Riverdale: Did You Spot Josie McCoy’s Episode-Long Batman Easter Egg?

Last night’s episode of Riverdale, titled “The Return of the Pussycats,” featured (as the title implies) the return of Ashleigh Murray, Hayley Law, and Asha Bromfield as Josie McCoy, Valerie Brown, and Melody Valentine — the trio of musicians known collectively as Josie and the Pussycats. Created by legendary Archie Comics artist Dan DeCarlo, Josie (whose last name didn’t become McCoy until the 2001 film adaptation) first appeared in the comics in 1963, and then about 12 years later became the lead singer in a band called The Pussycats, just in time for an animated Josie and the Pussycats Saturday morning cartoon.

The rock band version of the Josie comic, as well as the animated series, replaced her friend Pepper with Valerie Brown. Valerie would go on to become the first Black lead character on a cartoon, cementing Josie and the Pussycats‘s place in pop culture history.

Years later, after a 2001 feature film adaptation and a comic book reboot, Riverdale would premiere, recasting the band as an all-Black girl group. After about a season and a half on the hit show, though, Valerie and Melody vanished without a trace, and by season four, Josie was gone, too (although she left to join the short-lived spinoff Katy Keene). Those stories all came into play in last night’s episode, “The Return of the Pussycats,” in which a now-world-famous Josie McCoy paid a visit to her hometown and got the band back together.

Along with some knowing references to the show’s own handling of the Pussycats (“I finally found my voice,” narrates Melody, a character who had never previously said a word on camera, while Valerie accuses Josie of abandoning her friends long before she left town), there was a nearly episode-long Easter egg that we couldn’t help but laugh at.

Not only is Josie McCoy now a global pop sensation, she is also missing. While touring the world, Josie heard that her beloved father had passed away, and left before a concert with no explanation. After going back to Riverdale to recover, she signed into a hotel…but used an assumed name to avoid unwanted attention. 

That name? Julie Newmar, recognizable to superhero fans as the actress who played Catwoman in the first two seasons of the Batman TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward (Lee Meriwether played Catwoman in the 1966 feature film, and Eartha Kitt in the series’ final season). It’s a fun wink and a nod to the fact that Josie and Catwoman are the two most visible, cat-themed characters in all of comics.

Riverdale airs on Wednesday nights on The CW.