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Jason Blossom’s murderer is finally revealed on Riverdale

By Kelly Shanaphy

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After twelve episodes, Riverdale finally reveals who killed Jason Blossom in “Anatomy of a Murder”.

Picking up right after the arrest of F.P. Jones, everyone’s favorite gang is struggling to find Jughead. Reeling from the emotional fallout of the very public arrest at the dance, the gang tries to find their best friend to let him know of their findings before things continue to escalate.

Poor Jughead, on the heels of his father’s arrest he’s trying to get out-of-town as quickly as possible. Calling his mother from a phone booth at the bus station, he reveals that he’s bought a ticket to Toledo and is planning to “visit” her and Jellybean.

Sadly, his own mother tells him to stay in Riverdale thus giving the yet to be seen character a high rating on the ranking of terrible parents. Since the bus station is closing, he ends up exchanging his bus ticket for whatever is the fastest route to town (Florida) and flees to Pop’s for some sleep.

Photo Credit: Katie Yu/The CW

While he may be ignoring his best friends, they’re still desperate to help out as much as possible. Since they’re the only people in town with the knowledge that F.P. is being framed, Archie insists that they discuss the situation with their parents. Archie may have spent most of the season as the weakest character of on the show, he has always shined when devoting himself to his friends.  His parents may be more than happy let their former high school friend take the fall for the murder, their kids are not. Sneaking out, Archie and Betty take up their search once again hoping to find Jughead.

The two of them hit the streets of Riverdale while Veronica faces a potentially harsh reality. Hermione reveals that if F.P. comes clean about his illegal dealings with Hiram, the two of them could be dragged into a messy legal battle. She insists that Ronnie packs a bag while she finds their passports so they can prepare for the worst. Hermione may be prepared to leave their lives behind, but Veronica is desperate for the truth so she eagerly joins her two best friends in their pursuit of Jughead.

Considering he has nowhere else to goes, it’s weird that Jughead’s best friends wouldn’t constantly be checking in at Pop’s diner in case he may show up. When they show up again, he’s slumped dejectedly in his favorite booth with his beanie off. Betty gently lets him know that F.P. is getting framed, which sparks a little bit of life into Jughead leading the foursome to the police station. Unfortunately, they get their too late because not only has F.P. confessed but he has also gone into detail about how he murdered Jason.

Photo Credit: Katie Yu/The CW

Once again let down by his father, Jughead opts to skip school the next day because he’s getting interrogated by the Sheriff either way. Betty immediately defends him to Kevin, causing a bit of friction between the two best friends. However, he does show up to lunch, where he walks up to Cheryl and tearfully apologizes. She reacts about as well as Cheryl ever could by immediately slapping/attacking him in the middle of the cafeteria. Archie jumps to his best friend’s defense when the principal wrongfully places the blame on him while Betty goes to comfort her frenemy.

Cheryl doesn’t feel any sort of closure from the arrest because as Alice Cooper points out, the whole thing feels a little bit too tidy. Things become a little clearer when Hal finally reveals to his wife and daughter that they’re actually related to the Blossoms.

Confirming that there has been incest on the show between Jason and Polly rather than the heavily hinted twincest. This recent revelation sparks Alice’s protective instinct as the Coopers suddenly realize what a dangerous situation Polly is in.

Photo Credit: Katie Yu/The CW

No one comments that Hal could have revealed this information a while ago and save everyone a lot of pain but I guess him finally coming clean is enough to earn forgiveness…? Either way, they stomp over, accuse the Blossoms of murdering their son and drag a disgusted Polly away. Penelope casually threatens Betty as she leaves but no daughter of Alice Cooper is going to be intimidated into silence.

Things aren’t going as well for Jughead, who is dealt another heavy blow when Mary Andrews says that the case against F.P. is basically iron-clad. She encourages him to go visit his father in prison before it’s too late and lets Archie know that the older Jones used his one call to phone Joaquin. Riverdale really throws Jughead through the ringer in “Anatomy of Murder,” because his confrontation with his father is heart-wrenching. The young writer finally releases his frustrations with his deadbeat dad as well as coming to terms of what a terrible person he is. F.P. yells at him to never come back, but that rare glimpse of emotion is enough to convince Jughead that his dad is hiding something.

Meanwhile, Betty, Archie, Veronica, and Kevin all interrogate Joaquin where it’s revealed that F.P. was in possession of Jason’s body but no one actually saw him killed. The young serpent leads the group to a member of the Serpents who was in on the murder cleanup however when they arrive he’s already dead. Joaquin and Kevin flee the scene leaving the young lovebirds to deal with the questions from the Sheriff. Fortunately, before they admit to how they found the Serpent’s apartment (apparently his name is Mustang), Sheriff Keller finds the bag of money that Hermione had delivered to Mayor McCoy. Veronica throws her father under the bus in hopes of protecting her mother but either way the Lodges’ seem like they’re going to be in some deep trouble.

Photo Credit: Katie Yu/The CW

Luckily for Veronica, Betty and Jughead have resumed their investigation in full force with the two narrowing their suspect list to Clifford Blossom or Hiram Lodge. Kevin calls them with some last-minute information from Joaquin, who has fled Riverdale, that leads them to the buried bag containing Jason Blossom’s varsity jacket. After staring at the jacket, and believing it will only incriminate F.P. further, Jughead and Veronica are ready to give up. Betty isn’t so quick to admit defeat, and she forces Archie to put it on where she discovers a USB has fallen into the lining of the jacket. What’s on the video? It’s Jason’s murder!

Before showing the audience what’s on the laptop, Betty makes a tearful phone call where she pleads with someone to get out of the house. It’s Cheryl who tries to compose herself through tears and begins to walk to her front door.

It’s one of the most beautiful shots that Riverdale has had on the show, where it seems like she’s gracefully floating to the door before making a left to the dinner table. She casually confronts her father and lets him know that the entire town will be aware of his crime soon enough.

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Alice gives the USB to Sheriff Keller who drives over to the Blossom mansion ready to arrest the real perpetrator. He isn’t fast enough though, because Clifford has hung himself in their maple syrup farm, with an open jug of Riverdale’s finest that has drugs pouring out of it. Were the Blossoms secretly moving drugs in their syrup?

“Anatomy of a Murder,” finally answers the big question of who but now Riverdale needs to answer why. Sheriff Keller is insisting on charging F.P. with multiple different crimes despite the father only trying to protect his son from the sinister Blossoms.

While Jughead may not get to see his dad anytime soon, Veronica returns home to find out that her father will be returning to her. Archie opts to stay with his father as well, saying a tearful goodbye to his mother who will undoubtedly find her way back to town next season.

Finally, Betty’s story is left a little unopened but it seems like the Coopers may finally begin mending their problems as well. Next week’s episode is supposed to deal with the fallout of Clifford’s suicide and should lead Cheryl to new lows.

Head down to the comments below and tell us if you were surprised to find out who murdered Jason!

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