The Riverdale Preview: What (I Think) You Need to Know Before Season Two
Yes, this post will make sense even if you’ve never watched an episode of Riverdale.
With the Riverdale season two premiere airing on Wednesday, October 11th (at 8pm EST, folks), it’s time to get caught up on what you might’ve missed from season one. Below you’ll find quick summaries of where the characters are at, some larger themes for upcoming episodes, and some of my own thoughts heading into the show’s sophomore season.
A lil’ bonus: I’ve also set up this preview so that even if you’ve never watched an episode of Riverdale, you can follow along.
THE SPOILER DISCLAIMER: It goes without saying, but there are major freaking spoilers in here, so don’t be one of those people who gets upset when they could’ve X’d out of this post.
Enjoy, y’all.
Rundowns of the Subplots for Every Main Character From Season 1
If you’re someone who just wants a quick summary of what everyone was doing during season one and don’t give a rat’s ass about my larger analysis, here you go:
- Archie Andrews: Slept with his teacher in a poorly orchestrated subplot, broke Betty’s heart, liked music a lot, had some weirdness with his mom who came back into his life for a hot second, did the dirty with Veronica, tried to defend his dad who was shot in the finale, was generally very boring.
- Betty Cooper: Dealt with unrequited love a la Archie, became besties with Veronica after an Archie blip in the beginning, fell in love with Jughead instead, addressed mental health issues, has terrible people as parents, learned that her sister is preggers AF (with Jason Blossom bb, no less), found out she has a long-lost brother who was given up for adoption, basically solved the entire Jason Blossom murder with no help from the actual Riverdale police department.
- Veronica Lodge: Showed up in Riverdale after ~*~$C@ND@1~*~ at home in New York following her dad’s arrest for white collar crimes, decided to reinvent herself by befriending Betty and not being THE WORST, became frenemies with Cheryl, thirsted for Archie on and off, had lots of angsty arguments with her mother, always wore pearls, perfected the Kardashian eyebrow.
- Jughead Jones: Narrated entire season while sipping milkshakes at Pop’s (it’s a diner, y’all), re-friended Archie after unfriending him over the summer, dealt with Veronica, fell in love with Betty, helped solve Jason’s murder, had ongoing feud with his dad FP, got sent to live in foster care after FP was imprisoned for hiding Jason’s body after the murder (casual…), was initiated into the South Side Serpents gang, ate exactly one hamburger, rocked the “am I angsty or am I constipated?” look.
- Cheryl Blossom: Helped her brother fake his own death, was mean to basically everyone, tried to reconcile with everyone, was mean to them again, started a strange frenemy relationship with Veronica, told her father to his face that he murdered his own son, set family mansion on fire, somehow never had to reapply red lipstick for the entire season.
- Josie McCoy: Lead singer of Josie and the Pussycats. Gets too controlling of her band at times. Wears the fuck out of cat ears. Clashes with her mother, the mayor of Riverdale. Needs more storylines, IMO.
- Kevin Keller: Spouted pithy one-liners at every turn, got involved with a hot South Side Serpent, dealt with being “the son of the town sheriff,” had the healthiest sex life of anyone on the show.
- Jason Blossom (not a main character but, like, the whole show is based around his murder): Impregnated Betty’s sister Polly and got secretly engaged to her, attempted to fake his own death but was instead murdered by his own father because he found out about his drug smuggling operation (again, casual…), became center of entire show’s plot despite never speaking a single word and only appearing in flashbacks and photographs, had very red hair that put Archie’s very red hair to shame.
The subplots with the parental figures are important but not as pronounced, so here’s what you need to know:
- Fred Andrews: Archie’s dad. Separated from Archie’s mom. Runs a construction business. Is nice when everyone else on this show appears to be really fucked up. Got shot in the season finale. Status unknown.
- Alice Cooper: Got pregnant in high school and gave the baby up for adoption. Told Betty the baby was hers and her father’s, but there are weird fan theories going around about the baby’s father being Jughead’s dad, FP. Oscillates between being a caring but controlling mother and being a journalistically minded troll.
- Hermione Lodge: Veronica’s mother. Has innocent eyes but can be v v shady at times. Made out with Fred but then regretted it.
- Hal Cooper: Grade-A asshole. Also Betty’s dad.
- FP Jones: Jughead’s dad. In a gang called the South Side Serpents. Cleaned up Jason Blossom’s murder scene. Alcoholic. Trying to be a better person but ehhhhhh. Moody all the time, so like father, like son.
- Hiram Lodge: Veronica’s not-seen-onscreen father who’s incarcerated during the first season for being a Very Bad Dude. May or may not have been framed but still shady as hell.
Season One Plots That Will Be Important This Season
So you’re a biddy who didn’t watch season one of Riverdale but you’ve decided to watch season two. Here are some of the plot points from season one that’ll be important in the next season.
Hiram Lodge. (DUN DUN DUN.)
Hiram Lodge (father of Veronica, husband of Hermione) is your quintessential Evil Dude Who’s Talked About But Never Seen stock character, but he’ll be making an appearance now that Mark Consuelos has been cast in the role.
Real talk, I always find this stock character type kind of boring when the person actually appears. The myth of someone is typically far bigger than their actual presence, and the evil dude can quickly turn into a cartoonish villain.
There’s a little good news, though: Rumors have been a’swirling that Hermione Lodge, Veronica’s mother and Hiram’s wife, may be the evil member of the duo after all. If that’s the case, I’m totally okay with it; I’ve found Hermione very sus since the beginning, and her character’s much more complicated than what we’ve heard about Hiram.
Cheryl. Yeah, Just Cheryl.
When it comes to high school television show villains, Cheryl Blossom’s up there as one of my favorites. In many shows, these characters have often either fallen into the Mean Girl/Queen Bee archetype or have fallen prey to bad writing that tries to portray them as three-dimensional through a bunch of fake attempts that fall flat. As a result, very few of these villains get actual sympathy from an audience.
But Cheryl’s truly in a league of her own when it comes to teen dramas. One minute, she’s sobbing in Veronica’s arms about her brother’s death. The next minute, she’s going all scorched earth on Archie and the gang by crashing Jughead’s birthday celebration and spilling all of their proverbial tea in front of their classmates. She’ll confess her loneliness to Archie and then literally burn down her family’s mansion five seconds later while her and her mother are still inside.
Through it all, I root for Cheryl. She unpredictable, but in a way that’s completely believable for her character and that was established on day one. And on top of that, save for a single kiss with Archie (I told you, the dude is mackin’ on everyone), she’s an independent woman who don’t need no man (or woman, for that matter).
Madalaine Petsch, who plays Cheryl Blossom, teased an “unexpected” love interest for Cheryl in season two, and given that Cheryl’s simultaneous independence and isolation from everyone, I’m interested to see how that plays out but also a little sad that the love narrative is entering her orbit. I don’t think, however, that Cheryl will go quietly into that good night and become a weeping puddle of vulnerability as soon as a romantic scenario enters the picture.
Bughead. Like, Everything About Them.
Bughead, the portmanteau of the ‘shipped Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones, is the couple I didn’t know I wanted until it happened. I get the feeling from the frenzy that followed their initial kiss that other people felt the same way.
For me, the writing was on the wall the second Betty asked Juggy Jug to help her restore their school’s newspaper, the Blue and Gold. I can smell weird sexual chemistry on a television show a mile away, and it was there.
As each episode unfolded, it made more and more sense to me why these two are a solid match. While Jughead outwardly acts like, as Veronica dubbed him, “Riverdale’s very own Holden Caulfield,” Betty has a lot of her own angst, internal pressure, and difficult feelings surrounding her label as the “perfect girl next door” and her wildly controlling family.
The season finale also set up a great challenge for Bughead this season: Will they be able to keep it together as external forces (now including the South Side Serpents, the local gang, recruiting Jughead) try to tear them apart? I dislike comparisons to them being Romeo and Juilet since RoJu, you know, died in the end, but it seems apt in this case. I’m still preparing myself for Bughead’s inevitable breakup, because at the end of the day, this is a teen drama, for crying out loud.
Additionally, what makes the romance of Bughead pretty humorous is that whenever they do have an ~intimate moment~, it’s either right before Betty has a break in the murder mystery and runs away from Jughead, or it’s right after the two go through some sort of terrible event together, like having to confront Jug’s alcoholic father FP about his alleged participation in the murder of Jason Blossom. #SWOON?
However, not all responses to Bughead have been positive. In the most recent Archie Comics reboot, Jughead’s character officially announced he was asexual after decades of speculation given his lack of interest in dating altogether. Cole Sprouse himself has been an ardent supporter of the idea that Jughead in Riverdale should be asexual in the long run, and while Jug’s dating Betty now, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t ace. As Jordan Crucchiola pointed out in Vulture, asexuality requires people to explore their sexuality first, so it’s not unrealistic for Jughead, as a teenager in a small town who probably doesn’t know much about asexuality, to be in sexual and/or romantic relationships, because that’s what he believes is “expected” of him.
There’s also been controversy about Betty Cooper’s own sexuality following what many fans described as queer-baiting in the series premiere, when Betty and Veronica kissed at a River Vixens cheerleading audition for reasons that no one seems to understand. This, coupled with the odd third episode where Betty transforms into some sort of sexy “dark Betty,” has left a lot of viewers very, very confused.
So, where does that leave Bughead in season two? Tbh, the season one finale left me confused. Betty and Jug’s scenes were almost entirely romantic (not sexual) in nature throughout the season, but the final scene shows our beloved Juggy getting very PG-13 lifting BCoops onto a countertop and throwing their shirts off in a steamy kitchen make out before they’re rudely interrupted by the South Side Serpents.
Up until then, the storyline about Jug exploring his sexuality and maybe concluding that he is in fact ace was in the cards. But dropping that facade for a single very Hollywood make out scene was a weird move. Sure, the tension had been moving there for months. But it seemed out of character to what we’ve seen of Bughead up until this point, which was largely something out of a mid-2000s Disney Channel movie. This also doesn’t even explain whatever underlying issues Betty appears to have with sex.
I’m not saying Bughead shouldn’t be doing the nasty, but the scene itself felt out of place considering the rest of their relationship history and how they’ve interacted intimately with each other. Then again, I understand producers’ desire to give the people what they want: Their decade-long fantasy of seeing child actor Cole Sprouse shirtless.
Archie and Ronnie. Meh.
I’m only putting this here because I think people will be angry if I don’t, but yes, Archie and Veronica are together. They don’t seem to have much in common other than their sexual interest in each other and a little trouble with their parents (and okay, their apparent love of music, because they’re artsy!!!!!), so I’m not sure how long they’ll be together or what the extent of their relationship will be.
The biggest question, for me, is if producers will decide to add more emotional weight to this pairing to make it a more long-term duo, a process they started during the back four episodes of the season. It’s just as likely (if not more likely), though, that like literally every other relationship Archie has been in during this series, their current union will be short-lived. After all, Veronica spent the season finale hinting at them heading toward soulmate status, while Archie seemed a lil’ busy thinking about Betty with ~another man~. Teen drama tropes are a hell of a drug.
Kevin Keller Got Star Billing.
Casey Cott, who plays sheriff’s son Kevin Keller, got the bump from recurring character to series regular for season two, so the big question is what sorts of storylines will be thrown Kevin’s way.
Much of his time during season one was spent supporting the main characters (in particular, Betty and Veronica) while making out with South Side Serpent Joaquin and skinny-dipping with a meathead named Moose, so while that’s not much to go on, it also means Kevin is pretty much a clean slate heading into season two.
Understandably, questions surround whether or not his sexuality will become a storyline, but I actually hope not because of the fact that it was such a non-starter in the first season. Instead, my hope is that Kevin’s extra screen time will throw him a few more character-driven plot lines that allow us to actually see more of his background. It’d also be great if Kevin had more development with some of the male characters on the show to avoid the “gay best friend” trope.
Other Season OneDynamics I Want to Emphasize
So all of that other stuff is fine and dandy, but here’s what else I have questions about going into season two.
More POC, Pls
This has been pointed out a lot elsewhere, but for the many things Riverdale does right for a teen drama in taking on subplots about sexual coercion and mental illness, race seems to be an issue that the series has bungled thus far.
Take the ladies of Josie and the Pussycats, for example. While all three members of the band are black, they’re largely pushed to the side for most of the season. Valerie Brown, for example, only becomes important to the plot when she’s Archie’s girlfriend. The second she breaks up with him, she’s relegated to a largely silent supporting role. Ashleigh Murray’s Josie got more and more billing as the season went on and made a few comments about Archie’s privilege as an attractive white man, so that’s promising, but only time will tell what happens with her. I love her onscreen, and Murray is hilarious in interviews, so I’m firmly on Team Josie. Asha Bromfield, who plays third Pussycat Melody Valentine, is a badass singer and would also be on this season more if it were up to me.
Aside from these couple of ladies, other visible (and that’s being generous) people of color include Chuck Clayton, who started a competition amongst the jocks to sleep with as many women as possible and then slut-shame them; Sierra McCoy, Riverdale’s mayor who has an agenda of her own; Joaquin DeSantos, a member of the South Side Serpents gang; and Reggie Mantle, an asshole jock football player. Pop Tate is awesome but a very minor character, so this isn’t a great track record for the show so far.
Even the main cast has its own issues. KJ Apa, who plays the lead of Archie, is half-Samoan, but he is in fact white-passing, and this background obviously isn’t part of Archie’s arc (or why Apa was cast). Veronica, played by Camila Mendes, is Latina and has talked about the feeling of being told she’s not “Latina enough” and not “white enough” in casting calls; judging by the fact that some promotional materials have made the already light-skinned Mendes look whiter, it seems other people don’t know what to do with that, either.
The point is, the show needs to have more awareness. Yes, people of color shouldn’t be brought onscreen just to talk about issues of race, but they also shouldn’t be mere plot instruments for white and white-passing characters. On top of that, “black guy sexually assaulting white women” and “Latino man in a gang” are harmful stereotypes to put in front of a young, impressional audience, not to mention that they represent uninspired, lazy casting and storytelling. Now that the show has a lot more runway to work with (it’s got a full 22 eps instead of 13), there’s more opportunity to unravel complex plots, and I hope writers take that chance.
Will We See the Return of Geraldine Grundy?
For those who don’t know, Geraldine Grundy was a lazy plot device employed in the first four episodes of the series where our resident softboy Archie had an affair with his older music teacher, Ms. Grundy.
Not only did the subplot not fit in with any of the other subplots, but the series essentially treated a predatory older woman guilty of statutory rape as some sort of epic forbidden romance. It was tasteless, in my opinion, from both a cultural standpoint as well as a storytelling standpoint.
Anyway, essentially the subplot abruptly halts at the end of episode four when The Adults™ find out about the affair and threaten to 3XP0$3 Grundy if she doesn’t make like an America’s Next Top Model contestant, pack her bags, and go. Grundy obliges, and we never hear from her or see her again.
Tbh, this was probably one of the weirdest subplots of the entire season, and this left me wondering: Is this really the last we’re seeing of Grundy? If it is, that’s cool by me (her character, on top of everything else, was boring as hell), but her exit was so sudden and final that it just didn’t match the pacing of the rest of the series. And hey, producers unexpectedly brought awful human being Chuck Clayton back in episode 10 when he was last seen in episode three of the season, so who knows?
Bring Me Jellybean
In one episode of season one, walking Wesleyan stereotype Jughead mentions to his father that his sister Jellybean, who’s staying with their mother elsewhere and wants to be called “JB” now because she’s cool like that, is a 10-year-old who listens to Pink Floyd.
Jellybean sounds like a badass bitch we need to see more of. Skip all the tertiary characters and bring her back to the ‘dale, man. I’d love a sassy preteen who’s going to tell Archie when he’s being milquetoast and explain to Veronica when her eyebrows look too much like twins instead of sisters.
Anyway, there you have it, folks. Other spoilers point to this season being a lot more thriller-y in nature, a lot more fucked up, and a lot longer (22 episodes is a ton of plot to fill), so this could either be amazing or a total Twin Peaks disaster.
One thing’s for sure: I’ll be on here every week writing about the mess. Stay tuned.
