[dramatic music playing]
Ten nights working the Lonely Highway and not even a nibble.
Truckers are not stopping for us.
We'd have better luck at catching our killers
if we were flying solo.
Ten quiet nights with no new murders is a win in my book.
When serial killers go quiet, that is when you should be afraid.
That is when their desire to hunt and kill is building up inside of them.
[cell phone ringing]
Dr. Curdle Jr., it's early for you.
I'm calling about our tongueless friend.
You asked me not to report him to the authorities,
but I'm getting nervous keeping his corpse in cold storage.
I'd like your permission to incinerate the body in my crematorium.
No. He's evidence for the Lonely Highway case.
It's risky for me, Miss Cooper, and refrigeration's expensive.
Why don't I come by in a bit with a payment
to help cover your extra expenses?
That would greatly ease my anxiety.
Okay. I will see you in a couple hours.
I thought leaving Chicago for Riverdale would mean no nightlife. Ha.
-See you at dusk? -See you at dusk.
[Cheryl] I had just about given up hope, Archie.
We haven't found the mother lode of palladium yet, but I have faith.
Cheryl, me and the guys, we're down there breaking rocks for you,
pulling 12-hour shifts, when there's so much
-we could be doing topside. -Yes, your crusade to save Riverdale,
which consists of what at this point? Filling in potholes?
Maintaining the town's infrastructure until we can get reincorporated.
Which I'm happy to do on my days off, but it costs money.
I know where this is going.
If I'm putting my crew's focus on the mines,
then I need your assurance that if we find that palladium--
You and your men will be fairly compensated.
In fact, I will deposit a modest finder's fee via Chime,
-in exchange for the nugget. -[cell phone chimes]
In the future, a portion of whatever you unearth will be set aside
-to subsidize your revitalization efforts. -We'll work our asses off for you.
Let's move on to the house in Sag Harbor.
That's mine. I won't sign the divorce papers unless I get it.
I bought that house, Chad, with money I made on Wall Street.
I want alimony too.
Fine, you worm.
And this apartment.
Fine. Fine.
Take The Pembrooke. You know what? Take this ring and rot in hell.
I don't care, Chad. Take it all.
All I want, all I need is Archie.
Poor, dim, impressionable Kevin.
I'm worried for you.
When I started this ministry, it was with nothing but the purest of intentions.
And now Cheryl has twisted it into something profane.
Dare I say, cultlike.
When Cheryl made those bees dance to her infernal tune,
I got distinct Wicker Man-like vibes.
If this religion is a cult, you're in it too.
Hmph. Please. My will is a steel rod.
Can you say the same?
[phone rings]
Pop's. This is Tabitha.
Oh, Mrs. Fields, of course. How's Squeaky doing?
Riverdale is done with me. And I'm done with Riverdale.
No, no, I haven't heard from her since she left.
[suspenseful music playing]
I admit, when Mr. Weatherbee told me that two students had gotten into a fight,
you're the last person I thought would've been involved, Britta.
I punched Tim Higgins once.
And only because he wouldn't stop calling me...
homophobic names.
That's completely unacceptable. I'll talk to Tim.
-But violence isn't the answer. -I know.
The thing is, Miss Topaz, I think I am...
gay.
-I mean, I haven't told my family yet. -Coming out can be a process.
And sometimes a difficult one. It was for me when I came out.
But the good news is,
only you get to decide when it's the right time.
I'll be here if you need anybody to talk to.
If I wanted to talk to my parents...
-would you be there with me? -Absolutely.
I'd be honored.
So my daughter continues to be as much a thorn in your side
-as she is mine, huh? -I keep hoping we might reconcile.
You won't. Not as long as Archie's in the picture.
It's one of the things I've learned over the years.
My daughter's greatest vulnerability is her love for Archie.
So if you want a shot in hell at saving your marriage...
you're gonna have to get rid of him.
It's a ghost gun.
No serial numbers. Untraceable.
Hey.
I just finished practice with the Vixens. Wanna ride to Thornhill together?
Cheryl, can I ask you something?
When we pray,
who are we praying to? Jason?
Um...
Jason is more of a conduit, a messenger to the higher power.
Which is what exactly?
I'm not sure.
-Let me fast on it. -What?
It's like doing a cleanse.
No solid food, only hot water with lemon, maple syrup, and a hint of cayenne pepper.
It flushes you out completely, and then once I'm empty,
I can be refilled with wisdom and answers for you, Kev-Kev.
I'm worried about a friend of mine. A waitress who used to work here, Squeaky.
Her mom said that she never made it
-to her friends in California. -Oh, God. I'm sorry.
Me too. Anything I can do to help?
There is, Jughead.
The Lonely Highway killings are a mystery, right?
Everyone tells me there wasn't a mystery you two couldn't solve back in the day.
So... I'm canceling all of your shifts.
You'll still get your weekly paycheck, but it won't be to bus tables.
It will be to help Betty. Betty, are you down with this plan?
Yeah. Yes.
-Jughead? -Sure.
Great. What's the first step?
-I'm assuming you have case files. -Yeah.
I'll start by reading those.
[sirens wailing in the distance]
[bottle clinks]
Chad?
[dramatic music playing]
So you captured a guy who more or less confessed,
then they swallowed their own tongue
because they thought you were going to dismember them?
That's the last big thing that happened.
You still think this is several serial killers
-working in tandem over the years? -Yeah. Yes.
A family of truckers
who have been kidnapping and murdering hitchhikers and sex workers.
And Lerman Marshall Logan.
[dramatic music playing]
My ex-student that disappeared and was somewhere for a week, remember?
Yeah, I've been thinking about him.
He doesn't fit any of the victim profiles, which might be a clue in of itself?
He might be one of the only people who encountered this family of yours
and survived.
At the time, Weatherbee didn't let me talk to him because I was a teacher.
But now Lerman is transferred and I've been fired, so...
-We need to talk to Lerman. -Yeah. I'll find him on social.
[cell phone ringing]
Hi, Dr. Curdle. Um, I'm so sorry, I have your money in small bills--
Another body's been brought in from Swedlow Swamp.
I think you'll find it very interesting.
The victim is unlike any we've found.
The body has been completely dismembered.
-Why change their MO? -Maybe to make the bodies harder to find?
-Have you identified the victim yet? -Unfortunately not.
The body was mutilated beyond all recognition.
But, based on the level of decomposition,
it could be your sister.
I'll need to perform a DNA test on the remains,
-and then compare it to-- -Mine. Yeah, do it.
There's also a waitress from Pop's,
Lynette "Squeaky" Fields.
Vanished around the same time as Polly.
I'll reach out to her family and ask for a sample as well.
[Veronica] It's so funny, Chad.
Your pathetic attempt to kill my lover
has made me rethink what I want out of this divorce.
I'm getting everything. And you're getting nothing.
And if you don't agree,
I'll press murder charges against you.
-How? -You dropped the gun, idiot.
Check and mate, you little bitch.
Mmm, these croissants are positively divine.
-You should try one. -I already told you, Mother. I'm fasting.
For enlightenment.
As a matter of fact,
-I'm feeling rather... -Light-headed?
Inspired.
I'm going to go paint and let the invisible hand guide my brush.
-Oh, my God, Cheryl. -I'm fine.
Just leave me be, you doubting Thomases.
I had Archie in my sights, but the gun misfired.
Veronica stole my palladium.
Archie stole your wife.
I thought one bullet would right these two wrongs, but...
As a wise man once said, "Never send in a boy to do a man's job."
Get out of my sight, Chad.
You disgust me. Better yet, get out of Riverdale
'cause you lost my daughter forever.
Hi, handsome.
Hey. Ronnie.
-What's going on? -Guess what's in here.
My divorce papers.
It's official.
I'm a free woman.
♪ Baby girl, what turns you on? ♪
♪ The pages of a book on the elliptical ♪
♪ Well, girl, what turns you on? ♪
♪ The pages of a book on the elliptical ♪
♪ Girl, what turns you on? ♪
♪ Say before your lips Become predictable ♪
-You're going out? -Yeah, I'm heading down to the station.
I don't mind the distraction since Tom called
-and said there's another body found? -Yeah. I went to the morgue.
I don't know if it's Polly.
The body, uh, is...
What, Betty?
It's dismembered.
-Oh, my God. -I know.
I know. But Jughead and I have a lead.
Okay.
Keep me posted.
[door opens]
[door closes]
[Cheryl] Look at what came out of me.
This.
This is your answer, Kevin.
The higher power we've been praying to, drawing strength from.
I don't understand.
Earth, water, fire, and wind. The fabric of the natural world.
-I'm still not following. -The higher power is nature itself.
That's what we should be worshipping, Kevin.
The elements. It all makes perfect sense.
-How do you figure that? -For more than a century,
we, Blossoms, have made our livelihood from maple trees.
But our roots go so much deeper than I've ever considered.
[Kevin] Okay. So when we pray, we...
-pray to-- -Gaia. Mother Earth.
Okay. Got it.
You know, Cheryl...
I'm happy you found some clarity.
But I think I'm out.
This religion's gotten a little too fringy, even for me.
I hope that's okay.
Of course it's okay, Kev.
You've always been free to go. But you will always have a place here.
-What if Lerman doesn't show up? -He will.
I promised him my first edition copy of War of the Worlds,
-which is actually a fifth edition. -[Tabitha] Hey, guys.
[Alice on TV] Whoever is terrorizing our town,
committing these inhumane murders,
you have to stop.
Every time the phone rings, I pray it's about my daughter.
I pray for closure.
Just today,
another victim was found.
Their dismembered body is at the Riverdale morgue.
What does it say about me that I want it to be my daughter?
So that this nightmare will end.
[sobbing] So that I can wake up.
-Please. -[bell jingles]
-Help me wake up. -[Lerman] Mr. Jones?
Sorry, my bus was late.
[Fangs] Rough day, huh?
I'm worried about one of my students.
Britta Beach.
She's gay,
and she asked me to be there with her when she came out to her parents.
So I was and--
Let me guess.
They didn't immediately say, "We love you, no matter what."
Nope. They said, "Are you sure? Do you have to be?"
I'm sorry, Toni. That sucks.
Bigtime.
It's such a lottery, you know?
Who your parents are, what kind of family you grow up in.
It wasn't easy when I came out to my nana.
My dad was harsh when I told him I was bi.
He was like, "Great, you can choose. So choose being with a woman."
"It's like-- It's not how that works, Dad."
Yeah.
Is Britta gonna be okay?
I talked her parents off the ledge, I think.
But she's a tough kid.
So I hope so.
And for the record,
no matter what Baby Anthony is,
I'll be ecstatic.
Same.
[alarm beeping]
[explosion]
What the heck was that?
[rumbling]
-We need to get out of here. -Eric's working down the tunnel.
-Get everyone topside. I'll find Eric. -Archie!
Guys, get out! Come on!
-Everybody out! Let's go! Move! -Let's get out of here!
[Frank] Everybody, move, move!
[cell phone buzzing]
What is it, you philistine? I'm working on my 12 commandments.
Oh, my God, Kev. How many are still underground?
[phone rings]
Hello?
Cheryl, what's up?
Oh, my God. I'm on my way.
-[Jughead] Thanks for coming to meet us. -Not a problem, Mr. Jones.
-I felt bad ghosting you like I did. -That's okay. You're here now.
Are you still willing to talk about that week you went missing?
Yeah. Yeah, I'm ready to.
Any details whatsoever could help prevent this
from happening to anyone else.
Most of it's fuzzy.
The best I can piece together is, I was sleepwalking,
like I sometimes do, along the Lonely Highway.
Then, the next time I woke up, I was in this metal shed.
It was small. No windows. It looked like the inside of a spaceship.
That's how Polly described where she was to my mom.
-What else do you remember? -I could hear voices outside.
Voices. Plural?
-Yeah, maybe even a family? -Were you alone in the shed?
Yeah. Till the Mothman came in and helped me escape.
-The Mothman? -That's what he called himself.
He had red eyes, one bigger than the other,
or weird red markings on his face.
He said I was a mistake, that I shouldn't have been caught
and that he was throwing me back the way you throw a small fish back into a lake.
Wait, so he let you go, he freed you from the shed,
then he took you to the Lonely Highway?
He said I better not tell anyone what had happened
-or more Mothmen would come back for me. -Oh, Lerman, this is very important.
Do you know where the shed is?
No. But it was close to the Lonely Highway.
-I know that much. -How do you know that?
I could hear trucks rumbling by.
[cell phone dings]
Dr. Curdle has the DNA results. He wants to tell us in person.
-Kevin, Cheryl, what's the update? -Been trying Archie's phone and Eric's.
-They're not getting any signal. -How long will it take to dig them out?
We need more hands. We need heavy-duty equipment.
And it'll take hours, if not days.
Okay. Whatever you need, no matter the cost, just do it.
You said there was an explosion. What kind?
The kind that was triggered deliberately.
Who in their right mind would blow up a mine on purpose?
I can guess.
[coughing] Jackson.
[coughs] You with me, buddy?
I'm here, sarge.
Okay, hold on.
Take shallow breaths. Okay? We need to conserve oxygen.
The others...
-did they make it out? -Yeah.
Yeah, it's just us. But don't worry, I'm gonna dig us out, okay?
[rumbling]
We ran your DNA against the most recent victim
and it wasn't a match.
So it's not Polly again.
No. But the body parts were a match to Lynette Fields.
Oh, my God. Squeaky.
There's more, I'm afraid. Your DNA did come back as a match to another body.
Your tongueless John Doe.
The trucker? How can that be?
It seems he's your very distant cousin.
What? No, that's impossible.
All of the Coopers are either dead or accounted for.
What about more distant relatives? The Blossoms?
There's one last thing. When I was at my lab, the morgue was broken into.
The body of the John Doe
and the severed limbs of Lynette Fields were stolen.
They're covering their tracks.
They heard my mom on the news and came here to steal the evidence.
-Like when our Mothman body was taken. -Yes.
Yes, it is. Nana Rose gave us that Mothman that was stolen.
Now your prime suspect tests positive for Blossom DNA.
Lerman was held captive by a Mothman near the Lonely Highway.
-They're connected. Their connection... -Is the Blossoms.
You two go. I'm gonna get in touch with Squeaky's family.
But, guys, when the time comes to take these monsters down,
I want in.
[woman on radio] Two miners, Archie Andrews and Eric Jackson,
both Army veterans, remain unaccounted for
after the mine collapse in Riverdale earlier today.
Relief efforts are underway.
The condition of the miners is not yet--
[Veronica] Oh, good. You're awake.
Mija?
Let's start with the obvious. I know you're behind the mine explosion.
-Don't bother denying it. -Untie me immediately.
It's ironic, I keep hearing the words my guidance counselor said to me
way back in high school.
That our sick dance of death could only end with one of us dying.
And now here we are.
Headed straight for an Oedipal tragedy, set in motion when I was...
a 14-year-old girl.
Veronica, stop being so dramatic.
Oh, but this story is dramatic, Daddy.
The day of my quinceañera.
It was supposed to be...
the most important celebratory day of my young life.
When I overheard you in your study, talking with some of your friends,
telling them I was a disappointment.
That you wished Mom had given you a son to follow in your footsteps.
Oh.
How nice, you remember.
Do you know
what it does to a 14-year-old girl...
to hear that kind of dismissal from her own father?
I've spent an entire lifetime chasing your approval and love.
And for what?
Sociopaths are incapable of love.
[dramatic music playing]
[sobbing]
Which is why I wanna be very clear with you right now.
If Archie dies...
you die.
Can you feel it, Daddy?
Our dance of death is finally coming to an end.
Nana, we need to talk to you about the Mothmen.
I've told you what I know.
Look at me. Look right at me.
Right now,
young women, including my sister,
who was a member of your family,
are being abducted,
tortured, and murdered.
So focus and answer our questions.
Right. You gave my friend and I a corpse inside a maple barrel.
Who was it?
The truth, Nana.
I'm ashamed to admit it.
It was Cousin Timothy.
I came across his corpse in the woods after he passed,
and I put him in a barrel.
Poor Timothy was born with so many defects.
Okay. Cousin Timothy, this is a blood relative of yours?
My late husband was a compulsive philanderer.
He made the beast with every woman who worked on our estate.
The maids, the cooks, the nannies.
When they swelled with child,
he forced me to pawn them off to avoid a scandal.
But I knew a barren couple who lived in a cabin in the woods.
The Starkweathers.
I gave the children to them.
How many children in total?
Ooh, over the years, half a dozen.
The trucker that I caught, he must have been one of them.
A Starkweather.
A Blossom, dear. In part.
[Jughead] Nana,
you're saying
there is a secret, illegitimate clan of Blossoms
that have lived in the woods for two generations?
Why did you call the corpse a Mothman?
The family kept to themselves,
didn't like eyes prying into their business.
So they created a fiction,
the Mothmen,
one which we Blossoms were all too eager to embrace.
Do they still live in the woods?
Oh, my, no. They migrated from there to the mines.
And then when that closed down, they moved closer to the highway.
Who else has been propagating the Mothmen idea for decades?
-In plain sight, right off the highway? -Old Man Dreyfuss.
Yes. Dreyfuss Starkweather, yes.
Is he still alive?
Oh, my God, Jug, you and I have both been there.
Polly could have been there, right under our noses.
[cell phone dings]
It's Toni. There's an emergency.
[indistinct chatter]
[Archie coughing]
Are you still with me, Jackson?
How...?
How we doing, sarge?
Not great.
We're losing a lot of oxygen.
[panting]
And a lot of blood.
[coughing]
I have no idea how we're gonna get out of here.
[Bingo] You don't really believe that, do you, sergeant?
Bingo.
I thought we were square.
Apparently not. Apparently, you need a kick in the ass.
You remember back at basic, during our first PT test,
you did double the number of push-ups or pull-ups as any other guy?
You don't have an ounce of quit in you!
Bingo, I'm only one man.
All due respect, sarge...
no, you're not.
Come on, guys. Double time.
Let's help the sergeant get him and Corporal Jackson out.
[dramatic music playing]
Britta ran away last night. Her mom called to see if she was here.
They got into a fight. When her mom went to check on her, she was gone.
She left a note saying, "Now you don't have to deal with me."
Did Britta give any indication as to where she might have gone?
We called her friends. No one knows anything.
If she's trying to get out of Riverdale using the Lonely Highway,
we need to go to that junkyard ASAP.
-You know where the Highway Killer is? -Killers, yeah. We think.
-But we need a team to go in with us. -I wanna come.
Fangs, you stay here, in case Britta comes back. Is that okay?
Um, not really, no.
Toni, you're a mother now.
You can't go out on crazy raids anymore--
I have to, Fangs.
Britta came to me for help, and I saw myself in her.
As for Baby Anthony,
I don't want him to think that his mom was a coward
and that I didn't do everything I could to help somebody in need.
Besides, there's nobody better to take care of him than you.
Than my mom, you mean?
'Cause if you're going on this raid, I'm going with you.
I'll be watching your back. No discussion.
Well, how about we watch each other's backs?
Deal.
Any luck finding a first aid kit in here?
I'm looking, sit down.
Veronica. You're stressed, you're injured, you need to take a break.
Or at least go home, get cleaned up.
I can't go home. Archie's trapped in a mine.
I know, but you will want to be your gorgeous self
when Orpheus emerges from the underworld.
And probably not with an infected hand.
Trust me. Go get refreshed, and I'll hold down the fort here.
And not to worry, I've got some serious backup.
I call upon fire,
which consumed my brother's body and mighty Thornhill once upon a time.
I call upon wind, as I have once before.
Blow a cool gust across Archie's brow.
I call upon water,
where I saw my departed brother in the icy depths of Sweetwater River
and where I, myself, was reborn.
And lastly...
I call upon the earth.
Dear Gaia, please return Archie and Eric to us.
Open a path for them,
so that they may return to the land of the living.
[suspenseful music playing]
[floorboard creaks]
[dramatic music playing]
Pippi, turn off all the lights in the apartment.
Pippi, play Wagner.
Full volume.
["The Ride of the Valkyries" playing over speakers]
[gunshot]
-Miss Veronica? -[gunshots]
-Pippi, lights on, music off. -[music stops]
Miss Veronica.
What happened?
Chad broke in...
and attacked me.
-[cell phone ringing] -Oh!
Cheryl, any news?
[door closes]
Came to finish the job?
I can't tell you how tempting that proposition is.
Then again, I've already seen blood spilt today.
Besides...
unlike you, I stick to my word.
I told you, you'd die if Archie did.
Well, he didn't, Daddy.
Archie is alive, above ground, and waiting for me.
You failed, yet again.
[scoffs]
You literally dropped a mountain on Archie and still couldn't kill him.
You know...
I used to admire you...
grudgingly.
But I did.
But now you're just this...
silly cartoon.
I'm not afraid of you anymore.
'Cause you're no longer a threat to me.
But if you ever come after me or Archie again,
you'll end up getting shot.
-Just like Chad did today. -What?
Call Dr. Curdle for the details.
Bye, you little bitch.
Jughead, you're gonna distract Dreyfuss while the rest of us search the junkyard.
If Britta is being kept in the place my sister and Lerman were held,
we're looking for some kind of windowless shed.
-You know how to use a stun gun? -I'm from Chicago, yes.
-Jughead? You good? -Yeah.
-I'm good. -We're ready, then?
Jug, you're up.
The rest of us, let's split off, so we can cover more ground.
[knocking on door]
You again.
Hey, Mr. Dreyfuss, I'm so sorry to drop by unannounced.
I just got back into town.
I was hoping you and I could continue our conversation about the Mothmen.
Let me grab some moonshine.
Actually, it's a little cold. Mind if we talk inside?
Don't mind the mess.
[suspenseful music playing]
-Live here alone? -Yep. Just me.
No family, huh?
I thought we were gonna discuss the Mothmen.
But they are your family, aren't they, Mr. Starkweather?
I wondered if we were gonna have trouble with you.
-How much have you figured out? -Not all of it.
-Do you mind if I take a stab at it? -Be my guest.
The Mothman corpse we had at Pop's,
that was, uh, Timothy, your half-brother.
You took it. You must have overheard Tabitha and I talking about it
when you came to pick up your Thursday night order of pork chops.
And you did, we have receipts.
You also stole the bodies from the morgue.
It was another brother...
who swallowed his own tongue just to keep your secret.
Which is what, to your thinking?
That you and your inbred brothers
drive up and down the Lonely Highway, searching for women to murder.
Lerman, he was an outlier because it's women that you're after.
[branch snaps]
Why?
[Dreyfuss] To survive.
So we started going after the people that no one would miss.
Runaways...
sex workers, drug addicts.
[Jughead] To, what, steal from them? Those people couldn't have had much money.
You're right, of course.
But we don't need much to survive.
Anyway, after a while, it wasn't about that.
It was about...
The hunt?
-The sport of it all? -Yep.
[Jughead] So the Mothman story, that was just a cover?
Just a spooky, little tale to keep people away
from all the disappearances.
And if someone goes missing, then maybe they were taken up in an alien spaceship.
People believe what they wanna believe.
Nobody cared about those girls.
Oh.
You are so wrong about that.
-Britta? -[Britta] Miss Topaz?
I'm gonna get you out. Hold on.
[screams]
-[metal clanks] -[yells]
-Betty? -[snarls]
[groans]
[screams]
Wanna test that armor against a point-blank shotgun blast?
Didn't think so.
[snarls]
[electricity crackling]
[intense music playing]
[coughs]
Betty, are you okay?
-I heard you scream. What happened? -We found Britta. She's fine.
-Scared but fine. -Okay.
Remember what you told us about Lerman, how a Mothman helped him escape?
Apparently, not all Starkweathers are evil incarnate.
[Betty] Oh, my God. Britta.
[glass shatters]
Oh, my God. Jughead.
-Are you okay? -Yeah. I'm fine.
He tried to chew his tongue off and choke on it.
-Not before he answers our questions. -Your hunting days are over, you sick--
How does it feel?
My foot? Like it's on fire.
The rest of me? Like I'm a complete ass.
Who would have known we were walking into The Hills Have Eyes?
Toni...
we can do this, right?
Like, all of us?
Oh, yeah.
We got this.
You and me, just watching each other's backs.
[tender music playing]
Not even the earth swallowing you whole
could keep us from this moment, Archiekins.
Another brush with death to add to your ever-growing list.
Your guardian angel deserves a raise.
More than one, Ronnie.
Mr. Starkweather, I've spoken to my colleagues at the FBI,
and they'll be here soon to take you and your brothers away.
But before that happens...
I would very much appreciate it if you would tell me where my sister is.
Please tell me.
She's in the junkyard.
I can draw you a map.
[dramatic music playing]
[inaudible dialogue]
[theme music playing] g]