Cole Sprouse Explains Jughead’s Riverdale Season 2 Conflict

When the second season of Riverdale starts up, Jughead Jones will be in a very different place — and the changes he has to undergo will help to define his character arc throughout the season.

Stuck in South Side at the end of season 1, actor Cole Sprouse told reporters during a recent press event that Jughead has to give up the illusion that he can control certain things in his life, and just concentrate on doing the best he can with what he has.

“In many ways the kids mirror the parents, and Jughead is being dealt a hand of cards that is going to force his action,” Sprouse explained during a recent interview.

Sprouse added that the loss of FP Jones (who is in jail at the start of the season) and the move to the South Side changes everything for Jughead, leaving the character in a position that he must figure out how to navigate.

“It changes his relationship with every character on the show,” Sprouse explained. “Season 2 is very much a narrative between the North Side and the South Side of Riverdale, and the brewing tension in feeling agency-less. It’s going to force all the characters to pick a side and Jughead stands in a very very compromising position with one foot on the North and one foot on the South and having to figure out what he’s going to do and what side he’s going to pick is going to be what informs his relationship with every other character.”

Fans got teased with a little bit of that conflict in the season 1 finale: after being transferred to the “rough-and-tumble” South Side High, Jughead discovered that he actually fit in pretty well there, much to Archie and Betty’s surprise. Later in the episode, as a symbol of solidarity after FP opted not to squeal on anyone in the gang, Jughead was offered, and enthusiastically accepted, a South Side Serpents jacket.

As the town of Riverdale breathed a collective sigh of relief that Jason’s killer had been found out, another terrible crime occurred, in a space that had been considered one of the town’s safest, most innocent places. If Jason Blossom’s murder revealed the slimy underbelly beneath Riverdale‘s surface, as we enter Season Two, the shooting of Fred Andrews threatens to plunge the entire town into utter darkness.

Riverdale‘s second season premieres October 11th at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.