'Riverdale' Season 4 Episode 15 Review: The truth about Jughead's death is out as the Stonewall snobs face fear
Spoiler alert for Season 4 Episode 15: 'Chapter Seventy-Two: To Die For'
'Riverdale' has taken the Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) storyline to the grave and back. In this episode titled 'To Die For', we see how the murder capital's core four, Archie Andrews (KJ Apa), Veronica Lodge (Camile Mendes) and Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) have devised a plan shady enough to work in bringing down Stonewalls snobs. With Alice Cooper (Mädchen Amick) shooting a documentary on the dark Riverdale mysteries, the show slowly unravels the master plan that has been cooking up to a boil this entire season.
A title card at the start of the episode states that Jughead is really dead, probably breaking the hearts of many. From there on the story unravels. Betty, who had not been admitted to Yale because of her reputation as the Black Hood's daughter, is offered Jughead's spot at the Ivy League university. Red Queen, Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) steps in to comfort Betty who seems to be suicidal after such a dreadful loss.
Making it to Stonewall, Cheryl stays in the car as Betty steps in to pick up her late boyfriend's things. After grabbing everything, including the tie pin she is accused by Bret Weston Wallis (Sean Depner) for Jughead's death. We all know that Betty suspects Donna Sweett (Sarah Desjardins), and had planned to plan to take down the "psycho b****", making Donna regret messing with the daughter of the notorious vigilante "The Black Hood."
Alice, who has a knack for investigating dangerous criminals and mysteries - let's not forget the "farmie" FBI stunt - has started to film a documentary about the death of Riverdale's favorite writer. Her interviews with the residents in the dark town reveal the investigation's loopholes as well. Sheriff FP Jones, who's not on the case to find the murderers behind his son's death reveals that he has a warrant to unearth evidence leading him to the vicious Donna, Stonewall's bright-eyed deviant.
He finds Jughead's tie pin in Donna's room cueing fake tears from Donna who states that the other kids are also afraid of Betty. Knowing her as we do, they probably should be. She accused Betty of being the killer, saying she saw her holding a rock in the wood with Archie and Veronica. FP ends up arresting Betty, Veronica and Archie at school and Betty, the "ultimate wild card" foreshadowed this claiming it's all part of the plan.
After the three are interrogated, a tad bit too harshly, they are let go because the infamous rock used to supposedly kill Jughead tested for fake blood - which we knew. Planned panic takes over Donna and her b**** Bret and Betty gets a call from Donna in the middle of the night accusing her of faking Jughead's death to get the preps in trouble. Yes, Donna, Betty warned you, didn't she?
As per Betty's suggestion and FP's approval, a fake funeral is held for Jughead and the preps make an entrance as well. Suspecting that Jughead's body isn't inside the casket they begin to aggressively question Jelly Bean, Jughead's sister. She then tells Bret to open the casket, which upset everyone and the prep kids leave the fake funeral.
At Riverdale High, Kevin Keller (Casey Cott) approaches Betty trying to figure out if Jughead is really dead. He remembers that Jughead wanted to fake his own death like in the novel Tom Sawyer. Betty ends up with Archie at Pop's crying about the "Jughead is alive" rumors as Cheryl listens close by. Cheryl then plans a memorial for the fallen soldier leading to Betty and Archie canoodling in the music room. Conveniently enough, Cheryl watches the duo as they kiss long enough to take a photo and send it throughout the school. Archie comforts Veronica saying that he only has eyes for her as they talk about faking the plotline for Betty's plan.
The Bughead reunion happens in the infamous Dilton Doiley (Major Curda) bunker where Jughead reveals that he's been hiding under the cot for days. Betty reveals to Jughead that his father, FP is also in on the cover-up. In Alice's documentary, Betty reveals that the cover-up was to make sure that the preps crack. Tensions rise as Donna continues to insist to Bret that Jughead is alive and was hiding in the bunker - she saw three milkshakes when she had followed Betty down there. He doesn't believe her leading Donna to warn him against misbehaving again, along with a threat upon his head. Betty was right, Donna was the mastermind behind this prep planned bloody operation.
'Riverdale' airs Wednesdays at 8 pm EST on The CW.
