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28 March 2019, 22:14
Does this mean The Farm, Gryphons and Gargoyles and the Fizzle Rocks drug trade are all connected?
It's been a looooong time coming but in this week’s episode of Riverdale, titled 'The Raid', we were finally introduced to Edgar Evernever's Farm and their creepy AF recruitment tactics.
A lot went down in episode 17... Archie and Mad Dog reunited and maybe I ship them? His prison mate Baby Teeth got killed by a Gargoyle King stan. Veronica sent her mum two dead fish. Hermione consumed a bottle of wine. Hiram is like, chill now? Their marriage has now been annulled. Jughead and Gladys are still beefing. FP, the Sheriff, is still oblivious. Gargoyle gang are still trash. And most importantly, we learned exactly why The Farm has such a hold on all its members thanks to Cheryl Blossom, who tragically fell victim to Edgar Evernever's culty schemes.
What happens in Riverdale 3x18? Betty confronts Edgar and Varchie grow closer
But with the big reveal at the end of the episode, it now seems like The Farm and Gryphons and Gargoyles AND Hiram's drug business (or should we say Gladys' drug business?) could all be linked together in some weird Fizzle Rocks kinda way?! Maybe?! Let's investigate.
After asking cousin Cheryl to go uncover and infiltrate The Farm, cousin Betty finds out more than she bargained for. She hooks cousin Cheryl up to a wire and sends her into the arena to gather the tea. Cousin Cheryl comes through and, after a one-to-one meeting with ACTUAL EDGAR, discovers that the testaments given by the Farmies are all recorded - which means Polly and Alice’s incriminating confessions are all on tape somewhere. (NOT COOL!)
Betty sends Cheryl back to locate the room where the tapes are kept. Edgar, a *grown man* who is incredibly sus over the sudden interest in the tapes, invites *teenage* Cheryl to step into a room with him. Alone. The signal on the wire fades out and Betty is left without an ear on Cheryl's sleuth. (VERY NOT COOL!!)
Later, Cheryl tells Betty that she will longer be sleuthing for her because she actually likes the farm and she's planning to go back. When Betty asks why, she tells her it's because she saw and spoke to Jason. YES, DEAD JASON. JASON BLOSSOM. JJ.
And that, my friends, is how The Farm catches and brainwashes your faves.
It turns out that The Farm has been, we assume, drugging its members with a weird hallucinatory substance that causes people to see their dead beloved ones - usually the deaths that have been weighing heavy on their conscience.
For Cheryl, she was able to see and speak to her twin brother, who is very dead. With both Kevin and Fangs, it's established in the musical episode that they have visions of Midge, who is also very dead. And for Alice? Oh boy... After being confronted by Betty, she confirms that she has been seeing Charles, her presumed dead son. (I already know I'm gonna cry when someone has to tell her he's not real... but also, what if he is real?!)
Anyway, sounds familiar, doesn't it? Drugging people in order to hook them on hallucinations?! Considering that we now know that The Farm and Gryphons and Gargoyles both dabble in hallucinations, does that mean they are connected?
Does that mean that Hiram (or Gladys) has been supplying them with drugs this whole time? Does this also mean that Betty's seizure and floating baby hallucination in episode 1 was also linked to The Farm? If Alice is consuming Farm products, and Kevin ate the brownie, how did Edgar drug Cheryl? How was she able to see Jason?!