At the end of Episode 11, FP Jones -- Jughead's father and leader of the Southside Serpents -- was arrested and charged with the murder of Jason Blossom. The police had searched his home and found a lock box with the murder weapon inside. Archie and Veronica know that FP is innocent because they had performed their own thorough search of the trailer home just hours before the police search. The weapon was planted in FP's home, which means that Jason Blossom's murderer is still on the loose in Riverdale!
I want to post my "Riverdale" suspect theories today in this blog. I might be wrong. I might be correct. I might be partially correct. But I have some theories!
First, let's share what we know about Jason Blossom. He's the son and heir of the Blossom Syrup Empire. He comes from a long line of red headed rich people with probable personality disorders. He has a twin sister named Cheryl. He was a star athlete. He was the captain of the football team and he was also on the water polo team. His tenure with the football team was ultimately marred by a notebook where team members slept with girls and then publicly slut-shamed them.
Last spring, he started a romance with Polly Cooper. This relationship was ultimately doomed due to a multi-generational feud between the Blossoms and the Coopers. Polly eventually learned that she was pregnant with Jason's twins and the two teens planned on escaping from Riverdale and eloping.
On July 4th, Cheryl and Jason got on a rowboat and traveled towards Greendale. The boat supposedly capsized and Jason was supposedly drowned. Cheryl later admitted that she was helping with his runaway plans, but denied knowing any other details about his escape. We later learned that he was shot in the head a week later and dumped in the lake. His body was later discovered.
We know that Jason had a ton of drugs hidden away in his escape vehicle and he was known to be a drug-dealer during his last months of life. Somebody stole the drugs and destroyed the car before the police were able to fully investigate.
So here are my suspects...
1. Cheryl Blossom: Cheryl Blossom is the easy suspect. She is the last known person to see Jason alive. She was the one who rowed away with him when he abandoned the family empire. She was the one who knew of his plan to runaway for parts unknown. She is the one who told the world that he was dead, but in a way that cast her as the grieving sister.
The police know that Cheryl helped him leave Riverdale, but who is to say that she was telling the whole truth?
Cheryl was devoted to her brother. Veronica never met Jason, but still managed to picked up on the twincesty vibes between this pair during the party scene in Episode 10. What if Cheryl and Jason had indeed been sexually and romantically involved? What if he broke things off with his sister because of his love for Polly Cooper? What if she grew to hate him because of this and either stashed him away for a week -- possibly in a last ditch effort to save their relationship -- or tracked him down after his absence? After all, we only have her word that she didn't know where he was going! Lastly, she wore a white outfit to his funeral. Shades of a wedding dress, possibly? And she stole Nana Blossom's heirloom ring -- the one that Jason intended to use as his wedding ring.
Cheryl Blossom might very well be the easy suspect, but there's a reason for that.
2. Hal Cooper: Back when Riverdale was younger, the Blossoms and the Coopers built a financial empire with maple syrup. Not content to split the financial rewards, Great-Grandpa Blossom killed Great-Grandpa Cooper! Nearly 80 years later, Hal Cooper and Cliff Blossom are still fighting that family feud!
Now imagine that he just learned that his oldest daughter is romancing the son of his biggest enemy -- the very family that denied him access to generational wealth and power. And then imagine that he just found out that she's pregnant and planning to run away with Jason! It's worth noting that Hal Cooper was not in the home when Polly was confronted and whisked away by the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. Maybe he was chasing after Jason...
And don't forget, somebody broke into Sheriff Keller's home and stole all of the evidence, pictures, and video interviews. We later found out that Hal Cooper was the thief. Why did he do that? Maybe he was trying to dig up information for the newspaper, but that's a huge risk for an ongoing murder investigation. Maybe he was trying to protect Alice or Polly Cooper, who were both presumably viewed as official suspects. I think that he was covering his tracks.
Lastly, we know that Hal and Alice Cooper have secrets of their own. Part of the sting with Polly's pregnancy is the insinuation that Alice was a teen mom, too. It's been implied that they gave up their first child for adoption, or had an abortion. In Episode 11, it was clear that FP knows their secret and threatened to dangle it for public display if Alice didn't leave him alone.
What if Hal Cooper -- being Jason Blossom's killer and possessor of the murder weapon -- planted the gun in FP's home and then called the police. FP is a rogue. The police are more than willing to lock him away forever. Easy way to deflect suspicion, right?
3. Hermione Lodge and/or Smithers: Hermione Lodge is the dark horse candidate. I mean, she was in New York when Jason disappeared. Right? But the Lodge family is the family that seems to benefit the most from Jason Blossom's murder.
We now know that the Blossom family was making sizable payments to the Lodge family for decades. We don't know why. Maybe it had to do with Great-Grandpa Cooper's murder? Who knows? But Clifford Blossom wanted the payments to stop and Hiram Lodge didn't care. So Cliff set something in motion that ultimately led to Hiram Lodge's arrest on embezzlement and to the leveling of the Lodges' large fortune and influence.
Here is my theory. Hiram Lodge's arrest took place on July 4th. Jason Blossom had just taken off and was unprotected by his family. Plus everyone was dragging the lake in their search for him. They weren't looking in Greendale or wherever Jason actually was. What if Smithers, at the behest of the Lodge family, swooped up Jason and stashed him away. He was eventually killed and his body was dumped in the lake. I'm pretty certain that Hermione would be the one to kill Jason and that Smithers would be the one to clean things up afterwards. That's how I see it in my mind's eye.
We already know that Smithers is aware of the Lodges' shadier elements. He procured money from previously unknown areas when Hermione most needed it. He's helped guide Veronica towards decisions that most benefit her father's agenda. And I'm pretty sure that he continues to feed Hiram information about his family and fallen empire from afar. I think that Smithers would do whatever the Lodge family needs him to do to protect them and their reputation. Including kidnapping and murder!
I think that the Lodges killed Jason off in order to weaken the Blossom family and their legacy. They needed the Twilight Drive-In property in order to rebuild their empire. The Blossoms also wanted that property, so this just sweetened the deal for Herimone.
We know that the Lodges have connections to the Southside Serpents. Where did Jason get all of those drugs? I'm guessing that he stole them from the Serpents. It would be in the Lodges' best interest for the Serpents to reacquire their missing drugs and then to destroy Jason's car along with any evidence of their involvement with those drugs.
As time progressed, the Serpents were becoming increasingly troublesome for Hermione. Why wouldn't she want to plant evidence on their leader, FP Jones, in order to get him out of the way and to weaken the gang?
It's a difficult, convoluted murder plan. Then again, this is the Lodge family.
What do you think? Who killed Jason Blossom? Shared your thoughts in the comments section below!