The List Of Suspects Narrows On 'Riverdale'

The plot is thickening in, like, a million different ways on Riverdale. Case in point: a new and intriguing suspect in Jason Blossom's murder emerges in the April 27 episode. Not that I don't love a good mystery, but it's about darn time we started to really narrow things down. The prime suspect for Jason's killer is Jughead's dad, F.P., as it stands right now. A local tough with a healthy helping of deadbeat dad on the side, there's plenty of reasons why the Riverdale gang might suspect F.P. of foul play. With the evidence stacking up against him, it's tough to believe a man who tells his son he magically cleaned-up his act overnight is innocent.

Ever since Veronica found out that her jailbird dad, Hiram, hired F.P. to trash the drive-in, she's been worried there might have been extra measures taken to really hurt the Blossom family's business interests. She collaborates with Alice Cooper (whose own dark past has been hinted at) and Archie, who wants to investigate F.P. in a bid to keep Jughead from making the mistake of moving back in with him before he's ready.

Alice devises a plan to get F.P. and Jughead to come over for dinner ("So the families can get to know each other.") while Veronica and Archie break into F.P. trailer. As Alice reenacts the Spanish Inquisition at Casa Cooper, Ronnie and Archiekins casually break in (key was under the mat, duh), snoop around and come up... empty-handed. Something's up.

It's actually very strange that Veronica and Archie's illegal search yields nothing. Then again, Archie chooses to believe finding nothing is a good sign; I posit this is very worrisome. First off, we know that F.P.'s trailer was as messy as all get-out the last time we saw him. I find it very odd that, seemingly out of the blue, F.P. quite literally cleans house. We also know that Jason's letterman's jacket was hanging in F.P.'s closet in the living room. Why didn't Archie find that jacket?

The final, very plausible nail in the coffin is F.P.'s sudden interest in getting out of Riverdale. After the disastrous dinner at the Cooper's, F.P. drops Betty and Jughead off at the homecoming dance at Riverdale High. Jughead hangs back to chat to F.P., who then proceeds to drop the bombshell that he thinks the Jones family needs to reunite and move somewhere far away, like, Ohio. Why are you trying to skip town so soon, F.P.? Two weeks ago, you were beating up high schoolers. This doesn't feel like the F.P. we know.

Jughead and F.P. may not get to fly the coop, however sudden the latter is yearning to break free. After the cops find a gun in a toolbox in F.P.'s closet, he's arrested. Things aren't looking good for F.P. right now. Honestly, as much as the Riverdale gang thinks he's innocent, I'm currently having a tough time thinking F.P.'s hands are completely clean of this mess.