Riverdale season 3, episode 2 recap: What do the parents know about the Gargoyle King?

As Riverdale’s Gargoyle King takes its first victims, Betty and Jughead’s investigation leads to startling revelations and Archie starts a jailhouse rock riot.

You know you’re watching an episode of Riverdale when 30 minutes in you think, “This show is out of control,” and it’s the highest compliment you could possibly pay. It’s true; Riverdale is out of control in the best way imaginable. For one hour each week, we’re collectively granted a moment to step outside our own horrific reality and enter a fictional world of beautiful crazy.

In a single episode, Betty and Jughead were traumatically introduced to the Gargoyle King, the River Vixens performed “Jailhouse Rock” for Archie’s juvie football game, and every parent in Riverdale convened to conceal their decades-long secret. Where should we start, with the prison yard pep rally or the fact that the parents could be connected to the Gargoyle King mystery?

Let’s dig into the five most shocking moments from the latest jaw-dropping season 3 episode of Riverdale. (Warning: It’s about to get real spoilery in here.)

1. The Gargoyle King takes its first victim.

Unfortunately, we’ve lost Dilton Doiley to the Gargoyle King. Ben remains in the hospital (though he later jumps to his death from a window) because as Bughead learn, the ritual Jughead stumbled upon in the woods was meant to kill only one participant.

They each drank from a chalice, one of which contained cyanide. Both of their lips turned blue, which appears to be a key detail in the role-playing game gone beyond wrong. For some reason, the mysterious entity had zero qualms about showing itself to Bughead in the woods.

2. Ethel? Evelyn Evernever?

The one thing Bughead couldn’t suss out in their preliminary investigation was a solid suspect. Betty did meet new Riverdale High student Evelyn Evernever, whose father Edgar leads Alice and Polly at The Farm, and Jughead found a handmade talisman of a person hanging in Ben’s hospital room. Ethel made the talisman and revealed herself to have played the game with Dilton and Ben in the underground bunker. When Bughead confronts Ethel for information, she falls into a seizure, raising one hand in the air (very Born This Way-era Lady Gaga), and who should be watching from a corner but Evelyn Evernever.

3. Archie incites a jailhouse rock riot.

Strangely enough, I didn’t think the show had gone out of control until we entered the “Jailhouse Rock” portion. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Archie’s admittance into juvie was anything but smooth (and very over-sexualized, as was the whole first act).

Apart from his roommate Mad Dog, he makes few friends between the initiation-happy Serpents and the vengeful Ghoulies. However, he proposes a game of football to keep the peace, and during the Vixens’ well-intentioned pseudo pep rally, Hiram (!!!) calls for a riot by the guards.

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4. Veronica maneuvers around daddy dearest.

Why wouldn’t Hiram have the warden of the juvenile detention center in his back pocket? Why wouldn’t he needlessly call for guards to swarm a harmless game of football and beat everyone to a pulp? Why wouldn’t he have Veronica banished from visiting? Of course he does.

Ronnie finds a way around it with a little help from Cheryl, a fake ID, and a blonde wig, but Hiram won’t be beat so easily. And if Mad Dog truly died during the riot so Archie could be the warden’s new chosen one, Hiram’s power is unbound.

5. The parents have a secret.

Between the bunker, the string of seizures, and the weird symbols inscribed on the victims’ backs, it seemed impossible for the Gargoyle King mystery to have more layers added in this week’s episode. Well, did the parents have a surprise for us.

Hermione leads a meeting with every parent of every kid in the main cast and warns them to keep their secret from high school. Although they vowed to “never revisit that night,” they realized it’s “happening again” and their children are in danger. Does the Gargoyle King have something to do with… the parents?

Odds & Ends:

• If the parents have something to do with creating the Gargoyle King, it’ll be a repeat of the past two seasons. The big bad has been a parent two years in a row, and it would be gut-wrenching to add more parents to that already too-long list.
• But it does make the flashback episode, in which each kid plays their parents, all the more sense. That episode will surely provide clarity about their secret.
• Kevin received a side story to cut through the tension of jail and monsters: After struggling with Moose keeping their relationship under wraps, he joins ROTC to spend more time with him. Moose didn’t seem too pleased with that decision.
• I won’t let this go: Are the parents really responsible for the Gargoyle King, or do they just think they’re responsible?

What did you think of the latest episode? Let us know in the comments!

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.