Riverdale: Top 4 Biggest Reveals from ‘Chapter Twenty-Eight: There Will Be Blood’ (Season 2 Episode 15)

Hang onto your hats, fellow Riverdale watchers. The latest installment of the series is a bit wild and busy — to say the least.

Upon my first watch of the episode, I liked it well enough. But the more I think about it, the more I realized it’s a bit of a jumbled mess. There’s a lot going on right now, and unfortunately, much of it is quite boring.

Riverdale Season 2 Episode 15, “Chapter Twenty-Eight: There Will Be Blood,” answers plenty of questions and forwards the plot in several important ways. But with only a handful of episodes left this season, I’m still at a loss as to what the larger plot for the second half of the season is.

Who is the antagonist? Is it Chic? Is it Hiram? What are we waiting to find out? What is the plot engine that is meant to be keeping us interested and (in theory) chugging along to a conclusion?

Say what you will about Season 1’s “Who killed Jason Blossom?” story, but at least that had a beginning, middle, and end. Season 2 has been enjoyable in many ways. But in terms of an overarching plot, it’s a straight-up mess.

That said, there are undeniably at least four major, game-changing moments throughout “Chapter Twenty-Eight: There Will Be Blood.”

1. The late Clifford Blossom was a twin

As a devout watcher of soap operas, I can really appreciate a good “secret identical twin reveal” story. For that reason, Claudius Blossom’s surprise appearance at Clifford’s secret will-reading is right up my alley.

Claudius arrives on the scene with an on-the-nose Romulus and Remus metaphor and thankfully without Clifford’s signature, terrifying red wig.

Anyone passingly familiar with ancient Roman history is well-aware of how badly the whole Romulus/Remus thing ended, so it’s no great surprise that Claudius reveals Clifford basically chased him out of town when they were kids — all so that good ol’ sociopath Cliff could have the Blossom fortune for himself.

Now, it appears that Claudius and Penelope are plotting together. If what Cheryl overhears can be taken at face value, it seems that they want to get rid of both Nana Rose and Cheryl so that they can take control of the inherited property and money. Poor Cheryl and her ever increasingly screwed up family.

I also have to wonder: Did Claudius just get back to town? Or are we about to find out that he’s been around for a bit, and potentially murdered his own brother, staging it to look like a suicide?

It’s a dark theory, but it would fit with what we’ve just found out of their shared past.

In any event, Claudius’ return gives Toni a reason to stick close by her new BFF Cheryl, and that’s certainly not something to complain about.

2. Hiram intends to build a for-profit prison in Riverdale

After a bunch of wheel-spinning throughout the season, Hiram’s grand plan for the town is finally revealed… and it’s a for-profit prison.

Yes, that’s right: All of this drama and intrigue is because the Lodges want to build a prison where Southside High once stood and house all of the prison employees around town. It’s a gross idea (as all IRL for-profit prisons are), but I mean… Really? That’s it?

Is it just me, or is this a huge letdown?

I’m not sure what I actually expected in terms of this reveal, but I guess I thought it’d be a bit more juicy. Or at least interesting. The prison thing is just sort of… blah.

Perhaps it’s because I’m finding this storyline in general tedious. As I mentioned in my review of Riverdale Season 2 Episode 14, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to care about what’s going on with Archie and Veronica. Ronnie is becoming more and more unlikable as she blindly follows her parents’ bidding (while still vaguely attempting to exercise some amount of autonomy). I can’t track her motives from one moment to the next, and she’s becoming more of an inconsistent character as time goes on.

Archie, meanwhile, is becoming stupider and stupider by the day. His foolhardy, overeager allegiance to the Lodges doesn’t make a ton of sense, and I find it especially annoying that he sides with the Lodges over his own dad in this episode.

Fred is basically the only upstanding person left in this town. Perhaps that forlorn glance at the campaign merchandise Veronica ordered means he will throw his hat in the ring for a mayoral run?

3. Chic isn’t who he says he is

Chic spends the majority of the hour being his normal sketchy self, creeping around Polly and her twins during their visit, as Betty goes all Nancy Drew trying to figure out what his deal is.

When her plan to have poor hapless Kevin “catfish” her brother flops massively, she resorts to stealing Chic’s DNA (via dental floss) to prove he isn’t a Cooper after all.

This reveal is a major one, but it’s not remotely shocking.

Chic’s immediate and deep disdain for Hal (and Hal’s reciprocal dislike of Chic) already suggested that the two weren’t actually related. At the start of the episode, when the Coopers find out that anyone with Blossom blood will inherit a portion of Clifford’s money, Chic immediately wants to stay out of it and forfeit any possible inheritance — another major red flag that Chic has something to hide.

Now, there are two obvious possible explanations here, which I think are both equally plausible (especially since the show is really vague about what Betty ran Chic’s DNA against for the test).

1. Chic is a complete imposter — not related to Hal, Alice, Betty, or Polly — and the “real” Chic is still out there somewhere, a la One Tree Hill‘s Crazy Derek storyline.
2. Chic is Alice’s son, but not Hal’s — making him Betty and Polly’s half-brother, but not an heir to any of the Blossom money.

I’d already guessed that Chic was Alice’s secret son with FP, so I’m sticking with that. What a juicy twist that’d be! Especially for the #Falice shippers among us.

What also remains to be seen is, if #2 is correct, whether Chic has any idea that Hal isn’t his biological dad — and if he knows who is.

4. Hermione is running for mayor

I’m not really sure about the ethics of all this, but Hermione decides to run for mayor in the wake of Fred ducking out because of his resistance to Hiram’s prison plans.

Perhaps the people of Riverdale are, on a whole, Archie-level stupid and wouldn’t bat an eye when their new mayor eventually tells them that her husband is building a for-profit prison in their town. But if they have any logic whatsoever, I don’t imagine that move would go down all too well.

I’m still hoping for Hermione to somehow take over and mastermind Hiram’s downfall, because that would be pretty badass. Her few moments asserting dominance over Hiram are always great, using her “wiles” to get her way. A good example in this week’s episode occurs when Hermione cools Hiram down after Veronica takes the fall for Archie telling Jughead about the Lodges buying Pop’s.

As of yet, it’s far more likely that Jughead will eventually take down Hiram, especially now that he’s gotten a new source: Smithers, the Lodge family’s former doorman.

Or perhaps it will be Archie after all. That handsome moron is so all over the place with his allegiances. One minute, he’s feeding Jug information to keep his dad out of the Lodge cesspool. The next, he’s all aboard Team For-Profit Prison. Plus, we now know that he’s kept detailed notes about all of Hiram’s criminal dealings.

Sure, we see him burn it after taking that creepy blood oath with Hiram (so dramatic!) — but who’s to say that’s the only copy he had? Crossing my fingers that Archie has some foresight and access to a scanner.

Other Thoughts and Observations:

• How cute are Polly’s twins? So cute you can almost forget they’re the product of accidental incest! Almost.

• Someone give Madelaine Petsch a damn Academy Award for that fainting spell ASAP.

• That Choni handgrab at the will reading is so good and so sweet, I had to go track down the gif for it obviously. Enjoy:

• Cheryl and Toni’s friendship is obviously developing at a rapid pace. There’s nothing explicitly romantic about it yet, but I do enjoy that Toni is so quickly willing and eager to be Cheryl’s emotional support/right hand gal at the will-reading. That she later shows up at the Blossom family dinner is also great.

What did you think of this episode of Riverdale? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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