Just when we thought we untangled the jingle from the jangle, Riverdale introduced us to a new street drug that’s even more addictive than the stuff they sell at Trader Joe’s.
Sorry, jingle jangle, but it's fizzle rocks that are all the rage this season on Riverdale. Nope, fizzler rocks aren't off-brand pop rocks, but a drug so powerful, it can conjure up hallucinations of the mysterious Gargoyle King.
Here's how fizzle rocks popped onto the scene.
On Wednesday’s "Chapter 42: The Man In Black," Jughead (Cole Sprouse) discovers the real purpose of the prison that Hiram (Mark Consuelos) is building on the Southside: The prison is actually a front for a fizzle rocks factory.
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After Jughead learns that Hiram is the mastermind behind the fizzle rocks trade, the drugs are revealed to have an even more sinister purpose.
Betty (Lili Reinhart) is sent to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy in order for her mother to ensure she is “safe” from all that Gargoyle King drama. Instead, Betty quickly finds herself in the belly of the beast — she’s rooming with Ethel (Shannon Purser) who believes she has met and conversed with the Gargoyle King himself. In fact, all the girls at the Sisters of Quiet Mercy seem obsessed with the Gargoyle King, and with playing Gryphons & Gargoyles. But why?
The answer, it seems, is none other than fizzle rocks. The Sisters hand out the candy (aka, the drug) every day as a “treat,” which everyone but Betty happily downs. Soon Betty discovers that fizzle rocks cause hallucinations and that Hiram and seemingly Claudius Blossom (Barclay Hope) are using the girls of the Sisters of Quiet Mercy as a sort of testing ground for their product.
It’s pretty messed up.
When the Sisters realize that Betty has not actually downed her fizzle rocks, they force her to do so. In the final moments of the episode, a nearly catatonic Betty finally does “see” (or rather, hallucinates) the Gargoyle King, just as Ethel claims to.
All of this suggests that fizzle rocks and the Gargoyle King are deeply intertwined, which is something that Riverdale has teased ever since the “Midnight Club” episode, in which the Riverdale teens portrayed their parents back in the ‘90s. A young Hiram Lodge (played by Consuelos’ son Michael) offers the gang fizzle rocks, which then causes them to hallucinate (and generally go bananas) during a game of G&G.
Theoretically, it’s possible that Hiram has orchestrated all of this G&G stuff in order to boost sales of fizzle rocks. If fizzle rocks are the only way that players can “see” the Gargoyle King, it would make sense for Hiram to encourage the game playing amongst the Riverdale crew. But, that doesn’t totally explain why the teens are so hooked on the game from the get-go — unless it really is just that fun?
Fizzle rocks may be the new "jingle jangle," but we're way more worried about this drug of choice. Just say no, Riverdale youths!