Riverdale – Chapter Seventy: The Ides of March

By starrymag | February 26, 2020

By: Courtney Groom

 

 

Jughead (Cole Sprouse) sees DuPont (Malcolm Stewart), who tells him he’s out of the secret club Quill and Skull because last episode Betty broke into the sanctum sanctorum. DuPont says it’s a violation of their code, while also informing Jughead that they’re terminating his Baxter Brothers contract for failure to deliver satisfactory material by the end of the week. Jughead tells DuPont it’s only Monday and he still has time. He tells DuPont that he will have the novel completed by the end of the week and calls for Betty (Lili Reinhart) to meet him at Stonewall. They start brainstorming ideas before Betty suggests that he should write about what’s been happening to him at Stonewall, like a prep school thriller.

 

Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) and girlfriend Toni (Vanessa Morgan) are at the Maple Club when Cheryl gets a call about a high roller at La Bonne Nuit, who’s caught wind of the Maple Club and has a check with their name on it. That night Toni finds the woman at La Bonne Nuit. The woman introduces herself as Rosa Jevon (but looks like someone we may have already seen before) and says she’s heard rumblings of a secret rum bar with ties to La Bonne Nuit. Toni agrees to set up a meeting with her and Cheryl to discuss the rum deal further.

 

Back at Stonewall Jughead, Bret (Sean Depner), Donna (Sarah Desjardins), Joan (Doralynn Mui), and Jonathon (Alex Barima) are waiting for DuPont. When he comes in, he tells them the headmaster has told him that one of them is being accused of plagiarism. DuPont tells Jughead it seems the short story that qualified him for Yale, “On Featherless Wings,” was written by another student in this seminar. Jonathan tells Jughead that he has a timestamp on his computer, proving he wrote it two months ago. Jughead says he wrote it during the summer and that he has it on his computer in his room, but when he tries to find it (unsurprisingly) its nowhere to be seen. When Jughead comes back, he says someone stole it and he’s going to fight these accusations.

 

The next day Jughead is talking to his father FP (Skeet Ulrich) and Betty saying it’s clear DuPont wants him expelled. Jughead says if he lets a baseless accusation destroy his reputation than his career as a writer is going to be over before it even begins.

 

At Stonewall Betty and Jughead have set up a lie detector test, telling Bret, Donna, Joan and Jonathan they know Jonathan is lying and that one or all of them stole Jughead’s laptop and are conspiring against him and they’re going to prove it. Jonathan says he refuses to participate, so Jughead takes the test. During the test Betty says this is proving Jonathan’s guilt by the process of elimination, but Donna tells her this isn’t going to prove Jughead’s innocence.

 

At La Bonne Nuit Toni is at the bar when “Rosa” comes up to her. The two of them head to the dance floor before Cheryl enters the club and joins them. Toni introduces Cheryl to “Rosa” and Toni suggests they get out of there to discuss further. The three women go to the Maple Club. A bartender gives Veronica a message from Cheryl and Veronica tells her to prepare the suite. When Cheryl, Toni and “Rosa” get to the suite, Veronica (Camila Mendes) is waiting for them. She blows the cover of Rosa who turns out to be half-sister Hermosa (Mishel Prada), telling her it’s an ambush. Toni shoves a newspaper at Hermosa that has a picture of her and Hiram on the front, saying she marked her as soon as she saw her at La Bonne Nuit. Hermosa tells Veronica she has no idea what she’s talking about. Veronica says she bets Hiram put her up to this – do a little recon, scope out the competition.

 

After trying to search for Jughead’s laptop in Donna and Joan’s room, the sanctum sanctorum and the seminar classroom Jughead finds an envelope for the Baxter Brothers that is “ready for print.” Jughead sees that it’s his The Boy In the River novel that he submitted to win the Baxter Brothers contract. DuPont told him that the Baxter Brotherhood rejected it because it wasn’t dark or sociopathic enough. Jughead looks through the pages, pointing out that it’s been re-written but it’s definitely his book.

 

Jughead confronts DuPont, telling him he thought the Brotherhood rejected his novel. DuPont says they didn’t and Jughead really should have had a lawyer take a much closer look at his contract. DuPont tells Jughead the Brotherhood owns everything he submits. They kept the elements they liked and then let another ghost-writer try their hand at it, meaning all of Jughead’s classmates.

 

The next morning as Hiram (Mark Consuelos), Hermione (Marisol Nichols) and Hermosa are eating breakfast Veronica comes in saying she has a little presentation she’s been working on. Veronica shows them Red Raven’s newest ad campaign and says that they’ve conducted a taste test where nine out of ten subjects chose Red Raven over Lodge Rum and Lodge Spiced Rum. Veronica says they’ll be running ads in the Riverdale Register, Greendale Gazette and Seaside Sentinel. Hiram asks if she thinks she really has the upper hand over him. Veronica tells Hiram that Cheryl has already began renovations on her family’s maple factory, producing 300% more maple rum by the end of the year. Hiram says Veronica has successfully awoken the dragon and the war is on.

 

After going over yet another theory about Mr. Chipping’s death with Jughead, Betty meets Donna at Pop’s explaining they can hopefully resolve this whole Jughead witch hunt thing, just the two of them. Betty tells Donna she thinks that she, Bret, Joan and Jonathan are just pawns being manipulated by DuPont who might be the real villain here. Betty doesn’t think Donna had an affair with Chipping and if DuPont somehow put her up to say that she did, Betty wants Donna to come forward. But Donna denies it and says she guesses they’ll see if Betty and Jughead are closer to the truth.

 

Back at Stonewall Bret warns Jughead not to mention a word about anything he thinks he knows because it turns out he did secretly record Jughead and Betty in their room. If Jughead so much as utter a single accusation, Bret will release it.  Jughead asks him if he thinks blackmail is going to stop him and Bret says yes. While the tape won’t hurt Jughead it will destroy Betty, something like that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

 

At Jughead’s tribunal DuPont tells him the stealing of another student’s work will not be tolerated at Stonewall. If the accusation is found to be true that the penalty is immediate expulsion. However, DuPont says they’re going to give him a choice – Jughead can gracefully and quietly withdraw from Stonewall Prep or he can stay and fight the accusation of plagiarism in a public forum where he’ll most likely lose. Jughead says he will leave because he knows even though he is right, he won’t win, no matter how much evidence he collects.

 

Jughead is in his room packing up the remaining of his belongings with Betty. Bret and Donna appear at the doorway and Donna says they hope there aren’t any hard feelings. Bret tells Jughead and Betty there’s a party that night in the woods behind the school, celebrating the Ides of March, and that they should come. Jughead says they’ll be there, but Betty doesn’t like the idea of going. Jughead asks if she trusts him and tells her he has a plan.

 

Betty, Archie (K.J. Apa), and Veronica get to the party and Betty asks if they’ve seen Jughead. Veronica says that Jughead said they’d meet up once they arrived. Betty leaves to look for him while Archie and Veronica leave to do something else in the woods. Jughead arrives wearing his Southside Serpent jacket and shirt. He takes off his beanie and puts on a bunny mask. He walks up to Bret and his friends, just standing there. Bret tells Jughead if he wants to settle this he should follow him. So, Jughead follows Bret out to the woods.

 

Elsewhere, Betty spots Donna heading to the woods and follows her. Betty confronts Donna about the tape of her and Jughead saying she doesn’t care what she does to her. She is the daughter of the Black Hood and it’s going to take a lot more than that to get her and Jughead off Donna’s case. Betty promises Donna that she and Jughead are going to find out and expose all of her dirty secrets, including Chipping’s murder. Donna admits she found out some fascinating things about Betty, taking a trip to Shankshaw Prison to see Evelyn Evernever. Evelyn tells her the magic word, but not “Tangerine.” The other magic word…the one that makes Betty hurt the people she loves.

 

Veronica and Archie are still at the party and asks Joan and Jonathan if they’ve seen Betty and Jughead. They tell them Betty and Jughead went into the clearing behind the trees and Veronica and Archie look for them. Bret and Donna stand beside Joan and Jonathan as they watch Veronica and Archie go into the woods. Veronica and Archie see Betty and run up to her, spotting Jughead on the ground and Betty standing over him. Archie kneels beside Jughead, whose head is bleeding, and checks for a pulse. But they can’t seem to find one… Jughead is dead.