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‘Riverdale’: ‘A Kiss Before Dying’ Season 2 Premiere Recap [Spoilers]

By Rosemary Talavera
Published on: 07:50 PST, Oct 14, 2017

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Riverdale Season 2

The long-anticipated return of the second season of The CW’s Riverdale aired on Wednesday, bringing the ragtag group of friends on a new mystery to solve. Who shot Fred Andrews and why?

When we last saw the Riverdale friends, Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) was newly inducted into the Southside Serpents, Archie (K.J. Apa) and Veronica (Camila Mendes) finally hooked up, and Cheryl Blossom (Madelain Petsch) burnt her house down. Though its pivotal moment happened within the last five minutes of the episode with Archie’s dad, Fred being shot at Pop’s during a holdup.

The season premiere picks up with Archie racing to the hospital with his dad while trying to maintain control of his dad’s truck. They make it to the hospital in the nick of time, one that seems to be stuck in the ’50s era uniforms and all. Archie calls Betty to the hospital who then calls Jughead and Veronica, they all show up at the hospital with parents in tow.

Sherriff Keller then interviews Archie about what happened but there isn’t to go on other than the guy had green eyes and wore a homemade ski mask. Sheriff Keller suggests that maybe whoever shot Fred could have had a grudge. When Archie and Jughead are alone, Archie tells Jughead that his dad recently fired the Serpents working on his job site. So Jughead enlists the help of his newly acquired Serpent friends and asks them to do a little digging.

Veronica confides in Betty telling her she doesn’t know how to help Archie and that she’s not good at “comforting boyfriends” or grief.

The doctor eventually makes a visit to Archie telling him that Fred is stable but isn’t breathing on his own just yet. All the while Fred seems to be stuck in some kind of limbo.

Betty and Veronica convince Archie to go home and change, because you know, being covered in your dad’s blood all day probably isn’t a good idea. Veronica decides to go with him and after walking his dog still covered in blood, Archie finally showers. Then Veronica, trying to be the comforting girlfriend, decides to join Archie in the shower. Somehow, finding that this is the opportune moment, while Archie is washing off his dad’s blood and still in a traumatic state, they decide that this is the best time to have hot shower sex.

After a quick update at the hospital, Betty and Kevin (Kevin shows up!), spot Cheryl walking alongside a gurney wheeling her badly burned mother. She tells Betty and Kevin about the fire, saying that her mom was burnt trying to save her from the house fire but we later learn her mother was trying to save a family picture.

Archie and Veronica reemerge from the shower, hopefully cleaner than they started, and argue when Archie notices that his dad’s wallet is missing. He scolds Veronica for making him come home and tells her to leave, she refuses so instead he breaks down and cries on her shoulder.

Sherriff Keller then calls Archie asking him to come in to identify a lineup. How he quickly rounded up suspects based on Archie’s description of green eyes and a ski mask is beyond belief, but he did. The lineup turns out no leads.

Veronica then confronts her mother, Hermione Lodge (Marisol Nichols), after Jughead and Betty inform her that the shooting may have been personal. Veronica suspects that maybe Hermione plotted the hit in order to gain control of Fred’s share of the business to hide the fact that Hermione and Fred had an affair.

Jughead and Betty go to Pop’s in search of Fred’s missing wallet but they come up with nothing. They do find out that the shooter didn’t take a dime from Pop’s. We also learn that Jughead worked out a deal with his foster family to cover for him with the social worker while he stays in his trailer. Jughead wants to feel closer to his dad, who is still in jail, and to stay closer to Archie, all while denying Betty’s insistence that he is diving deeper into the Serpent lifestyle.

Later, Archie reveals to Betty, Veronica, and Jughead that he feels ashamed for not acting heroically to save his dad and is afraid the guy will come back to finish the job.

After Fred Andrews is shown having another limbo-esque scene, this time one in which he saves Archie from being shot at his wedding to Veronica from the same masked-man, he opens his eyes.

When Jughead goes home, he finds the Serpents waiting for him with a gift, a beaten and bruised man to prove that they are at his beck and call. Yep, looks like Jughead is a crime boss now.

Veronica goes home to find a tense family reunion; papa Lodge has finally come home.

Finally, at home, Archie stands guard waiting for whoever shot his father to return and finish the job.

In the last two minutes of the episode, the masked man who shot Fred reappears, not at the Andrews household but at Ms. Grundy’s. Ms. Grundy kisses a young music student goodbye for the night when she goes back in her home to find the masked-man. He chokes her from behind as the camera pans down to her lifeless feet.

Whoever is doing this seems to be out to get those close to Archie. Maybe. What do you think? What did you enjoy most about the season premiere?

[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown / Stringer/Getty Images]

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