Riverdale

Previously, on "Riverdale"...

You know what I think, carrottop?

I think you've got a hero complex.

Who is Julian?

Julian was to be your triplet.

You had absorbed the third one.

The spirit of Julian is haunting Thistlehouse?

What other explanation could there possibly be?

Now that the trials are over,

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

Veronica, I have invited your father back.

I can't believe you.

We were done with him.

I wanted to ask you about Grandpa.

Did you know he was a writer?

My old man wasn't a writer.

He was a mean... mean drunk.

You two were trying to cover up

something about Mr. Chipping's suicide.

It wasn't murder.

You were there, Jones,

no one pushed him out that window.

What is this?

Six hours of our house.

Why would somebody do that?

Film it, and then leave the evidence on the front doorstep?

After a brief hiatus,

Riverdale's Watcher in the 'burbs

had released his much-anticipated follow up.

In the dead of night,

a second round of voyeuristic videotapes

had been left on doorsteps across town.

Once again, VCRs were dusted off with dread.

And once again, they played

hours upon hours of footage

of the viewers' home.

Only this time, the camera was much, much closer.

The implications were terrifying.

What was next for the Watcher? Breaking and entering?

And as if those deliveries weren't unsettling enough,

colleges and universities

had started sending out their first wave of envelopes.

Some thin, some thick.

All life-changing.

Making it a particularly stressful time

for Riverdale High seniors.

Which is why Principal Honey asked the school's guidance counselor,

Mrs. Burble, to offer extended office hours.

So whatever anxiety the students were feeling,

they'd have a licensed professional to go to

for confidential comfort and/or advice.

Something, it turned out,

many of us were long overdue for.

Hey, Mom. I'm gonna make some Highpoint.

Do you want any?

What's wrong? Is everything okay?

You were so sweet when you were little, Elizabeth.

So innocent. When did you become a liar?

What are you talking about?

"Dear, Ms. Elizabeth Cooper,

after careful review of your Early Action application,

the Admissions Committee regrets to inform you

that we are unable to offer you a place

at Yale University."

I didn't get in?

Wait. You opened my mail?

I thought to myself,

"How could my Betty get rejected from college?

What has her so unfocused

that it cost her her future?"

- So, I searched your bedroom. - You did what?

And do you know what I found

hidden in the false bottom of your night stand?

Oh, my God, Mom!

You should be studying.

You should be focused.

Instead, you are out of control.

Okay, that's it. This is the last straw.

We are not discussing this.

We are not discussing anything.

You and I are not on speaking terms.

You have been invading my privacy for years.

And it's over.

Mrs. Burble, do you have a minute?

Mmm... Yes.

Ms. Cooper, come on in, please.

Mmm. Skit-Skat?

Oh. No, thanks.

Um... I have a sweet tooth.

So, how can I be of help?

Mom?

Oh, we're in the middle of a session, Mrs. Cooper.

It's Ms. Smith.

So you're stalking me now, too?

Shocking as it may seem, Betty,

I didn't know that you would be here.

I came down to talk to Mrs. Burble myself.

To see if she could give me any insight on how to...

talk to you.

This. This is what's bothering me.

Her control-complex. Her insane overreactions.

This is my problem.

No. What her problem is,

is that she's been rejected from college,

because she's too busy having sex.

Is that what you associate with sexuality, Ms. Smith?

- Shortcomings? - Excuse me, Ms. Burble,

I must have missed your doctorate on the wall

because I don't need a therapist.

Licensed psychologist, actually.

What Betty needs is an intervention

for this irresponsible disregard for her future.

Oh, that's interesting.

I was gonna say that there were months,

or actually years,

worth of psychotic parenting to unpack.

Oh. - Clearly, there are a lot of feelings here.

Betty,

would it be okay with you if your mother joined us.

Even if I said no, she would stay anyways.

Betty.

Do you hide things from your mother?

Well, yeah.

Of course. Everyone does, but...

- I mean, I learned from the best. - Oh.

So you feel she keeps secrets from you, too?

Since, literally, the day I was born.

Only when it's in her best interest.

Oh, oh, so you joining a cult,

that was in my best interest?

Not mentioning to me

that you weren't actually brainwashed the whole time,

you were just undercover with the FBI,

working with my long-lost half-brother

who I thought was dead, that was in my best interest?

You're a child. I was protecting you.

Then explain how giving away my college fund

to the Farm was part of that.

That was before, when I was under the influence of Edgar.

How about when you didn't tell me

that I had the serial killer genes?

Or when you had Polly

committed to The Sisters of Quiet Mercy,

and didn't tell me where she was?

Or when you had me dragged off to that evil-nun-hell-hole?

Because she did, Mrs. Burble,

where they force-fed me drugs against my will.

But, hey, but, hey. You know, at least they were Fizzle Rocks,

- and not birth-control because God forbid! - Context is important here.

- Context. - Did you ever realize that maybe

I started taking birth-control

because I didn't wanna have a baby at 16 like you?

Or Polly? I didn't wanna be like the two of you,

pregnant and married to a murderer,

or a cult-leader, or both?

I'd hoped I'd raised you to be smarter than us.

And no offense, Mom, I am.

Being proactive is being smart.

And you're acting so naive,

like you didn't think I was having sex.

Jughead and I sleep in the same bed.

She's too young to have sex.

She doesn't know what's good for her.

You are so hypocritical.

I was fine taking care of myself

when you abandoned me for the Farm.

Yet you keep treating me like a child.

Oh, so that's a crime now?

A mother wanting to protect her child.

You've said that several times now.

Betty's young. Betty is a child.

Why do you think that is?

She is! Uh...

Look, it's fine for me.

I take her insults.

That's my cross to bear as a parent.

But the things that she's written in her diaries...

You read her diaries?

Yes, because she has no boundaries.

No emotional respect. None.

How does that make you feel?

Like I'm filled with gunpowder,

and I'm one Elizabeth away from exploding.

You need to stop invading my privacy,

and accept the fact that I'm becoming an adult.

You will always be my daughter, Elizabeth.

And I am so, so worried about you.

- But not for the right reasons, Mom. - Wha...

Forget about college, sex, and the serial killer genes.

Think about everything that you have done to me.

That is what I'm going to be unpacking for the rest of my life.

So you either...

start treating me like I'm an adult,

or I will not be in your life.

Ms. Smith, Betty's education,

her relationship, her behavior...

I think those things make you afraid.

Afraid that Betty is growing up.

That may even be why you gave away her college money,

because if you can control her,