Riverdale: Please calm down about Jughead

If Riverdale actually did what everyone seems to think it did to Jughead after this week’s episode, it’ll be a major mistake.

Warning: If you haven’t seen this week’s episode of Riverdale, what are you doing? Go check out our review at the very least.

Jughead looks awfully bad by the end of this week’s episode of Riverdale, doesn’t he? The close-up on his bloodied face almost wraps around to being comical because it’s so over-the-top and dramatic. But, much like our Culturess reviewer of Riverdale, I’m pretty sure he’s not actually dead.

There’s a pretty simple reason for this: Jughead still has a lot of story to tell. The writers have already said to members of the cast that they have plans for Hal of all people next season, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. If you watched this week’s episode, you’ll know the police hauled him off in handcuffs. If they can pull that off, then keeping Jughead alive and perhaps held back while Betty has to go off into danger shouldn’t be too much of a struggle.

The fact that tweeting #Bughead on Twitter nets you the show’s current emoji (and that said emoji is a classic version of Jughead’s beanie) should make it pretty clear that the writers know Jughead is a popular character on the series. Much like our reviewer here, Sundi Rose, I find Archie pretty bland. Veronica and Betty are both pretty great, but Jughead … well, Jughead seems to get more than anyone else that he’s in a melodrama, and he acts accordingly.

Moreover, the show has had quite some fun playing Archie off of Jughead lately, both in shots and just in general storyline, as our two main boys have had their own falls to the “dark side.” (Whether or not the Serpents are actual villains seems to be still up for debate, but other characters certainly reacted as though it was a very big deal for Jughead to join.) That’s not only a way to make Archie more interesting, but it also makes Jughead necessary for more than just being one-half of a popular ship.

And though Riverdale tried to convince us in its trailer for next week’s season finale that Jughead’s dead by showing our other three main characters standing beside a coffin … do recall that Fangs dies in this week’s episode, too. Though Archie and Veronica are more Serpent-adjacent, they both might feel some responsibility, leading them to attend.

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In other words, Jughead’s probably not dead, but he will need a new Serpent tattoo. Maybe he and Betty will get matching ones to cap off the finale?