Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13
Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27 | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29 | Chapter 30 | Chapter 31 | Chapter 32 | Chapter 33 | Chapter 34 | Chapter 35
Chapter 36 | Chapter 37 | Chapter 38 | Chapter 39 | Chapter 40 | Chapter 41 | Chapter 42 | Chapter 43 | Chapter 44 | Chapter 45 | Chapter 46 | Chapter 47 | Chapter 48 | Chapter 49 | Chapter 50 | Chapter 51 | Chapter 52 | Chapter 53 | Chapter 54 | Chapter 55 | Chapter 56 | Chapter 57
Chapter 58 | Chapter 59 | Chapter 60 | Chapter 61 | Chapter 62 | Chapter 63 | Chapter 64 | Chapter 65 | Chapter 66 | Chapter 67 | Chapter 68 | Chapter 69 | Chapter 70 | Chapter 71 | Chapter 72 | Chapter 73 | Chapter 74 | Chapter 75 | Chapter 76
Chapter 77 | Chapter 78 | Chapter 79 | Chapter 80 | Chapter 81 | Chapter 82 | Chapter 83 | Chapter 84 | Chapter 85 | Chapter 86 | Chapter 87 | Chapter 88 | Chapter 89 | Chapter 90 | Chapter 91 | Chapter 92 | Chapter 93 | Chapter 94 | Chapter 95
Chapter 96 | Chapter 97 | Chapter 98 | Chapter 99 | Chapter 100 | Chapter 101 | Chapter 102 | Chapter 103 | Chapter 104 | Chapter 105 | Chapter 106 | Chapter 107 | Chapter 108 | Chapter 109 | Chapter 110 | Chapter 111 | Chapter 112 | Chapter 113 | Chapter 114 | Chapter 115 | Chapter 116 | Chapter 117
“Mr. Pickens, I know you're new here. But I have spent my entire life in service to Riverdale. After high school, I graduated college with a degree in social work. I then became guidance counselor at Riverdale High. I kept its doors open as Hiram Lodge fought to shut us down. I then used my position as a small business owner and proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community to help with various charities and organizations. And if there's any doubt about my integrity, just know that I'm raising my son here, and I'm invested in Riverdale because of him.”
—Toni
Toni and the Serpents are targeted by Pickens. Abigail sets out to exact her revenge on Archie, Betty, and Jughead. Reggie goes to great lengths to help his father.
Tropes:
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Averted. Jughead, reading Britta's mind, immediately believes her about Cheryl being possessed. This is in part to his having powers.
- Bittersweet Ending: The massacre is stopped thanks to Toni filming the Serpents surrendering peacefully and Anthony is found safe but most of the Ghoulies are dead and Kevin files a custody suit. Toni also loses her position on the Council of Four to Percival, who is heavily implied to have convinced the Ghoulies to kill themselves. Also, Reggie makes a secret deal with Veronica's rivals in order to save his father, who is dying. In addition, Cheryl is saved from Abigail thanks to Archie, Betty, Jughead, Britta and Nana Rose doing the ritual. But her soul is still at risk of escape…
- Didn't Think This Through: For a “battle royale” with the Ghoulies, Fangs buys and stores weapons. However, he doesn’t think about how this would bring attention from law enforcement or put Anthony in danger.
- A Friend in Need: Tabitha stands by Toni and helps her throughout the episode as Pickens tries to bring Toni down.
- Ghost Memory: Toni has a flash of an Alternate Universe version of herself having a verbatim exchange of the conversation she’s having with Ms. Weiss.
- Hypocrite: One of Percival’s grievances against Riverdale was its bigotry. However, he’s just as bad, if not worse.
- Internal Reveal: Archie, Betty, and Jughead learn that Cheryl has been possessed.
- Also, Veronica tells them about Pickens not being a real person, as well as him getting a client of hers to commit suicide.
- Karma Houdini: Nana Rose is not punished for her role in Cheryl's possession by Abigail.
- Mind Control: It’s starting to imply that Percival has this, making the townspeople blindly follow him.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The Queen's Gambit
- Retcon: Toni says that she and Fangs were both raised as Serpents. However, when Fangs was introduced, he was being inducted into the gang.
- The Reveal: Reggie's father has only one year left to live.
- Sins of the Father: Abigail firmly believes in this, baking arsenic into scones to poison Archie, Betty and Jughead for what their ancestors did. Luckily, Betty uses her powers to figure out the truth and save Jughead and Archie. She also plans to kill Fangs for Fen’s actions after “restoring” Thomasina into Toni’s body.
- Spanner in the Works: Clearly, Percival was hoping to instigate a massacre of the Serpents under the line of "they're resisting arrest." It's thrown by Toni, first ordering them to put down their weapons and kneel with the cops seemingly thrown at Percival saying this is "resistance." Then, Toni reveals she's live-streaming this all on her phone and no matter the power Percival has over the cops, he can't sell his version of events to people on line so has to accept the Serpents surrendering.
- The trio's newfound powers put a stop to Abigail's plans to kill them in various ways. First, Betty sees her aura and realizes that she is trying to poison them, saving Archie and Jughead in the process. Then, Archie's invulnerability saves him from being burned alive. Finally, Jughead gets Britta to think loudly enough for him to read her thoughts, leading him and the others to learn about Cheryl's possession and find a way to save her.
- Villain Has a Point: While Percival manipulates events to his liking, he is right about the fact that there shouldn't be gangs in Riverdale. Even Toni agrees, wanting to rebrand the Serpents as a community organization helping the residents in Riverdale.
