Riverdale S3.06 — The Gargoyle King is everywhere!
Spoilers below for Riverdale S3.06 — Manhunt
The name of this episode is Manhunt and they make mention, once or twice, about the “massive manhunt, including checkpoints” that is currently underway in search of escaped murderer, Archie Andrews. But, somehow, our crew of children never once runs into a single person as they traipse around the town and surrounding areas.
Archie, still very injured from being shanked and beaten, is struggling to speak in the first scene, where he whispers to Betty & Jughead that Joaquin joined a new gang: of gargoyles. Then, in the very next scene, Archie and Veronica lay in his cot in the bunker, in a post-coital bliss. This kid really knows how to drop everything for sex.
But, sex with a groin injury is probably not a good idea and his wound gets infected basically immediately. Betty instructs Kevin to take him to their favorite morgue doctor (Jr.) who fixes up the injury and prescribes antibiotics after they pay him in small bills only (side note: does he go to a lot of strippers? Why did they have to mention the small bills so many times?).
Archie refuses to go back to the bunker and forces Kevin to take him to the mines outside of Shadow Lake. Obviously this is a terrible idea, but he’s wearing a hat so no one will recognize him, right? They make it there with literally no problem and despite the spooky G&G scratchings on the wall, they continue down deeper into the mines.
Too bad they’re a little late — Sheriff Minetta has already SHOT ALL OF THE BOYS because Hiram Lodge (and also Minetta, I guess) truly have the moral backbones of a chocolate eclair. One of the boys is still alive, though, and Archie & Kev grab him with the hopes of getting him to a hospital. Archie says this is because he doesn’t want any more blood on his hands, but it’s obviously because he needs this kid alive to clear his name. But, he’s lost too much blood and he dies.
Meanwhile, Betty calls a meeting of the Midnight Club by sending them all letters from the Gargoyle King. They’re pissed when they realize that the actual monster Gargoyle King didn’t write the letter and instead it was just dumb, annoying Betty.
When she confronts them about Principal Featherhead’s death on Ascension Night, Penelope Blossom claims that Doiley poisoned the cups because he wanted to ascend with her. She said no and somehow Featherhead drank the poisoned cup. Then, later, Doiley was found dead in his car with the engine on and the windows up.
“Dilton Doiley’s dead dad did it?” Betty actually said! Probably not, because it’s happening again and this man has been dead for years. Plus, Betty asks her creepy morgue doctor friend (Jr.) and he reports that Doiley actually had no carbon monoxide in his system. So, it obviously was not carbon monoxide poisoning. Instead, he was killed by a different poison, which comes from a plant that is grown in the Blossom greenhouse.
When Betty confronts Sheriff (at the time) Keller about why they classified it as carbon monoxide poisoning (suicide) versus regular poison (murder), he said he needed to do it to protect the Club. We find out that Penelope would never poison someone with oleander because it leaves a trace and Betty’s mom is the one who wrote the article that announced the death a suicide. So the whole group is in on it!
After Betty’s confrontation with her mom, while her mom casually makes stovetop popcorn in the middle of a thunderstorm, the power goes out and the Gargoyle King appears in their living room! FP climbs up through the window in an amazing revival of his move in the original Scream movie and hugs a scared Alice while giving a knowing look to Betty. Is FP the Gargoyle King?? This whole ridiculous scene is followed up with Alice sending Betty to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy! WTF is going on??
I also didn’t even have time to write about Veronica’s side storyline, where she goes to her mom’s office and finds a folder on her desktop with the same “sacrifice” symbol. ON HER DESKTOP! In the folder is the missing evidence video where Minetta coerces the witness to lie under oath. That was easy. She is casually arrested but Attorney McCoy pays her bail and takes the video to the judge and FREES ARCHIE.
And Jughead’s side storyline, where he catches Joaquin, learns a little bit about the gargoyle gang, and then lets him go only for the gang to return him, dead with the sacrifice symbol carved into his forehead.
But, the end of the episode is the craziest because despite Archie’s newfound freedom and Minetta’s long jail sentence, he still decides to leave because he can’t escape Hiram in Riverdale (true). He’s not alone, though — Jughead comes too! So, who will be there to rescue Betty, who looks around her art class at the Sisters and everyone is painting Gargoyle Kings!?
So basically, this episode was bonkers and I do not know how they are going to come back from this! But I also love it! I just want to make sure that the gang gets back together. Something tells me when they find out Betty is at the Sisters, Jug & Archie will have to return.
Originally published at lizziekreitman.wordpress.com on November 29, 2018.