Riverdale – Chapter Sixty-Three: Hereditary

By: Courtney Groom

At Thistlehouse Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) wakes up to Nana Rose (Barbara Wallace), Clifford (Barclay Hope), Penelope (Nathalie Boltt) and Jason (Trevor Stines) starring at her. Penelope is holding the creepy Julian doll. Penelope says Julian needs a body so they’re giving him hers.

Cheryl screams and wakes up in her bed with Toni (Vanessa Morgan) by her side fast asleep. Betty (Lili Reinhart) meets Kevin (Casey Cott) and tells him what she’s logged based on the last few days of following Charles (Wyatt Nash). At 7am he leaves The Five Seasons and goes to the FBI field office.

He has all of his meals at Pop’s or her house and then he goes to the Casa Grande Gym for a ninety minute workout, including weekends, and then he goes back to The Five Seasons. Kevin tells Betty that he’s no expert, but it doesn’t sound like Charles is a serial killer.

The newly extended Lodge family is finally getting together. Hiram (Mark Consuelos) is saying now that the trials are over he thinks it’s time to let bygones be bygones. He wants them to move forward — no more secrets and no more lies.

Hiram tells Veronica (Camila Mendes) that now that the prison is bringing in a good income he’d like to return to his true passion. Veronica says that his true passion is rum. Hiram explains that rum has been in their family for generations and Hermosa, who runs their clubs in Miami, will be staying in Riverdale to establish a rum outpost there.

Hiram also thinks Hermosa (Mishel Prada) could help out at the Speakeasy. Veronica says no as she doesn’t need more help at La Bonne Nuit, with the exception of her newest hostess Hermione (Marisol Nichols). Veronica tells Hiram and Hermosa they can show themselves out since it is her’s and Hermione’s house now.

To further her investigation on Charles we see Betty go to meet a familiar face in prison, Chic (Hart Denton). She says she knows about Charles and asks Chic is it’s true that they both lived at the Last Resort Youth Hostel. Chic tells her it is. Betty says when she went there, a neighbor told her about seeing bloody sheets in the dumpster and Charles mysteriously vanishing.

Chic admits that he and Charles were together and one time they brought a friend home with them and they were doing Jingle-Jangle. Things got out of control and Charles snapped. It was like some darkness took over Chic says. Charles then grabbed a pair of scissors and he stabbed the guy to death. Betty doesn’t believe him and asks him to tell the truth. Chic says he has no reason to lie now he is in prison.

Back at Thistlehouse Cheryl is sitting in the living room (in her PJs still) and Toni comes in saying she thought she was going to school. Cheryl admits she was, but she can’t leave Nana and the twins alone with “you know who.” Toni tells her this has to end. She’s missed way too much school and needs to graduate. Toni wants her to get up or she’s gonna drag her to school herself. Cheryl agrees to go, but there’s one thing she has to do first. They get down to the chapel and Cheryl makes a circle of salt around the Julian doll, saying that evil spirits can’t cross it as it’s a barrier against all forms of malevolence.

At the FBI office Betty tells Charles that she visited Chic and questioned him about Charles. Charles wants to know why she doesn’t just ask him herself if she’s so curious, after all he is her brother. Betty says it’s because she doesn’t trust him and proceeds to tell him what Chic said. She asks him if he has a polygraph machine they can use so she can solve this mystery once and for all.

As Cheryl finally arrives back at school she is called to the principal’s office and Ms. Bell (Marion Eisman) tells her there’s been an accident at Thistlehouse. Dagwood swallowed a ping-pong ball and started to choke. He was taken to the hospital where a doctor performed a tracheotomy and Nana Rose is at the hospital with Juniper waiting for her.

Cheryl says she’ll get to the hospital post-haste, but there’s one thing she needs to take care of first. Cheryl goes down to the basement of Thistlehouse and finds the circle of salt broken and the doll no longer there. She walks over to the chapel, seeing the “Demon Doll” being held by Jason. Cheryl yells at it, saying how dare he go after Dagwood to get to her. She hears footsteps above upstairs and is greeted by her Aunt Cricket (Arabella Bushnell) and Uncle Bedford (Alex Zahara). With it being too much for Cheryl to handle, she faints.

Betty sets Charles up on the polygraph machine. She says he claimed that he and Chic met on the streets and asks if that is true or false. Charles says true and that it was when they were both at their lowest. Then, Betty asks him yes or no if someone was murdered in the room he shared at the hostel. Charles tells her yes as he came home from the grocery store one day and found a dead man in their bed and Chic covered in his blood. His instincts took over and he dissolved the body with lime in the bathroom tub, threw out the sheets and scrubbed the room clean with bleach. Chic watched and that was the end of them. Charles then left him and started over. Betty wonders if he’s hiding anything and he then admits he’s a recovering addict and that he attends weekly Narcotics Anonymous meetings in Riverdale. Charles says that’s his big secret, and he hopes that she’s satisfied.

Cheryl is told that her Auntie and Uncle want to sell the family’s maple syrup business. Aunt Cricket said the rest of the family is in agreement. With Cheryl’s father dead and Penelope in the wind, they need her participation and signature to move forward. She tells Cheryl the business hasn’t been profitable in years and that it’s, in fact, bleeding them dry.

Toni tells Cheryl it’s up to her. Thistlehouse has caused her nothing but pain. If she sold it they could start somewhere new, somewhere fresh. Cheryl says she’ll consider it. Aunt Cricket then asks her if she minds if they go down to the chapel to light a votive candle on Thanksgiving to celebrate. Cheryl gets protective again and says absolutely not, they’re not going down there. Cheryl then tells them to leave and that they won’t be getting her signature, nor will they ever visit that chapel again. But her Auntie is certain she will get that signature soon.

At the Lodge residence Hermione is sitting at the table and Veronica comes in telling her she has a surprise for her but notices her father’s luggage. Hiram appears and tells her he is moving back in as he and Hermione have been able to forgive each other. Veronica wants to know why, after everything he has done to herself and her mom, but Hermione says her decision is final and that they can be a family once again. Veronica storms out saying she doesn’t want anything to do with either of them anymore.

Betty gets home to find FP (Skeet Ulrich), Alice (Madchen Amick) and Charles waiting for her. They all found out that Betty secretly met up with Chic and after her visit he used his lawyer to contact the FBI in order to report a murder that happened in The Black Hood’s house. The murder was, in fact, not committed by him but by a woman named Alice Cooper. (Remember last season when Chic murdered the man in Alice’s house and they all helped cover it up? Including FP.) Chic said the man was bludgeoned to death in the kitchen and claims to know the location of the murder victim’s burial site.

FP says all that evidence is still out there. FP and Charles leave to see if they can find the remains of the evidence and dispose of it. They come back and say they’ve handled it and no one needs to worry anymore. Charles leaves to go file the report, but Betty stops him to tell him he doesn’t have to go. If he’s willing to go out on a limb for her, for their family, then she should be able to do that for him. She states that she is sorry for not trusting him.

Cheryl awakens to a noise and wakes up Toni. Cheryl says she thinks it’s Julian trying to escape from the chapel again. They go into the basement and find Uncle Bedford standing in front of Jason’s corpse in the chapel. He says he always knew that there was a certain sickness in their bloodline, but this is monstrous. He tells Cheryl she’s going away for a long, long time and grabs hold of her against the wall. Unable to move Toni grabs hold of a candle stick and knocks him out, setting Cheryl free.

The episode ends with Charles visiting Chic in prison and Chic asking him how it went. Charles tells him that FP led him to where he buried the body, to what was left, and everyone was appropriately grateful… even Betty. Charles says his plan is working and he can’t wait to be back together, as they both place their hands on the glass to each other.