SPOILERS for Riverdale premiere!
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On Riverdale tonight, we met the cast of characters and got our initial hook of the central mystery: the death of Jason Blossom. But the individual characters have their own things – and mysteries – to deal with, as well. That includes Hermione Lodge, played by Marisol Nichols in the show, the mother of newcomer Veronica Lodge. Hermione makes her return to Riverdale after years away with her successful, rich husband – who as it turns out is not such a good businessman as he is a good swindler.
A surprise followed Hermione to Riverdale, in the form of a bag full of cash delivered to her new condo. Her look is not what you’d expect to see on someone’s face when receiving such a thing – she has apprehension, and a real weight-of-the-world look on her face.
“She’s thinking, ‘Oh my God, what does this mean?’” Nichols told Comicbook.com of that big moment for her character. “She’s under no delusions that her husband is a legitimate businessman, by a mile. Trying to distance herself from that life was the purpose in moving back to Riverdale, and unfortunately that life starts to follow here whether she likes it or not.”
Rather than seeing the money as some kind of relief, that she wouldn’t have to work or struggle to get by, then, Hermione sees it as her husband telling her she still belongs to him, in a way.
“That money represents that life that’s not going to let her go as easily as she wishes, and a husband’s reach from prison is a lot longer than she originally anticipated. Like, “Oh. Just because he’s gone doesn’t mean he’s gone,’” she said. “There’s a lot going on, and for all intents and purposes, her husband’s pretty much a Mafia guy. Pretty much, that’s the world that she was in and from everything that we know about that world, it doesn’t let you go too easily. You know?”
So, her literal baggage represents her figurative baggage pretty perfectly.
Riverdale airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
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