Every mobster has an origin story and on Wednesday night’s Riverdale, Hiram Lodge finally got this.
The episode kicks off with Hiram running Riverdale and he gets a phone call and learns “someone” has been found. He tells the person on the other end that he’ll take care of it personally. Reggie comes in and hands the kingpin a briefcase with cash, paying off his dad’s debt, but he wants to keep working for Hiram. For his final task, Reggie is asked to get a gun for Hiram that cannot be traced.
Hiram then launches into a story about how he got to where he is today. We flashback to New York City, 1988, when Hiram was still known as “Jaime Luna” (played by Mark Consuelos’ son, Michael) and his dad Javier (played by Mark Consuelos with a mustache) were shoe shiners. A customer pays Javier with a chunk of palladium and tells him there’s of the valuable metal in a small town called Riverdale.
Javier moves the family there and Jaime is noticed by a mobster named Vito outside of Pop’s and offers him a job. Despite Javier’s objection, Jaime takes the job because Hermione won’t date him because he’s broke. He eventually gains confidence and goes on a date with Hermione. He tells her he wants to change his name to “Hiram Lot” but she wisely tweaks it to “Hiram Lodge” and a mobster was born.
His father is clearly upset and goes to visit Vito, telling him Hiram will not work for him anymore, and threatens to turn Vito in to the police. This causes Vito to send his goons out to murder Javier. Vito shows up at Javier’s funeral but Hiram just wants revenge.
Hiram kills Vito’s henchmen and takes over the crime scene at Riverdale, marries Hermione, and moved to New York City to raise their newborn daughter, Veronica. And the rest is history.
Back in the present, Hiram tells Reggie he returned to Riverdale to finish what his father started: find the palladium that eluded his father all his life.
“I will finish what my father began,” Hiram says.
Hiram urges Reggie to go back to his father and give him one final chance. Meanwhile, Hiram takes that gun Reggie got him to a nursing home to visit Vito on his deathbed. Hiram kills him, finally getting his revenge for killing his father all those years ago.
As the episode ends, Hiram is watching Veronica and Hermione on reality TV and vows to get them back.
Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
