This week on Riverdale season 3, Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones tried to remove the “sacrifice mark” hanging over Archie’s head. Meanwhile, Gladys Jones bought Alice Cooper’s house.
Archie confronted Hiram Lodge about the “kill the red paladin” card. Hiram admitted he put about a dozen of them into circulation. They managed to do a whole scene about this without either of them acknowledging whether they think magic is real. The idea that by creating these cards Hiram was compelling people to murder was just an understood fact that didn’t warrant further exploration.
Jughead suggested that they change the mission. He put out a new mission that everyone with a “kill the red paladin” card had to come battle Archie. If they lost, they had to give up pursuit. This plan actually worked. Again, the fact that anyone with a printer can compel the people of Riverdale to take specific actions was accepted but not explored at all. No one found this status quo odd.
Gladys and FP Jones tried to put their family back together. Gladys purchased the Cooper house for them to all move into. Alice was fine with giving up the house, but she confronted FP about the rekindled relationship with his wife. FP explained that she’s the mother of his children. Later, Jughead found out that Gladys is trying to take over the drug trade in Riverdale. This plot was fine and certainly made sense in comparison to the magical murder cards plot line. But, there wasn’t a lot to get invested in.
In another subplot, Reggie Mantle asked Veronica Lodge if he could become a co-owner of the club. Instead, she gave him a paycheck. It seemed like this was her first time paying him and he had previously just been bartending as her friend. This led to a breakup scene that felt too tied in to the silly speakeasy plot to really have an emotional impact.