‘Riverdale’ Finally Reveals Jughead’s Fate

(Warning: This post contains major spoilers for Wednesday’s “Riverdale.”)

Welp, if you were one of the “Riverdale” fans who refused to believe the show’s months-long tease that Forsythe “Jughead” Pendleton Jones III had actually been killed off, then Wednesday’s episode was the final nail in the coffin of your “there’s no way” argument.

Yes, despite the fact showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa continued to torture fans up until the very last moment, tonight it was revealed that Jughead (Cole Sprouse) is alive and well and it’s all thanks to his best friends Betty (Lili Reinhart), Archie (KJ Apa) and Veronica (Camila Mendes) — you know, the ones who were set up to take the fall for his “murder.”

During the hour, which was aptly titled “To Die For,” Betty and Archie very convincingly faked a romantic relationship, one that the residents of Riverdale — and viewers at home — were meant to believe had developed following Jughead’s death.

Also Read: Skeet Ulrich, Marisol Nichols to Exit 'Riverdale' at the End of Season 4

Actually, most of this was a show they put on to fool Jughead’s Stonewall Prep classmate Donna Sweett (Sarah Desjardins) into thinking that Jug really was dead, seeing as she was starting to doubt that she and her preppy crew had actually pulled off the “perfect murder” and managed to pin it on Archie and the gang. (Yeah, it was nowhere near perfect: Jug managed to survive being bashed in the head with a rock thanks to his iconic beanie.)

To ensure that Donna finally accepted Jug had been taken out, Archie and Betty went so far as to make out in the Riverdale teens’ “sex bunker,” knowing full well that Donna was following Betty and would find them down there. In reality, Jug was also down there the whole time and, yeah, pretty creeped out by what his girlfriend and best friend had to do to keep him hidden.

But don’t worry, Betty loves Jughead and Archie loves Veronica and everything is fine by the episode’s end — if we ignore those kissy face emojis texted between Betty and Archie, that is. Now the firends just need to keep Jughead’s “alive” status secret because Donna *was* convinced — but not so easily.

There’s also some big clue the gang found out about her identity that is gonna help Jughead unravel the huge Baxter Brothers/Stonewall Prep mystery he’s been poking at all year. But we’ll have to wait till next week — or possibly longer! — to see what that is.

“Riverdale” airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.