‘Riverdale’ Adds Recurring Character for Post-Time Jump — How Is He Tied to Veronica?

Meredith Jacobs January 7, 2021, 2:30 pm

Comments

Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge in Riverdale Season 3 — Shane Harvey/The CW

When we see Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) after Riverdale jumps ahead in Season 5, she’ll be married … but not to high school boyfriend Archie Andrews (KJ Apa).

Beginning with Episode 4 (with which the show will jump ahead seven years) on February 10, Chris Mason will recur as Chad Gekko, her “controlling and jealous husband who works on Wall Street,” Deadline reports. “An Alpha dog,” he’s “threatened by Veronica’s life in Riverdale, especially her friendship with Archie,” according to his character description. Who else doesn’t think that marriage is going to last very long (onscreen)?

When the CW drama returns for its fifth season, the first three episodes will close out the high school years. The series left off in the spring with prom and graduation still to come, and at some point, Veronica and Jughead (Cole Sprouse) have to find out their significant others, Archie and Betty (Lili Reinhart), kissed.

The trailer reveals that Veronica finds out “something happened,” but we’ll have to wait to see the circumstances surrounding that and what she knows exactly. Will that lead to a breakup and that’s why Veronica and Archie aren’t still together seven years later? Or might something else happen before high school is over or in the years we don’t see to explain the split? Whatever the case, based on the information about Chad, Veronica and Archie do remain friends (or reconnect) in the future.

This seven-year time jump was originally going to happen between seasons, before the pandemic shut down production early on Season 4. Now, the first three episodes of Season 5 — titled “Chapter Seventy-Seven: Climax,” “Chapter Seventy-Eight: The Preppy Murders,” and “Chapter Seventy-Nine: Graduation” — will cover the rest of the teens’ time in high school. Episode 4, “Chapter Eighty: Purgatory,” introducing Chad, will take the characters to their adult years.