Riverdale Review : Chapter Twelve "Anatomy of a Murder"

Welcome back to my blog ! Last night on Riverdale we finally found out, who killed Jason Blossom and that's just one of many shocking reveals and twists. In this episode, Archie and Veronica realizes they need to tell their parents about what they've uncovered and Jughead decides to joins his friends in a quest for truth. While, Cheryl confronts Penelope for truth about their family.

- This post below contains spoilers - 

* FP's Confession 

We see Sheriff Keller is questioning FP at the station about Jason Blossom. FP tells Sheriff Keller that Jason came to him at The Whyte Wyrm ( The Southside Serpents' bar ) and asked him to set up a getaway car and some cash because he was going to run away with his pregnant girlfriend ( Polly Cooper ), in exchange FP asked him to deliver some drugs, 

That's where FP realizes that Jason is Clifford Blossom's son and wondered why a rich kid like Jason needed his help, Jason then tells FP his plan with Cheryl to fake his death on July 4th. FP then confess that once Jason get on the other side of the river, he grabbed Jason before he reached the getaway car and then FP took him to The Wrym and held him in the basement where he decides to held him for ransom. But then, Jason got loose and that's when FP shoot him, stuffed his body in the freezer and then dumped the body in Sweetwater River. 

FP also confess that he break in to Sheriff Keller's house to stole the files, and follows Betty and Jughead to where Jason hides the getaway car and burned it.  From the moment he starts confessing, i knew that he's lying and something is not right.. Like, who murdered someone and confesses that easily unless he's trying to protect or cover up for someone ! 

* Jughead's Downward Spiral 

With everything that happened with FP and his friends, feeling betrayed Jughead buys a bus ticket to Toledo to visit his mom and sister. But before he leaves, we see him calling his mom from a payphone at the bus station, although we didn't get a chance to hear Jughead mom's voice because they probably haven't cast her character.. We can learn from Jughead's expression and what he's saying that his mom doesn't want him to visit ! What is wrong with these parents, and why Jughead's mom doesn't want him to visit ?! Jughead then decides to exchange the ticket to Florida and we see him has nowhere to go for the night, until we learn from Archie, Betty, and Veronica that he's at Pop's. 

They apologizes to Jughead for what happened in the previous episode and then Veronica drops the bomb, telling Jughead that FP's being framed because there's no gun when they searched his trailer, someone must've put it there after they left. They decides to go to the station to tell Sheriff Keller about what they have uncovered, but it's no use.. Because FP already confess and admit that he killed Jason Blossom ! And the gang are pretty shock and they still believe that FP is being framed. 

The next day, the newspapers front page are filled with FP being Jason's killer. We see, The Blossoms during breakfast discuss it and feels relieved that Jason's killer is behind bars, but we see Polly feeling confuse with FP being the killer, same here Polly ! Jughead then comes to school and meet Cheryl at the cafeteria where he tells Cheryl that he's sorry, then Cheryl slaps him in the face and starts hitting him until Principal Weatherbee shows up and stops the whole thing. 

Betty follows Cheryl to the locker room where she breaks down and she reveals to Betty that everyone keep telling her that she must've feel relief now that they've arrested Jason's killer, but Cheryl tells Betty that somehow she doesn't feel that way which makes Betty wants to investigate for the truth. We then learn from Jughead conversation with Betty that Weatherbee questions him for what happened with FP, Betty keep insisting that FP was framed and they need to find out the truth. Jughead then reluctantly agrees to investigate with her, and the rest of the gang. 

Back at The Andrews', we learn from Fred that Jughead isn't allowed to go to school anymore and finish school from home. Seriously, Weatherbee ?! You should help and support Jughead, he was just trying to be nice to Cheryl and apologizes earlier ! Fred then tells Archie to move with Mary to Chicago because he doesn't think this town is safe and wherever The Jones go troubles follows, Archie then snaps back saying he doesn't need to make Jughead some-kind of danger because he isn't. Their conversation gets interrupted when Jughead goes downstairs saying he's going to sleep in the garage, because he hears the whole thing... Poor, Jughead !! 

* Hal's Revelation 

Meanwhile at The Coopers', Betty and Alice hears someone breaks into their house in the middle of the night. As you can see, Alice brings along a gun which we know is Ms. Grundy's gun ! So the gun that was found in FP's trailer isn't Grundy's. Later we finds out that the ''intruder'' is Hal Cooper ! Oh hello Hal, what are you up to ?! 

We later see the three of them talk about Jason's investigation, Hal reveals that he's the one who breaks into Sheriff Keller's house and stole the files, and now he's going to destroy all the evidences. Betty then wonders why FP admit to Sheriff Keller that he's the one who stole it, Alice snaps back saying it doesn't matter for now.. The more important question is why Hal stole it ? Hal reveals that he's trying to protect The Coopers especially Polly and doesn't want Sheriff Keller to finds out their relation to The Blossom and considers it as a motives for killing Jason. Betty then asks is it because what happened years ago between great grandfather Blossom and Coopers ? This is when Hal drops the bombshell about the family... Which is one of the most shocking moments from last night's episode,

Turns out... The Coopers are actually Blossoms !! Hal reveals that great grandfather Cooper and Blossom are brothers, which makes Hal a Blossom and after the murder his family decides to cut all relation with The Blossoms and change his last name to Cooper. Oh.. It doesn't stops there, Alice then realizes that means Polly and Betty are Blossoms which makes them third cousins to Jason and Cheryl. OMG ! Incest does play apart in this show and i knew it ! It just that all this time i taught the incest are between Cheryl and Jason.. Turns out, it's between Polly and Jason !! This is why Hal was so against with Polly relationship with Jason and freaks out when she's pregnant with his twins. They then decides to go to Thornhill to pick up Polly. 

Mr. Blossom opens the door and Alice just marched in there and shout at The Blossoms, you go Alice ! Penelope and Clifford are trying to stops her and that's when Alice drops what she uncovers to Polly and Cheryl, 

"Oh i know everything about your family, Penelope. And the incest. Hal's grandfather wasn't just your grandpappy's murder victim, they were brothers, which makes him a Blossom. Just like Hal." 

Just crazy as it seems, Penelope and Cliff are seems so cool with the whole ''Incest'' thing, Cliff says that it's not like Jason and Polly are brother and sister, and at some point Penelope also says that, 

"Nothing could be more purely Blossoms than those babies."

What ?? Oh God, this family are crazy.. Which makes me wonders, are Jason and Polly the first case of incest in this family, or is it just so normal for The Blossoms because Blossoms are one of those ''Crazy'' family that allows incest so they all can keep the fortunes in the family ? 

Polly then kinda freaks out and decides to leave Thornhill. Before leaving, Penelope grabs Betty arms and threatens her that her family has make a ''grave error''. Betty then snaps back saying, 

"No, i don't think so. And i'm not gonna stop until i prove it."

Yass, tell her Betty !! But guys, talk about family drama and plot twist.. 😵 

* The Southside Serpents

Jughead and Archie meet up with Mary at Pop's where we learn that the only one phone call that FP makes was for Joaquin ! Jughead then decides to visit FP in jail, Jughead asks his dad again if he really killed Jason ? FP says that he did it and tells Jughead not to come back visit where he exchange ''look'' with Jughead, and later on Jughead call Betty telling her that she was right, FP is hiding something. 

Meanwhile we see Archie, Veronica, and Kevin confronts Joaquin in Archie's garage. Joaquin then tells them that he received a midnight phone call from FP on July 11th, telling Joaquin that the basement at The Wrym were off limits to everyone and he had a clean up job for Joaquin, when he arrives there he saw Jason's body covered in blood and then he helped FP clean everything up, get rid of any evidence, but he never asked FP what happened he just assumed that FP had shot Jason. Kevin then realizes that Joaquin is just using him for any information because he's the Sheriff's son, Veronica asks if Joaquin ever heard or know anything about her dad involvement in all of this, Joaquin then reveals that he overheard a conversation between FP and another serpent who knew about the clean-ups, Mustang ( who we also see a few episodes ago having a fight with Archie and mistaken him for Jason at The Wrym ), Joaquin heard them talking about some rich guy, but he doesn't know who. Veronica then asks him Mustang's whereabouts, Joaquin tells her it's a bad idea but Veronica insist that she needs to know the truth about her dad, Kevin then threatens him to show them where the hell is Mustang or he's gonna tell his dad about Joaquin's "little clean up jobs". Who else loves to see Kevin involvement and in action with the gang ? 

So, they go to where Mustang lives and guess what ?? They found him dead in the bathtub ! Kevin call his dad and we see soon Sheriff Keller, Fred and Hermione arrives, we learn from Sheriff Keller that Mustang died because he's overdose, he then asks how Archie, Veronica, and Kevin knows that Mustang lived there ? They are saved by another cop who interrupts bringing a bag full of money that they found with an initial ''H.L'' !

We can see that both Hermione and Veronica are shock, but then Veronica tells Sheriff Keller that the initial doesn't stand for Hermione Lodge but for Hiram Lodge, Hermione stops Veronica and tells Sheriff Keller that they will not say anything else until an attorney is present. Back at The Lodges', we see Hermione breaks down and Veronica tries to calm her down. 

* Who Killed Jason ?!

Betty and Jughead are looking at the murder board where they narrow down the suspects list, they decides to take down Hermione and Hal's photos down because both of them have an alibi.. Hermione is shady with a lot of crimes but she could've killed Jason because she still in New York, while Hal stole the case because he wants to protect Polly and The Coopers. Betty reveals that they only have three suspects left, Hiram Lodge and The Blossoms. 

Meanwhile at Thornhill, Cheryl comes to talk with her mother where she asks about what her dad means (in the previous episode) about Jason didn't had the stomach for it. Penelope then starts to clench Cheryl's hands and drags her to the Blossoms' farmhouse where they keep all the maple syrup barrels. Penelope reveals about The Blossoms' secret, dirty, sticky truth / business which comes back to the maple syrup. Seriously, i'll never look at maple syrup the same way after watching this show.. 

Kevin says goodbye to Joaquin who decides to leaves Riverdale, good for you Joaquin !! Kevin decides to kiss Joaquin one last time and then Joaquin reveals something to Kevin, where we later learns that Joaquin was telling Kevin about his ''little insurance'' with FP. We then see, Kevin along with Betty and Jughead are on their little hunt searching for something which later we see turns out to be.. a bag where we see from a few episodes ago with Jason's jacket inside !

They then meets up with Archie and Veronica where they finally comes up with a decision that it means FP is the killer. But our own ''Nancy Drew'' won't give up.. Betty still insist that this can't be it, she asks Archie to put on the jacket, which is a little bit creepy.. She then starts to search the pockets, where she claims that there's a hole inside one of the pockets and guys.. Betty finds a flash-drive !!

They prepare a laptop, plug in the drive and watch the whole thing.. At this point, we didn't get to see what exactly did they watch but we're sure that it reveals who Jason's killer is. After watching everyone is shock and in tears, Betty closes the laptop and call someone saying that this person needs to get out of the house, which we later see the person turns out to be, our HBIC.. Cheryl Blossom ! Which means that the killer must've been The Blossoms.. Or one of them ? We see Cheryl goes down stairs, wiping her tears and go to the dining room where The Blossoms are having dinner, Cheryl then go stand beside her mom and tells her dad.. 

"You did a bad thing, daddy. And now everyone knows."

Later we see, Alice gives the flash drive to Mayor McCoy and Sheriff Keller and we finally gets to see what exactly the gang watch in the laptop, it's a security footage from The Wrym's basement which reveals the whole thing that happened.. We see Jason tied to a chair in the basement at The Wrym while being taunted by Mustang, then after Mustang leaves we see someone came in which turns out to be.. CLIFFORD BLOSSOM. We see him taking Nana's ring from Jason's pocket, and then he point his gun at Jason's forehead and pull the trigger. Clifford being the killer is kinda disappointing for me because we all probably have guess that he's the killer, but i loves how they reveals that he's the killer.  

* The Aftermath 

We also learn why FP confess about him being the killer, as Jughead narrates.. 

"Later, we would learn why my father confessed. Because Clifford Blossom visited him on the night of his arrest, with a threat, that I Jughead Jones, would suffer the same fate as Jason Blossom, if my father didn't confess."

Saw it coming !! Poor FP  and Jughead, FP does care about his son and that is so heartbreaking to watch. We soon learn that Sheriff Keller couldn't let FP go because he's charged with tampering evidence, obstruction of justice, mishandling a body, and perjury. Yep, some of the parents had comitted crimes but still it's Clifford who's gonna be charged with first degree murder. 

Back at The Lodges, Veronica apologizes at her mom for doubting her dad. Then, Hermione tells her a very very good news that Hiram is coming home. Is it tho, good news ? With Hiram being in Riverdale, things surely will get more shady AF.

At the Andrews', we see Mary saying goodbye to Archie and Fred because she's going back to Chicago. Anyone else feels sad with Mary's departure, i want more of Molly Ringwald in Season Two !

The episode ends with Sheriff's cars arriving at Thornhill to arrest Clifford Blossom, and although we know that he killed Jason a.k.a his own son.. We still don't know why ? What's his motives ? And that's the only thing, Clifford can answer. We see, Cheryl and Penelope points out The Blossom's farmhouse. Sheriff Keller and couple of other cops opens the door and finds Clifford Blossom has hang himself up and they find a barrel tip over filled with what it seems to be drugs. Surprise, The Blossoms family's maple syrup business is actually a drug front ! 

What a ''CLIFFHANGER'', right ?? Now we never know his true motive, we could probably learn from Penelope. But, did Clifford committed suicide or someone kill him so we can never know the truth why he killed Jason ? 

One episode left, and the promo already left me in the edge of my seat.. Riverdale creators teases something about next week episode which is the season finale that Cheryl will have a shocking story for us, that probably more shocking that Clifford being Jason's killer and we see her in her deepest darkest place emotionally. Also, what happened at the finale will change Riverdale and its characters forever !

Check out the promo :