Warden Norton is a major antagonist in Season 3 of Riverdale. He is the warden of the Leopold and Loeb Juvenile Detention Center.
He is portrayed by William MacDonald, who later played Felix Featherhead in the same series and Walt Masterson in Smallville.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Norton was the RROTC instructor of Riverdale High in 1991. At some point in the past, he became involved with Hiram Lodge and opened the Leopold and Loeb Detention Center,
Riverdale[]
When Archie Andrews was sent to the Leopold and Loeb Detention Centre after being framed for Cassidy Bullock's murder by Hiram, Norton informs him he'll do well as long as he stayed out of trouble. While watching Archie's football match, Norton arranges a prison riot to ambush Archie under Hiram's orders.
Norton places Archie in solitary confinement for two weeks after he refused to join his team previously belonging to Munroe "Mad Dog" Moore, Archie's cellmate who was supposedly killed in the riot despite not being there. Later Archie gets a visit from his father, but Norton refuses to allow Fred to see his son during solitary confinement.
After a while, Warden Norton and Captain Golightly put a burlap sack over Archie's head and send him to "the pit", an underground fight club where prisoners were forced to fight for entertainment. Archie agrees to replace Joaquin DeSantos after the latter is beaten down due to not being a good fighter.
Warden Norton and Captain Golightly watch as Archie effortlessly beats all his opponents in his first match. As the match comes to its final round, a bloody and beaten Archie knows out his final opponent and collapses in exhaustion. He looks down at Norton, who comments that Archie is a star. Afterwards, Norton gives Archie a bottle of rum under Hiram's label as a token of appreciation and tells him he has a bright future in the detention center.
After Archie and Joaquin were shot with rubber bullets in a failed escape attempt, Norton ties Archie to his bed and branded him with a steering hot branding iron as punishment. Following Archie's most recent fight, Warden Norton invites him to a meal which Archie is suspicious of. He then realizes the meal isn't a reward, but that Norton is planning to have him killed in the next match and this meal might be his last.
He then asks how exactly Hiram pinned the murder on him, and Norton reveals that Hiram bribed three of Cassidy's friends to testify that they saw Archie pull the trigger. As for their current whereabouts, there's a rumor they're hiding in Shadow Woods. Norton later has Joaquin stab Archie with a knife just before his final fight.
As Norton watches Archie's final match against Mad Dog (who is revealed to be alive), the arena was suddenly engulfed in smoke bombs as part of Archie's friends' plan to break him out. Mad Dog fights Norton's guards while Archie escapes through a drain in the ring. As Norton heads outside to look for Archie, he suddenly sees Betty Cooper escaping on a motorcycle with what appears to be Archie in the backseat.
Norton and his men chase after Betty and "Archie" on motorcycles and eventually corner them in Fox Forest, until "Archie" takes his helmet off revealing he's actually Kevin Keller. Norton furiously grabbed Kevin's collar and demands Archie's whereabouts, while also addressing Archie as "The Red Paladin". Kevin refuses and Betty threatens to mace Norton, forcing him to let them go. Unbeknownst to him, Betty and Kevin tricked him into chasing them while the real Archie is taken to a car by his friends.
Later that night, Norton is playing Gryphons and Gargoyles and looking over his trading cards for the Red Paladin. A guard comes by his office and tells him that Mayor Lodge wanted to have a word with him. Refusing to face justice for his crimes, Norton drinks a chalice of cyanide and dies.
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 verse Villains
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Archie & Riverdale Sabrina the Teenage Witch & Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Katy Keene See Also | ||