“Riverdale” Midseason Finale Recap: Hiram’s Plan Causes Chaos

Riverdale‘s midseason finale had it all, from prison breakouts to weird family reunions and even a missing person. It’s safe to say there’s A LOT that will leave every fan of the show wondering “what the hell?” until the show returns later this year.
In case you missed it, here’s a recap of what went down episode 5×10, titled “The Pincushion Man”.
Hiram’s scheme gets dark
The episode kicks off with Hiram explaining his latest idea to take over the town to Reggie. He’s discovered a metal called palladium and there’s a ton of it under the Blossom family maple groves. Hiram approaches Nana Rose about selling the groves, but Cheryl steps in to stop the sale. An annoyed Hiram goes to Plan B: set all the prisoners free while Reggie sets the groves on fire.
This leads to Archie and Kevin fighting the prisoners at Riverdale High like a red-headed version of Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible movies. In typical Archie fashion, he saves the day and the parents are saved.
Awkward family reunion
As a result of Hiram’s prison break, Betty’s family got a few unwanted guests. Charles and Chic (who I forgot existed) show up for one hell of an uncomfortable family dinner where Charles says he wants to marry Chic. The weirder part is that they want Alice to be the one to marry them. Uh…cool.
Betty’s FBI boyfriend Glen (who I also forgot about!) shows up at Betty’s and Charles pulls a gun on him. This is where we see just how twisted Charles is as he comes up with the sick game of Pincushion Man. The youngest in the family gets to stick a “pin” or knife in Glen. Charles gives Juniper a massive butcher knife but Betty takes her place, stabbing Glen in the stomach. However, she also stabbed Chic while Alice and Charles scuffle for the gun. You hear a BANG and Charles is hit. Glen only suffered a flesh wound and Charles is now in the ICU.
So a fun night at the Cooper house!
Episode Notes
- Elsewhere in the episode, Veronica tried to get Chad to sign divorce papers but discovers he’s been using her jewelry store as a cover for some shady investments. So now she’s forced to stay married to him.
- Archie finds out his Army sergeant may have sent him on a “dirty mission” and when confronted, the sergeant threatened to set him up as a scapegoat. Archie is going through it this season, guys.
- Tabitha went looking for Jughead after finding out he took some uh… “maple mushrooms” for inspiration to write. But instead, she found him missing and a trail of blood.
What did you think of the episode? Let me know in the comments below!
Riverdale returns to The CW on July 7.