Riverdale – Chapter One Hundred: The Jughead Paradox

In Rivervale, the narrative changes once again as Archie Andrews (KJ Apa) wakes up in bed with Betty (Lili Reinhart), very much alive. The sequence of Archie’s death reduced to nothing more than a bad dream that Betty had. Meanwhile across town Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) wakes up to tell Toni (Vanessa Morgan) that he dreamt about her as La Llorona; Veronica (Camila Mendes), Reggie (Charles Melton), Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch), and Nana Rose (Barbara Wallace) also recalling their dreams from the prior episodes. But for Jughead (Cole Sprouse), he instead hears the ticking of a bomb in the Andrews residence and upon heading downstairs is propelled forward by the blast—also to wake up in his former residence of the Andrews garage. His feet with a layer of soot on them. While he eventually heads back to his apartment with Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook), she reminds him that today is his return to Rivervale High School as a teacher. 

But all is not what it seems—upon entry to the high school Jughead starts to see visions of his friends in their high school forms, including himself with beanie. Confused by it all Jughead heads to the bathroom and runs into Ben Button (Moses Thiessen), who died a couple seasons back by jumping out a window. The news gets weirder when Jughead meets up with his friends in the lounge and is reminded of his Best Man duties at Archie and Betty’s wedding only to have Betty receive a phone call from Dr. Curdle Jr. (Nikolai Witschl) about a corpse discovered on the Lonely Highway—Jughead Jones. Believing it’s a prank from Curdle over lack of wedding invitation, Jughead decides to go investigate and sees himself in the body bag. When he gets to the Lonely Highway by the Rivervale sign, he sees the back of it says “Riverdale” and from there uncovers dead Jughead’s personal effects—a set of comic books about Riverdale and Rivervale. To understand why his doppelganger was targeted, Jughead sits down with the comics and begins to read. 

Tabitha returns from work and so begins Jughead’s journey into finding out how the comics are so closely connected to him and his friends, leading to some more disturbing discoveries. We learn that Hiram (Mark Consuelos) died before Veronica’s Quinceanera, Reggie is trying to comprehend why he looks different in different comic issues, and the big reveal—Jason Blossom (Trevor Stines) is alive despite Jughead assuring Cheryl that he has been dead for quite a while. Later in Reggie and Veronica’s apartment both are trying to still understand the parallel universes when there’s someone at the door. On the other side stands the original Season One Reggie Mantle (Ross Butler), ready to reconnect with Veronica.  

To try and understand parallel universes Jughead goes to check out a book about parallel universes, which has been conveniently taken out by Dilton Doiley (Major Curda) –who has also been dead since his demise in high school. Now a physics teacher at Rivervale, Jughead goes to interrogate Dilton and finds that Ethel Muggs (Shannon Purser) is his teaching assistant. When Jughead explains his parallel universe theory to Dilton, he believes him and tries to help him understand the Riverdale/Rivervale universes. Dilton tells Jughead to drop the investigation.  

At the Mantle/Lodge residence, the tale of two Reggies play out as Veronica tries to understand how the two versions came to exist in one comic. In order to not ruffle any feathers, Veronica advises both Reggies to stay at the apartment until further notice. Unfortunately for Veronica, it is the night of Archie and Betty’s Bachelor/Bachelorette parties—the Season One Reggie offering to crash the Bachelorette party while the other Reggie attends the Bachelor party, a triangle that later proves disastrous. Meanwhile at the Bachelor party, Archie laments to Jughead that he wishes his father Fred (Luke Perry) were still alive to see him get married to Betty. 

The next morning as everyone is nursing their hangovers, Cheryl bursts into the Teacher’s Lounge with some disturbing news: her brother Jason has been kidnapped by the Black Hood. Using the comics of Riverdale to locate Jason, Jughead, Archie, and Sheriff Keller (Martin Cummins) break into the basement of the Whyte Wyrm and rescue Jason. During their rescue the Black Hood emerges, yet Sheriff Keller manages to take down the Black Hood—aka Clifford Blossom (Barclay Hope).  

While Veronica continues to lecture the two Reggies to get their act together, Archie and Betty’s rehearsal dinner takes place at Pop’s Diner. During Hal’s (Lochlyn Munro) heartfelt speech to the impending newlyweds, Toni arrives with tragic news—Cheryl has been strangled. Jughead heads back to the high school to demand more answers from Dilton, yet another disturbing discovery is made—Dilton is all too aware of the universes joining and welcomes the implosion. Fortunately, Ethel decides to take out Dilton and warns Jughead that the only way to save everything is to keep the original Riverdale universe intact. And in order to do that, the original explosion that happened in Riverdale needs to happen—with recreating similar parameters.  Veronica then returns home to find both Reggies dead, believing that they killed one another. Later Jughead meets with Veronica to negotiate having them recreate the infamous bomb scene, as they are the counterparts to Betty and Archie in the Rivervale universe. Veronica agrees but only if they can re-enact everything during Betty and Archie’s wedding, to which Jughead agrees.  

The next day Jughead waits for Veronica to arrive at the Andrews residence, only to find that Archie is meeting with him. Thinking that Archie is upset over Jughead missing his wedding, Jughead quickly understands that Archie is the villain in the Rivervale universe while he admits to strangling Veronica and namely—Jughead on the Lonely Highway. Watching the creation of Rivervale, Archie believes this universe will bring Fred back and intends to kill Jughead once more. Fortunately for Jughead, Betty arrives in her wedding dress in the nick of time to shoot Archie and save him. Betty finally understands that the Rivervale universe should not exist and agrees to help Jughead in re-enacting the events leading up to the explosion. During their intimate recreation, the Jughead that was originally dead earlier in the episode interrupts them both. 

Sitting down with Betty and Jughead, the resurrected Jughead recalls his experience in the sweet hereafter where he found the comic between the Riverdale and Rivervale universes. Rather than destroying the Rivervale universe, the only way to save Rivervale would be providing it with the imagination of Rivervale’s Jughead. Unfortunately, this also means that Jughead would have to be secluded in the bunker and never encounter anyone ever again—fueling the Rivervale world with his stories. Jughead says his goodbyes to a distraught Betty, reminding her that they need to do this to save their world. She agrees and now her and the resurrected Jughead head back up to Archie’s bedroom while Rivervale’s Jughead sets up shop in the bunker and begins to write new stories for Rivervale. The plan works and Betty and Jughead and head into the dining room of the Andrews residence, unaware of the events prior as they join their significant others.  

Jughead continues to write stories from the bunker for Rivervale, Ethel keeping him company as he types. Meanwhile in Riverdale we arrive back to the infamous bomb scene of Archie and Betty with one major change—Betty receiving a phone call about the bomb under the bed. But for Jughead in the garage, the bomb goes off and unfortunately—his hearing may have gone as well