Chapter Eight: The Outsiders

"The Coopers. The Stepfords of Riverdale. High school sweethearts, who got married, and had two beautiful daughters, Polly and Betty. Until Jason Blossom happened."

- Jughead Jones

"Chapter Eight: The Outsiders" is the eighth episode of the first season of Riverdale. It premiered on March 30, 2017.

Synopsis
THE BEST LAID PLANS — As Fred and his crew are about to start construction he loses his crew, which could put his livelihood in jeopardy. Wanting to help his dad, Archie and his friends pitch in to help but after one of them is attacked, the gang comes up with a plan that lands them in Southside Serpent territory. With Jughead’s secret revealed, he is worried about how his friends will react. Meanwhile, Veronica and Betty suggest throwing Polly a baby shower to make her feel better, but Polly is hesitant knowing how everyone feels.

Plot

 * NOTE: THIS PLOT IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The episode unfolds with Jughead's narrative voice as he speaks about the Cooper family, 'the Stepfords of Riverdale'. They were the ideal American family...until Jason Blossom happened. Polly sits with Betty, Veronica, and Hermione as she explains to Sheriff Keller the days leading up to Jason's disappearance. According to Polly, what started out as a casual conversation between her and Jason, flourished into an epic-forbidden romance. She was a Vixen and he was a Bulldog. But for reasons that were still unclear, their family's tried to tear them apart, however, the break up was short lived as Polly soon discovered she was pregnant with Jason's child. They became secretly engaged with Nana Rose's blessing and her heirloom ring. She and Jason had made plans to runaway in an effort to start a new life together, the last time she saw him was at Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe, where he told her about his plan to fake his own death and meet up on the other side of Sweetwater River. With that in mind, Jason made a one-time drug delivery deal for the Southside Serpents. They gave Jason an address upstate, where he was to deliver the drugs in exchange for money. However, the drugs never made it as Jason was murdered and Polly was taken away to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy.

Meanwhile, over at the Andrews house, a late night of gaming happens for Archie and Jughead, that is until Fred enters the room to inform the boys that it is time to call it a night, but not before noticing the awful smell present in Archie's room. Archie goes up to open the window as Fred asks Jughead if he's settling in, to which Jughead agrees saying that its like they're two roommates in a college dorm. Fred then informs them that he'll be breaking ground on the SoDale project the next morning, apologizing to Jughead that it's kind of a sore subject because of the Twilight Drive-In. Jughead merely shrugs it off telling him that he's okay with it as long as he builds something beautiful in its place. Fred reassures him that it may not be beautiful, but it will be big before telling them goodnight.

At school, the next morning, the gang, along with Cheryl, gather at the student lounge discuss the issue of Polly and her baby, and how to approach Polly's steadily worsening predicament, where Betty's parents want Polly but not the baby, while the Blossoms want the baby but not Polly, an impossible situation, Betty remarks. Veronica corrects her, saying that it is merely an annoying situation, one in which she has a solution for in the form of a baby shower. She reasons that Polly needs to feel loved and supported by those closest to her, however, ideally by her own parents, Betty replies. Veronica, still insistent on the baby shower, explains that they get the parents in the same room in a public setting where they cannot fight, and the healing will begin. It all begins with baby steps. Jughead questions if he has to make an appearance at the baby shower, to which Veronica refers to him as Betty's 'boyfriend', so he must attend. They both start looking at each other when Veronica tells them to relax, that it's just a word that starts with the letter B. Their discussion of the baby shower is short lived as Mrs. Cooper comes bolting in as she addresses Betty with her full name, demanding to talk to her and Veronica privately.

At the Andrews Construction, Fred and Hermione receive terrible news concerning the latest project. Vic and his crew quit working for Fred after they receive a better offer from Cliff Blossom, in which he has promised them 2 years of work. Fred is left in despair, knowing that Vic and his crew cannot reject the offer, but then he is forced to put the construction of SoDale on hold without a crew.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Cooper grills Betty and Veronica telling them that Sheriff Keller has informed her of how they are hiding Polly at The Pembrooke, to which Betty comments is better than an insane asylum. Veronica takes the blame admitting that she is the one that suggested that Polly stay at her house. Betty comments that that is more helpful, unlike Alice and Hal, who want Polly to give her baby up for adoption, something that is not their choice to make — her choice, however, is whether or not she wants to be a part of Polly's life. Betty then decides to inform her of the baby shower that Veronica and her mother are hosting, to which Mrs. Cooper says that's hardly appropriate. Betty retorts saying that it's an amazing idea and that Alice should either be loving and supportive, like a normal grandmother, or stay away.

After losing his crew, Fred makes some calls, hoping he could borrow a few crew members from known affiliates, but to no avail. Just then, Archie returns home from his date with Valerie. Fred informs him of the setback of the project due to Cliff taking his crew, to which Archie tells him that whoever would choose Cliff over him is crazy. However, there are more pressing matters...Fred confesses that he hasn't been as forthcoming with Archie about the severity of danger the company was facing. It's been in trouble for a long time; big jobs are too few and far between, and it 's only getting worse as the days go on, with hemorrhaging cash and overdue bills. It was never supposed to get that bad, he worked his butt off to build the company but in one false step, he could lose everything.

At the breakfast table, Polly, Hermione, Veronica and Betty sit as they tell Polly of their decision to host her baby shower. Polly is hesitant about the idea, concerned about what her parents feel about this. She wants her parents to come, but she's not hopeful that they will come, or that they will come in peace. Betty reassures her that they won't fight and that the entire Cooper family will support her on this. Much to everyone's surprise, Polly announces that she wants the Blossoms there too, Cheryl and Mrs. Blossom. Concerned, Betty comments that Penelope just tried to declare her an unfit mother, why would she then invite her? Polly reasons that this shower is the perfect opportunity to prove to her that she is not unfit to be a mother.

This subsequently leads to a sidebar conversation between Veronica and Hermione, in which Veronica is scolded by her mother for the inevitable bloodbath that will ensue between the Blossoms and the Coopers. Not to mention Hermione has been trying to avoid the Blossoms because they don't know that Hiram is the anonymous buyer of the new development, and if they find out, it will be open war. Hermione explains that the Blossoms have made a play for the land, hoping to stop construction, and while she and Fred have been attempting to keep it on track, he is still unaware that Hiram is the buyer. Which is why Hermione reasons that the timing of the baby shower is less than ideal. In addition to that, Hermione finds it hard to believe that Alice would even want to come after hearing what they'd told her, which is precisely why Veronica wants Hermione to have a mother-to-mother talk with Alice.

Fred embarks on a mission to confront Cliff on stealing his crew in an effort to halt construction. He pulls up at Thornhill and blocks Cliff's drive-way as he attempts to leave the drive-way. They both exit their vehicles, Fred immediately pouncing on Cliff about the crew he just hired. Cliff explains that it's not personal, just that the land of the SoDale project belonged to his family, they founded their maple empire on it ,and now they're in a process of trying to reacquire it and buy it back, but the mysterious buyer stole it right from under them. So, since he can't go after the mysterious buyer, he'll go after Fred. The way Fred's boss has done his secret deals has led Cliff to believe that he has a limited amount of funds. Admittedly, this is a great plan, but Fred informs Cliff that in the process of bleeding out the buyer, Cliff is bleeding him out as well, which has messed with his business and livelihood, and no amount of money will stop Fred from coming after Cliff with everything he has.

After confronting Cliff, Fred returns to the trailer to reveal what Hermione already secretly knows, that the Blossoms are in a grudge match with the mysterious buyer, and that they are caught in the cross fire. Hermione gets up from her seat upon hearing this, as she nervously asks if Cliff know who the anonymous buyer is, to which he replies that he's in the dark on this just like them. While they are still without money or crew, Hermione and Fred receive an unexpected surprise - Archie, as promised, has a solution to the problem of workers needed for the construction. He gathers up a team of Jughead, Kevin, and Moose who have volunteered to assist them in staying on schedule for the SoDale project until they can hire a new crew. Fred is initially hesitant, but Hermione reminds him that desperate times call for desperate measures.

Per Hermione's earlier conversation with Veronica, Hermione decides to meet up with Alice at Pop's, which Alice mistakes as a chance at bragging rights after Hermione took in Polly. However, Hermione only seeks to help, starting with telling Alice that it was time to face facts, and Polly wouldn't be the first young mother to raise a child, they both did it. Hermione urges Alice to be there for Polly at the shower, otherwise, she'll regret it for the rest of her life.

Meanwhile, at the Andrews Construction, the boys have already started on the construction. Jughead comments how handy Archie is with the wheel barrel, joking that if his music career never pays off, he could always have manual labor as a fallback, although his father's path is not for him. Archie acknowledges how hard his father works his ass off for him, never asking for anything, and always having his back, even when Archie messes up. If having his father's back, means that he had to haul some rocks, he'd be more than willing to accommodate. Jughead agrees, commenting that Archie's father also has his back too, more than some people. As the day comes to an end, the boys return to the trailer, as Fred welcomes them with some soda in the fridge. Moose forgot his phone back on the project site, so he goes back out to retrieve it. As he gets there, he is ambushed by two thugs, who try to destroy some equipment before noticing Moose. The rest of the guys hear noise from the trailer and go rushing down to see Moose getting beaten up by the two thugs before taking off in their truck. They ask Moose if he knows who those guys were, to which he says he has no clue, however, they left a warning for them to stop construction or else they'll be back.

Upon Sheriff Keller's arrival at the scene of the crime, Fred explains that Moose caught two guys destroying his equipment with a crowbar. They got the drop on Moose, and took off. Fred accuses Cliff Blossom of being at the center of the attack since he made it abundantly clear that he wanted the project to collapse, though Sheriff Keller has his doubts that Clifford would hire a couple thugs to attack a work site and beat up a couple teenagers. Archie suspects that it also could have been the work of the Southside Serpents, who are angry after being kicked off their land, but Jughead disagrees since the Serpents never bothered him when he worked at the drive-in. Unsure, Sheriff Keller asks Moose if he saw any snake tattoos on the jackets of the vandals. Moose has no recollection of seeing anything that might identify them, reasoning that it all happened too fast. Keller reassures them that he'll talk to the Blossoms even though he doubts it will get him anywhere unless they can ID the vandals. Archie isn't too thrilled with the Sheriff's response, claiming that had it been Cliff asking for help, the Sheriff would have put forward more effort.

The next morning, Betty and Veronica sit down as Polly approaches them, asking if her mother is going to attend the baby shower. While her mother has been invited to the shower, it is clear that the chances of her actually attending the event are slim, as try Betty and Veronica put it. This leaves Polly disappointed as Betty attempts to cheer her up. Polly announces that she wants Betty to be her child's godmother, if anything were to ever happen to her, Betty is the only one she'd trust to raise her child.

As Archie paces back and forth, wondering what the next move should be after the attack at Andrews construction, whatever it is, Valerie only hopes that he talks to her and not do something that he'll eventually end up regretting. After several unanswered texts from Jughead, Archie finds him at Pop's shoppe with Betty and Veronica. Archie and Moose are going to the south side in order to find the Serpents that potentially attacked Moose, it is worth a shot, and Kevin's boyfriend, who is also a Serpent, can get them into a bar called the Whyte Wyrm, a bar where the Serpents hang out. He reasons that if Moose spots them, they can call Sheriff Keller and get the goons arrested. Betty warns him that the Serpents are dangerous drug dealers. Jughead, much to Betty's surprise, disagrees with that statement saying who'd think that. Betty explains that Polly said that Jason was dealing drugs for the Serpents. Archie pitches in telling him that Cliff Blossom is trying to stop the SoDale project, all the more reason to believe that he hired Serpents to vandalize the work site. On top of that, Sheriff Keller looks like he won't be of help in solving their problem. As Archie gets up, he tries to convince Jughead one last time, but to no avail.

Starring

 * KJ Apa as Archie Andrews
 * Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper
 * Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge
 * Cole Sprouse as Jughead Jones
 * Marisol Nichols as Hermione Lodge
 * Madelaine Petsch as Cheryl Blossom
 * Madchen Amick as Alice Cooper
 * Luke Perry as Fred Andrews

Guest Starring

 * Casey Cott as Kevin Keller
 * Martin Cummins as Sheriff Keller
 * Skeet Ulrich as FP Jones
 * Nathalie Boltt as Penelope Blossom
 * Asha Bromfield as Melody Valentine
 * Barclay Hope as Cliff Blossom
 * Hayley Law as Valerie Brown
 * Lochlyn Munro as Hal Cooper
 * Rob Raco as Joaquin
 * Christopher Rosamond as Mustang
 * Tiera Skovbye as Polly Cooper
 * Barbara Wallace as Rose Blossom

Co-Starring

 * Bruce Blain as Vic
 * Cody Kearsley as Moose Mason
 * Caitlin Mitchell-Markovitch as Ginger Lopez
 * Ardy Ramezani as Quarterback
 * Olivia Ryan Stern as Tina Patel
 * Alvin Sanders as Pop Tate
 * Jason Simpson as Serpent Bartender
 * Trevor Stines as Jason Blossom

Quotes
"The Blossoms, and the Coopers, in our pre-war apartment, it'll be a bloodbath! They've been Hatfields and McCoys since long before Polly was pregnant."

- Hermione warns Veronica of the Blossom-Cooper feud

Trivia

 * The title for this chapter is named after the S. E. Hinton coming-of-age novel which in turn was adapted into the 1983 film.
 * Archie and Valerie begin dating this episode.

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