Cole Sprouse on Why Jughead Deserved to Get Beaten Up

Last week on Riverdale, Jughead Jones went through his initiation and fully joined the Southside Serpents. The bruises from that brutal initiation were still fresh this week, but actor Cole Sprouse doesn’t think you should feel too badly for Jughead. The actor says the newest Serpent deserved to get beaten up.

In an interview during a recent visit to the set of the hit CW drama, Sprouse said that Jughead had the beating coming largely because he needed an attitude adjustment.

“Yeah, for sure,” Sprouse said. “No, it’s funny. When I first read the first couple episodes from this narrative arc, I was like, ‘Jughead is such a pompous little kid, thinking he can go into a brand-new school, do whatever the hell he wants, and then — when someone tells him no — he goes, Well, my dad is your leader!’ That kid deserves to get his butt kicked a little bit, I think!”

Jughead did go into Southside High with the confidence of an outsider, initially set on not joining his father’s gang though it quickly became clear that he would need to form some alliance. Jughead’s attitude adjustment isn’t the only reason Sprouse thinks that the butt kicking Jughead got in his initiation to the Serpents was necessary. Sprouse said that the beating was needed to prepare Jughead for survival.

“I think Jughead needs to toughen up if he’s going ot survive whatever the hell is about to be thrown at him, and I think this is a really good way to not only build a camaraderie with the people who have been beaten up by the Northside but to really toughen Jughead up simultaneously.”

For Jughead, that toughening up wasn’t just physical. In the moments before his initiation was to begin, Archie showed up to deliver Betty’s breakup message. Archie (KJ Apa) was particularly cruel when he realized what was getting ready to transpire, too meaning that Jughead was getting a physical and emotional bruising. For Sprouse, though, he enjoyed the scene despite it showing his character in a particularly transformative moment.

“I don’t know, I thought it was awesome,” he said. “I’m really glad it wasn’t as cold filming that as it is right now.”

Riverdale airs on Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.