And now I've been working
at the Greendale Public Library for almost seven years.
How marvelous.
And what about your mother?
How is she doing these days?
Oh, um,
not long after we moved to Greendale,
she died in a tragic accident.
How Gothic.
I'm so sorry, Heather.
It's a long time ago now.
But tell me about you, Cheryl.
Are you...
unattached?
I was seeing someone special named Toni.
We had a beautiful
and nurturing relationship for a time.
But we've both gone on to forge different paths.
We're friends.
Are you...
seeing anyone?
Every now and then.
Nothing serious or long-term.
Oh, my goodness, it's almost the witching hour.
I better get going or I'll miss the midnight bus back to Greendale.
Wait, Heather, before you leave...
You're a librarian.
By an odd coincidence,
I've had the most cuckoo notion
of turning Thornhill into Riverdale's
new privately-owned library.
How kismet.
Since you're a scholar of the library sciences,
would you mind helping me?
Cheryl, of course.
Why don't I come back tomorrow?
Despite my best efforts to have
Pop's declared a historic landmark,
my request was denied.
But look, just because Percival claimed land rights
doesn't mean I'm gonna let him bulldoze Pop's.
As you've said many times, Grandpa,
the diner is this town's soul.
Its safe harbor.
Luckily,
I possibly came up with an idea that could buy us some time.
So, my mother looked the other way
and allowed my father's evil to flourish.
She helped him bury a body
which rotted under our family dining room table
for decades.
That's the Coopers.
Apple pies served over an unmarked grave.
And your father was groomed by his mother to kill,
- wasn't he? - Hmm.
My disturbing inheritance. Yes.
Agent Cooper...
Betty...
you survived 18 years of trauma in that house.
And you need to move out of it, ASAP.
Is there a place you can go to?
A boyfriend's house or your girlfriend's?
A boyfriend.
Well, thank you
for the impromptu therapy session,
Agent Drake.
I'm glad you requested a transfer to help with TBK.
Well, of course. And it's Jillian.
Or just Drake, if you prefer.
A little walk, huh?
Yeah. Come on.
- Hey. - Hey.
We were just about to go for a walk. Do you want to join us?
Um, can I ask you something first?
Yeah. Everything okay?
Yeah, everything's fine. Um...
Would you mind if I moved in here?
While I untangle all of my...
- emotional childhood trauma? - Of course you can.
You can stay for as long as you need.
We would love to have you.
Right, Bingo?
Okay, come on. Let's go.
Good boy.
Thanks for talking with us, Janet.
Kevin's still pressing
for full custody of Baby Anthony.
That's so disappointing.
But I'm happy to help, of course.
As we discussed, there are certain circumstances
that are working against you.
Like that we're gangbangers?
And the fact that you both have criminal records.
Well, how about the fact that I'm Anthony's mother?
And a high school guidance counselor
with a master's degree in social work?
All good points that will be brought up in court,
but it's not a slam dunk, I'm afraid.
How about you, Fangs? Are you working?
Uh, yeah, I was a truck driver,
and now I work part-time
- at Toni's Bar. - Our bar.
And he takes care of Baby Anthony
while I'm at school during the day.
That's got to look good to a judge.
It depends on the judge, to be honest.
There's something I want to pitch to you, Archie.
It's the only way I can think to save Pop's long-term.
What if we broke the diner down
and moved it to a new, safe location?
Brick-by-brick. Somewhere we know for sure
Percival can't claim eminent domain ever again.
Where do you have in mind?
As of now, TBD.
But in the meantime, we could just put the diner into storage.
Once I secure a piece of protected land,
we can rebuild Pop's.
Look, Percival clearly sees Pop's as a threat.
The symbol and the headquarters of the resistance.
- We have to keep it as intact as possible. - Okay.
Hell yeah. Let me get a crew together and get this done for you.
Amazing. Amazing. Thank you.
But we have to do it fast.
Because Percival's allegedly gonna be bulldozing
in the next few days.
Yeah, well, he sucks.
But don't worry about it. There'll be nothing there for him to knock down.
Ah, writer's block,
the constant foe in my life.
And I've run out of ways to procrastinate.
Reggie and the shareholders
have declared open war on me, Jughead.
I need money to build up my war chest
if I want to keep control of this place.
So, knowing that you can read minds,
I'm proposing
we use your gift for our mutual benefit.
And how would that work?
You've heard of those
mentalist acts?
Like the kind in Vegas?
I want to present one here.
You can be the seer.
I'll be your Girl Friday, working the crowd.
You read a few minds, astonish a few out-of-towners,
and we make some bucks.
Sixty-forty split. My way, of course.
Fifty-fifty.
And we only read the minds of the willing.
Done and done.
Okay, guys, it's been a minute.
We got a new gig lined up.
Andrews Construction
is gonna tear down and rebuild Pop's.
This a union job?
It is, Carlos. Which means, uh,
health benefits, time-and-a-half,
pension plans, and no scabs.
What do you guys say? You ready to save Pop's?
Yeah!
Hey.
- Hey. - Anthony just went down.
How was your day?
It was good. It was good.
Archie's putting together a new crew to help move Pop's.
So I signed up.
Okay. Well, we should probably talk to Janet
before we make any big life changes.
Fine.
But I want to start pulling my weight around here, Toni.
I don't want the judge to think I'm some kind of freeloader.
"Freeloader"?
Are you joking?
I couldn't do any of this without you.
I hear you. I hear you.
I just want to do everything that I possibly can
to help provide for Baby Anthony.
I think it'll make me a better father.
You're already an amazing father.
We'll make this work.
Thanks, Toni.
Hey, guys.
I'm just gonna grab a couple things.
Where's Grandma?
Upstairs. Resting.
What are you guys up to?
Where did you get that cat?
Granny got him for us.
Oh.
What's his name?
Butterscotch.
We're gonna have so much fun playing with his tail.
Um...
I'm just gonna borrow Butterscotch for a little bit
and make sure that he has all of his shots and whatnot.
Okay. But bring him back soon so he can catch mice for us.
Okay.
I need your insight, Drake.
Regarding some more fringe science stuff.
Of course, always happy to help.
Oh.
What would you say if I told you that I recently
acquired the ability
to see auras around people who are...
threats?
Auras are the energy fields that emanate from us.
Some people are more sensitive and can see those vibrations.
Sounds like you detect hostile energy fields.
Last night, I saw an aura around my nephew, Dagwood,
but not around his twin sister, Juniper.
So, I was worried Dagwood was having
evil impulses towards a newly acquired pet.
Now in a shelter.
Impulses that he hasn't acted on yet, thank God,
but it felt like a...
like a brewing threat.
Who else have you seen an aura around?
Killers.
- People who are about to cause harm. - Mm-hmm.
But there are exceptions.
I didn't see an aura around TBK,
even though he was planning to attack Archie.
It's like I have a blind spot for some people.
One that I would like to figure out and remove.
Well, the twins could be a sort of test-case scenario.
For a while I thought maybe they could have inherited
the MAOA gene.
It runs in my family. I have it, my mother has it.
Maybe Dagwood inherited the gene,
and that's why I could see his aura,
because he's a killer-in-the-making?
Get the twins tested for the gene.
Find out if one or both, or neither has it.
Know a doctor who would do that?
Thank you for seeing us
on such short notice, Dr. Curdle.
Of course, Miss Cooper.
And are these the subjects
we'll be testing for the MAOA gene?
Yeah. These are my niece and nephew,
Juniper and Dagwood.
Now, let's set an intention for your new library.
Smoke of air and fire of earth,
cleanse and bless this home and hearth.
Under careful cultivation,
create a space for...
innovation.
You know, Heather...
I, too, am a student of the arcane arts.
Studying Wicca,
worshipping the goddess Hecate,
it helped me self-actualize.
That's beautiful.
I, too, have dabbled in the occult.
Tell me more about that.
Unbelievable.
And this is what it must've looked like
back in the day before it opened up.
So much potential. Huh.
Well, it's like you said, Tabitha,
- it's only temporary. - Hello.
Oh, I'm so sorry to intrude.
I just... I thought I'd check on my property...
and on this fine crew you've assembled.
And let them know about a job opportunity
I might have for them.
We're already on a job here, Percival.
Yes, but my railroad project is set to begin in earnest, so.
And as foreman, I would like to offer
each and every one of you a place on our crew.
It's long-term.
Higher wages, signing bonus.
And not a penny in union dues.
We're all long-term union members here, Frank,
like you used to be.
Like my dad fought for.
Nobody wants what you're selling.
Perhaps your crew would like to speak for themselves.
Yeah, actually, I'm interested.
Fangs, you can't be serious.
Toni and I are drowning in legal bills, Archie.
If there's an offer for longer-term work with less dues, more money--
That is exactly what we're offering.
Glad to have you aboard, Mr. Fogarty.
As for the rest of you,
we hope you'll consider the offer to join our team.
Sooner rather than later.
♪ I know this dream of life Is never ending ♪
♪ It goes around and 'round And 'round again ♪
♪ You know the sun is rising While descending ♪
♪ It goes on and on
♪ And never ends
Ladies and gentlemen,
you're in for a treat tonight.
The Babylonium is proud to present
The Seer of the Southside,
Forsythe the Fantastic!
Now, remember, ladies and gentlemen...
we can all see
this brave soul's number.
But Forsythe the Fantastic cannot.
Or can he?
Forsythe?
Yes.
I do see something through the fog.
Is it...
115,658?
It is indeed.
Bravo, Forsythe.
Seer of the Southside!
What the hell?
Oh, my God.
We left this truck fully loaded last night.
I locked it myself.
- Who'd steal booths and tables? - Wait, Archie.
You have to see this.
Who could've done this? And why?
This has Percival's fingerprints all over it.
Agreed.
He wants to flatten the diner with everything still in it.
Tough luck
'cause we're getting it all out of here again.
Double-time. Come on.
And I will deal with Percival.
- Percival. - Mm.
I just came from Pop's, where all the furniture
and the decor that was in a moving truck
is now suddenly back inside the diner.
Stop messing with me.
Ms. Tate,
I have legitimately no idea what you're talking about.
I want you off that property, remember?
No, no, no, no. What you want
is you want Pop's and its contents destroyed.
And for the hundredth time,
- that's not gonna happen. - Mmm.
Oops.
♪ After you, who
♪ Could supply My sky of blue? ♪
Help! Help!
- What happened? - Sam got electrocuted trying to move the jukebox!
Oh, my God.
Agent Cooper.
Dr. Curdle, hi.
Do you have the twins' MAOA test results back already?
Indeed.
And the girl has the gene,
but the boy does not.
Okay, so I can see
Dagwood's aura, but he doesn't have the gene.
Juniper, on the other hand, has the MAOA gene,
and no apparent aura.
Maybe it's counterintuitive.
Meaning those who have the serial killer gene
are the ones in my blind spot?
Yes. The MAOA gene produces a specific enzyme.
You have it, Juniper has it.
Maybe that enzyme is masking your ability
to detect the aura in question.
Now the million-dollar question is,
how do we test this new theory?
That guy from the hospital. Trevor. I saw his aura.
I also saw Cheryl's aura
when she was being inhabited by Abigail.
Great. Let's get them tested for the gene.
Yeah.
But first we gotta get the twins out of that house and away from my mom.
You don't think she'd hurt them, do you?
Not intentionally,
but she's in deep with Percival Pickens.
And if the twins have any inclination
towards violence and mayhem,
I don't want them crossing paths with him.
Reggie, I have nothing to say to you until our next board meeting.
Yeah, well, I do.
And it's not something one discusses over the phone.
Your act with Jones. I want a cut.
Wow.
Even for you. Wow.
You are so unburdened by intelligence
or reason, I am almost in awe.
Why on earth would I give you a cut of our act?
Because I know your secrets, Ronnie.
What would happen if I told Percival
you're the one that put a hit on Hiram?
That tidbit alone would destroy your career,
your reputation, and probably land you in jail.
Blackmailing me, Reggie?
Is that how you roll now?
I'm not trying to be greedy about it.
All I want
is 20%, let's say.
Um, whose car is out front?
Ours.
I used my signing bonus as a down payment.
Archie gave you a signing bonus?
Uh, no.
Perceval did. I joined his crew.
He's paying almost double what Archie is.
Fangs, Percival is evil incarnate.
He's trying to dismantle Riverdale.
And for all we know, he could have been responsible
for Baby Anthony's kidnapping.
People are saying he can control their minds.
For instance, Kevin,
Alice, Frank.
Yeah, Archie already warned me about that.
He told me that I can use
an emotional tether to keep that from happening.
Baby Anthony will be my tether.
The Queen of Wands.
Well, I do consider myself a queen.
This card represents a new strength
or ability you've discovered.
A power within you that has ignited.
That might be accurate.
The Lovers.
You yearn for connection.
Intimacy.
Love.
Don't we all yearn for those things?
Oh. That doesn't look good.
It isn't.
The Tower is a dark card,
promising disaster, carnage, war.
Welcome to Riverdale.
What happened, Archie?
It was a freak accident.
One of my guys got electrocuted moving the jukebox.
Must have been some frayed wiring.
No, no, that's not possible.
I had the jukebox serviced two months ago.
It was perfectly fine.
Here's an unexpected bonus from helping Veronica.
I finally started writing again.
Yes, sir.
It all should have been smooth sailing
from now on if not for...
Reggie's blackmailing you?
See,
this is why I never liked him. Even in high school.
I know, he's the worst.
But he has a certain piece of information
that could destroy me if it got out.
So, I was wondering, since you can read minds,
you can't erase them
as well, can you?
You mean mind-wipe Reggie?
Not his entire mind. Small, though, it may be.
Just the fact that I...
ordered a hit on my father.
Yeah, you know, I always wondered about that.
I have made my peace with it.
Okay. Let me be honest with you. Um...
first off, I don't even know if that kind of surgical wipe
is possible, or if it's something I'm even capable of.
But I can do my research.
What the hell?
I wouldn't be saying the diner's haunted
if I hadn't seen the ghosts with my own eyes, Archie.
And then I talked to my grandpa, and sure enough,
people have died at Pop's.
They are the ones causing problems.
Look, to be honest, Tabitha,
a haunted diner is the least of my worries right now.
I mean, I've been getting calls all morning.
Sam's electrocution was a tipping point.
A lot of my crew's quit.
They've gone over to work for Percival and Uncle Frank.
Okay, look, Archie, I will...
I will figure out our ghost problem,
but we still need to move the diner
before Percival seizes control of the land.
We will. I'll get my crew back.
Thanks for coming, Uncle Frank.
Drinks are on me.
Here's my Chime card.
Look, Frank, I don't want to fight with you.
I just want us to talk.
You know what my dad would say to us right now?
He'd say that no matter what
we're blood.
And he wouldn't put up with us behaving like this.
He'd demand us to find a way back to each other.
Your dad was an idealist.
We can disagree on some things, Frank,
but here are two things that I know we both love.
Pop's diner and Andrews Construction.
Can't we put our differences aside?
At least until we get this one job finished?
In honor of my dad?
According to the test results, neither Cheryl
nor orderly Trevor
have the serial killer gene.
Okay, then.
Based on all the information we gathered,
our best hypothesis is that
your blind spot is the MAOA gene.
Its presence seems
to short-circuit your ability to detect auras.
Maybe there's some kind of work-around?
Well, reading auras is an inexact science.
It's part psychological, part biological.
Now that we've established a working theory
on why you have a blind spot,
your brain may process, absorb,
and therefore perceive auras differently.
Otherwise, I've been meaning to ask.
How's living with the boyfriend?
I'm desperate, Cheryl.
Time traveling is one thing, but this, this is--
Sounds like a classic haunting.
Those ghosts are lingering.
Oh, my friend Heather is quite knowledgeable
in things that go bump in the night.
Well, they are sabotaging our efforts to save Pop's.
Why haven't they moved on?
It could be that they're afraid of what awaits them in the afterlife.
Or they have unfinished business here
on this mortal coil.
Concur.
I have had some experience facilitating
communication between mortals and spirits.
Perhaps I can invoke them
and help them move on, as you say.
Perhaps we...
both can help.
Hear these names and cross the divide.
Mona Mitchell and Gilda Snide.
Join us here and do not hide.
Marcus Lee and Jenny Bride.
Who will speak for the dead?
I will. Gilda Snide.
Why are you still here, spirits?
Do you have unfinished business?
We're bound to this place. We must bear witness.
To what?
To the battle that approaches between good and evil.
Only then can we complete our journey.
Fine, bear witness,
but we need you to stop sabotaging us.
We must protect this place. It is the final battleground.
We know,
but we're only moving it.
Pop's will be rebuilt soon.
There can be no disruption.
Oh, my God. Work with us, people.
Percival Pickens,
the man who is taking over this land
wants to destroy the diner to cripple the resistance
and build his stupid train here.
- "Train"? - Wait.
Why does that frighten you?
Is he building the ghost train?
What the hell is the ghost train?
An engine that grants its conductor great power.
Dominion over the realms of the living and the dead.
So please, let's just...
let's find a way to work together.
The diner cannot be broken-down for long.
If it is, we will dissipate into the ether.
If that happens, there will be no witnesses,
and the final battle cannot take place.
And there will be no opportunity
to defeat the Eldritch evil.
Which is why Percival has been so hell-bent
on destroying Pop's.
This is all starting to make sense.
- Is it? - Okay. So, to be clear,
we can disassemble the diner
so long as we do not put it into deep storage
and we find some other place to rebuild it
as quickly as possible?
How could you, Elizabeth?
How could you steal those children from me?
I'm their grandmother.
You are not in the right headspace
to be taking care of children.
I am their guardian,
I am perfectly capable of taking care of them.
You know what, Mom? There's evil in that house. Real evil.
And I don't want the twins growing up the same way I did.
I am trying to protect them.
"Protect them." What, trying to protect them from me?
How dare you?
Do you even care about people's feelings?
- Do you even have feelings? - Of course I do.
All of the love in the world and all of the sacrifice,
and it was never enough. It was never enough for you!
You always had to...
You always had to conjure up these villains
to explain everything that was wrong with you.
But did you ever stop to think that maybe you're the villain?
You need to stop looking for monsters under the bed
and in the closets
and just stop and take a really good look in the mirror.
Despite everything that I did as a mother,
you have always been a bad person.
- You don't mean that. - I do.
And I hope that you're never a mother,
so you don't have to experience
the things that you have made me endure.
I hate asking this of you, Archie,
but can we set up the diner at the El Royale?
The booths, the counter, the jukebox?
So that the Pop's continuum isn't broken?
Of course, Tabitha.
But this might mean that the El Royal winds up
haunted for a time.
Well, ghosts don't scare me, so...
Me neither.
Uncle Frank.
Archie...
I have been looking at this picture
ever since you gave it to me.
Thinking about what you said, about what your dad would say.
You were right.
He'd want us to find our way back to each other.
And to save Pop's.
So, me and a few of my guys are willing to, uh...
call in sick,
help you move the diner, if we can do it fast.
And if you'll have us.
That's a relief about your uncle, Arch.
I'm happy for you.
Yeah. And it probably means
there's still hope for your mom, Betty.
Maybe.
She's in pretty deep with Percival.
Yeah.
But what's the next step for Pop's?
Well, we move everything out tomorrow,
which is perfect timing because Frank says
the bulldozers are on their way.
Hmm. Could you use an extra hand?
I can swing by tomorrow morning after I do a couple things.
I could use all the help I could get.
Especially if it's from you.
I did my due diligence.
What Veronica was asking for
was something called telepathic erasure.
The removal of specific images and thoughts
from someone's memory.
Turns out, it's possible.
To do it, the someone being mind-wiped
has to be either asleep or distracted enough
so that their subconscious is unguarded.
There you go.
Sorry, it's small bills tonight.
You know I'll have to count it.
Take all the time you need.
Everything all right, Reginald?
Yeah, we're good.
Great.
Because I've just had a change of heart.
From this moment on, we'll no longer be sharing
any of our profits with you.
Okay, don't push me, Ronnie. I'll tell Percival.
Tell him about...
what?
About that thing.
Um...
Why don't you have a think on it?
In the meantime, get the hell out of my office.
Thought you said we still had a ton of work to do, Red.
Well, we did.
Looks like some good Samaritan souls gave us a head start.
All right, well, Uncle Frank, you and a couple guys
load up the truck, head to the El Royale.
The rest of us, let's start dismantling the diner.
You know, Heather,
I was already quite impressed with your knowledge
of the realm of the unseen arts,
but what you did back at Pop's...
that was necromancy, wasn't it?
Death magic?
Yes, Cheryl.
After my mother died, I was taken in
by a group of women who raised me.
A powerful coven in Greendale.
I'm not just Wiccan, Cheryl.
I'm...
a witch.
They taught me everything I know.
And based on what I've observed here,
and I wouldn't want to put a label on you,
but I suspect
you may be a witch as well.
I...
haven't used that word to describe myself yet,
no,
but I feel as if I've been dancing around it for months,
if not years.
And then there's this.
Pyrokinesis.
Heather,
if you are
what you say you are,
and I am, too,
would you teach me what you know?
I've been walking along this witchy path
for quite some time,
but mostly alone.
Cheryl...
I'd love that.
What is it, Reggie?
You look more perplexed than usual.
I'm not sure.
I think Jughead and Veronica did something to me.
Made me forget something.
But I have no idea what it is.
Is that possible?
Hmm.
Perhaps Jughead's telepathic abilities
have gotten stronger since they first manifested.
Hey, Frank.
I came to help, but it looks like you're already done.
Yeah. Out here, anyway.
Archie could probably use a hand inside, though.
Everything okay?
Yeah.
We have a problem...
with your uncle.
Hey, I'm just gonna drive this stuff
- over to the El Royale, cool? - No.
I know you were gonna drive this into Sweetwater River.
Or maybe a big bonfire at the town dump?
Whatever your plan was, Uncle Frank, you're busted.
How'd you know?
Give me the keys.
You know, I didn't want it to come to this, Archie,
but here we are.
Don't try it, Uncle Frank.
You brought this on yourself.
Looks like you weren't strong enough for the tether to work.
Get out of here.
Go crawl back to your boss. And why don't you tell Percival
that the battle's on.
I'm invulnerable again,
and we're ready to fight.
I can't believe what you've done.
The paint, the colors,
it almost feels like the real McCoy.
Benjamin Moore for the win, again.
It was the definition of a group effort, Grandpa.
Speaking of...
did your plan work?
Like a charm.
Pop's is still Pop's.
A refuge for lost souls.
And the final battle, whenever it happens,
will be witnessed by the appropriate parties.
The living and the dead.
Hey.
Uh,
what's the occasion?
I wanted to apologize, Fangs.
You're right.
I haven't had enough faith in you.
My...
whole life, I've been fiercely independent.
Thinking I could take on everything myself.
But now I realized
we need to be equal partners in all things.
So, that's why I was thinking...
maybe we should get married.
Toni...
where is all this coming from?
I'm worried about what you're telling me, Toni.
Me, too, Janet.
Lately, Fangs and I have been disagreeing about everything.
Toni, one of the biggest advantages
you and Fangs have over Kevin
is that the court sees you as a happy, stable couple.
Going into these custody hearings,
you need to be stronger, more united than ever.
Otherwise, you could lose that advantage.
And possibly Baby Anthony.
Where this is coming from, Fangs,
is that I heard you.
I hear you.
So what do you say?
Will you marry me?
I think we were wrong
about the serial killer gene being my blind spot.
I saw an aura around my mom clear as day.
And she has the gene.
Your powers are a byproduct of trauma, Betty.
Your most recent discoveries about your mom are more trauma.
This could be a natural expansion of your abilities,
sensing everyone who poses a danger,
physical or emotional.
She wasn't the only one, Drake.
I saw another aura that I hadn't previously.
On someone else who has the MAOA gene.
The scary part is...
I don't know who this person is a threat to.
Herself?
Anyone who comes close to her?
Or even the people that she loves?