Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Archie begins the season jailed after Hiram frames him for Cassidy's murder, then escapes a corrupt juvenile facility and later returns to Riverdale. The town is soon caught up in Gryphons and Gargoyles, a deadly role-playing game tied to the Fizzle Rocks drug trade that sends players on fatal quests. Jughead investigates the game's reach through the Serpents and his family, while Betty looks into the Farm, a group that promises healing to Alice, Polly and other vulnerable residents.
Betty's suspicions deepen as Edgar Evernever draws Cheryl and Alice further into the Farm. She discovers that the group is harvesting organs and warns Cheryl, who helps Toni escape; Edgar’s followers then capture Betty. In the season's final game, Penelope Blossom reveals herself as the architect behind the town's Gargoyle King terror. Chic, whom Hal had recruited, wears the King's identity; Hal is the Black Hood, and Penelope kills him after Betty refuses to do so. Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead survive Penelope's lethal challenge, while Cheryl and Toni help rescue them.
The Farm's apparent mass disappearance adds another loss: Edgar, Polly and the members leave, with Alice among them. Betty learns that her mother had been working undercover with Charles, Betty and Jughead's half-brother and an FBI agent. The immediate danger passes, but Penelope remains at large and the friends' next year is unsettled. At Pop's, the four toast to a senior year without murder investigations; a flash-forward to spring break shows Archie, Betty and Veronica bloodied and burning their clothes, while Jughead is missing.