Forget Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper, and Veronica Lodge. The real, true star of Riverdale is none other than red-haired bombshell Cheryl Blossom.
Who else can you rely on for banger one-liners, hilariously savage takedowns, and wonderfully narcissistic observations about herself and all the people who inhabit the crazy town of Riverdale other than the twin sister of the murdered golden boy with strange incestuous vibes? Cheryl’s the best part of Riverdale, hands down. She constantly flip flops from raging, evil jackass to sympathetic victim, depending on her mood (or the day of the week). You never know what you’re going to get from the HBIC of Riverdale High.
Even the showrunner of The CW’s Archie-Comics-meets-Twin-Peaks murder mystery drama admits that Cheryl’s the real star here.
“Every show should have a character like Cheryl Blossom who can be driven by many complex and often contradictory impulses, especially when you’ve got an actress like [Madelaine Petsch] doing it,” executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told Nerdist along with a small group of reporters after screening an advance episode of the series. “I think in a weird way, this season is sort of all about [loss.] The biggest loss, in a way, is Cheryl’s, right? She loved her brother and her brother loved her, and that’s been taken away from her. So in a weird way, even though we’re following Jughead and Betty’s investigation of the crime, what’s pulsing underneath is always this essential part of her life is gone.”
In the most recent episode, Cheryl caused quite the drama crashing Jughead’s birthday party, turning it into a hot mess house party kegger and spilling some of Archie (K.J. Apa) and his friends’ deepest darkest secrets. Just when Archie thought his illicit teacher/student affair with Ms. Grundy (Sarah Habel) was dead and buried, it all came out in front of basically the whole school … and it was all Cheryl’s doing of course.  Just because she loves chaos and doesn’t know how to live without her brother Jason (Trevor Stines).
“There’s no reason to play a game about secrets, and since that’s going to bring it back to Jason, Cheryl does that,” Aguirre-Sacasa said. “So even though she’s not investigating, I feel like there’s a deep question and void in her that has to be answered and filled. And in a way, especially in episode 12, it’s a really big episode for Cheryl. And 13’s a very big episode for her as well. She’s chaotic—we said she was an agent of chaos, she really is that—and you don’t know when you’re going to get Scorpion Cheryl or you’re going to get someone who is really, really hurt and unreachable because of that.”
He paused, then added, “Cheryl’s a great villainess.”
And as for those pesky “twin-cest” vibes Cheryl is constantly putting down when talking about her dearly departed brother, that’s not just fans’ imaginations.
“No no no. Definitely not. Oh god,” Aguirre-Sacasa said with a laugh. “It feels like from the first time they appear in that red car in the matching outfits holding hands that we’re going for that. All I can say is this: there’s still more incestuous stuff to come.”
It’s 2017 and we’re talking about getting more “twin-cest” on a show about Archie Comics characters, people. What a time to be alive.
Images: The CW
