If you were expecting Cheryl Blossom's life to get any easier in Season 4 of Riverdale, think again. Riverdale's resident HBIC has had a particularly rough go throughout the show's run — losing her twin brother, being sealed away in a gay conversion camp, and finding out both of her parents are cold-blooded murderers — and it looks like she will face her most twisted storyline yet this coming season. A new Riverdale Season 4 photo of Cheryl depicts her in a way fans have never seen before... and it is seriously so confusing. Like, remember when Archie got attacked by a bear and started hallucinating? Yeah, this is at that level of WTF.
The new season of Riverdale is only a couple weeks away from premiering, and as usual, showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has been dropping some very enigmatic hints about what is in store for fans in Season 4. The most recent clues have centered on Cheryl, and they are super creepy and confusing. In his most recent tweet, Aguirre-Sacasa posted a photo of Cheryl in what appears to be a sailor's outfit layered over another, semi-transparent photo of Cheryl with her usual hands-on-her-hips, curled-hair look.
As if the photo itself wasn't strange enough, it was accompanied by the work "Chimera" along with its definition: "A single organism that's made up of cells from two or more 'individuals' — that is, it contains two sets of DNA due to placental fusion during development."
Umm, what the Gryphons and Gargoyles is going on here? The tweet also revealed this mystery will be explored in Episode 8 of the new season, so fans will have to wait a while to understand this strange image.
Thankfully, there are some theories that try to make sense of this photo. As fans know, the Blossom family is notorious for containing tons of twins, and in genetics, chimerism refers to when one twin absorbs another while still in the womb. Since Cheryl secretly abducted her twin brother Jason's corpse at the end of Season 3 (and weirdly started talking to it), it feels safe to assume this teaser is referring to Cheryl's relationship to Jason in some way. Perhaps Cheryl will attempt to make Jason a part of her in some extreme way? Or maybe there will be a reveal that Cheryl and Jason had a triplet who Cheryl absorbed in the womb? With Riverdale, the possibilities are truly endless.
Interestingly enough, Aquirre-Sacasa dropped another confusing Season 4 teaser about Cheryl a few days before this chimera image. He shared a dark photo of Cheryl holding a creepy doll, captioned "Hereditary. Evil runs in the family." Yep — it definitely sounds like Cheryl is going to be uncovering some Blossom family secrets, which will undoubtedly lead to new horrors in her life.
Riverdale Season 4 will kick off with a special episode dedicated to saying goodbye to Fred Andrews in honor of Luke Perry. The first few episodes will also include the show's first Halloween episode and the end of The Farm storyline. Season 4 of Riverdale premieres on the CW Oct. 9.
