On the CW’s hit teen mystery drama, Riverdale, plot twists abound, and shady characters are constantly stabbing one another in the back. The latest mystery would be that of Jughead’s (Cole Sprouse) death. Although the show, now in its fourth season, often teases his death and the circumstances surrounding it, fans are used to the series’ misdirection, and have come up with plenty of theories of their own, as to who killed him, and whether Jughead is even dead at all.
Season 4 of Riverdale has been full of scenes where we flash forward to Jughead’s death. In one scene, part of the episode “Halloween,” we see Betty (Lili Reinhart), Jughead’s girlfriend, and FP (Skeet Ulrich), Jughead’s dad, identifying a body at the coroner’s office. In subsequent scenes, we’ve seen snippets of his friends Archie (KJ Apa) and Veronica (Camila Mendes), along with Betty, being arrested and taken into custody for his murder. In the few most recent episodes, we’ve also gotten to see why Betty might be the culprit.
In the ninth episode of season four, titled “Tangerine,” we get a glimpse of Betty’s role in Jughead’s fate. The scene shows Archie bent over Jughead’s body, with Betty standing over it, seemingly in a trance, with a rock in her hand. While Jughead and Betty’s relationship is strong, and has so far stood the test of time, Donna (Sarah Desjardins) reveals that Evelyn (Zoé De Grand Maison) has given her a trigger word that, if said to Betty, would cause her to harm those she loves.
Riverdale has become known among its fanbase for its outrageous plot twists and for how the writers like to fake out the audience. So, it’s quite possible– it even makes a lot of sense– that they just want us to think Betty killed Jughead. They likely would not give out so much true information about a future event, because that would spoil the show and ruin the mystery. Because of this trend, fans are speculating that Betty was framed for the murder, and others don’t even believe Jughead died.
Riverdale fans love mysteries, and have fun trying to solve the twists and turns thrown at them by the seres’ writers. Of course, as soon as the show began teasing Jughead’s death, fan theories abounded. On Reddit, a fan theorized, ‘I think Brett, Mr. Dupont, Mr. Honey and Charles are working together….Jughead stages his death with Betty to bring them down, but something goes wrong, similarly with Jason and Cheryl except he isn’t actually dead.” Another Reddit user added that since Jughead is still narrating the show, he can’t be dead. We will just have to keep watching to find out the truth.