‘Riverdale’ Star Cole Sprouse on 100 Episodes, That Dead Jughead & Rivervale

The Cast of Riverdale for Episode 100
Preview
Kailey Schwerman/The CW

Riverdale is celebrating 100 episodes by closing out the five-part “Rivervale” event of its sixth season. (After, it goes on break until March 6.)

“One of the biggest questions throughout the six seasons and especially throughout the 100 episodes has been a sort of tonal question: where we fit in terms of campiness, where we fit in terms of sort of large silly stories. I think this episode does a really great job of showing a connective tissue between the Archie comics history, like a lineage of digests, and where the show sits,” Cole Sprouse (who plays Jughead Jones) tells TV Insider.

“This episode does a really great job discussing why the world exists the way it does and also brings back a lot of the parts of the show that fans have really enjoyed. There’s a lot of interaction between the cast. There’s a lot of world building and lore questions that are answered. And we get to play around with multiple Jugheads and various attitudes,” he continues.

The episode, titled “The Jughead Paradox,” is set to unveil the truth about this new, shadow town that has been the setting for this event, thanks to Jughead’s investigation following a series of strange happenings.

As glimpsed in the promo (above), it all kicks off for him with “a version of Jughead that shows up dead at the morgue,” Sprouse previews. “This Jughead is grasping a comic book that details outright events that Rivervale Jughead has been living, which then brings in this sort of handout more meta question about if his life is actually predetermined, if something is writing this, if his decisions actually make sense or they’re pre-constructed, and it initially causes Jughead to spiral, but then it gets him to question like he normally does and investigate what’s actually going on.”

And that investigation of his is also what leads to the Jughead-Archie (KJ Apa) fight glimpsed in the preview. “Maybe curiosity kills the cat,” Sprouse teases. “Jughead steps over the line in terms of his questioning, like he most always does, and it angers a specific redheaded, young, ripped lad.”

Riverdale, Tuesday, 9/8c, The CW (Returns, Sunday, March 6, 8/7c)