Riverdale

Previously on Riverdale...

Now that the doll's back, the spirit of Julian

is haunting Thistlehouse?

What other explanation could there possibly be?

These kids, they're good kids.

Reg, we're thinking maybe the Bulldogs

could be like big brothers to them.

Did you happen to know my grandfather?

Your grandfather was an excellent writer.

We don't actually know anything about Charles.

I'm interested in, "Is he a serial killer or not?"

You see, our father needed help,

"Our father?"

Leave town

or the next time we meet,

you won't be driving away.

You won't even be walking.

You're a dead man, you hear me?

You're a dead man!

This is what happens in Riverdale.

Once the sun sets,

Dodger's minions go to work.

He recruits hungry and homeless kids,

so that if they're arrested, they do some time in juvie,

but then, they're back on the streets...

...working for Dodger again.

They're chewed up by the system.

Except that recently,

someone's thrown a tire iron into the system.

You'll thank me someday.

Let me go. Come on, man.

Usually, Dodger or the police

would go to the kid next, but tonight's his lucky night.

Instead of getting sucked back into the system

then spat out again...

...these kids,

they've got someone looking out for 'em now.

People that ask themselves,

"How do you save a town?"

And who know the answer...

Welcome to the team.

..."One kid at a time."

For every kid saved,

there was one less hustling for Dodger,

and that would not do at all.

Meanwhile, in existential hell,

I was facing the tyranny of a blank page.

I need my anchor.

Hey, I didn't wake you, did I?

- Hi. - Hey.

Are you okay?

Yeah, I just can't write.

Mr. Chipping gave the class this assignment

where we're supposed to write our own version

of a Baxter Brothers novel,

which should be a dream come true,

but for the first time in my life,

I'm having writer's block.

Why?

My advice, just take a break.

Okay? Take a walk. Look at some art.

Kiss your girlfriend.

I keep thinking I should be breaking

the Baxter Brothers novels down

like, scientifically, or something.

That could work, but you could also...

...kiss your girlfriend.

I'm sorry.

What are you all doing here?

Julian needs a body, Cheryl.

So we're giving him yours.

What?

Andrews, you asked us to be big brothers,

not soldiers in a turf war.

Who did this?

I got a pretty good idea.

It was definitely Dodger.

He's been coming after us for weeks.

We've been chipping away at his gang,

there's more kids getting off the streets,

but there's only so much we can do

until Dodger himself is behind bars.

I can add Sketch Alley to the nightly patrol area.

That's great, but go after Dodger.

He works out of the Wipeout Arcade.

So, based on the last few days of following Charles,

this is what I've logged.

7:00 a.m. he leaves the Five Seasons

where he has a suite

and goes to the FBI field office.

He has all of his meals at Pop's or our house.

And then rounding out his daily routine,

he goes to the Casa Grande Gym for a 90-minute-workout,

including weekends,

and then he goes back to the Five seasons.

Well, um...

I'm no expert, Betty, but...

...it doesn't sound like Charles is a serial killer.

Kinda just sounds like, he's a... a lonely gay guy.

Or maybe he's both.

Oh, my God.

Of course.

Now that the trials are over,

I think it's time to let bygones be bygones.

I want us to move forward.

No more secrets, no more lies.

Speaking of secrets and lies,

how many more secret children should we be expecting?

Hermosa is your one and only half-sibling.

I swear.

If we did decide to move forward together...

...what exactly would that look like?

Well, now that the prison is bringing in a good income,

I'd like to return to my true passion.

Extortion?

Murder?

Rum.

Papi's passion is rum.

Rum has been in our family for generations,

and Hermosa, who runs our clubs in Miami,

will be staying in Riverdale,

to establish a rum outpost here.

I also thought she could help out at the Speakeasy.

No.

I don't need any more help at La Bonne Nuit.

With the exception of my newest hostess.

And seeing as how this is our house,

you two can show yourselves out.

Are you sure it's safe out here in the night?

I'll be all right, Mr. Jones.

What's up?

Well, after your intel and probable cause,

we raided the Wipeout Arcade,

turned over every Pinball and Pac-Man machine in it.

Found plenty of contraband but...

...none on Dodger.

He was clean.

And let me guess, you found it on a bunch of kids?

That scumbag is using them, Mr. Jones.

Even so, I can't arrest Dodger unless I find evidence on him.

You're not going to.

Not as long as he has these kids working for him.

I think there's a real life mystery in these books.

Now, I've gone and re-read the entire series

and I noticed something strange.

Where there is a hoarse voice and an overall tone,

sure, you can tell when a new ghostwriter takes over.

Oh, yeah, a writer can't completely suppress their own style.

Exactly. The verbiage, the phrasing,

these things are like literary fingerprints.

And when I went back to read the first book,

its fingerprint is unlike any of the rest of them.

It's raw, it's real.

The characters have tension.

There's political commentary woven throughout it.

They mention the war, the boys have summer jobs,

and none of the rest of them are this grounded.

Meaning?

Well, allegedly, Mr. DuPont wrote the first five books

before passing the series off.

But after my analysis,

the stylistic differences from book one to book two

are too distinct to ignore.

There's no way that whoever wrote the first novel

wrote the following.

There's just no way.

Okay, well, who wrote it then?

This is gonna sound crazy, okay?

What if it was my grandfather?

Jug, your conspiracy theories are usually... spot on,

but this one feels like a real stretch.

I know.

This is the one missing puzzle piece

I have of my grandfather.

Think about it, Betty.

He sent me a first edition,

first Baxter Brothers book.

And if that's not coincidental enough,

he wrote inside...

..."Never let them take anything from you."

Does that not imply that something was stolen from him?

Implies, yes.

Proves, no.

You need proof, Jug.

Yeah, you're right.

I'll get proof.

I know I'm onto something. I know it.

Meanwhile,

how's the mystery of our suspicious brother going?

I'm following a hunch, too.

Hello, Chic.

I want to know about Charles.

That story you told us about him.

Is it true that you lived together

at the Last Resort Youth Hostel?

Yes, it is.

When I went there,

a neighbor told me

about seeing bloody sheets in the dumpster

and Charles mysteriously vanishing.