The Gargoyle King Finally Returned On 'Riverdale' & He's Hell-Bent On Destroying Jughead

The Gargoyle King has kind of been left on the back-burner for the past few episodes of Riverdale as the show pivoted to dig into The Farm more, but the creepy branch-and-bone figure made its return on Wednesday night's new episode with a new mission. The very end of the new episode also reveals which surprising character is in big trouble. So, is Jellybean the Gargoyle King's next victim, and what exactly is the masked killer's master plan? Let's get into everything we learned about the Gargoyle King mystery this week.

Spoiler alert: This post contains plot details from Riverdale Season 3 Episode 18, "Jawbreaker." The third season of Riverdale is only four episodes away from ending, which means that we are finally about to learn the truth about the Gargoyle King. Technically, the Gargoyle King has already been unmasked twice this season, revealing both Tall Boy and Major Mason under the skull mask. But both men were pretty clearly confirmed to just be copycat killers — Tall Boy simply dressed as the Gargoyle King to bolster Hiram Lodge's drug empire, and Major used the Gargoyle King get-up to try to scare his son Moose straight. The actual Gargoyle King is still a mystery, but the latest episode may have revealed his master plan.

The new episode reveals that Jughead's little sister Jellybean has been playing Gryphons and Gargoyles with Joaquin's little brother Ricky (Riverdale: The Next Generation) while the rest of the Jones family is distracted by the tacit drug dealing war in the house. We already know Ricky is bad news after he stabbed Archie to try to curry the Gargoyle King's favor, and he remains true to his devious ways at the end of the episode by leading Jellybean into the woods to come face-to-face (or, face-to-skull) with the Gargoyle King.

So, what does the Gargoyle King want with Jellybean, anyway? We actually get a clue about what the Gargoyle King is planning thanks to his most devoted follower, Kurtz. FP and Jughead manage to track down Kurtz and arrest him for selling tainted Fizzle Rocks, and he sheds some light on what has been going on in town when they question him.

Kurtz says that killing Baby Teeth was only a warm-up, and that the Gargoyle King is now in the middle of "one final game." Apparently, Jughead and his family are who the Gargoyle King is truly after, and he has taken Jellybean in order to draw them towards him.

This brings up some more questions about the Gargoyle King's motives. Has Jughead been his true target this whole time? That would actually make sense, given that Jughead is the main character who has become most obsessed with the Gargoyle King and gotten the deepest into Gryphons and Gargoyles. But why is the Gargoyle King after Jughead specifically? That's a question that we won't know the answer to until the Gargoyle King is unmasked, but it could help narrow down the suspects to people we know have a grudge against Jughead or the Jones family. Penny Peabody and the Ghoulies come to mind as the most obvious Jughead enemies, but there is still so much shrouded in mystery.

With only four episodes left in Season 3, fans can rest assured that we will get our Gargoyle King answers soon enough.