WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the latest episode of Riverdale, “Chapter Sixty-Six: Tangerine,” which aired Wednesday on The CW.
The Season 3 finale of Riverdale ended with a surprise time-jump that took viewers nearly a year into the future. During spring break of the following year, Archie, Betty and Veronica would all be standing around a fire, covered in blood and burning their clothes. And, in Archie's hands was Jughead's beanie, a grim hint at the character's fate. Since then, various episodes of Riverdale's fourth season have featured more of these little vignettes that take us forward in time.
From the start of the season, Jughead's fate has been put in question, with more and more flash-forwards hinting the young writer will die in the coming months. Now, in the series' fall finale, "Chapter Sixty-Six: Tangerine," the show once again jumps to the future, and it confirms what none of us truly believed -- Jughead really is dead. But the real surprise comes in the form of his killer: Betty Cooper.
Every flash-forward Riverdale has featured ever since the Season 3 finale has revealed another piece of the puzzle. First, it was Archie, Betty and Veronica around the fire. Then, it continued with an entire search party scouring through the woods in search of Jughead. Then, later, the trio would be taken in by the police and accused of killing their best friend.
Now, in "Tangerine," Riverdale once again jumps forward, this time four weeks. As the season has progressed, the series has been getting closer and closer to the event it has teased since the end of Season 3, and now it appears it will come to pass in less than a month. The newest vignette finds Jughead's body on the ground, covered in blood. The confirmation of Jughead's death comes from Archie himself, after checking his pulse.
"He's dead," Archie exclaims with alarm. And the real shock comes when he turns to Betty and Veronica and asks "What did you do Betty?" Betty looks down in horror at her bloodied hands, one of which is holding a large rock.
Throughout the first half of Season 4, Betty has been wrestling with the darkness inside of her, after she learned that she has the serial killer gene in her DNA. Little does she know that her half-brother Charles is also manipulating her, along with the remnants of Edgar Evernever's cult, in order to drive Betty mad and transform her into her worst nightmare.
The implication here is that Betty has finally snapped and that her dark double, Dark Betty, has killed Jughead. It's a pretty big twist, and a shocking reveal to leave fans hanging until the series returns in the new year. But would Riverdale really get rid of Jughead? With the conspiracy surrounding the Baxter Brother novel series, one can't help but wonder if there's something else going here -- something worthy of a classic mystery novel.
Airing Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, Riverdale stars KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Madelaine Petsch, Casey Cott, Vanessa Morgan, Mark Consuelos, Skeet Ulrich, Marisol Nichols and Madchen Amick.