Riverdale - Beneath The Town (English Version)

Apprendix

Scarlett's article in the Blue And Gold (Chapter 13):

Serpent Scapegoat: The Case of F.P. Jones or: How a Town turned into Salem

When something terrible happens, we find it hard to believe. Somehow it doesn't feel real; like something repulsive that will be forgotten. But although it doesn't feel real to most of us, the terrible thing that happened has very real consequences. Only those closest to us suffer from these consequences. And one of those people is what this is all about: F.P. Jones.

The mistake that was perhaps F.P. Jones' greatest fate is that he is a member of the Serpents. The question everyone in Riverdale should be asking is: Would all this have happened the same way if F.P. Jones had not been a Serpent? The answer to that is sobering because it is undoubtedly no. Nobody wanted to believe that Clifford Blossom had shot his own son. It's unimaginable. Nobody wanted to believe in F.P. Jones' innocence, coerced into a false confession. No one ever questioned all that. The reason is that everything fit together really well: F.P. Jones was at the crime scene, they found Jason's murder weapon with his fingerprints on it and he gave a confession. But what exactly would have been the motive for Jason Blossom's murder? A question that, it seems, no one asked, since everything seemed to fit together so well. And it was all so clear, because after all, Mr. Jones is a Serpent and therefore one of the few people in Riverdale capable of committing crimes; there can be no other explanation. And yet a small group of students found out the impossible: that it was not F.P. Jones, by nature a convicted Serpents - member, but Clifford Blossom, by nature a privileged and highly respected fellow citizen, who committed the murder. This fact seems to shake the world view of many citizens in Riverdale. And therein lies the real tragedy. We have to start looking behind the facade and questioning the things that are happening around us.

Jason Blossom's death has uncovered many secrets in Riverdale; those secrets most had hoped would forever lie dormant beneath the town and poison the soil further. But this was accepted in exchange for keeping the surface spotless. But even the most beautiful surface is of no use if there is a lie behind it.

Of course, the Serpents are no saints; but who of us is? Who can claim to have a clean slate? Well, not even Jason Blossom could. He started dealing drugs before he died, and no one expected a boy from the highly respected Blossom family to come into contact with drugs. Just as no one believed that his father, Clifford Blossom, had created a drug empire; disguised by the maple syrup trade.

And the next time you look for a scapegoat, remember that it's not just the Serpents who have skeletons in the closet; there seem to be more of us than we've assumed or wanted to believe so far. If the next crime is to be committed - and I hope it won't come to that, of course, but I'm realistic enough to see that possibility - then we should look and investigate in all directions, not just the one direction Southside.

Because even if the truth seems so horrible that you don't want to see it, it has the quality that sooner or later it will be discovered. And if there is one thing I have learned about the truth, it is that in this case sooner is always better.