Episode 7 opens with Jughead and Archie looking for a place to sleep after traveling for days. Jughead tries to call Betty again, but she doesn’t answer and he starts to get concerned. They eventually stumble into a farm. There, they meet two young girls who are alone. They say their father and brother went to do a job. Archie agrees to help move hay in exchange for a good night sleep in the barn, but something about the farm makes Jughead uneasy.
The next day, Jughead leaves Archie at the farm doing work and heads into town to take photos. When he arrives, the town looks completely abandoned. The symbols from G&G are drawn on an old refrigerator door and an elderly woman outside tells him they began appearing around the same time the drugs in the fizzle rocks came to town. Meanwhile, Archie’s back on the farm getting a shave from the eldest girl, Laurie Lake. She kisses him, but he tells her he can’t because he is still in love with Veronica.
Jughead continues to wonder around town. He meets a group of young girls playing G&G in the back of a truck. He tells them he used to play and asks them where they learned. They tell him they learned to play from their older brothers who left with the rest of the men from the town to help build a prison that doubles as a drug lab to make fizzle rocks. They also tell him that all of the men work for “The Man in Black” and when they describe him, Jughead has a feeling it’s Hiram Lodge.
At the farm Archie sits down to eat, but Laurie has a different idea. She hits Archie on the head with a frying pan and calls Hiram to tell him Archie’s there. She wants to exchange her brother and father’s debt for Archie. Jughead arrives just in time to see Hiram. He unties Archie and convinces him to go see Jughead’s mom instead of trying to kill Hiram.
Back in Riverdale Veronica decides to leave her father and mother behind after she finds out Sheriff Minetta has gone missing. She goes to the speakeasy to stay and quickly realizes the numbers are low and she’s not making a profit. She decides to turn the speakeasy into an illegal casino for one night. She takes out a second mortgage against Pop’s, but she wins and makes a significant profit. Pops tells Veronica not to be like her father. He also tells her Sheriff Minetta’s body was found in the marsh with no hands or head.
Betty’s still being held at the “Sister of Quiet Mercy”. They tell her she gets candy for good behavior, but Betty realizes the candy is laced fizzle rocks. She throws them out. Later, Betty finds out her new roommate is Ethel. Ethel tells Betty that the girls who misbehave are taken to the Gargoyle King’s chambers. She also says that Jughead isn’t into Betty anymore, not after things were “Hot and Heavy” in the bunker and that her and Jughead are meant to be together.
Later, Betty sees Hiram Lodge meet with Sister Woodhouse and one of the Blossoms. She goes digging around for answers and hears a girl scream from inside the room Ethel called the Gargoyle King’s chambers. She hides and sees a hysterical girl being taken out of the room. After they’re gone, Betty tries to enter, but she’s caught by Ethel who tells her she’s not allowed inside. Betty picks a fight with Ethel and fakes a seizure to get back into the infirmary so she can check files. After breaking into the medical records, she steals the proof she needs that Hiram is drugging the girls and tries to escape, but she’s caught and made to take the fizzle rocks. After they shove Betty into the Gargoyle King’s chambers, she comes out looking brain washed.
Will Jughead come back in time to save Betty from the sisters? Will someone finally take out Hiram Lodge? Find out in the next episode of Riverdale on TGON!
