Who are Darla and Dodger Dickenson on Riverdale season 5?

Riverdale season 5 returned to The CW with “Chapter Eighty-Seven: Strange Bedfellows” taking viewers on another wild ride of ridiculousness. As usual, following this show and its many twists and turns can be difficult especially when characters from previous seasons make an appearance like Darla Dickenson and her son, Dodger.

Spoilers ahead for Riverdale season 5 “Chapter Eighty-Seven: Strange Bedfellows”

The two rolled in hard at the top of the episode interrupting Veronica’s sale of an Ethiopian blue opal to a buyer. The sell was supposed to help dig her and Chad out of the debt her husband had plunged the two of them into.

That plan, however, went south when Darla and Dodger held her jewelry store up at gunpoint. They smashed some cases, stole some of the merchandise on display, but it was the opal Dodger stole that was the most valuable piece in the store. His nabbing of the jewel set Veronica on a mission to get it back for the rest of the episode.

But her encounter with the pair wasn’t the first time she’d tangoed with them. As Veronica mentioned in their opening scene, she’d dealt with them seven years ago. Who are Darla and Dodger Dickenson on Riverdale? Here’s what we know!

The Dickenson crime family on Riverdale season 5

According to the Archiverse fandom wiki, Darla Dickenson made her first appearance in season 2 as the girlfriend of Dwayne, a man associated with Chic who was killed by him after he attacked Alice. In search of her missing boyfriend, Darla had called his cell phone only for Betty to answer.

In a series of events that got wilder and wilder, Darla blackmailed the Coopers after figuring out that whatever happened to Dwayne was done on their watch. She extorted 10,000 dollars out of them and would have remained in town if the South Side Serpents hadn’t rescued the Coopers.

Dodger Dickenson made his first appearance in season 4. He and his crew were known for pressuring kids into handling business for them. Archie, once again taking it upon himself to be the town vigilante, got into a fight with Dodger and his men.

Despite the odds, Archie came out on top which was embarrassing for Dodger. From that point on he made it his personal mission to destroy Archie. He even went as far as shooting up the Andrews’ residence with Archie and his mother inside.

It’s a situation that Hiram Lodge was brought into at Archie’s request. However, that only escalated things when Dodger was beaten so bad he wound up in the hospital.

Darla and the rest of the Dickensons vowed revenge, but in the end Archie still managed to defeat Dodger and send the Dickensons packing…at least until season 5 “Chapter Eighty-Seven: Strange Bedfellows” where they are once again up to no good.