Archie, Jughead will need each other in Season 2
In the comic books, Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones have been best friends since 1939. But on the small screen, it took murder, intrigue and one very strange town to bring them together as true pals.
CW’s Riverdale (Wednesdays, 8 p.m.) is pulling big ratings early in its second season — last week’s première was the network’s highest-rated telecast among teens in five years — while allowing Archie (KJ Apa) and Jughead (Cole Sprouse) to enjoy the renewal of their friendship.
They’re going to need it: After a first season centred on the mystery of a classmate’s murder, the new one sets a killer named Black Hood on the loose. In May’s finale, he shot Archie’s father Fred (Luke Perry), and in the season première he murdered Archie’s former teacher — and lover — Miss Grundy (Sarah Habel).
All the Riverdale kids are struck by “a palpable fear and dread, so we’re seeing them under the microscope of: ‘Oh my God, am I being stalked? Am I going to be next?’ ” says executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa of the series, which is shot around Vancouver.
“When characters are in those kinds of extreme situations, they reveal their true selves.”
And being “the rock upon which the show is built,” he adds, Archie is on “a darker journey this year.”
In the aftermath of his dad (Luke Perry) being wounded in Pop’s Diner, Archie’s showing more emotion and vulnerability, especially around his girlfriend, socialite-with-a-heart Veronica Lodge (Camilla Mendes).
“Archie’s always trying to take things into his own hands and do what he can to help his friends and family,” Apa says. But everything changed for him after Fred was shot. “That was like his Peter Parker/Bruce Wayne moment, where it completely flipped the switch in his mind and forces [viewers] to see a completely different side to him.”
His sarcastic BFF Jughead has also found love with good girl Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart), though circumstances are more complicated for him, too. His father FP (Skeet Ulrich) is in jail, Jughead is finding himself drawn toward his dad’s gang the South Side Serpents, and his new school isn’t as nice as Riverdale High.
Sprouse sees Jughead as a “lore-building device,” broadening Riverdale’s horizons to the seedier South Side, and his storyline sets up later episodes, in which a civil war threatens the town and he chooses a side “that is going to dramatically affect where he stands.”
Archie and Jughead work so well together because “they’re not the same representation of modern masculinity,” Sprouse says. “Archie’s the muscle in many situations, and Jughead’s the guy being cynical and looking at stuff from a distance and trying to think his way out of a box.”
Apa says their story lines keep them apart for much of this season, but Sprouse adds that “we’re always pulling for more” to satisfy fans and the actors.