Chic/Season 3

### The Real Gargoyle King

Chic attends the gathering hosted at Thornhill's Nature Preserve for Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead. Penelope calls in the two remaining guest, the Black Hood and the Gargoyle King. The Black Hood rips off his hood, and as suspected, it’s Hal Cooper. Before the Gargoyle King takes off his mask, Penelope gives Jughead a chance to guess his identity. Whoever is under the mask must’ve had a connection to both Hal and Penelope, but it’s not Jason Blossom because he’s dead, even though his corpse is missing. The one corpse that hasn’t been accounted for, who was last seen by the Black Hood, is Chic. The Gargoyle King unmasks, and as Jughead suspected, Chic is the Gargoyle King, though he has dyed his hair red since their last encounter. Jughead surmises he did this only after he started working with Penelope, but this was also after he got the Gargoyle symbols tattooed on his back. This is why Ethel said the Gargoyle King was Jason. Because Penelope called and dressed Chic up like Jason. Hal explains to Betty that he didn’t kill Chic because he recognized a kinship in him and spared him. He begged for mercy and pledged his life to Hal in service of his mission. But it wasn’t just Hal’s mission. He started working with Penelope, who also has a grudge against Riverdale.

Betty recalls the affair her father had with Penelope in the middle of the Black Hood attacks last year. Penelope takes credits for cultivating Hal’s murderous impulses in order to take her revenge on a town that allowed her to be sold to the Blossoms as a child bride. Their parents knew, but they did nothing but mock her. And years later, when Jason was murdered, none of them even reached out to her. Riverdale is a cruel and hideous place by Penelope’s account. She and the Black Hood were on a mission to exterminate the town’s sinners, and they were doing well until Hal was arrested. But that’s when Chic came to Penelope in search of purpose. And so, with Chic, she decided to continue her work, but instead with the Gargoyle King. Penelope introduced G&G to their parents 25 years ago and reintroduced it this year to Chic, who gave it to Ben Button, who started playing with Dilton Doiley and Ethel Muggs. From there, the game spread like a virus. This whole time, the true mastermind behind it all, the true king, Jughead says, is Penelope. Now, it’s time for one final round, with them, the Midnight Children, as she refers to them. It’s to reveal their true nature. To prove they’re as dark-hearted as the town that birthed them. If they win, they escape. If they lose, they die.

Chic faces off with Jughead in the third quest. The battle of kings. They simultaneously run for the ax, planted in the tree stump, but Chic gains a hold of it first. He swings at Jughead several times, just narrowly missing. After Chic loses the ax, he and Jughead struggle for control of the fight. Chic manages to get on top of Jughead nearly strangling him to death. Fortunately, Jughead wins the fight by hitting Chic over the head with a nearby animal skull. Although victorious, they must keep moving as the poison is starting to take effect, more so on Veronica. He is later arrested after the gang beats the game and escapes Penelope and the Gargoyle Gang.