'Riverdale' Recap: It's All About Archie
Warning: Spoilers for Riverdale season 3, episode 5, "The Great Escape," ahead.
Everything is coming full circle on Riverdale. The two main storylines-Archie (KJ Apa) in lockup and the Griffins & Gargoyles mystery-collided this week, with our redheaded hero and Warden Norton (William MacDonald) at the center of it all. Let's take a look at what everyone is up to, shall we?
Archie
Never quite learning to think before he acts, Archie and a few fellow inmates at the juvenile detention center attempt a half-baked escape plan that fails miserably. Guards stop them with rubber bullets and the warden has some words with Archie. Actually, it wasn't a lot of words-just a hot poker to Archie's toned torso. Later that day, Warden Norton invites Archie for a "final meal" because the powers that be decided that the young prisoner has become too much of a nuisance. Acknowledging that his days are numbered, Archie asks the warden to at least tell him the truth about how Hiram framed him for the murder of Cassidy Book. It turns out Hiram paid $10,000 to each of the "witnesses" so they would lie about seeing Archie commit the murder. After this little revelation, Warden Norton also tells Archie that he'll be taking part in one last match at the warden's underground fight club, The Pit. Needless to say, Warden Norton has a few surprises up his sleeve but Archie is already cooking up a new plan to bust out.
Veronica
The Lodge household continues to be at war, with Veronica (Camila Mendes) still at odds with her father (Mark Consuelos) and her mother (Marisol Nichols) caught in the middle. Hiram informs his daughter of Archie's failed attempt to escape the detention center and lets her know that the stunt might get more time added to her boyfriend's sentence. Enlisting the help of a mob boss's son, Veronica goes undercover to one of the fight club events and gets a little one on one time with Archiekins. Archie's new escape plan involves climbing through the drain in the empty pool where all of the fights take place. The plan will require some help from the rest of their friends.
Betty
Poor Betty (Lili Reinhart)! It's looking like everyone she cares about is getting brainwashed. First her mother with the farm, and now Jughead (Cole Sprouse) is getting too deep in his involvement with Griffins & Gargoyles. Betty shows up at Dilton Doiley's bunker to let Jughead know that the adults played the game back in their high school days, but he's obsessively playing through a quest with his Southside Serpent crew and can't offer much help. It's clear she's going to need some new recruits in this G&G investigation. Those recruits come in the form of Josie (Ashleigh Murray), Kevin (Casey Cott), and Reggie (Charles Melton), who are all shocked to learn about their parents' history with the game and agree to dig for more info. They reconvene later on with little success. Josie's mom (Robin Givens) and Kevin's dad (Martin Cummins) deny any involvement with G&G, but do reveal that they're getting married. Reggie reveals that his dad just hit him when he mentioned the game. They start to discuss next steps when Veronica arrives asking for help getting Archie out of juvie.
Jughead
It was just a lot of G&G for Jughead this week. He's taken on the role of game master, with Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch), Toni (Vanessa Morgan), Sweet Pea (Jordan Connor), and Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) playing out his quests. After Betty expresses concern that he's getting too into the game, Jughead insists that he's in control and believes that he'll get to the bottom of the Gargoyle King's identity by reaching ascension within the game. We also learn that G&G only exists in Riverdale-even the fictional land where the game is set, Eldarvire, is actually just an anagram for Riverdale. This revelation is how Jughead justifies playing the game so much.
Later that night, Cheryl and Toni complain that Sweet Pea and Fangs are getting out of hand by trying to take the game off-board and playing with their weapons in real life. As game master, Jughead asserts his authority and tells them to stop but it's clear that they're frustrated that Jughead gets to boss them around in the game as well as in life (as Serpent King). This is probably going to become a major problem at a later date.
Betty arrives to recruit Jughead and the gang for the Archie escape plan. Instead of jumping up to help his best friend, Jughead sees the predicament as a good twist in the G&G quest he's working on and decides to just keep playing the game. As the quest gets underway, it becomes apparent that the quest Jughead wrote for his group is playing out exactly how the jailbreak scheme is going, with Archie as the Red Paladin.
The Escape
Everything is falling into place for Archie's big break until he meets up with his Serpent pal Joaquin (Rob Raco), who is acting suspiciously. Before Archie can even register the strange behavior, Joaquin preemptively apologizes and stabs his friend, explaining that Warden Norton promised that he'd reach ascension level in G&G for carrying out the deed. BOOM! There we have it. Griffins & Gargoyles has infiltrated the detention center.
Despite his new injury, Archie is brought to The Pit to take part in his final fight. His opponent is none other than his former cellmate, Mad Dog. Veronica, Josie, and Reggie sneak into the event to cause a distraction that will allow Archiekins to make his move. Adding a slight hiccup to the plan is the presence of Hiram, who spots Veronica in the crowd. As she and her father have a little confrontation that results in Hiram getting kicked in the shin, Archie convinces Mad Dog to help him escape. Veronica, Josie, and Reggie set off smoke bombs as Mad Dog fights off guards to give injured Archie his chance. He makes his way through the drain pipe, where Betty is waiting on the other side to let him out. (It's worth noting that this was supposed to be Kevin's job but he got distracted when he saw Joaquin running away from the detention center. Is it possible those two will rekindle things?)
The warden sends guards on motorcycles after Betty and Archie, who are riding through the woods, but when they finally get caught, it turns out to actually be Kevin on the back of Betty's bike. Elsewhere, Veronica helps Archie into the getaway car and they drive to the only place where nobody will look for the escaped inmate: Dilton's bunker. Jughead and co, who were already in the bunker playing G&G, agree to keep Archie's whereabouts a secret.
After returning home, Veronica and Hiram are confronted by Hermione, who is pissed off that Archie is tearing her family apart. It's time for the mayor to take care of business. Hermione goes down to the detention center to speak with Warden Norton, who we see poison himself after failing to complete his G&G mission of killing Archie, a.k.a. the Red Paladin. The episode closes with Jughead heading home from the bunker under orders from Betty to get some rest. As he makes his way back to the trailer park, Jughead comes across the Gargoyle King in the woods. It seems like a major confrontation is about to go down.
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