Riverdale: 20 most shocking moments during the first three seasons

Riverdale — “Chapter Thirty-Seven: Fortune and Men’s Eyes” — Image Number: RVD302a_0190.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Lili Reinhart as Betty and Cole Sprouse as Jughead — Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW — © 2018 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

17. Ben “Ascends” To The Kingdom

Episode: “Chapter Thirty-Seven: Fortune and Men’s Eyes” (Season 3, Episode 2)

Ben Button may have only had a minor recurring role on Riverdale but almost every time he was called upon, something bad happened.

His first significant appearance was in the Season 2 premiere when it was revealed that he was Miss Grundy’s latest young lover as he left her house moments before she was murdered by the Black Hood. The next time we saw him, he apparently conducted a rather suspicious “job interview” for Chic in his bedroom that undoubtedly raised a few eyebrows. However, following a brief crossover with The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, the character’s next appearance would be his final one.

After getting incredibly cagey about the game he was playing with Dilton Doily, the pair of them were later discovered unconscious by Jughead at some kind of satanic ritual where they were apparently worshipping a demonic entity known as the Gargoyle King. Though Dilton had died from the poison he drank, Ben was saved and taken to hospital – where his mother revealed that he had changed over that summer, becoming obsessed with the game Gryphons & Gargoyles.

As Betty and Jughead went to check on him one more time before heading home, they found him sitting on the outside of the window. Shocked, they pleaded with him to come back in, even using the game’s bizarre lingo in an attempt to get through to him. But it fell on deaf ears, for Ben just smiled calmly and softly reassured them that he was merely going to ascend, completely at peace with what he was about to do. With that, he relaxed and rolled off the windowsill, as a helpless Betty and Jughead could only look on in horror.

In that moment, Riverdale had entered darker territory than ever before. Though the town always had an eerie aesthetic to it, it favored gritty and grounded stories over anything supernatural. But this was the moment where we truly began to believe that darker unearthly forces may actually exist – and what an unnervingly violent way to introduce them.