‘Riverdale’ Season 1 Chapter 13 Recap: Shots fired, Blossom empire burned down and Jughead embraces Southside Blood

The season finale of "Riverdale" initially started to thresh out loose ends, with the real climax happening towards the end of the episode. There were some cryptic changes to the characters. Some changed for the better, while others headed towards the dark side.

The character shift of Hermione Lodge

Chapter 12 ("Anatomy of a Murder") of “Riverdale” was already showing hints of key changes to Hermione Lodge (Marisol Nichols). She was preparing for the return of her husband, Hiram Lodge, and had to resort to drastic changes.

That included trying to buy out Fred Andrews (Luke Perry) in what seemed more like a way to avoid a confrontation between the two men in her life. With Fred shunning the buyout, Hermione was left in a precarious situation.

Before episode 13 of "Riverdale" came to a close, Archie (KJ Apa) and Fred Andrews were to supposed to talk about something serious over breakfast at Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe. An untimely robbery took place, with Fred motioning to Archie not to get involved. Thing got ugly with a gunshot (again) going off.

When the robber fled, the final scene saw Fred getting shot. Looking ahead to season 2, Fred is likely to come out of this dilemma though a more pressing question is whether it was an accident or something staged. And as one would guess, the immediate suspects in the shooting would be Hermione and Hiram Lodge.

Why Hermione?

When Fred Andrews shunned Hermione’s offer, the latter caught a glimpse of Archie and Veronica after the 75th-anniversary jubilee of "Riverdale." The facial expression easily shows some malicious intent though expect the show runners to add more monkey wrenches moving forward.

With Veronica unwilling to help her mother, it could be a staged move by Hermione to destroy the brewing romance between Archie and her daughter. This angle could get bumpy once season 2 of "Riverdale" comes around.

Cheryl Blossom plays with fire

When chapter 13 of "Riverdale" started, Cheryl Blossom was a mess and disarray. She tried to drown herself but Archie, Veronica, Betty and Jughead were able to come in for the save. Archie ended up with a bloodied hand trying to break the lake of ice, finally explaining why he ended up with a broken hand mentioned in a previous post.

Jughead embraces Southside Serpent blood

Jughead (Cole Sprouse) and Betty (Lili Reinhart) were in the middle of making out at FP Jones’ (Skeet Ulrich) trailer when an untimely knock butt in. At the door were "Hotdog" and a bunch of Southside Serpents who presented Juggy with an official Serpent jacket.

Jughead tried it on, technically formalizing his acceptance of being a Serpent. Betty was left aghast so expect this to be another angle next season. For those who followed Archie comics, could we possibly see Jughead wearing a shirt with the letter "S" in front? Here is a sample image of that for those who may have missed it.

As one can see, there are a lot of things to digest. Chapter 13 of "Riverdale" season 1 started out slow with the surprising twists saved towards the end.