Riverdale – Ghost Stories

Jughead (Cole Sprouse) jumps right in as narrator to introduce us to the latest tale. The Southside Serpents and Ghoulies are in yet another brawl, this time over a Romeo and Juliet romance between Serpent Sandra and Ghoulie Danny. When Darla Dickenson (Azura Skye) is about to harm a Serpent, Toni (Vanessa Morgan) takes notice and immediately jumps into action. Unfortunately, the knife that Toni aims to maim Darla ends up fatally wounding Darla’s son, Danny. Months after the incident Toni continues to carry the guilt of Danny’s death with her while an ominous woman in a black dress and veil emerges from Sweetwater River. 

That night as Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) and Nana Rose (Barbara Wallace) celebrate their thriving maple groves due to Archie’s sacrifice, Dagwood (Bentley Storteboom) alerts Cheryl that something is wrong with Juniper (Alix West Lefler) as she has locked herself in the bathroom. Cheryl goes to investigate and finds Juniper gasping for air in the bathtub. Strange marks on Juniper’s arms pushes Cheryl to involve Betty (Lili Reinhart) in protecting Dagwood and Juniper. Later on Betty has to interrogate Sandra’s mother Lucinda (Shadan Saul Guerrero) over her daughter’s drowning and the same marks on Sandra’s arms cause Betty to contact Toni and inform her. When Lucinda mentions La Llorona being responsible for the drowning, Betty continues to be skeptical and Toni further researches the story. Betty’s skepticism later turns to belief when La Llorona pays her a visit in the middle of the night, causing her to no longer be pregnant.  

When Toni’s baby Anthony has a run-in La Llorona in their home, Betty and Toni go to visit Cheryl to summon the spirit of La Llorona and find out what she wants. During the séance La Llorona uses Nana Rose as an intermediate to share her story as a nurse named Martha. When the children died from illness and cold weather the townspeople drowned Martha in the river and so when she is summoned she targets taking children as her payment. Before the séance is broken Nana Rose tells Betty and Toni that Darla summoned La Llorona, a fact that Darla admits because her son Danny was the last of her children that she had to bury. Confident that Anthony is safe surrounded by Serpents, Toni soon realizes her error upon entry of the Whyte Wyrm. La Llorona has taken her son and taken out all the Serpents who were there to protect them. In order to stop her, Toni and Betty head to Sweetwater River.  

Meanwhile, Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook) and Jughead’s domesticity starts to feel the strain when Tabitha comes home after a long day at Pop’s to find that Jughead has not continued unpacking and setting up their apartment, instead deciding to lounge around in his robe and boxers all day. Not wanting to create further conflict Tabitha goes to hang up some new pictures when the hammer makes a sizeable hole in the wall, uncovering a hidden room in their new apartment filled with several ships in a bottle. Excited for the space to create a writing nook, Jughead claims the space for his own much to Tabitha’s chagrin. After Tabitha meets with the realtor that found them the apartment, she learns that the reason the room was covered up was due to the murder-suicide of a couple named Sam and Diane.  

Jughead’s intrigue over the story of Sam and Diane grows, planning to write his next story based on them while Tabitha starts to have dreams of braining Jughead with a hammer in a similar fashion to the death of Sam. Yet the dreams are not the only issue when Tabitha and Jughead begin to bicker over little things like the cap on the toothpaste or being inconsiderate. Things come to a head when Jughead finishes his draft and does not want Tabitha to read what he dubs his “vomit draft”, only for Tabitha to later find out that Betty was always privy to Jughead’s first drafts and read them all the time while they were together. When Jughead returns home with new bottles for his ships, Tabitha has broken into Jughead’s desk and read his work against his wishes. Upset that she feels the story reflects their own relationship, Tabitha picks up the typewriter Betty gifted Jughead and smashes it on the ground. But when she picks up the hammer again, Tabitha catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror and sees Diane, realizing that their relationship is not the same as Sam and Diane. In their declaration of love to one another, the ghosts of their apartment take their leave.  

While working at Mantle Motors, Reggie (Charles Melton) is dealing with his father being in poor health. Even though Veronica (Camila Mendes) is a supportive girlfriend checking in on him, it is the appearance of a gentleman bringing a car reminiscent of Reggie’s high school ride Bella that gives him pause. Paying double the price of the car, Reggie gets right to work restoring the new Bella and Veronica is worried.  Hermosa (Mishel Prada) assures Veronica that Reggie needs an outlet with his father in poor health. Ultimately, Veronica agrees until she goes to hang some fuzzy dice in Reggie’s car and finds an old picture of a voluptuous young woman in it. Rushing into the high school in a huff, Veronica collides with Principal Weatherbee who picks up the photo and recognizes the woman as former Driver’s Ed teacher Isabella Soprano (Katie Keough). Ms. Soprano had a reputation of getting involved with her former students, which sends Veronica over the edge and she decides to destroy Bella believing that Reggie was involved with his former teacher. After seeing the wreckage of his car, Reggie explains to Veronica that Ms. Soprano was a confidante as he dealt with an abusive home life with his father. Even further, Reggie has just come from the hospital where his father passed away. Realizing the error of her ways, Veronica fixes her faux-pas by gifting Reggie with another 1969 Camaro SS 4-Speed.  

By the end, Reggie settles into his new Bella and is at first unsettled until he finds the picture of Ms. Soprano back in the car. Getting comfortable in the car and turning the ignition, Reggie adjusts the rearview mirror and sees the spirit of Ms. Soprano smiling back at him from the backseat. Tabitha and Jughead decide to close the writing nook back up, deciding to work harder at their relationship. When Toni and Betty reach Sweetwater they stop La Llorona from taking Anthony, but not without a sacrifice. Toni offers her own life in place of Anthony to not only save her son, but to give Martha the peace she finally deserves. Toni hands Anthony to Betty and asks her to take care of him before she dons the black dress and veil of La Llorona, then disappears into the Sweetwater River.