Betty and Jughead learn of the "home for troubled youth" after Betty discovers her parents have been making payments to the home because they sent Polly, Betty's sister, there.
Since that first appearance, more details and facts about the group home have been revealed, and more characters have been sent to stay at the Sisters of Quiet Mercy.
Alice sends Betty to the home to try and protect her from the Gargoyle King on season three, but the home is not the safest place.
ADVERTISEMENT
Here's what we know about the group home.
The group home has a dark past.
On season two, Kevin Keller tells Veronica Lodge and Toni Topaz that the Sisters used to be a distillery during Prohibition. They would smuggle alcohol through underground tunnels. He says the tunnels now are used by kids looking for hookups.
The group home still continues to use corporal, or physical, punishments on the youths. During season two, Betty threatens to expose the Sisters for the "house of horrors that it really is" when she goes to the home looking for information on Mr. Svenson.
ADVERTISEMENT
Svenson, known as Joseph Conway when he was left as an orphan at the home, later worked as a groundskeeper for them and then became a janitor at Riverdale High. He was thought to be the Black Hood , but it was revealed that he was just used by the real Black Hood, Hal Cooper, as a red herring.
The home is also one of the places that still does secret conversion therapy.
Polly is sent to the home to have her baby.
ADVERTISEMENT
On season one, Polly's parents, Hal and Alice, send her to the home because she is pregnant with Jason Blossom's baby. Because she is cut off from her family and friends, Polly is unaware of Jason's death until Betty goes to visit her.
The sisters at the home call Alice to alert her of Polly's visitor and Alice arrives for Betty and Jughead. Polly confronts Alice in the hallway about lying and is dragged away by two men as Alice and Betty tearfully watch. Polly breaks a window and escapes from the Sisters before hiding in her family home.
Alice later reveals to Betty that she went to the Sisters when she was pregnant in high school because both she and Hal disagreed about what to do. Alice says she gave birth to Betty's brother, Charles, there, and he was put up for adoption.
On season two, Betty learns that Charles was never actually adopted and was kicked out of the home after turning 18.
Cheryl Blossom is forced into the home by her mother, Penelope.
ADVERTISEMENT
During season two, Penelope takes Cheryl to the home for conversion therapy . Cheryl is kept locked in a small room and is visited by Sister Woodhouse, who says she's "going to rid you of all those naughty demons." Cheryl is injected with a needle and told that the "conversion" will begin the next day.
While at the home, Cheryl is forced to do physical labor and "physical therapy" as part of the conversion.
Toni, Betty, and Kevin break into the Sisters of Quiet Mercy through the underground tunnels and help Cheryl escape.
During the flashback episode on season three, Penelope reveals that she grew up as an orphan at the Sisters of Quiet Mercy before being taken home by the Blossom family when she was eight because she had red hair. She was groomed to be Clifford's eventual wife.
ADVERTISEMENT
Alice sends Betty to the home.
On Wednesday's episode of the series, Alice send Betty to the Sisters to "protect" her from the Gargoyle King who attacked the family at home.
Alice tells her that she is going to the Farm with Polly and the twins.
ADVERTISEMENT
"The Sisters protected me, they protected Polly," Alice says. "They'll watch over you now."
Sister Woodhouse and two men from the group home forcefully take Betty away.
At the Sisters, Betty is taken to a painting class, but as she sits down, she notices that everyone is painting some form of the Gargoyle King.
While at the Sisters, Betty learns that the youths are being given Fizzle Rocks. As Betty begins to investigate, Ethel becomes her roommate and tells Betty that she has conversations with the king. Betty asks if she can talk to the king too.
ADVERTISEMENT
"No, that's Sister Woodhouse's job," Ethel says. "The sisters take patients intothe Gargoyle King's chamber when they misbehave."
His "chamber" is in the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. Betty stumbles upon it and sees a girl being dragged out screaming.
Betty pretends to have a seizure later so she can get to the infirmary and steal her own medical file. She reads that she is prescribed Bullio Lapis — essentially Fizzle Rocks in Latin — by an HL. After having witnessed Hiram Lodge bringing something to the group home, Betty assumes he is involved.
When she tries to escape, the Sisters catch her and forcefully give her a dose of Fizzle Rocks. She is then taken to the Gargoyle King's chambers. Though viewers don't see what she sees, they do hear her screams.
ADVERTISEMENT
Later, Betty sees the Gargoyle King in Sister Woodhouse's office in what appears to be a hallucination.
What is his connection to the Sisters? What is Betty actually seeing? Fans will have to continue watching to see what influence the Gargoyle King has on the group home and how Betty will get out.
"Riverdale" airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.
ADVERTISEMENT
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7scHLrJxnppdkr6p7y6Kdnqukrrmme8SvnKuxpJ22r7OMsJxmo56kxG6twaisrWWknbJuudisq56qmaTCtHnGq6auqF2dvK6xjK2fnmWjnsC1sdGsZKieXabCqrHTZqSeqpOuerC6jp9wnG6dmsc%3D