With SAT's around the corner, Alice and FP urge Jughead and Betty to stop investigating G&G and start focusing on their SAT prep. However, when Alice takes things one step too far, Betty is forced to come face-to-face with someone from her past. Finally, Jughead makes a bold move against the Gargoyle Gang.
- Title from: The Stranger
Tropes
- Back from the Dead: More "back from the presumed dead;" Tall Boy, who supposedly died last season, is revealed to be alive this episode. Turns into Back for the Dead at the end, when they find his body.
- Bait-and-Switch: The episode's first lines are "At 8:47 on a Wednesday morning, Archie Andrews died...at least the Archie we knew." Then we see Archie, alive and well, making his way back toward Riverdale.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Claudius is forcibly made by Hiram into the new sheriff. This doesn't last long; first he's caught by the Serpents, then he seemingly dies.
- Downer Ending: Archie and Veronica break up, right after their friendship had been in the process of being fixed.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: When Archie asks Reggie about cheating (as in on the SAT exams), Reggie asks him if Veronica mentioned. This inadvertently reveals to Archie that Reggie and Veronica were an item while he was away from town.
- Wham Shot: Four this episode, the third literal.
- The Gargoyle King is unmasked as Tall Boy early on.
- A jail worker goes to feed Claudius Blossom, only to find him down and seemingly dead in his cell.
- Right as he's in the middle of a phone call, Hiram gets shot. He's in stable condition by the episode's end, but we don't see who did it.
- As Jughead and the other Serpents are throwing a party to cover up Tall Boy's death, the new sheriff approaches: FP Jones.
