All the Signs that Tall Boy was the Gargoyle King All Along on "Riverdale"
Warning: Riverdale spoilers ahead.
Well, it finally happened. After tons of guesses (both good and bad), and a whole lot of sleuthing on the part of Bughead, the Gargoyle King was finally revealed on episode ten of Riverdale, "The Stranger" and the man behind the mask is.....drumroll please...
TALL BOY!
OK, you might be thinking, "wait, who?" Because honestly, so was I. And then, the next thing you may be thinking is, "wasn't he dead?" which also would be a really valid thought because yeah, I thought so too. For those who forgot, Tall Boy, formally known as Gerald Petite (seriously), is a former member of the Southside Serpents where he was once FP Jones' best friends. When FP was in prison during season one, Tall Boy stepped in as the interim leader of the Serpents, and that's when he inducted Jughead into the gang.
When you really think about it, the clues have been pointing to Tall Boy as the Gargoyle King for a while. Though we, of course, had no clue at the time, in hindsight, it's very easy to think, "wow, was it that obvious?" Don't worry, I was way off on my guesses too, but now that we know the man behind the wooden mask, here's every clue that was right in our face, pointing at Tall Boy as the head of the Gargoyle Gang.
He was in Hiram's corner.
Though Tall Boy started off as a good guy, he quickly turned evil when he started doing some very odd jobs for Hiram. Back in season 2, he decapitated the General Pickens statue and framed Jughead. His ulitmate goal was to get Jughead kicked out of the serpents, but he got caught and instead he was the one who was exiled.
Tall Boy later helped out Hiram again when he dressed up as the Black Hood and opened fire on Town Hall during the mayoral debate. Later, in the season two finale, Sheriff Minetta tells the Andrews that Tall Boy was the culprit, but when the police went to question him, he "engaged in a fire fight" and was killed.
We all thought he was dead.
When Sheriff Minetta told Archie and Fred that Tall Boy was dead, we just believed him, right? Well, why would we do such a thing? We didn't see Tall Boy die, and Sheriff Minetta has proven to be less than trustworthy. More likely, Hiram was just ten steps ahead the whole time and knew that "killing" Tall Boy meant no one would expect him to be the Gargoyle King. And boy was he right. I honestly completely forgot about him.
He knows how to lead a gang.
When looking for the perfect Gargoyle King, Hiram needed a leader, and who better to sit at the helm of his new Gargoyle Gang than a former leader of the Serpents? When we were looking to see who would take such a role, which should have known we didn't have to look much farther than to the other gang in town.
He targeted those close to Jughead.
It's no secret that Tall Boy didn't like Jughead. He initially thought Jug was making the Serpents "go soft," which is why he originally agreed to work with Hiram (to get rid of Jughead). S0, when the Gargoyle King started targeting the Jones' and their loved ones, we should have known it was someone who had it out for the father and son, and if getting from your gang isn't a reason to seek revenge, I don't know what is.
When Jughead and FP finally unmask Tall Boy, he is all too quick to rub in the fact that he attacked the Cooper home. "Alice Cooper, she was looking extra sweet the night me and my boys broke into her house and scared the crap out of her and her b*tch daughter," he said. "That was fun" Yeah, that one pissed off the Jones boys.
Of course, now Tall Boy really is dead (we think), so will someone else take over as the man in charge of the Gargoyle Gang. We will have to wait and see, but the chances are pretty high.
Carolyn Twersky is the Editorial Fellow at Seventeen.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram!
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