Riverdale: 4 Reveals and 1 Big Question from “Chapter Twelve: Anatomy of a Murder” (Season 1 Episode 12)
Lots of early chatter about Riverdale mentioned its Twin Peaks-like inciting incident — a murdered teenager is found in a body of water in a small town full of dark secrets. The thing is, Twin Peaks kind of went off the rails after the “who killed Laura Palmer?” question was answered.
Riverdale Season 1 Episode 12, “Chapter Twelve: Anatomy of a Murder,” answers the “who killed Jason Blossom?” mystery that’s been central to the show’s plot since the pilot. So where does the show go from here?
(Of course, one important thing to note is that the creators of Twin Peaks never intended to answer “who killed Laura Palmer?” and only did so after pressure from the network, whereas the Riverdale writers always intended to reveal who killed Jason. But the question still stands.)
Obviously, there’s a question of where the show will go in Season 2, but the more pressing question is, where will it go next week in the season finale? “Chapter Twelve: Anatomy of a Murder” could have easily served as a satisfying finale to Season 1, and there are a few big reveals that made it a finale-worthy episode.
1. The Cooper family is related to the Blossom family
Betty: “I’m… a Blossom?”
Alice: “Polly is a Blossom? Which makes her and Jason… relatives by blood.”
Some viewers have been saying all along that Cheryl and Jason seemed awfully close. Creepily so. Veronica herself voiced this opinion a few episodes ago, even uttering the word “twincest.”
While Cheryl and Jason weren’t actually in an incestuous relationship (that we know of), it turns out there really was some Blossom family incest going on.
Hal Cooper, who previously said that Cheryl’s great-grandfather murdered Betty’s great-grandfather, reveals that those two men were, in fact, brothers.
Which makes Polly and Jason third cousins.
I don’t know about other viewers, but I never expected the show to actually go there with the whole “twincest” thing, so this reveal is just messed up enough to bring viewers both horror, on Polly’s behalf, and delight at yet another twist in the town’s drama-filled history.
Even if the episode doesn’t dwell too long on the incestuous implications — Polly isn’t nearly as horrified or disgusted as I thought she’d be, and Cliff Blossom brushes it off with “it’s not like they were brother and sister” —this revelation is actually kind of juicier than the identity of Jason’s murderer.
2. F.P. really was involved in Jason’s murder
So F.P. isn’t the murderer, but he was involved in the whole thing.
During his confession, F.P. says Jason approached the Serpents when he was making plans to leave town, so F.P. hooked Jason up with a car and some drugs to deliver for the Serpents, but once he found out who Jason was, he decided to hold him hostage and demand ransom money.
Since this is part of his false confession for Jason’s murder, it’s not clear how much of that is true, but we do know for sure that he and Joaquin were the ones who dumped Jason’s body in the river, and F.P. kept quiet about the whole thing.
This episode puts Jughead on a rollercoaster of emotions, and it’s absolutely one of Cole Sprouse’s best — which is saying something, since Jughead has had plenty of emotional scenes in the first 11 episodes.
His conversation with his father at the jail, his apology to Cheryl and Cheryl’s subsequent slap attack, his one-sided phone call where his mother apparently tells him he can’t come to stay with her and Jellybean in Toledo… Those aren’t even half the scenes where Jughead absolutely breaks your heart.
And besides just the heart-breaking scenes, Sprouse is great when Jughead tries to cover up his pain with dry humor and a grin, saying at least his father is an honest murderer, and in his mostly silent confrontation with the sheriff after the gang finds out that F.P. is really innocent.
3. Cliff Blossom killed his own son
Like I said before, the whole Blossom/Cooper twist is kind of juicier than Jason being murdered by his father.
It’s not that Cliff was the obvious suspect and that you saw it coming from a mile away. But it just wasn’t that shocking, either.
Maybe it was the way the reveal unfolded, how the gang found out before the audience did. If we had watched the video along with them, rather than just watching their reactions to it first, maybe the tension would have been a little higher and the reveal would have felt more gasp-inducing.
Cheryl’s accusation was a little underwhelming, too, as was Cliff’s immediate reaction — a simple deer-in-the-headlights look at his daughter and wife.
4. Cliff Blossom kills himself before he can be arrested
This honestly wasn’t terribly surprising either, especially not after Cheryl and her mom point the police toward their barn.
His death does reveal that the Blossoms were hiding something — drugs, right? — in their barrels of maple syrup, but now Cliff takes his explanation for Jason’s murder to the grave. Was it about business? Was it about Polly?
There are some questions left after Cliff’s suicide, but the end of the episode leaves us with one big question.
What now?
Jason’s murderer has been revealed, but the murderer kills himself before he can answer any questions.
F.P. isn’t really the murderer, but he’s still in jail.
Hermione tells Veronica that her father is coming home.
These all feel like the sort of open-ended answers that come with a season finale. It ties up just enough loose ends while leaving you with a hint of what the next season will bring. That final shot of the cops staring at Cliff’s body in the barn certainly seemed like a season-ending shot.
But we still have one more episode left in Season 1. Can the biggest question, Cliff’s motive, be revealed in just one episode? The mostly dialogue-less season finale promo promises “new secrets” and “new mysteries,” but doesn’t really hint at exactly what the episode will be about.
“Chapter Thirteen: The Sweet Hereafter” will have to add some serious intrigue and drama to avoid feeling like an unnecessary epilogue to an otherwise a solid first season.
What did you think of “Chapter Twelve: Anatomy of a Murder”? Do you think this episode should have been the season finale? Share with us in the comments below!
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Riverdale airs Thursdays at 9/8c on the CW.
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Katie Houlis
Katie is a recent college graduate who spent most of her free time at school binge-watching shows like Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Fringe, and Hannibal. She has watched every single episode of Lost at least ten times each (yes, even “Stranger In A Strange Land”). Current favorites include a bunch of comedies, lots of superhero shows, and a few shows with quite a bit of murder in them.
One thought on “Riverdale: 4 Reveals and 1 Big Question from “Chapter Twelve: Anatomy of a Murder” (Season 1 Episode 12)”
Sorry, Coopers. The Blossoms are right. A third cousin relationship is no big deal. It’s not incest and there are almost no increased risks of birth defects. Other than Betty and Polly having to face being related to some horrible people, it doesn’t mean much to the show.
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