jughead immediately calls Betty and says she was right. F.P. is hiding something. They meet up to try to figure out who F.P. is protecting and narrow it down to the Lodges and Blossoms.
The Blossoms’ Big Secret
Late one night, Betty and Alice hear some noises in their basement. Alice grabs a gun and threatens the intruder. But it’s Hal! Hal says he’s the one who stole the sheriff’s files even though F.P. confessed to it. Hal took the documents because was worried the investigation would lead to Polly and their family. People would think there was a motive to kill Jason because of the Coopers and Blossoms’ feud. So, he came back to the house to destroy the papers.
The families had been fighting since Betty’s great-grandfather was murdered by a Blossom. But he “wasn’t just murdered by a Blossom,” Hal explains. “He was a Blossom.” They were all Blossoms, but they severed ties and changed their names to the Coopers after the murder. What?
So Polly’s a Blossom! The Cheryl/Jason twincest vibes were weird. But this is a whole new level. This was why Hal wanted to send Polly away and get rid of the baby. And if those are the lengths Hal will go, the Blossoms might do something even worse to Polly. The Coopers all rush out to save her before it’s too late.
They run to the Blossoms’ house and barge in. They demand to take Polly home and accuse them of killing Jason because of his incestuous relationship. But the Coopers were happy about the baby. “Nothing could be more Blossom,” Clifford says.
Cheryl later asks Penelope why Jason and Clifford argued the day before they went to the river. If he wasn’t mad about the baby, what was Clifford mad about? Clifford had been grooming Jason to take over the business, but Jason couldn’t stomach it. But what, exactly, couldn’t he handle? Cheryl asks what Jason was running away from: The business, Clifford, or Penelope. She thinks they killed him. Penelope just loses it. She drags Cheryl to the barn and shows her barrels of maple syrup.
Who Killed Jason?
Kevin calls Betty and Jughead and tells them Joaquin told him something. They go searching, and find Jason’s jacket. They think the fact the F.P. and Joaquin have the jacket just confirms F.P.’s guilt. Veronica also shows up and says her dad’s guilty, which means F.P.’s probably guilty too.
Betty won’t give up, though, and has Archie wear the jacket while she searches it. She finds a hole in the pocket. And inside is a thumb drive.
They watch some sort of horrifying video and Betty immediately calls Cheryl and tells her to get out of her house. Clearly, the Blossoms killed Jason. Instead, though, Cheryl goes to her parents and says, “You did a bad thing, daddy. And now everyone knows.”
Later, Alice brings the video to the sheriff and the mayor. It shows Mustang had tied Jason up and taunted him. Then, Mr. Blossom showed up, took Jason’s engagement ring from his pocket, and shot him! F.P. had confessed to the murder because Mr. Blossom visited him and threatened that he’d kill Jughead if he didn’t confess. Still F.P. is being charged with obstruction, tampering with evidence, and more, so he’s not getting out of jail anytime soon.
The Lodges have good news, though. Hiram is coming home. Archie also tells Mary that he’s staying in Riverdale, but will visit over the summer.
But we still have one question left: Why did Clifford Blossom kill Jason? The police find Clifford hanging in the barn. One of the maple syrup barrels had been knocked over and drugs had spilled out. So did Jason know about the drugs? Why do you think Clifford killed Jason?
Riverdale airs on Thursday nights at 9/8 c. on the CW. Like BuddyTV’s Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of the CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
