This Wednesday, January 17, Riverdale’s mid-season premiere aired on the CW, and boy was there a lot going on. Personally, I was really excited to finally see Hart Denton on the show, because I’ve loved seeing him and Lili Reinhart on Lili’s instagram stories. If you haven’t had time to watch it this week with classes starting up again, but you’re dying to know what happened read on. If you don’t want any spoilers you should probably stop reading now.
The episode opens up with Jughead sitting in Pop’s, working on his novel. As he narrates we learn that Veronica is still in leagues with her parents as they meet with Mayor McCoy behind closed doors. We also learn that Cheryl’s attempt to stake her claim on absolute control over her family backfires as, to Cheryl’s dismay, her mother, Penelope Blossom, has been “providing comfort and companionship to the lonely men of Riverdale” under her same roof after Cheryl insisted her mother find a job and after she bought a Christmas tree and presents the Blossoms couldn’t afford in the mid-season finale of Riverdale.
Back to Veronica and her parents, for reasons yet to be known, Veronica is part of a plan with her parents to keep the peace among students at Riverdale High when they find out that students from Southside High will soon be going to school with them. While Veronica’s parents are worried about having her in the thick of everything, Veronica is calm, confident, and ready to keep things under control at her school.
Next, Fred Andrews approaches Archie about his medical bills, asking Archie if he mentioned anything to anyone since all of the bills have been paid off by an “angel donation.” Archie realizes that Veronica and her family might be behind this and promises to talk to Veronica, to which Fred responds that he’ll take care of it so Archie can focus on school. Archie gets ready to leave with his guitar in hand, and we find out that Archie has been writing songs over winter break and is thinking about starting a band. In support of Archie, Fred reminds him that he can hold band practices in the garage since Fred sound-proofed it for him. At school, Archie asks Veronica about the medical bills, and she confesses that she and her parents did pay them, but there are no hard feelings between Archie and Veronica.
Then Principal Weatherbee makes the announcement we’ve all been waiting for since we saw the commercials for this premiere: Southside High is closed down, and effective immediately some of the students will be transferring to Riverdale High. Veronica is trying to keep students in the Student Center calm, while Reggie and Cheryl both make it known to their teams that they are not okay with Southside students stepping onto their campus. Betty realizes that if Southside students are coming to Riverdale High, then that means Jughead is going to be in the same school as her again. When Kevin asks if she’s ready for that to happen since their last break-up, she promises that she’s fine and that her and Jughead are fine.
Next we see the Lodge parents talking with Mayor McCoy in her office. We find out that the Lodges were behind the school shutting down so quickly because they wanted to buy the land, and in return the Lodges are making a donation to Mayor McCoy’s re-election campaign.
When Betty gets home, she runs into her sister, Polly, as Polly is packing things to take with her back to the farm she’s living on. Polly had the twins without telling her family, and doesn’t plan to get in touch with her parents, as “the leaders of the farm think it’s best that [she] severs all ties.” Betty and Polly reach an impasse as Betty thinks Polly is being cruel by cutting their parents out like this, and Polly thinks she’s doing what’s best for her and the twins since her pregnancy never went over well with her mom.
On Archie’s way home, he’s approached by a special agent from the FBI. The FBI thinks Hiram Lodge is “conducting criminal activity in Riverdale, with ties to organized crime.” With Archie’s connections to the family, Special Agent Adams wants Archie’s help to take Hiram down. One of the first things he wants Archie to do is investigate the supposed accident that happened to Nick St. Clair. Archie can’t go to his dad though because Adams reveals that the FBI is worried about any ties Fred might have to Hiram’s criminal activities because of their business ties.
Alice Cooper and Jughead both suspect that something is off about Southside’s closing, as school’s don’t shut down overnight, and while the report said the school would be closing due to any worries about the fumes from the meth lab discovered below the school, but there wasn’t any meth being produced, just Jingle-Jangle. FP Jones thinks Jughead’s suspicion over Southside closing has more to do with the fact that he’ll now be at the same school as Betty once again. Just then, Betty walks through the door’s of Pop’s, as she asked Jughead to meet with her. Betty aks Jughead if he can give her his social worker’s contact info to see if she can help Betty get in touch with the son her mom gave up so long ago as a way of easing the pain of Alice losing Polly. In the spirit of clearing the air before they both start school, Betty also lets Jughead know that she’s happy Jughead will be back at Riverdale High.
Archie has dinner with the Lodges, and there he promises to help Veronica with welcoming the Southside students. Archie also brings up the St. Clairs in an attempt to get more information about Nick, and what the Lodges have to say about this supposed accident.
The next day, while Veronica tries to welcome the Southside students, Reggie, Cheryl, and their followers confront the Southsiders, and Cheryl tells them that she doesn’t want to see her school get dragged down by the new students, and insists that they transfer somewhere else. Archie and Veronica try to keep things in check, until Principal Weatherbee shows up and tells everyone to get to class. As they get going, Cheryl lets Archie know that she saw the kiss he and Betty shared in the previous episode. Later in the day, Archie meets with Cheryl to ask about Nick. Cheryl mentions that Veronica almost ended up in Cheryl’s position when he was there, thinking that Archie already knew about what Nick did.
Jughead’s social worker meets with Betty. Betty gets the last known address for her brother, Charles Smith, and she finds out that he was never adopted by a family; he spent his life in the foster system.
Back at school, while Veronica and friends are once again trying to be welcoming towards the Southside students (with Fangs telling Kevin that he knows of him because Joaquin would talk about him all the time), Principal Weatherbee calls all of them over to ask them who defaced the school’s seal by graffiting a serpent onto it. It’s clear to the audience that Reggie or one of his friends is the one who did it, as Reggie is standing behind Weatherbee insisting that stuff like this is what happens when people from the Southside come along. Weatherbee makes the move to declare that anything gang-related is not allowed to be seen on campus- Serpent jackets can’t be worn on campus and Serpent tattoos must be covered.
At home, Betty reveals to her parents that Polly had the twins and that she doesn’t want their parents to be part of the twins’ lives. Betty also brings up that she was able to get their son’s last known address, to which Hal insists that they shouldn’t reach out to him, and Alice takes his side.
While hanging out at the Whyte Wyrm, while Jughead is frustrated about Weatherbee profiling and coming down on the Southside students. Toni and Sweet Pea, however, tell him that considering how crappy Southside High was, they’re fine with abiding my Weatherbee’s new rules on, since transferring schools was “the best thing that could’ve happened.”
Archie meets with Adams, and makes Adams promise that his dad won’t get into any trouble if Archie helps out. Archie promises to go talk to Nick for Adams, and he then goes to Cheryl to set up the alibi that he’s going to see Nick to get a new check from Nick for Cheryl (since Cheryl and her mom burned the last one).
Alice and Betty go to see Charles behind Hal’s back. Charles (who lets Alice and Betty know he goes by Chick), isn’t happy to see them, however, resenting Alice for giving him up and resenting Betty because she was kept by their parents and because she was raised in a nice house by a family while he was bounced around the foster system. He tells them to go, having no desire to see them again.
FP and Jughead talk after Jughead gets suspended for wearing his Serpents jacket for school. Jughead says that at Southside High he and the Serpents had a family and a home. FP tells Jughead he just needs to lay low for awhile, being at Riverdale High and not being able to wear his jacket doesn’t make him stop being a Serpent. Jughead returns to school the next day to find Toni and Sweet Pea in uniform as part of the effort to make the Southside students conform. Around this time, Veronica confronts Archie about Archie’s encounter with Nick. The day before, Archie went to Nick’s dorm to ask about the supposed accident, gets Nick to write the check for Cheryl, and ends up beating up Nick for what he did to Cheryl and Veronica. Cheryl comes in and says that she asked Archie to confront him for her. Later, when Veronica asks Archie if he was hiding something more from her, he says that the reason he went to visit Nick was because Cheryl was blackmailing him, and reveals that he and Betty kiss when he and Veronica were broken up and after Betty and Jughead broke up on the night the Black Hood was captured.
Betty decides to go try to her brother again, and finds him getting beat by the man that was running the hostel Chick was at. Betty pepper-sprays his assailant, then brings him back to the Cooper home to take care of his injuries.
The episode ends with Jughead starting a school club sanctioned by Weatherbee called “Swords and Serpents,” under the guise of a gaming club, but it’s actually a place for the Serpents to have a haven in Riverdale High while lying low. Cheryl presents the check to her mom in the hopes that Penelope will stop seeing men for money, but Penelope doesn’t fold. Archie talks with Agent Adams again and asks for Veronica to be protected as well as his father. Archie also reveals that he’s not so sure if they really caught the Black Hood that fateful night. Finally, as Chick is staying at the Coopers’ house, we see him walk into Betty’s room as she’s sleeping, and Jughead narrates that Betty “had no sooner vanquished one monster, and she perhaps let another one into her family’s lives.” The episode cuts out as Chick stands over Betty, watching her.