Riverdale season 4 episode 14 review: Is Jughead really dead?

Riverdale really wants viewers to believe that fan-favorite Jughead Jones is dead. But this week’s episode may leave room for doubt.

Last week’s Riverdale ended with the stunning and heartbreaking conclusion that the season had been building to all along: Jughead Jones is dead, and it appears that his beloved Betty Cooper killed him. The question is whether there’s more to the story than meets the eye…

This week’s Riverdale deals with the aftermath immediately following Jughead’s apparent death. A lot happens and frankly, I’m getting so frustrated with Riverdale that I’m not going to do as much of an in-depth recap as I normally do each week, but instead try to figure out what exactly Riverdale is up to.

There are two possible outcomes here:

1. Jughead is actually dead. If he is, it’s an insane move to make, albeit brave, by shaking up the core, narrative structure of the series thus far. This could allow for a reset of sorts going into the show’s fifth season, but will fans follow along?
2. Jughead isn’t dead. It’s worth noting that this is going to take some gymnastics on the part of the writers to execute because we’ve now seen Jughead’s “dead” body multiple times.(First, at the end of last week’s episode, and again near the end of this week’s episode when FP and Betty identified his body in the morgue.)

Let’s run with point two for a minute. This week’s episode is pretty peculiar in that we don’t see anyone grieving for Jughead (aside from Archie’s mom). All of the emphasis is on Betty, Archie, and Veronica covering up his murder.

Betty goes into full detective mode, calling in Charles for help getting rid of the body and murder weapon (a very bloody rock), along with trying to outmaneuver Donna and Bret who she knows are truly behind Jughead’s death, even while doubting herself thanks to an inconvient blackout in the woods.

There are so many plot mechanics in the episode that force Betty to be removed from feeling what’s happened to Jughead that it makes the episode completely farcical. If Jughead is in fact dead, I think it’s going to be more upsetting to viewers that Betty is more focused on pulling one over on Donna and siccing Archie on Bret than she is dealing with the fact that Jughead is dead.

(Though watching Bret cower in fear as Archie came in to beat him up was incredibly satisfying.)

In short, it doesn’t feel true to character, even with the whole “Dark Betty” storyline they’ve been laying out all season (and beyond).

Even Archie literally never sheds a tear for Jughead. I know that the dude has been through more than any other white, privileged pubescent male in America should have to go through, but you’d think he could muster something. (Cue Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt.”)

This episode painted Betty as being all too happy to cover up Jughead’s murder and play Nancy Drew, and Archie and Veronica all too happy to go along with it (with the slightest resistance from Vee).

Again, I keep thinking about this structurally. If the episode focused only on Jughead and the core four, it would be easier to run with point two and assume that Jughead is still alive somehow via an “it-was-all-a-dream” scenario.

But there were other things that happened in the plot this week. Archie’s mom came out of the closet! (Which, let’s be real, when her friend, Brooke, kept showing up for no reason, we knew what was up.) And there was more teeth-gnashing with Hiram and Hermosa and Hermione over his will and unnamed disease and whatnot.

In order to undo Jughead’s death, these things would likely also have to be reversed somehow, which isn’t impossible, but would make the storytelling that much more difficult. Then again, going back to structure, Jughead is still narrating the episode through voiceover, like when the remaining core four burned their clothes and left the woods: “No one said anything on the ride home.”

I keep coming back to this to give me hope that he’s still alive. How else could he be telling the story? This also lends credence to the fan theory that this is all somehow part of Jughead’s perfect murder story.

Either way, though, Riverdale is walking a tightrope. If Jughead is actually dead, there is going to have to be a huge emotional payoff and careful crafting of the story (especially for Betty beyond vengeance against Donna) to make that worth it for fans to stick around.

But if Jughead ends up being alive and it was all just a ginned up ratings gimmick, Riverdale may lose its credibility entirely. Riverdale fans have patiently suffered through a lot of insane storylines, but none of them ever put any of the core four in serious danger before. It’s a move that has to be done thoughtfully and bravely, one that I’m not sure the writers are up to, quite frankly.

The episode ends with Betty telling Archie and Veronica that all they can do is wait to see what move Donna and Bret make next, which is exactly where the Riverdale writers have placed their audience. Until next week…

What did you think of this week’s episode of Riverdale? Do you think Jughead is really dead?