River dale’s last season ended with Archie being dragged off from the High School pep rally in handcuffs. After turning against Hiram Lodge, Hiram frames Archie for a murder that he did not commit. However, the person who did commit the murder (Mr. Lodge’s assistant) is dead and therefore there are no other witnesses to the crime.
So what would the new season premiere divulge??? Well sure enough it has skipped ahead three months and the gang’s entire summer had been consumed with Archie’s court case. Archie’s mom has been down defending him and Betty has been trying to help with his case. It does not look good for him. Meanwhile Jughead is still trying to lead the Serpents, even though the Ghoulies have taken over the Southside. The Ghoulies kidnap the Serpents dog and when they go to get him back, Cheryl Blossom shoots an arrow at one of the Ghoulies–so now they are at full blown war.
Between trying to save Archie and trying to stop a war, the gang is not having a carefree summer before their Junior year at all! The atmosphere in Riverdale is tense to say the least!! The jury comes back with a split vote–and proclaim that they will not be changing their votes. At hearing this news the Prosecuter offers a lesser sentence for Archie if he will take it now. Although his mother, father and all of his friends urge him for a re-trial, Archie does not want to put them through that again and takes the plea. They drag him from the courtroom with Veronica sobbing and send him to Juvy. Soon after, Jughead returns home to where he left his friend waiting for him–his friend had stopped by earlier raving about how the Goblin King was real–obviously Jughead did not have time for these ravings and left. However, when he returns and finds his friend missing and a mysterious map, he heads out to look for him.
The premiere ended with two haunting scenes–that of Jughead finding the bodies of two of his friends naked and bloody in the forest under a make shift statue of the Goblin King, and Betty seeing her mother and older sister holding her twin babies above a bonfire and getting ready to drop them! Jughead’s friends have been killed, and Betty’s mother and sister do drop the babies into the fire, but thankfully the babies float and are not killed! The sight of such a scene causes Betty to drop to the ground in a seizure. Both the the floating babies and the ritual killing of Jughead’s friends foreshadow a season full of more mystery, but also full of a new element of witchcraft and magic. The likes of which we have not yet seen.
Looking forward to another season full of drama, intrigue, betrayal, and no apparently magic as well!
