History TearJerker / Riverdale

* The episode opens with [[spoiler: Midge's]] funeral. Every main cast member from the Riverdale High students to the Southside Serpents are present, all solemn and saddened by her death. But the scenes really hitting home are those of [[spoiler:Midge's mother, who is absolutely ''devastated'' at [[OutlivingOnesOffspring losing her daughter]].]]

* After being released from the police station, Fangs, clearly ''terrified'' of the homicidally angry crowd surrounding it, says that he doesn't want to die. It's a harsh reminder that for all posturing and his being in the Serpents, he's still a ''teenager.'' [[spoiler: It's even worse after Fangs is shot, possibly fatally.]]

* Betty's calls from the Black Hood, she carries on playing his game in the hope of finding out his identity and because she believes it's distracting him from killing more people. But the further it goes, the more it becomes clear he's corrupting her. Receiving constant threats that he'll kill Polly, her friends and her family if she does comply, Betty ends up alienating herself, seriously damaging her relationship with her parents, Veronica and finally Jughead. Throughout the episode her will is slowly eroded by the Black Hood's mind games, until she finally ends up having to choose to sentence someone to death. There is not a moment throughout the episode that she's not on the brink of tears.

** As the next scene showing Betty sitting alone at the bus stop bawling her eyes out proves, it was also just as painful for her to have say it.
** Things don't get any better for Veronica from there. Right after her best friend just launched a tirade at her out of nowhere, Nick very forcefully tries to come onto her. Not long after that, he tries to rape Cheryl, forcing Veronica to realize that a seemingly good friend of hers is actually a date rapist. She even speculates that he's been doing this throughout their friendship, right under her very nose.

* Virtually the entire episode is one long collection of heart break in some form or another with fans calling it the most painful episode of the show so far.
* Betty’s calls from the Black Hood, she carries on playing his game in the hope of finding out his identity and because she believes it’s distracting him from killing more people. But the further it goes, the more it becomes clear he’s corrupting her. Receiving constant threats that he’ll kill Polly, her friends and her family if she does comply; Betty ends up alienating herself, seriously damaging her relationship with her parents, Veronica and finally Jughead. Throughout the episode her will is slowly eroded by the Black Hood’s mind games, until she finally ends up having to choose to sentence someone to death. There is not a moment throughout the episode that she’s not on the brink of tears.
** That and the fact in the end everything she did was utterly pointless. The Black Hood is still at large, the clues she managed to gain from him are so open they barely help, and it’s confirmed he’s going to carry on murdering people. Betty lost so much, and severely damaged herself for nothing.
** How quickly Betty actually ends up choosing a name. Whilst Nick is certainly an AssholeVictim a best, it’s clear that the Black Hood’s tactics are working. He’s getting inside her head and grooming her, and the worst part is by the end she’s starting to realise this.
* The moment at Nick’s party, when Betty suddenly starts insulting Veronica, hitting every one of her insecurities: telling her that she’s not changed in the slightest, is only friends with them due to her circumstances and would drop them in a second if she got a chance to go back to her old life, that her father is a criminal, and that at heart she’s a bad person. [[DramaticIrony Whilst the audience knows]] she’s only doing it because the Black Hood is forcing her, it’s painful to watch Veronica see her best friend suddenly turn on her with such vitriol so seemingly out of the blue.

* When the Black Hood forces her to break up with Jughead. Betty can’t bring herself to do it in person, and has Archie go do it for her, despite the fact he’s clearly against it and knows it will hurt Jughead. This in itself is awful, but due to some very bad timing, Archie arrives right before Jughead is about to perform the final initiation ceremony. Seeing his friend with the same Serpents from the fight, and discovering he’s joining them, causes Archie to tell Jughead that Betty no longer wants to see him, claiming she has been thinking about breaking up with him for ages now and it’s because she knows (and he knows) that he’s going down a dark path with a bad ending. You can literally see the point when Jughead’s heartbreaks hearing his best friend say this, and learning he’s lost his girlfriend. As the next scene proves he no longer cares, and feels utterly betrayed.
** It’s especially bad cause of the circumstances of Jughead joining the Serpents. He only associated with them so that he wouldn’t get beaten senseless by the rival gangs. And he only wanted to join, to try and stop tensions escalating and them from seriously hurting people. Just like Betty, all his good intentions are rewarded with him losing everything he cared about and is projected further down a dark path.
** And to make it still worse, there is the fact that the scene is clearly also so bad for Archie. Whilst he went overboard in his grief and anger, it’s clear he also feels betrayed and that he’s lost his best friend to a dangerous gang. After everything he has been through with the Black Hood and his PTSD, that’s clearly also very painful. When we next see him he’s sitting alone in Pop’s dinner, clearly broken about what happened.
* Cheryl’s complete break down following Nick almost date raping her. We haven’t seen her cry like this since Jason’s funeral and it’s utterly horrible to watch, especially as for once she’s a completely innocent victim. Almost getting raped has clearly scarred her, to the point she outright states she wants Nick to “burn in hell”.
* More lowkey than the other examples but still painful, following Sheriff Keller revealing that analysis confirms the handwriting on the two letters from the Black Hood doesn’t match; Alice’s first response is to accuse Betty of writing it herself for attention. Not only is this an example that Alice is seriously slipping back into her bad habits, but seeing how much it hurts Betty to hear her own mother accusing her of this is quite uncomfortable.
* Veronica realising that one of her closest friends is a date rapist, she even outright speculates that he's been doing this throughout their friendship, right under her very nose.
* The obvious betrayal Veronica felt after Betty's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, the girl was almost raped and her would-be rapist was a friend of hers and her very good friend just launched a tirade at her out of nowhere.

* Betty and Jughead argue about his birthday party-Jughead takes all of his own insecurities out on Betty, accusing her of seeing him as a project that she might drop for Archie. Its sad for both of them because Jughead clearly is afraid what he's saying is right because he doesn't think he's good enough for Betty and Betty is nearly driven to tears.

* Archie suddenly lashing out at Veronica for unpacking his father's things from the hospital. Its sad for Ronnie's whose only been trying to help him, but its equally sad for Archie, as its clear he's not really angry with her, but his trauma and pain at what happened is causing him to almost damage one of his best relationships.

* Alice and Betty go to find the former's son. He coldly rebuffs them for Betty being able to grow up in a nice home with a family, and especially blasts Alice for how she gave him up (which is true, although she emphatically did ''not'' want to). All she can do is leave, and it takes all of her energy to make it to the car, where she breaks down and cries.

* Veronica realizes that Hiram and Hermione never actually said that they loved each other either.

* Veronica realizes that Hiram and Heromine never actually said that they loved each other either.
* Everything Jughead dead for the Serpents in season two has now gone down the drain as Peabody's charm has forced FP to return to the Serpents.

* After months of going strong, Archie and Veronica finally have issues. The end of the episodes has all four of our mains either saddene or crying.

* Everything Jughead dead for the Serpents has now gone down the drain as Peabody's charm has forced FP to return to the Serpents.

* After months of going strong, ArchiexVeronica finally have issues. The end of the episodes has all four of our mains either saddene or crying.

Josie's story throughout. First she has to deal with having a stalker, then she discovers her mother has been receiving death threats, then Melody and Valarie find out she's been approached individually as a singer and angrily leave her. Finally said stalker turns to outright harassment and Josie's left believing that Chuck's attempts to make her feel better were all lies. The worst part is [[spoiler: its Cheryl, the one person who was there for her throughout the whole episode, who is responsible for everything in an attempt to gaslight her.]]

[[AC: Chapter Eighteen - When A Stranger Calls]]
* Jughead realising that [[spoiler: Penny played him, and he's now trapped doing illegal transports for her.]] The look on his face as it sinks in is actually painful.

* The moment at Nick’s party, when Betty suddenly starts insulting Veronica, telling her that she’s not changed in the slightest, is only friends with them due to her circumstances and would drop them in a second if she got a chance to go back to her old life, that her father is a criminal, and that at heart she’s a bad person. [[DramaticIrony Whilst the audience knows]] she’s only doing it because the Black Hood is forcing her, it’s painful to watch Veronica see her best friend suddenly turn on her with such vitriol so seemingly out of the blue.
** As the next scene showing Betty sitting alone at the bus stop bawling her eyes out proves, it was also just as painful for her.

* When the Black Hood forces her to break up with Jughead. Betty can’t bring herself to do it in person, and has Archie go do it for her, despite the fact he’s clearly against it and knows it will hurt Jughead. This in itself is awful, but due to some very bad timing, Archie arrives right before Jughead is about to perform the final initiation ceremony. Seeing his friend with the same Serpents from the fight, and discovering he’s joining them, causes Archie to tell Jughead that Betty no longer wants to see him, claiming she has been thinking about breaking up with him for ages now and it’s because she knows (and he knows)that he’s going down a dark path with a bad ending. You can literally see the point when Jughead’s heartbreaks hearing his best friend say this, and learning he’s lost his girlfriend. As the next scene proves he no longer cares, and feels utterly betrayed.

* Cheryl’s completely break down following Nick almost date raping her. We haven’t seen her cry like this since Jason’s funeral and it’s utterly horrible to watch, especially as for once she’s completely innocent and the victim. Almost getting raped has clearly scarred her, to point she outright states she wants Nick to “burn in hell”.

** That and the fact in the end, everything she did was utterly pointless. The Black Hood is still at large, the clues she managed to gain from him are so open they barely help, and it’s confirmed he’s going to carry on murdering people. Betty lost so much, and severely damaged herself for nothing.

* Betty’s calls with the Black Hood, she carries on playing his game in the hope of finding out his identity, and because she believes it’s distracting him from killing more people. But the further it goes, the more it becomes clear he’s corrupting her. Receiving constant threats that he’ll kill Polly, her friends and her family if she does comply; Betty ends up alienating her relationship with her parents, Veronica and finally Jughead. Throughout the episode her will is slowly eroded by the Black Hood’s mind games, until she finally ends up having to choose to sentence someone to death. There is not a moment throughout that’s she’s clearly not on the brink of tears.

** How quickly Betty actually ends up choosing a name. Whilst Nick is certainly an AssholeVictim a best, it’s clear that the Black Hood’s tactics are working. He’s getting inside her head, and grooming her. And the worst part is she’s starting to realise this.
* The moment at Nick’s party, when Betty suddenly starts insulting Veronica, telling her that she’s not changed in the slightest, is only friends with her and everyone else in Riverdale due to her circumstances and would drop them in a second if she got a chance to go back to her old life, that her father is a criminal and she’s no better, and that at heart she’s a bad person. [[DramaticIrony Whilst the audience knows]] she’s only doing it because the Black Hood is forcing her, it’s painful to watch Veronica see her best friend suddenly turn on her with such Vitriol.
** As the next scene showing Betty sitting alone at the bus stop, bawling her eyes out proves it was just as painful for her.
* When the Black Hood forces her to break up with Jughead. Betty can’t bring herself to do it in person, and has Archie go do it for her, despite the fact he’s clearly against it. This in itself is awful, but due to some very bad timing, Archie arrives right before Jughead is about to perform the final initiation ceremony. Seeing his friend with the same serpents who were involved in the fight, and discovering he’s joining them, causes Archie to tell Jughead that Betty no longer wants to see him, has been thinking about breaking up with him for ages now, and it’s because she knows he’s going down a dark path with a bad ending. You can literally see the point when Jughead’s heart breaks hearing his best friend say this, and learning he’s lost his girlfriend. As the next scene proves he no longer cares, and feels utterly betrayed.
** It’s especially bad cause of the circumstances of Jughead joining the Serpents. He only associated with them so that he wouldn’t get beaten senseless by the rival gangs. And he only wanted to join, to try and stop tensions escalating and them from seriously hurting people. Just like Betty, all his good intentions are rewarded with him losing everything he cared about, is projected down a darker path.
** And to make it still worse, there is the fact that the scene is clearly also so painful for Archie. Whilst he went overboard, it’s clear he also feels betrayed and that he’s lost his best friend to a dangerous gang. After everything he has been through with the Black Hood and his PTSD, that’s clearly also very painful. When we next see him he’s sitting alone in Pop’s dinner, clearly broken about what happened.
* Cheryl’s completely break down, following Nick almost date raping her. We haven’t seen her cry like this since Jason’s funeral, and it’s utterly horrible to watch, especially as for once she’s completely innocent and the victim. Almost getting raped has clearly scarred her, to point she outright states she wants Nick to “burn in hell”.

* Archie coping with his dad getting shot after bringing him to the hospital. Not only is he panicking but he breaks down completely.