Riverdale season 4 episode 15 review: Cinema verite

This week’s Riverdale uses a documentary format to explore the aftermath of what happened to Jughead in a very meta episode.

Let’s cut to the chase and answer the question everyone wants to know: Is Jughead alive? Obviously, spoilers ahead for this week’s episode of Riverdale.

Most importantly, Jughead is alive. And even though I knew he had to be, I was still waiting (and kind of still am) for some kind of gotcha reveal that he actually wasn’t, because this whole storyline has been so bananas.

But let’s go through how we got here to begin with.

The season has been structured with flashforwards to different moments in the “Jughead Case” including Betty, Archie, and Veronica’s arrest for his murder and Betty tearfully going through Jughead’s things at Stonewall Prep.

This week’s episode pieces it all together in the larger tête-à-tête between Betty and Donna as Betty tries to get the Stonies to crumble and make one misstep that will reveal their true attempted murder scheme. The melee is mostly relayed through a very Riverdale plot device in the form of Alice, for some bizarre reason, making a true crime documentary about Jughead’s death (with the help of Kevin).

This leads to some of Riverdale‘s most meta and self-aware moments yet, which is saying a lot. To begin with, the show opens with an epitaph of Jughead’s words (some pithy quote about Agatha Christie), but no voiceover. For the discerning fans, this one included, the voiceover had been one big hint that Jughead wasn’t truly dead. The epitaph seemed to be Riverdale‘s attempt to throw viewers off the scent.

However, if the episode is a documentary, it would make sense for it to break its typical narrative structure, including the voiceover. As stupid of a show as Riverdale can be, it does have some pretty smart writing at times.

Throughout the episode, Alice interviews Jughead’s friends ranging from Kevin’s very odd monologue on Bughead and Barchie, almost as if he were a Riverdale viewer not a Riverdale resident.

The actual plot of the episode revolves around Donna believing that Jughead isn’t really dead and Betty concocting an increasingly insane set of maneuvers to prove to Donna (and the audience) that he is, including kissing Archie in a grief-stricken moment (in full view of Cheryl Blossom).

(Of course, it is all a ruse and Jughead is very much alive, not for lack of Bret and Donna’s trying, though, as the fresh stitches on his head show. While Archie and Betty’s kiss is fake, Riverdale seems to be setting up a future Varchie/Bughead conflict as Betty and Archie are reminded of their season one feelings for each other.)

But really, once again, all we care about is Jughead. A lot of other nonsense happens in this episode — including some ace acting from Skeet Ulrich as FP faking a grieving father — but what I’m really looking forward to is the next episode that dives into precisely how Jughead faked his own death.

All this is to say, the self-reflexivity of the episode isn’t as cute as Riverdale would want you to believe. Even though fans didn’t really believe Jughead to be dead, the audience still wants to know it’s in good hands, and that their favorite characters are, too. Jughead’s “death” and the surrounding plot mechanics, better end up having a heck of a payoff in order to make the writing feel like anything other than an overhyped fakeout.

Because we did see his dead body in the morgue. And while his dad is the sheriff (or was until he resigned after five seconds of pressure from Hiram, perhaps knowing the ensuing storm that would come from Jughead being discovered alive), not everything can be explained away thanks to FP and Charles.

As a high point, the Serpents turn up in this episode (along with poor Jellybean who no one has checked in on). If we don’t get a proper Serpents/Stonies rumble at some point, then why am I even here?

The episode concludes with the Core Four happy and alive in the bunker, going over the next phase of the Dead Jughead plan. (As nerdy and murder-board happy as Jughead and Betty are, it’s honestly hilarious that they’re friends with Archie and Veronica who are the most basic people on the planet.)

Veronica also manages to pull out one crucial step in the next phase: Donna’s real last name, to be revealed next week….

What did you think of the Jughead reveal this episode? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!