The third season of Riverdale is still just getting started, but it has already given fans a bunch of truly perplexing mysteries to mull over. Between a possibly magical cult, a skeleton-faced demon, and a speakeasy run by teenagers, the town of Riverdale is more full of question marks than ever, but the biggest mystery of them all revolves around a strange board game that keeps causing kids to die. Right now, we're all asking what is Gryphons and Gargoyles and how is this game connected to all the strange, supernatural occurrences this season. To try to clear things up, let's go over everything we know about this game.
Spoiler alert: This post will go into plot details from the first three episodes of Riverdale Season 3. We first learn about Gryphons and Gargoyles in the very first episode of Riverdale's new season. As Jughead noticed Dilton Doiley and the ever-mysterious Ben Button playing a board game at Pop's, he asked what it was, but Ben shot Dilton a disapproving look before he could explain. Later, Dilton told Jughead about Gryphons and Gargoyles, a role-playing game similar to Dungeons and Dragons, and also shared his fear that the game's primary villain, the Gargoyle King, was real and coming after him.
Later in the night, Jughead found both Dilton and Ben seemingly dead in the woods beneath a shrine to this Gargoyle King, with strange markings carved into their backs. It turns out, this was part of their Gryphons and Gargoyles game, which challenged the two boys to choose between two cups of blue juice, one of which was poisoned with cyanide. To make things even stranger, Ben actually survived the challenge but then excitedly chose to jump out of his hospital window afterwards, claiming that he was joining Dilton and the Gargoyle King.
So... how is Gryphons and Gargoyles causing teenagers in town to kill themselves? Thankfully, detective duo Betty and Jughead are on the case, and they got some more information about the game from Ethel Muggs. It turns out, Ethel played Gryphons and Gargoyles with Dilton and Ben throughout the summer in a bunker that Dilton had hidden away in the woods. To learn about the game, Jughead agreed to play it with Ethel, which led to two very familiar-looking chalices filled with blue liquid. Jughead actually got lucky and didn't down the cyanide, but Ethel quickly grabbed the poisoned cup afterwards, seemingly excited to die.
Jughead was able to stop Ethel in time and get her to the hospital, where she has a chilling chat with the Gargoyle King, saying that Jughead will help spread Gryphons and Gargoyles to the rest of Riverdale.
The other very important thing that we know about Gryphons and Gargoyles is that the town's parents have a connection to it. After Dilton was found dead with blue lips from his poisoned drink, Hermione Lodge called all of the parents together to warn them that the game was back. In Wednesday night's new episode, "The Midnight Club," the show will flash back to when the parents first discovered and began playing Gryphons and Gargoyles when they were in high school. So, get ready to learn a lot more about the game very soon.
