The CWGood news! Jughead's not really dead!
That's our new theory after tonight's Riverdale, which ended with a scene in which FP barged into a classroom to accuse Archie, Betty, and Veronica of "the cold-blooded murder of my son, Jughead Jones." This was directly after Jughead's writing class was tasked with creating the perfect murder as part of a writing competition, and now we're pretty convinced these flash forwards are all just the story Jughead ends up writing.
That tracks with how strange and out of tone all these flash-forwards have felt, and how odd FP's behavior has felt those scenes. They ain't real! But if they ain't real, then that's also wildly disappointing and annoying. Don't taunt us with in-story fiction, Riverdale. We didn't come here for that.
Herein lies the problem with Riverdale giving us these flashforwards. No one wants one of the most interesting characters on this show to be dead, but no one wants Riverdale to have been lying to us and making us think something dramatic is going to happen when it's actually not, because that's incredibly irritating and also boring.
What does feel likely is that Jughead might write the story of his own murder, and then either it's carried out in real life, or it's not a murder at all, and it's actually an elaborate plan for Jughead to disappear for some reason. And maybe FP is in on the plan and he's a bad actor? Unclear!
Whatever is going on, we now know that Jughead's grandfather is indeed involved, in some way. We learned that he was an excellent writer and couldn't keep a job, which led to some estrangement from his family. Jughead is now embracing his grandfather's legacy, whatever that may be, and has asked to be called Forsythe.
Below, you'll find all the Jughead-related clues we've gotten so far!
We see Betty, Archie, and Veronica in their underwear standing around a fire. Betty says this: "We have to burn all of our clothes, including Jughead's beanie. We'll wash off the blood in the swimming hole. After tonight, we never speak of this, ever. Not to each other, not to our parents. No one. We finish our senior year, we graduate, and we'll go our separate ways. That is the only way that we won't get caught."
Archie throws Jughead's hat in the fire.
We see FP leading a search party in the woods in the rain, including Betty, Kevin, Archie, and Veronica, and they're all yelling for Jughead.
Jughead starts at a new boarding school, Stonewall Prep, where his grandfather went for a few months. He's living with familiar roommate Moose and unfamiliar and unfriendly roommate Bret. Bret and Jughead quickly became enemies, and we quickly saw that Bret has a thing for family legacies. Instead of going after Jughead, Bret started tormenting Moose.
Jughead learned of the Stonewall Four, four students who disappeared and were never seen again. Jughead nearly disappeared in this episode when he was trapped in a coffin, but that turned out to be a hazing ritual. Moose, meanwhile, really did fully disappear.
Betty was happy to believe that her half brother (who is also Jughead's half brother, don't think about it too much) is who he says he is, but we saw that he was shadily listening to her phone conversation with Jughead. He's up to something, for sure.
Jughead's dead! Or at least he appears to be in a scene that shows Betty and FP looking down at a dead body that looks an awful lot like Jughead. This scene curiously didn't tell us when it was taking place, but we can only assume it's around the spring break shenanigans.
Jughead learned a lot more about his grandfather, and there was one alumni writer who was particularly interested in that family history, and really wanted to meet Jughead's dad at a school event.
Jughead and his writing class are currently in the midst of a contest to become the next ghostwriter of his favorite mystery books, and their assignment is to write the perfect murder. Cut to:
FP barges into biology class, where Betty, Archie, Veronica, Kevin, and Reggie are all working.
"Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, and Veronica Lodge, you're under arrest for the cold-blooded murder of my son Jughead Jones," he says.
Betty, Archie, and Jughead stand in a witness line-up, with Jughead's seminar classmates confirming that yes, those are the kids they saw murder Jughead.
In what appears to be the direct aftermath of Jughead's murder, Archie confirms that Jughead is dead, and then we see Betty, holding a rock, just like the one her dark self used to murder a cat (in her mind?).
Elsewhere, Betty discovered she's got the serial killer genes, but so has Charles, so either one of them could be a serial killer or could just be particularly good at dealing with serial killers. Veronica's parents figured out their legal stuff by having Hermione take a plea deal with a blackmailed pardon from the governor, but now Veronica's dealing with her secret half sister who's on Hiram's defense team. Then there's Archie, who's once again donning a mask and trying to keep crime off the streets, and honestly, we couldn't care less, especially as his shenanigans left less time for Cheryl and Toni, who didn't even appear in the episode.
Remember when Archie was just a football player dealing with the death of his dad like three episodes ago? How does he get himself into these messes?
Anyway, Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.