‘Riverdale’ Cast Discuss the Impact of Tonight’s Storyline

Riverdale reflected a topical issue in tonight’s episode, and the show’s cast is proud of how the storyline came together.

Major spoilers for tonight’s episode of Riverdale, “Chapter Eighteen: When A Stranger Calls”, below.

Tonight’s episode saw the arrival of Nick St. Clair (Graham Phillips), an old friend from Veronica Lodge’s (Camila Mendes) past. As the episode went on, it was clear that Nick had a pretty sinister agenda, as he flirted with and attempted to make a move on Veronica.

The next day, he drugged Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) at a party, and prepared to sexually assault her. Thankfully, Veronica, Josie McCoy (Ashleigh Murray), and the Pussycats intervened, beating up Nick before anything was able to happen. But it’s clear that Nick’s actions will have a significant impact on Cheryl and the rest of Riverdale, especially after Betty (Lili Reinhart) suggested that the Black Hood make Nick his next target.

ComicBook.com was among the outlets to speak to Riverdale‘s cast about the episode’s sexual assault storyline, and about the real-world message it’s able to send.

Ashleigh Murray (Josie McCoy)

Here’s what Murray told reporters:

“It meant a lot [to participate in that storyline]. I feel like, we all know what’s going on right now currently, and our society tends to preach politeness and staying quiet, and I think that coupled with that fact that girls are often pitted against one another, and we don’t stand up for each other.

I think it spoke volumes for all us to get together and go save Cheryl the way she needed to be saved. Often times that doesn’t happen, so to show that and to show that strength … I’d never advocate violence whatsoever, but sometimes when you’re in a situation you have to make a choice, and sometimes that choice is forceable, so I think that the way that we handled it was good. It gave us this girl power, especially with us being in our performance outfit with our heels, and we’re like f*cking this guy up, it was great! Because he deserved it, he deserved to get that ass-whooping.

I really enjoyed that scene because it was empowering, and it showed a camaraderie and a togetherness that women don’t often have, especially young women. We’re told to look pretty and make sure your hair looks nice and your makeup looks good and you have cute glasses and it’s all about how you look. And then when unfortunate find things find us we are often blamed and no one is there to protect us. I think that the way we did it was really good, and I’m glad that I got to stomp him out!

I think that the way that it was written and the way that we were able to tackle it handled that particular point very clearly. Like we don’t have to think, we know what’s going on, we saw that there was a little bit of wavering happening before they left, and then when we went to find her … you don’t have time to think, it’s just go time, let’s get him and get her out of there.”

Marisol Nichols (Hermione Lodge)

Here’s what Nichols explained to reporters:

“I’m really glad we tackled it as a show. I thought it was really good. And just a quick note on that: the interesting part about bringing that up in Riverdale is that it’s somebody that we knew. And I think in the majority of these cases — and I can’t speak for everything inside of Hollywood because those are special cases, but I know in the majority of cases in these situations, it’s someone that you know. I’m really glad that we’re tackling that as a subject; it couldn’t be more timely.

In terms of the episode and the parents, we will see how the parents tackle that in 2×06. We’re going to see that, and I can just tell you as a parent, if someone tries to do that to my kid, I don’t know how I would handle it without the bounds of the law, to be completely honest. It’s, I think, every parent’s worst nightmare, and the Lodges are no exception to that — however, the Blossoms may be.

Just in terms of how anyone deals with it, I’m proud of how we deal with it in Riverdale.”

Lili Reinhart (Betty Cooper)

“It wasn’t exactly my story to tell, it was Madelaine’s, and Graham who plays Nick, and Cami’s,” Reinhart told reporters. “So I feel like I can’t say too much because I wasn’t super involved in that storyline. But I know it is such a topical issue right now unfortunately. I think it is kind of weirdly strange timing but I guess it goes to show it exists and I guess it is good it that it is out in the open and people are talking about it for sure.”

KJ Apa (Archie Andrews)

“I think it’s a really cool storyline to show that again, all these characters are there for each other,” Apa explained to reporters. “It’s cool to see them back each other up. When we read that storyline, we were really happy to put it out there for the fans. It’s also a meaningful storyline. There’s people out there that can relate to that and I think people can learn a lot from that as well, by playing those certain types of scenes.

It definitely gets brought up in the later episodes. I can’t remember, I can’t put it back to anything at the moment. But there’s definitely conversations about it between the core four about Nick St. Clair’s appearance in Riverdale and what had happened.”

Before You Go

Riverdale airs Wednesday nights at 8/7c on The CW.

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