Miss Grundy Is Back In The 'Riverdale' Season 2 Premiere: Here's A Refresher On Her
Riverdale has changed all of its characters pretty drastically from the original Archie comics, but none more so than Geraldine Grundy. What was once an elderly, cantankerous teacher in print became a younger, scandalous music teacher on the CW adaptation, and also the show's most controversial character. It seemed like Miss Grundy had left the story altogether in Season 1, but Wednesday's Season 2 premiere of Riverdale brought the disgraced music teacher back for a shocking scene at the end of the episode. To get the full scope of what just went down on that premiere, here's your refresher on Miss Grundy's past in Riverdale.
Although the first season of Riverdale attracted a horde of devoted fans to the show, the early storyline involving Miss Grundy (played by Sarah Habel) became a huge point of contention among viewers. As the new music teacher at Riverdale High School, we quickly learn that Grundy had actually entered into a sexual relationship with her student Archie Andrews over the summer. Miss Grundy is 35 years old, and Archie is only around 15, from what we can gather. The inappropriate relationship, which is actually legally defined as statutory rape, was widely criticized by viewers, most of whom took extreme issue with how the series portrayed it as a sexy, forbidden love affair rather than legally nonconsensual sex.
The show used the illicit relationship to drive forward the main Season 1 plot of solving Jason Blossom's mysterious murder. During one of their summer gettogethers at Sweetwater River, Archie and Miss Grundy both heard a gunshot at the time of Jason's death. Once they realize what they heard after the murder investigation is under way, Archie wants to come forward with what they heard in order to help find the killer, but Miss Grundy urges him to keep quiet or the town would learn about their illicit affair. All the while, Miss Grundy is also teaching Archie music in private lessons at the high school.
In the end, we find out that Miss Grundy actually isn't Miss Grundy at all, but a woman named Jennifer Gibson. Betty Cooper uncovered the truth about Grundy/Gibson in her investigation, discovering that Geraldine Grundy was actually an elderly woman who died a few months before Gibson showed up in town and assumed her identity. Gibson comes clean to Archie, revealing that she was actually in town under a new identity to hide from her abusive ex-husband, who used to get drunk and beat her so badly she would end up in the hospital.
The emotional backstory earns sympathy from Archie and Betty, but when Betty's mom Alice Cooper discovers what's going on, she threatens to turn Gibson over to the police as a child predator. Betty is able to temper her mother's threats, and the group decides the best course of action is for Gibson to leave town, which she does.
And that leads us to what went down in the Season 2 premiere! Spoiler alert: Don't read on until you've watched the first episode of Riverdale Season 2. At the very end of the episode, we see not only the return of Jennifer Gibson/Miss Grundy, but also the black-hooded killer that shot Fred Andrews. Apparently, he's not done trying to kill the people that Archie loves. In a quick scene, we see the hooded killer strangle Miss Grundy with the cell bow that Archie gave to her as a farewell gift.
It was definitely a surprise to see Miss Grundy again, but after that terrifying final scene, it looks like the controversial character is gone for good from now on. But now we're only left with more questions: Who is this killer, and why does he seem to be targeting the people closest to Archie?
