There’s another dead body in Riverdale. This time it’s Jughead’s (Cole Sprouse) mentor Ray Bradbury. Jughead and Sheriff Keller are reviewing Brad Raybury’s death. Keller wants to know if Jughead get in touch with Raybury’s wife.
Archie’s (KJ Apa) grades are up. He’s now Riverdale’s newest B+ student. So? He gets his hot rod back! Reggie (Charles Melton) is impressed by the car. The two boys immediately play hooky to cruise town.
Jughead breaks the news to Mr. Fieldstone that Raybury is dead. He asks Fieldstone about Raybury’s wife, but Fieldstone doesn’t’ know about any wife, just that Raybury sent half his pay to a PO Box in South Carolina.
Black Athena, Toni’s (Vanessa Morgan) literary group for black students of Riverdale, meets to discuss Invisible Man.
Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) has a gig in Centerville opening for Richie Valens. Midge (Abby Ross) wants to go, but Fangs doesn’t want her there. He’s worried something will happen to her. The club isn’t in a nice neighborhood.
Jughead tells Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook) about Raybury’s mysterious death and the PO box in SC. Neither thinks he committed suicide. They decide to break into Raybury’s office.
Veronica (Camila Mendes) asks Reggie out one more time. Reggie asks Archie if he can borrow his hot rod. Archie agrees. But then Betty (Lili Reinhart) suggests Archie and she go out. Archie is bummed he lent his car out, but Betty is happy to walk together
Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) misses Toni and lets her know. She wants to attend Black Athena, but Toni doesn’t think it’s the right time for that.
Tabitha finds a photo of June Simpson, Brad Raybury’s possible wife. They find her phone number and call her. Jughead breaks the news to her over the phone. She sounds heartbroken and plans to make her way north to Riverdale.
Cheryl finds out that Clay (Karl Walcott) invited Keivn (Casey Cott) to attend Black Athena, making her feel left out in the cold by Toni.
Betty feels free now that she’s out from under Alice’s thumb. Archie can’t stop thinking about his car. He jumps at every engine revving in the parking lot. He can’t focus on his own date because he’s too concerned about where Reggie took his car.
Cheryl confronts Toni, who acquiesces and invites her to Black Athena, and lets her borrow her copy of Native Son by James Baldwin.
Archie waits up for Reggie and confronts him like he’s his dad. When Reggie admits to taking his car on the highway, Archie cuts him off from hot rod access. They were so chummy chummy before this. Even Uncle Frank is surprised by Archie’s overreaction.
Betty and Veronica compare notes on their respective dates. Betty proposes switching partners, but Veronica counters with a double date at the Centerville concert Fangs was telling Midge about.
Tabitha researched June and Brad Raybury. They married in New York, then moved to South Carolina, where their interracial marriage was met with bigotry. Mr. Raybury’s plan was to move north ahead of June, save enough money to move June’s family north and then the couple would move to Paris.
Clay leads the discussion in Native Son. At Cheryl’s’ turn, she calls it the most powerful novel she’s ever read. She says the Daltons remind her of her own family in some unpleasant ways. A member of Black Athena asks her if Native Son is the first novel she read by a black author. It is. Clay offers her a list of novel written by black authors. Everyone is much more welcoming than Toni thought they would be.
Jughead goes to Sheriff Keller with his thoughts on Raybury and suicide. Keller counters, calling Raybury a dope fiend, a draft dodger, a communist and a mental patient. It all comes as a shock to Jughead.
Cheryl and Toni plan on being at the Centerville concert too.
June meets with Tabitha and Jughead. In his final letter to her, he wrote to her about wanting to finally have his novel published. He sounds upbeat and hopeful. Jughead asks her about what Keller told him. She confirms it all. She adds that he’s a WWII veteran, developed an opium addiction due to his war injuries, and checked himself into St. Vincent’s.
On their double date, Reggie and Archie talk cars more than they talk to their dates. An awkward moment happens when both Archie and Reggie reach for the keys. They bicker over who gets to drive to the concert.
Ms. Simpson plans to bury her husband and get his novel published. Jughead wants to do a tribute issue at Pep with the proceeds going to the Simpson family. June asks if the two of them are going steady, but they say awkwardly that they’re just classmates and friends.
The hot rod breaks down. Uh oh, they are out of gas. Veronica suggest the two men start walking to Pop’s for gas. They try hitching. Archie suggests Reggie ask Clifford Blossom for a car. Reggie is offended by the idea and doesn’t want to be labeled a charity casel. The two guys have it out on the shoulder of the road, pausing only to try hitching again. When that fails, it’s back to brawling on the shoulder.
Cheryl, Toni and Midge comes to Veronica and Betty’s aid. Afte the way they were ignoring the two of the them, Veronica is happy to ditch Reggie and Archie.
Tabitha plans to get on the road her parents again.
When they finally make it to Pop’s for gas, Pop offers Reggie an abandoned jalopy he has sitting in his garage. Reggie happily accepts it.
Reggie admits to Archie that he wasn’t joyriding the other night. He felt homesick in Riverdale and drove back to Dove Creek. Reggie says he was embarrassed to feel homesick. Archie says he’s felt homesick ever since his dad left for the Korean War. it’s interesting seeing Reggie and Archie connect in ways here they hadn’t over the past 7 seasons of Riverdale and 70+ years of publishing. But then they get to the car and where are the girls?
The next day, everyone fawns over Fangs in the hall, but he only has eyes for Midge. He’s happy she came to his gig. He calls her his lucky charm. A music producer gave him his card at the club.
In the Riverdale High shop, Reggie is already working on Pop’s jalopy. Reggie already named the car Bella. Of course he did. Archie offers to help, but Reggie already asked Betty. I can’t tell if Archie is jealous of Reggie or Betty here.
Jughead gets a knock at the door of Raybury’s apartment. It’s an old lady with a cat. Mrs.. Martin. She’s a neighbor down the hall. She offers her condolences and asks for milk for her kitty. She’s all out. When Jughead tells her there’s none, she’s surprised there’s no milk bottles, considering the milk man stopped by late the other night. Dun dun dun!
