Spoilers below for Riverdale S3.04 — The Midnight Club

Riverdale S3.04

A few episodes in, but getting going with my Riverdale reviews and right on time!

The much anticipated flashback episode did not disappoint. It didn’t really move the plot forward, but for the most part it was a fun look in the past at the kids’ parents in their high school years.

Here’s a quick recap:

Alice Smith (Betty’s mom) — A tough-as-nails Serpent who just finds out she’s pregnant with FP Jones’ baby

FP Jones (Jughead’s dad) — An All-American football player who is trying to break out of the cycle of poverty and gang membership (spoiler: he does not)

Fred Andrews (Archie’s dad) — An aspiring rocker/athlete who loves Riverdale and his dad (basically the same as Archie)

Hermione Gomez (Veronica’s mom) — A good Catholic girl who is testing her family’s boundaries by dating Hiram Lodge, who is a petty criminal (and later becomes a much bigger criminal)

Penelope Blossom (Cheryl’s mom) — An adopted redhead who will eventually marry her adopted brother because the Blossoms are fucked up

Sierra Samuels (Josie’s mom) — A political activist who would hate to be Mayor of Riverdale (lol)

I really enjoyed when they introduced all of the characters in the flashback and had to call each other by their first & last names for at least 3 lines of dialogue. “What are you doing here, Penelope Blossom” — it’s like, ok ya we get it, you are playing your parents.

Supporting roles in this episode are young Sheriff Keller, who is dating Sierra, but their parents don’t approve. This sets them up for their affair as adults, which doesn’t change too much, but it is a nice story.

The parents come together in the unlikeliest of ways. Oh wait, did I say unlikely? I meant, in the normal way kids in the 80s came together — detention. They were from separate cliques but 4 weeks in a row of Saturdays at school brought them closer. That and Griffons & Gargoyles.

We also see a young Reggie’s dad, Hiram, and Doiley, who are playing G&G on their own but then their groups converge. Together, the kids come to school at night and over the weekend to live out their fantasies as knights, squires, and…rockstars.

They receive invitations to “Ascension Night” from the Gargoyle King. Both game-masters (Blossom & Doiley) think the other planned the event, but they are both on the outskirts of their new friend groups, so they don’t say anything. When Hiram brings out the 80s version of Jingle Jangle, everyone except Alice (who is pregnant) readily accepts..

As the rest of her tribe rocks out, touches their faces, and just generally trips balls, Alice rushes to the bathroom with some late night morning sickness. When she opens the stall, the bathroom is graffitied with “Flip for your fate” all over. Two chalices, full of liquid, sit on the counter. Scared, Alice runs out and she’s almost caught by Principal Featherhead (side note: what kind of name is that? Is it a nod to Weatherbee? Why is Riverdale so bad at naming characters? I’m looking at you Ben Button!).

Alice also runs into the Gargoyle King, which causes her to GTFO. She leaves the rest of the group to continue their night of debauchery and the next morning she can’t find anyone. When she finally runs into Hermione, she finds out that Fred Andrews’ dad died while they were all partying. Featherhead is declared missing until the flies appear…turns out he drank from the wrong chalice (likely not by choice) and was stashed in a closet under the stairs.

So, who killed him? The Midnight Club meets one last time to blame each other before going their separate ways to become the people we know them as now. FP drinking beer in a Serpent jacket, Alice in pastel, Hermione in pearls.

I think the Gargoyle King is a person, so who is that person? Is it: Hiram? Edgar Evernever? Someone that we don’t know yet (I really hope it’s not this)? Whoever it is has to be as old or older than the parents. Or, the Gargoyle King antlers are passed on. Given how long it took us to find the Black Hood, I’m not thinking we’ll figure it out so quickly. Maybe they’ll need to call over to Glendale to have Sabrina help them.

The ending of the episode, though, does bring a bit of a surprise. Looks like Juggy and the Serpents have fallen into the deep end with G&G. Crazed, Jughead tells Betty he’s already a Level 3 — soon he’ll meet he Gargoyle King himself! Is he doing this for research or is he too far gone?

Until next week!