‘Riverdale’ Catches A Killer — The Cast Weighs In


Warning: This article contains spoilers for Riverdale.

In adapting the Archie comics for The CW network, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa made a few changes from minor tweaks (Jughead is a heartthrob now) to a major overhaul of the theme. Riverdale tells the story of an odd town with too many secrets for its size, gripped by the murder of Jason Blossom, the town superstar. As Riverdale draws closer to the first season finale, the investigation into Jason’s murder goes into overdrive and everyone seems to have a theory about who might taken the teen’s life. A recent arrest might have put some of those theories to rest, but, as with everything in Riverdale, it raised more questions than it answered.

Riverdale Goes After the Obvious Suspect

‘Riverdale’ brings in FP Jones, but Skeet Ulrich teases a larger mystery for his character. [Image by CW]

In this week’s episode of Riverdale, entitled “Chapter Eleven: To Riverdale and Back Again,” FP Jones (Skeet Ulrich) was arrested for the murder of Jason Blossom. Seattle Post Intelligencer points to FP’s recent changes — cleaning himself up, getting free of the booze, and shaving — and Jughead was even considering moving back home, until fate intervened. If Riverdale fans are to be honest with themselves, this arrest was inevitable.

FP Jones has a colorful past, running with the wrong crowd and engaging in some questionable practices and some blatantly illegal acts. He has a bad reputation in Riverdale, and to the police, that makes him the first suspect in most crimes committed in town. It’s also the reason FP has always been little more than a red herring.

“It seems like the entire town is going in lockdown to kind of railroad F.P., so it’s kind of a little bit of a race against time,” says Aguirre-Sacasa.

While most of Riverdale is ready to light torches and raise their pitchforks in FP Jones’ direction, Roberto says Ulrich’s character isn’t the only one with a reason to kill the Blossom family’s favored son.

“And then there’s still kind of a couple of characters out there who think someone else may have done this to Jason Blossom, so it’s a big mystery episode. [It] kind of drives the whole episode.”

The interesting twist with FP is that, while he isn’t the murderer and can’t even speak to who might be trying to frame him, he does know something about Jason’s murder. Ulrich says his Riverdale character has gotten himself entangled in this murder, through doing the wrong things with the hopes that all would work out well.

Even so, Skeet says FP Jones is blind to the mastermind of this murder and that’s really what has landed him in hot water with the Riverdale police this time around.

Riverdale Writers Knew Who the Murderer was from the Beginning

Glamour reports that Riverdale showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and his writing team had plotted out the Jason Blossom murder early on in the process. That includes knowing who the murderer is and why said person committed the grisly killing. Roberto adds that studio executives didn’t want them going into the writing room until they had a clear idea about which Riverdale suspect was guilty.

Mr. Aguirre-Sacasa says they started out with three suspects, and after just three weeks of writing, they had ferreted out just who had killed Jason.

While the writers and showrunner may have known the truth through most of the season, the Riverdale cast was kept in the dark.

“I didn’t see it coming,” said Marisol Nichols, who plays Hermoine Lodge. “But then in hindsight, I went, ‘Oh! OK…’ Then I had to reread the script because, when we do reveal it, it goes through so many twists and turns. I was like, ‘OK, is this the killer? Are we sure now?’ It’s really good. Juicy!”

Camila Mendes, who brought the iconic Veronica Lodge to life on Riverdale, expressed similar feelings about discovering who killed Jason Blossom. She adds that it’s someone the cast has suspected on and off through the season, but having that suspicion confirmed was still a shock.

It seems the writers are already looking past the solution to the Jason Blossom murder, because K.J. Aka, the one and only Archie Andrews, says there’s something even more shocking on the horizon.

“I don’t even really care about the Jason Blossom murder anymore because something happens in our very last episode that is the craziest, most mind-blowing thing,” the Riverdale star teased. “It involves Archie….”

The next episode of Riverdale airs on Thursday, May 4, on The CW.

[Featured Image by The CW]

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