It Looks Like Riverdale Is About To Kill Jughead... Again
How many times has he died now?
Jughead Jones just can’t catch a break. It feels like he is on the verge of death every single season of Riverdale, and of course, Season 5 is no exception. The Aug. 11 midseason premiere left fans asking that oh-so-familiar question: Will Jughead die in Riverdale Season 5? Although he’s come back from some terrible death scares in the past, it’s really not looking too good for him this time around.
Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers from Riverdale Season 5, Episode 11, “Strange Bedfellows.” For anyone keeping count, Jughead has seemed to die twice now — once after a Ghoulies attack at the end of Season 2 followed by him faking his own death for the bulk of Season 4 — and that’s not counting all the gang fights, serial killers, Gargoyle Kings, and experimental drugs that have also nearly ended his life. But Season 5’s mysterious killer may be the one to succeed where so many others have failed.
Jughead’s story got more out-there than ever in the new midseason premiere. After tripping on psychedelic maple mushrooms to finish his manuscript, the writer vanished without a trace. While his trio of girlfriends (both past and future) Charlie’s Angels-ed up to try to track him down, Jughead was actually living in the appropriately named Sketch Alley. It turned out to be a full-circle moment for him, as he was reunited with Doc, a kind man who helped Jughead out when he didn’t have a home as a child. Jughead previously mentioned Doc when he had to confess a dark secret in order to be inducted into Stonewall Prep’s Quill and Skull Society, revealing that he watched Doc get brutalized and did nothing to help. He had the chance to finally make up for that regret in the latest episode, though, and did so by knocking out a man who he saw beating up Doc.
After saving Doc, Jughead unlocked a memory of something traumatic that happened to him when he was living in New York City. Well, he half-unlocked a memory — he can only remember that something bad happened to him, but not what that something was. So, he set out to the Big Apple to figure it out.
That’s all well and good... except Jughead’s transportation choice is seriously sus. He managed to hitchhike a ride on the mysterious truck that’s been abducting people in Riverdale. As Betty previously noted, only women have disappeared in the truck so far, but that doesn’t mean Jughead is safe. After all, this is the show that never explained why only girls experienced seizures due to a tainted town-wide water supply.
At the end of the episode, Jughead’s fate looks more grim than ever, but surely he won’t get killed off before we find out what happened to him in New York, right? Right??
New episodes of Riverdale air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.
