“Riverdale” has finally revealed who killed Jason Blossom — and it came with a dark, dark twist.
(Spoiler alert! This story covers major plot details from Thursday night’s episode.)
Although FP Jones II confessed to the murder of Jason Blossom following his arrest, Jughead’s dad did not do it. The person who killed Cheryl Blossom’s twin brother was their dad – Clifford Blossom. His secret came out when the Riverdale gang – Betty, Jughead, Archie, Veronica and Kevin – found a flash drive hidden in the lining of Jason Blossom’s letterman jacket (remember FP had that jacket in his closest earlier in the season, and had recently given Joaquin a mysterious bag to hide for insurance – well, that bag had the jacket with the flash drive on it.)
On the drive was a video of the murder, and not long after the town began to learn what happened (Betty’s mom, Alice, gave the drive to Sheriff Keller and Mayor McCoy), Clifford killed himself in the family’s barn full of barrels we found out probably aren’t filled with maple syrup.
“[Episode] 112 is sort of the whodunit,” Executive Producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told AccessHollywood.com. “113 is sort of the ‘whydunit.’ Why did he have to kill Jason? Why did he have to kill himself? What other dark secrets do the Blossoms hide?”
For more insight into the episode, the EP answered a few of our burning questions.
AccessHollywood.com: Clarify something [for me] – The Blossoms, they’re not a maple syrup dynasty, they’re in the drug trade? Is that what I should take from the drugs on the floor [when the cops found Clifford]?
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: That’s what that last image seems to suggest, isn’t it? That rather than transporting just maple syrup in those barrels there seemed to be some objects that seem to be neatly wrapped bricks of drugs. That is what it looked like, right?
Access: Yes.
Roberto: I wonder if that might help explain why they’ve been able to live in that giant, rambling mansion on the profits of the maple syrup trade.
Access: [Did] Clifford run the serpents?
Roberto: That’s a really good question. I think you have to stay tuned for that. These are all kind of the questions though that we go into the finale with.
Access: Did Penelope know that her husband killed her son
Roberto: That’s a mystery to be solved.
Access: Do you think Penelope cares about her children?
Roberto: I think yes, but in a very, very, very twisted way, and all I can say is stay tuned for the finale. There’s a huge Penelope/Cheryl story in the finale.
Access: Yeah, I was going to ask you about Penelope and Cheryl [and] if they were about to enter into their own Lodge-style fall from grace.
Roberto: The only thing that perhaps is darker than Episode 12 is Episode 13. … Their story is far from over, far from over.
Access: FP was scared enough by Clifford that he took the fall for the murder and that was a pretty interesting twist to see happen. Should [we] just take that as an even bigger clue how bad Clifford [was]?
Roberto: Oh definitely. Definitely. Definitely. Definitely.
Access: How much trouble is FP in? I’m just kind of curious because obviously there’s been some great stuff between Cole [Sprouse] and Skeet [Ulrich] on screen and … I think a lot of people would probably like to see more between the two of them.
Roberto: Listen, he isn’t the murderer, but he is complicit in the cover-up. He did break many, many laws – aiding and abetting. And, Mayor McCoy and Sheriff Keller are looking for a scapegoat … other than the wealthiest man in town. So, he’s in a lot of trouble, he’s in a lot of trouble. And the writers have also invested in that relationship and we want it to continue, but we can’t wave a wand and make everything that FP did go away. … That question about how deep is this going to go is very much alive in the finale, and leading forward.
Access: The show is centered around the kids and I’ve got to ask about Jughead. He’s homeless. No one seems to notice that there’s this poor teenage kid that is basically homeless, drifting from couch to couch, under the stairs at the school. … What are we going to see from him in the season finale, following this episode? He knows his dad is innocent, obviously the sheriff told him what he told him.
Roberto: A big, big, big Jughead story in the finale, and a lot of the stuff that you’re asking about – where he’s going to be, where’s he going to live, is he even going to stay in Riverdale — all those things are in play in the finale. And that is his story in the finale.
Access: Obviously he can’t live with his mom, she turned him down. His mom — did you think about casting her to bring her into the finale after what happened?
Roberto: We did think about it. We already have such a huge ensemble with so many great, great, great actors that we’re really careful about introducing new people just because we want to serve the ones we already have. But yeah, in a way this show is not just about kids, it’s about families, and that’s kind of one of our big themes and that’s something that we return to over and over again, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we one day meet Gladys Jones and Jelly Bean Jones.
Access: Betty and Jughead – where do they stand in the finale? She really turned into the real crime fighter and kind of found her voice toward the end of the season.
Roberto: Both Betty and Jughead and Archie and Veronica’s relationship really is at the forefront of the finale. And in Episode 12, because there’s so much mystery and crime to unpack and solve, that’s sort of the focus of the episode, though it’s still very, very emotional and gripping. And the finale — the relationship stories, they come to their natural climax, let’s say.
Access: How is Betty going to react when she finds out Archie and Veronica are dating, basically becoming a couple?
Roberto: You’ll find out, but Betty’s got so many bigger fish to fry, you know what I mean?
Access: What do you mean bigger fish to fry? The murder’s been solved!
Roberto: Well, the murder’s been solved, FP’s in jail. He’s guilty of a bunch of other crimes, he’s being railroaded. What the heck was in the barrels of maple syrup? What is it going to mean for her and Jughead if FP’s in jail for a long, long time? I mean, she’s got a lot to process — a lot to process.
Access: Lastly, who else were you guys thinking of to make the murderer on the show and how soon did you decide it was going to be Clifford?
Roberto: Sort of everyone was on the table, honestly, and when we went in to pitch it, we pitched that it was either Clifford, FP or Hiram. And then as the season went on, it became like Hal was going to be the murderer. We tried to put out as many red herrings as possible, but I would say probably from about Episode 6 or 7, we knew it was going to be Clifford, probably because thought, you know, this whole series, and this whole season and the whole theme of the show, and the whole kind of reason for being of the show is to subvert the Archie comics world where everything is safe and everyone is good and everyone’s protected. And we thought that the clearest, biggest subversion of that and the most taboo thing that could happen in this world is for a parent, who is meant to protect their children — a parent killing their child would be the most, the darkest, most transgressive thing that could happen on the show.
“Riverdale” Season 1 wraps up next Thursday at 9/8c on The CW.
— Jolie Lash