Did Betty kill Jughead? Riverdale drops huge midseason finale clue about his death

12 December 2019, 14:49

By Katie Louise Smith

The mystery surrounding Jughead's death continues... and now they've gone and made Betty the prime suspect.

After 9 episodes of Riverdale season 4, we're still no closer to finding out whether or not Jughead is really dead. We have, however, been thrown several flashback scenes linking Betty, Archie and Veronica to his death and now, the show has left us on a midseason cliffhanger with a killer 'reveal' that absolutely one is believing.

In case you haven't been watching this season, the main mystery revolves around Jughead's 'death'. So far, we've seen his dead body lying on a slab in the morgue, we've seen Archie burn his iconic hat and we've seen the Core Three arrested for his murder by his dad FP Jones.

READ MORE: Who died on Riverdale? A complete list of every death so far

In the midseason finale, titled 'Tangerine', we were given another flashback right at the end of the episode that showed Jughead with a bloody head wound as Archie kneels over him before turning to Betty and saying: "He's dead, what did you do Betty?"

Now, you know as well as I do that this show would never implode one of its flagship ships by having one kill the other so... what's going on?

Did Betty actually kill Jughead?

'Tangerine' has now opened up a bunch of new theories about what could have happened, thanks to the big reveal that The Farm is able to hypnotise people using a trigger word. Like Beetlejuice, you have to repeat the word 'tangerine' three times and the subject is placed into a trance with one goal: kill Dark Betty. (Editor's note: Seriously, what the fuck is happening on this show?)

At the end of the episode, Betty 'tangerines' herself into a trance and then smashes her mirror in order to 'make sure that the dark part of her was gone.'

The scene then cuts to another flash forward. This time, we see Jughead lying on the floor, head bleeding, with no pulse. Archie then turns around and says, "He's dead, what did you do Betty?" Betty is seen standing there, visibly shook and upset, with a huge rock in hand. Her clothes aren't splattered in blood, but her hands are drenched in it.

The flash-forward scene is somewhat of a mirror of B's hallucinations, with the bloody hands and the rock she takes from her cat-murdering younger self. So could it be that someone looking to achieve the ~perfect murder~ has caught on and is using it to their advantage?

Could Bret and Donna utilise that trigger to kill Jug and frame it on Betty knowing she could turn violent and not remember a damn thing about it? Or could it be Charles, who seems to be gaslighting Betty? Or Chic, who could be one of Evelyn's sleeper agents? Mr Chipping's death also now seems to make more sense, as he seemed to be in some sort of hypnotic trance when he jumped... maybe it's the secret society?

READ MORE: Cole Sprouse asked Riverdale writers to give him more kiss scenes with Lili Reinhart

Now that the ghostwriting competition is over and Jughead has won, there's a couple of new options there too. It's possible that these scenes are now the plot of his first Baxter Brothers book, or he's faking his death to get out of the 'rules' DuPont mentioned.

Either way, despite the repeated mentions of her god damn serial killer genes (again, what the fuck?), there's no way Betty killed Jughead. But that hasn't stopped fans from speculating...

Riverdale returns with episode 10, titled 'Varsity Blues' on January 22nd, 2020. So, until then, we guess we're just gonna have to wait and see what the next flash forward brings.

But repeat after me: Betty did not kill Jughead. Betty did not kill Jughead. Betty did not kill Jughead.