WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Riverdale season three episode 11, The Red Dahlia.
Hiram Lodge (played by Mark Consuelos) was the topic of interest in Riverdale episode 11, titled The Red Dahlia, after he was found shot last week.
It quickly became a question of who shot the father of Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) and why they gunned down the businessman.
Hoping to get to the bottom of it all was Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse), who under the orders of Veronica was tasked with finding Hiram assassin.
His first point of contact was Hermione Lodge (Marisol Nichols), who vehemently denied harming her husband and pointed the finger at his mistress Mrs Mulwray (Kelly Ripa).
Speaking the Serpent King to Mrs Mulwray, the Mayor of Riverdale sneered: “You do know how volatile blondes can be.”
Not long after their conversation Jughead and his girlfriend Betty Cooper’s (Lili Reinhart) tracked down Hiram’s mistress at the Five Seasons.
However, when they got there they found The Maple Club, a brothel specialising in female domination, which is run by Penelope Blossom (Nathalie Boltt).
While there Betty confronted Penelope about Claudius Blossom’s (Barclay Hope) death and after much deniable she admitted to killing him.
It turns out Claudius was running a Fizzle Rocks operation at The Maple factory and dumped the run-off into Sweetwater River.
The run-off is what caused seizures in young women and after Penelope told Betty she knew she handed Chic over to the Black Hood, they somewhat agreed to keep each others’ secrets.
Eventually, Jughead learned Hiram’s mistress had been working as a health and sanitation inspector and falsified a report about Riverdale’s water supply.
Later, when Sweet Pea took Jughead to a cabin up north where Hermione was having an affair with Sheriff Minetta, who was believed to be dead, he found out about her twisted plan.
Hermione wanted Minetta to finish Hiram off and frame it on newly appointed sheriff FP Jones (Skeet Ulrich).
But when Jughead warned his dad about Hermione’s scheme, he confessed to being the one who shot Hiram at her request.
Of course, Hermione later denied any wrong-doing and eventually killed Sheriff Minetta, leaving fans fearing she will come for Jughead next.
Taking to Twitter, one viewer wrote: “If Jughead dies because of Veronica I will hate her more than I already hate her.”
Another person said: “Theory: That woman wasn’t Hiram’s mistress, she was just the water inspector and that’s all. Hermione wanted to confuse Jughead.”
A third commentator tweeted: “Okay hear me out, what is Hermione does something to hurt Betty to push Jughead to madness because he would be expecting an attack himself rather than his love. I hope not, but it’s Riverdale.”
Someone else shared: “FP admitted to Jughead he’s the one who shot Hiram Lodge this is crazy.”
Riverdale continues next Wednesday on The CW in the US and today on Netflix in the UK.
