Riverdale kills off Joaquin much to our dismay

Riverdale is going full on dark side with their Gargoyle King story. And sadly for fans of Joaquin and Kevin, their love is not meant to be after this latest death.

The saying “loose lips sinks ships” is one that definitely seemed to hold true on this week’s episode of Riverdale. Unfortunately, the ship that sank happened to be Joaquin’s during “Manhunter.”

Even with Kevin being more of a sidekick than anything else this season (even though he did get promoted to series regular), many of his fans had hope that with the return of Joaquin we might see their love story rekindled. Sadly, that is no longer meant to be now that Gryphons and Gargoyles has claimed another victim.

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons we are upset over the loss of Joaquin comes from the fact that we didn’t get enough of his character (that does tend to happen with such a large ensemble cast). Or perhaps it is the fact that we actually enjoyed the coupling of Kevin and Joaquin. Either way, the loss of the character is definitely a sad one. And sure we have lost other characters before, but this death was a message.

Killing off Joaquin and branding him with the symbol for sacrifice is supposed to be a sign to the Serpents and Jughead that they needed to step back from their investigation into the Gargoyle King. And while the message has certainly been delivered, it also acts as a light bulb moment for Jughead. He realizes that the symbol of sacrifice that adorns Archie’s own skin means that being in Riverdale is a really bad idea with this deadly game underway.

Sure, Jughead might have known that the symbol was a bad thing, especially after his final talk with Joaquin, but actually seeing the former Serpent branded and dead had to be the ultimate clue that this game is more dangerous than even he could have realized.

But really, while Joaquin’s death was good in some ways (at least for Archie), it’s actually one death we are saddened by. We liked the character and the actor who played him. And not only that, but we definitely think we could have learned a lot more from him about Gryphons and Gargoyles, if not the Gargoyle King himself.

Also, can we just talk about that kiss between Archie and Joaquin from the previous episode? We know that was Joaquin’s way of basically apologizing for what he was about to do, but now that he is dead, he doesn’t even get the chance to make amends for what happened at the jail. It almost feels like Riverdale did Joaquin wrong, and that’s kind of sad in terms of ways to take out his character.

Ultimately, we know that Joaquin wasn’t a major player in Riverdale, but we feel bad because he could have been bigger. Additionally, Kevin will be dealing with this loss without a ton of support now that Archie, Jughead, and Betty are all MIA. (Sure, we could have talked about any one of the core three being out of Riverdale at the end of the episode, but really we are a bit hung up on Joaquin.)

What did you think of this episode? Were you stunned by Joaquin’s death in “Manhunter” too? Or was there something else that really caught your attention?