Riverdale episode 12 shocker: Who killed Jason Blossom — and himself?
Warning: There are obviously some big spoilers coming up from tonight’s episode.
By the end of the episode, we learned that it was none other than Clifford Blossom who killed his own son Jason. That is terrifying, but that may also have been the intent given that this is such a dark show. The reality here was that Jason found out the truth about what his father was up to in the drug game, and was killed as a result of that. Meanwhile, F.P. only made a confession because of threats levied against Jughead. Consider this another bit of evidence here that in Riverdale, the parents are far more layered (and in many ways terrible) than you could have ever guessed.
In speaking about this story decision, and the process of landing on Clifford, executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa said the following to Entertainment Weekly:
“When I went in to pitch the season to Warner Bros. and CW, Greg [Berlanti] was like, ‘Roberto, you can’t go into that room without knowing who killed Jason Blossom or they’re going to lose their minds’ … So when I went in, I had three likely suspects — F.P., Hiram Lodge and Clifford Blossom. Then, as the season progressed, Hal Cooper started becoming a possible suspect, but then in the end, if the idea of the show is that it’s a subversive, darker take on these sunny, wholesome characters, we started thinking, ‘What would be the darkest thing that could happen, the most taboo, most transgressive thing that could happen? That would be that a parent would shoot or kill a child.’ Probably halfway through the season, we narrowed our top three down to one, which was Clifford.”
Clifford killed himself, and with that, the central mystery of the season seems to be over … or is it? That’s the thing now entering the finale. Odds are, there will be some surprising loose ends, and the show will likely do an effective job setting up a potential season 2. (For the record, you can head over here to get some more information on the finale.)
What do you think about the Jason Blossom mystery now that we know the answer? Sound off in the attached comments. (Photo: The CW.)
Joe E Dangerously
May 5, 2017 @ 3:42 am
Yeah, if you think about it this was the only thing that really made sense. Of course I suspected it like we all did but I wasn’t 100% until very recently. It was when we found out Cliff ratted out Hiram Lodge. He had to be taking out his competition and the maple syrup had to be a cover. Who else would have the cash to hire the Serpents and a reason to take Hiram Lodge off the board? Since we found out half of it the other half fell into place for me. I didn’t want to commit but it was the one thing that fit all of it. Now we need to know exactly what Jason knew, when he knew it, and why Cliff didn’t think he could shut the kid up. I was hoping they wouldn’t do a “Jughead killed Jason” twist because I think that would have been a mistake so I’m happy they went with the character who made sense. Good job, Riverdale. I’ve only had a passing interest in Archie for a few years now but now I’m reading the comics and enjoying them. I kind of hate myself for loving this show like I do but hey, we all have guilty pleasures.