Riverdale season 2: On the merits of ‘Dark Betty’ over Lili Reinhart’s ‘Assertive Betty’

Betty’s shadowy side came out with a memorable vengeance in Riverdale’s first season, but the second season might see her replaced.

Perhaps it’s just this writer, but nothing on the first season of Riverdale was quite so bonkers as Betty’s revenge on Chuck Clayton. No, not even the Cheryl Blossom visions, the fire, the murder, or the already-lampshaded-in-season-2 “I’m a weirdo” speech from Jughead. “Dark Betty” still wins out over them all.

Speaking to TVLine, Lili Reinhart actually qualified last week’s blackmail as something that isn’t quite to the level of last season’s outing:

"It’s not really ‘Dark Betty.’ It’s more of just like ‘Assertive Betty’…You may see [the Dark Betty look] again. I think she still has it in the back of her closet somewhere."

On the one hand, we’re pretty sure that Betty’s flat-out threatening Cheryl with emotional and social ruin is worse on the scale of “bad things Betty Cooper has done on Riverdale.” On the other, if “Dark Betty” doesn’t make her return, and is replaced with “Assertive Betty,” could we see this side surge forward more and more often?

Reinhart’s own words seem to suggest that could be the case:

"I think Betty’s willing to put herself out on a limb, and put herself in some uncomfortable situations, in order to show her support for [Jughead]."

Teenage love, right? Especially when both parties come into the relationship with their own issues, even before getting into the things that have happened since they got together.

But on a different note, Reinhart might be just a little off when she says that it’s really “Assertive Betty.” Frankly, the whole scene reminds us of none other than Alice Cooper, with the sweeter words like, as TVLine notes, “girl talk” sharply contrasting the content of the conversation itself. “Dark Betty,” at the very least, for all its out-of-nowhereness, feels like a part of Betty Cooper, not just an imitation of her mother.

However, what would this show be if there weren’t parental conflicts? It’s nothing like the Lodge family drama, but it certainly doesn’t have to be, and it shouldn’t be.

A third question is this: What if “Assertive Betty”, “Dark Betty”, and regular Betty are all at war with each other? Is that even possible? We don’t know, but if there’s any show that can make it seem plausible, it’s probably the one that uses “jingle jangle” as a street term.

Next: Supergirl: One dad is not like the other

Riverdale‘s back this week with another fresh episode Wednesday on The CW.