‘Riverdale’: Fans Are Mad at Writers For Veronica Lodge Plot Hole
Riverdale is a series that features so many teen traumas, sometimes it can be hard to keep up — even for the show’s creators. Fans of The CW series noticed Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) made a glaring error this season of Riverdale.
Find out how Riverdale writers messed up, according to fans, and why they may be wrong to think so.
Jughead’s mysterious death
On the evening of the Ides of March party, Betty (Lili Reinhart) arrived late to find Jughead (Cole Sprouse) missing. After she noticed Donna (Sarah Desjardins) and her Quill & Skull buddies acting oddly, Betty followed them into the woods. There, she learned Donna had befriended cult member Evelyn Evernever (Zoé De Grand Maison), who clued her in on how to control Betty’s mind.
Donna uttered the word that put Betty into a fugue state. The next thing Betty knew, she was looming over Jughead’s bloodied head holding a rock. Veronica and Archie (KJ Apa) found Betty, only to discover that Jughead had no pulse.
A few episodes later, it was revealed that Jughead had faked his death in an effort to frame the Stonewall Prep students. But leading up to that, Betty, Veronica, and Archie all had to clear their names.
The writer’s plot error
When Jughead was still presumed dead, everyone in Riverdale was a suspect — including Betty, Archie, and Veronica. When Veronica was questioned about her involvement in Jughead’s death, she commented about how she had never killed anyone in her life. Fans knew that wasn’t true. Veronica set a psychopath on fire in an earlier episode of season 4 and presumably left him for dead.
Veronica killed before — but in self defense
One night, as Veronica is closing up Pop’s, an evil-looking character occupied a booth. Veronica heard Alice Cooper reporting on the nightly news about a patient who had escaped Shady Grove Treatment Center — the serial killer nicknamed “The Family Man.”
As Mrs. Cooper described the suspect, Veronica realized it was her customer. Her survival instincts kicked in. After barricading herself in La Bonne Nuit, she filled a bowl with alcohol. When the killer eventually broke into the basement of Pop’s, Veronica set him on fire with the liquid, beat him with a chair, and left him for dead.
‘Riverdale’ didn’t technically make a mistake
Veronica stating she never killed anyone before doesn’t necessarily imply a plot hole. In the past, Veronica was motivated by her survival. The act of lighting the escaped killer on fire wasn’t out of malice but in self-defense. That doesn’t make her a cold-blooded killer. It does, however, negate the truth in her statement about never having killed anyone before.
Fans were disappointed in the slip, blaming writers for the continuity in Veronica’s character. “The writers have some sort of amnesia, I swear,” one user posted on Reddit. However, when Veronica said she never killed anyone before, she likely meant on purpose instead of in self-defense. Technically, the writers weren’t wrong — they just weren’t specific enough for fans.
With Riverdale Season 4 over, fans are eager to learn more about the state of affairs in “The town with pep!” but it’ll likely be some time before that happens. Production is still at a halt due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
