Along with the murderer's identity revelation, the penultimate episode also offers another plot twist regarding Coopers and Blossoms' secret family relation, making everything complicated.
- May 5, 2017
AceShowbiz - One big mystery of "Riverdale" was answered in the penultimate episode of the series which was aired on Thursday, May 4. The murderer of Jason Blossom (Trevor Stines) was officially revealed in the episode, titled "Chapter Twelve: Anatomy of a Murder", with a major plot twist fans ever thought about.
[SPOILER ALERT!] It was revealed that Jason's killer was actually Clifford Blossom (Barclay Hope), his own father. The truth was revealed as a hidden flash drive was found in Jason's varsity jacket which contained footage from the Whyte Wyrm's basement. The footage confirmed that Clifford was the one who pulled the trigger and shot his own son in the head since Jason discovered his family's secret drug business and planned to reveal the truth.
To get the truth unveiled, it took several twists and turns. FP Jones (Skeet Ulrich) initially confessed that he was the one who killed Jason after Clifford threatened FP that he would harm his son, Jughead (Cole Sprouse), if he didn't take the blame of the crime he didn't commit. Clifford, however, killed himself at the end of the episode as an apparent guilt-ridden suicide.
Another twist revealed that Polly Cooper (Tiera Skovbye) was blood related to Jason, making her relationship with Jason incestous. Hal Cooper (Lochlyn Munro) dropped the bomb to his family that Betty Cooper's (Lily Reinhart) great-grandfather was actually a Blossom before their branch of the family changed their name.
"When I went in to pitch the season to Warner Bros. and CW, Greg [Berlanti] was like, 'Roberto, you can't go into that room without knowing who killed Jason Blossom or they’re going to lose their minds,' " executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa said of the killer identity.
He continued, "So when I went in, I had three likely suspects-F.P., Hiram Lodge [Mark Consuelos] and Clifford Blossom. Then, as the season progressed, Hal Cooper started becoming a possible suspect, but then in the end, if the idea of the show is that it's a subversive, darker take on these sunny, wholesome characters, we started thinking, 'What would be the darkest thing that could happen, the most taboo, most transgressive thing that could happen? That would be that a parent would shoot or kill a child.' " The EP later revealed that he narrowed down the three suspects into one, which was Clifford, "probably halfway through the season."
Regarding Clifford's death, Aguirre-Sacasa said, "I always think of the penultimate episode as the whodunit and the finale has the elements of whydunit." He added, "But rather than have Clifford alive and just tell everything, it allows us to play the mystery ad some new mysteries as well."
The executive producer also teased some tidbits of the season finale. He revealed that Cheryl might play a big part in the episode as she had "a shocking story in the finale, probably even darker than Clifford killing Jason." He went on saying, "She's at her worst place emotionally that she's ever been. And by the way, she's already been in a fraught, frayed place. It gets even worse now."
"Riverdale" season finale airs on Thursday at 9 P.M. ET on The CW.
