Molly Ringwald Comes To ‘Riverdale,’ As Cole Sprouse Talks About Becoming Jughead Jones

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Riverdale.

Throughout the freshman season of Riverdale, The CW series loosely based upon the classic Archie comic strip, a few key items have been noticeably glossed over in telling the town’s recent history. This is necessary to keep the story of Jason Blossom’s (Trevor Stines) mysterious death as suspenseful as possible. Still, the secrets on Riverdale keep mounting, and just when it seemed viewers weren’t going to get any answers before the end of the season, Molly Ringwald comes strolling into town.

Series Stars Reflect on Molly Ringwald’s Appearance on Riverdale

As Entertainment Tonight reports, Archie (K.J. Apa) and his father, Fred Andrews, played by Luke Perry, have been making do without a female presence in their lives since before Riverdale‘s first episode. In fact, viewers are led to believe that the Andrews men have been on their own for a considerable length of time, particularly since conversations about Archie’s mother are both rare and brief on Riverdale.

That changed with tonight’s episode, when Molly Ringwald — another proud and popular redhead — made her debut as Fred’s soon to be ex-wife and the estranged mother of Archie Andrews.

“I’m scared to death of it, to tell you the truth,” said Perry of his character’s reunion with Ringwald’s Mary.

Fred, realizing he has to finally put the past in order, leaves Riverdale and travels to Chicago to finalize his divorce from the Molly Ringwald character.

“As you can see in the rest of the season, it’s just he and I, and we’re in that house — and it’s been that way.”

Mr. Perry explains that Fred is concerned that Mary will try to reassert herself as Archie’s mother and take the teenager away from the home he’s come to know, since the Andrews separated. It won’t just be upsetting to Archie, but also to Fred, who has come to self identify as a single parent, as much as a businessman. A custody battle may be more devastating to Fred Andrews than he ever realized.

For Archie, K.J. Apa suggests his Riverdale character sees things entirely different. His family has been reunited, and if they can come together peaceably, regardless of the reason, he feels they can take further steps towards reconciliation.

“I think for Archie, he loves both his dad and his mom, but I reckon there’s definitely a part of him that wants his parents — for a minute — to get back together again and he can see his mom being home again in Riverdale,” Apa said. “It’s bringing back all these memories of them being a proper family and that was ideal to him.”

Colin Sprouse Struggles With A Different Kind Of Relationship On Riverdale

When Riverdale debuted on The CW network as an updated, darker version of the Archie comics, one of the things that remained similar in the television adaptation was Jughead’s asexual nature, reports Elle. While sexuality was never specifically tackled in the ’50s era comic strip, Jughead always seemed to be the odd man out, coming off as the introvert loner of the group, and that’s something Cole Sprouse wanted it maintain on Riverdale.

Sprouse plays Jughead on The CW series and he says he fought to keep his character as faithful to the comics as possible, but he was ultimately overruled by producers and writers for the show. By now, the romance between Jughead and Betty (Lili Reinhart) has caught on with fans, who refer to the couple as “Bughead,” and that interest has translated into commercial success for Riverdale.

“If this were a different kind of programming or it were my show, it would probably look a little bit different, but the commercial success of Riverdale and how people are talking and liking it shows that we’ve gone in a direction that makes a lot of sense and works,” says Sprouse.

Cole may be finding himself playing into the Bughead romance on Riverdale, but, if he did have it his own way, he says that’s not the couple he would be shipping personally. Sprouse says he’s always been a much bigger fan of Betty and Archie. The Riverdale actor says he really gets emotional for long lasting childhood friendships that later translate into strongly bonded romances with age.

“I am a sucker for that childhood romance narrative.”

The next episode of Riverdale airs April 27 on The CW.

[Featured Image by The CW]