SPOILER just died in the Cliffhanger "No Exit"?

During our last visit Riverdale, the fans found themselves with a distinct feeling of unease. While Betty had finally taken over the Sisters of Quiet Mercy, thanks to the machinations of Hiram Lodge, all Riverdale was quarantined – no one inside, no one on the outside. Tonight, however, this discomfort has given way to a distinct sense of horror, especially in the final moments of the episode.

Spoilers for tonight's first mid-season Riverdale, "No Exit", below.

The episode tonight begins five weeks after the menacing quarantine, but if everything is supposed to be "clear" in Riverdale, things are certainly not quite right. Cheryl and Toni led a not-so-secret life as burglars. Veronica is at odds with her father who uses violence to threaten his business, Betty is stuck with all the children of the convent and Archie is in Canada. None of these things are particularly surprising – after all, it's the same for the course with Riverdale this season – but it's the way everything has come together in the last few minutes that leaves us more questions than usual.

It's sort of a two-part breakdown. First, one of Betty's goals is to have the sisters testify against Hiram Lodge and, after discovering they had no religious affiliation for a very long time, finally put them in a position to do so. . Except that someone pays their deposit and they disappear. A scrawled sentence on the wall of their cell tells Betty that they went to the convent, specifically to the lair of the Gargoyle King. Of course, that's where she finds them. All the nuns are lying on the ground, the body rented by the king of the Gargoyle, the blue lips. And as for the Gargoyle King? The statue Betty decapitated is strangely intact, to its horror.

If that does not frighten you, it's the most amazing track that can do the business. At the beginning of the episode, Archie is mutilated by a bear. Severely injured, he retired to his cabin and tried to heal his wounds before fainting on the bed. He ends up "dreaming" that he must play against the Gryphons and Gargoyles, first with Cbadady Bullock, very dead, and the other boys from Shadow Lake. While he plays, he receives a quest card telling him to face a masked figure, which he does by going to Pop's and beating the Black Hood. When he gets back into the cabin, he has to play with goalkeeper Norton. After getting another quest card, he first asks him to kill the King Gargoyle, then he moves to kill the man in black. Archie only does this to return to the cabin where he has to play with Betty, Veronica and Jughead, all dressed as they were in the series pilot.

Archie does not want to play, but they tell him that it's the only thing for him to free himself from his sins and return to Riverdale. This brings Archie to go to his own bedroom to find his own sleep where, despite the fact that Fred tries to convince him otherwise, Archie gets himself a baseball bat before he sees that he there is nothing. In the real world, however, the help finally arrives in Archie's cabin where he is bleeding and does not react in his bed – seemingly dead.

So what does all this mean? Although anything is possible, it is highly unlikely that Archie is really dead despite what it sounds like. Archie is, after all, a key figure in the series, so it makes no sense to die. Also? We know somehow that this is not the end of the line for the boy next door Riverdale. The official synopsis of the next Riverdale episode of Jan. 30 mentions that "a spirited Archie embarks on a new path".

That said, it seems that Archie's hallucinations have had a real impact. After all, he said that he had to kill himself – the "weak", "bad" and "stupid" part – to be stronger and to be able to safely badume that Archie was going to to be radically different in the future. As for the convent affair, it only confirms what viewers have already guessed: the situation with the Gargoyle King is far from over, the mysterious figure more difficult to overcome than all the enemies she has faced before.

Riverdale Wednesdays at 8 pm ET on the CW.

What did you think of the episode tonight? Let us know in the comments below!