Okay, so Jughead’s totally not dead, right? The big event this whole season of Riverdale was building toward happened. At the end of the last episode, Veronica and Archie discovered Betty standing over Jughead’s dead body. But then this episode opens with Jughead’s narration. He describes his “iconic” hat burning in the fire. How is he narrating anything if he’s dead? I don’t always hold Riverdale’s writing in the highest esteem, but it has to be better than that. They know a dead person can’t narrate events after their death. Hell, they can’t narrate the moments before it either, really. So there’s clearly a twist of some sort coming.
For now though, let’s say what happened really happened. It’s ridiculous, but for the purposes of looking at the events of this episode, let’s just go with it. Betty says she found Jughead’s body already dead. She picked up the rock from his body in shock, and that’s when Archie and Veronica found her. After that, they called Charles, who told them to burn their clothes and dispose of any evidence against them. That’s… super suspicious coming from a guy who has a strange relationship with Chip. Was it ever confirmed whether he was actually an FBI agent or not? In any case, he sends Betty to Stonewall Prep to plant a bug and gather information. The plan doesn’t go well. When they don’t say anything of interest, she sends Archie into Stonewall to start a fight with Brett. Brett and Donna see right through the ploy though, and taunt Betty through the bug. Maybe bugs shouldn’t have blinking red lights on them? Just a thought.
Sarah Dejardins as Donna and Lili Reinhart as Betty — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW
I do like how the episode builds uncertainty, though. We didn’t actually see Jughead’s murder. We know it’s probably more complicated than Betty killing Jughead in a fugue state. The preppies are clearly up to something, and Evelyn Evernever seems to be in on it too, considering she already knew Jughead was dead when Betty came to ask her questions. But Betty’s acting super weird. When Archie’s about to break down and tell his mom what’s going on, Betty calls him. She’s been watching from the window, and she demands that he stop talking and make an excuse to leave. It’s creepy, and does a good job of sowing doubt about how trustworthy she is. On the other hand, she has a plausible answer for everything. When Jughead’s phone is found in her jacket, she surmises that Joan planted it when she bumped into Betty earlier. And yeah, that’s almost certainly what happened. This season of Riverdale was finally able to turn this season’s all-over-the-place plot into an intriguing mystery.
Betty finally comes clean with Archie and Veronica. She tells them she’s afraid that she blacked out and hurt Jughead, but she has no idea what really happened. Instead of suspecting her, Veronica and Archie have her back. Turns out your friends stop suspecting you once you’re honest about what happened. They suggest that since it all hinges on the use of a Farm-programmed trigger word, maybe Charles could help her remember what happened. He hypnotizes her and she remembers what really happened. Donna didn’t say any trigger word. She blew white powder in Betty’s face, causing her to black out. Charles guesses it’s a drug called Devil’s Breath (lol), which disorients a person and causes memory loss. He says Betty probably couldn’t kill anyone with a rock while under the influence of this drug. He guesses Donna handed her the rock, which would have already had Jughead’s blood on it.
Lili Reinhart as Betty and KJ Apa as Archie — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW
Betty confronts Donna, who doesn’t deny it, but doesn’t admit to anything either. She knows that Betty and her friends hid Jughead’s body after she came to. She also tells Betty that Jughead’s body won’t ever be found, because it has Betty’s DNA all over it. Betty figures out that she has to do something unpredictable. She organizes a search party. How exactly hasn’t one already happened? You’d think that’d be day one after Jughead went missing. Riverdale logic! Anyway, they lead the search party to the area where Jughead’s body is, and Archie’s the one who calls FP over to it. Even though I’m pretty sure Jughead will somehow turn out not to be dead at the end of all this, this scene is real rough to watch.
You know, as frustrating as the flash-forwards were all season, now that we’re watching them play out in context, I’m glad they existed. It’s fascinating to watch something play out that we’ve seen before but now with the full context. The scene where Betty and FP have to identify Jughead’s body, and Betty slams the door on Brett and Donna, hits so much harder because we’ve seen it before. Because now we know exactly what’s going on. Betty finds Donna waiting in the woods, and it looks like she was right. Betty allowing Jughead’s body to be found definitely has Donna shook. Betty says she doesn’t care if she goes down for Jughead’s murder, as long as she can bring Donna down with her. It’s the scariest Betty has been since the first appearance of Dark Betty in Season One, and I love it.
KJ Apa as Archie and Skeet Ulrich as FP Jones — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW
The episode had other stories going on, but it smartly kept them brief. The Jughead plot is too big. Trying to do anything else this episode would feel like an unnatural distraction. There’s Archie’s story, where he finds out that his mom has suggested sending him to the naval academy the following year. That alone is a lot to handle, but the bigger reveal comes later. His mom’s friend from the naval academy turns out to be her girlfriend. Archie’s surprised by this news, but as welcoming and supportive as any good son should be. He just has a whole lot of other stuff to deal with this episode. By the end of it he breaks down and tells his mom something about Jughead’s death, but we don’t hear what.
Veronica had the biggest plot that was separate from Jughead’s death, but there wasn’t much development there either. Her father surprises her by announcing he’s changing his will, but won’t say why. Veronica chews out her family for knowing what’s going on but not actually talking about it. Her father finally takes something she says to heart, and speaks to her privately. He says he kept his illness a secret because he didn’t want pity. She stays tough for him and promises that they’ll fight it together. She also agrees to his one request to try and get along with Hermosa. They are family after all. You know, Hiram is usually a comically bad parent, but this was one of the rare episodes where he’s alright. Now that the show has bigger fish to fry than Hiram undermining his daughter’s ambitions, maybe he’ll stay this way.
Neither of these stories amounted to much in the end, and I didn’t need them to. The main story of this week’s Riverdale was tense and exciting enough to carry the whole episode. It definitely kept me guessing until the end. I still don’t think Jughead’s really dead, but I’m excited to see how this plays out either way.
Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
Previously on Riverdale:
- Riverdale Season 4 Episode 13 recap
- Riverdale Season 4 Episode 12 recap
- Riverdale Season 4 Episode 11 recap
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