When The CW released the official cast list for Riverdale‘s upcoming episode paying tribute to “Carrie: The Musical,” it would have been difficult to anticipate just how many clues, red herrings, and potential spoilers were buried in those in-universe descriptions of high school kids.
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In a series where any given episode can be just PACKED with information on multiple plots, it is arguably no great surprise — but it caught us a bit unawares and we found ourselves reading the casting breakdown over and over again, finding little nuggets of information that will presumably inform story that plays out betwen now and April, when the episode airs.
What did we find?
Well, come along with us…!
“His Girlfriend, Veronica”
In Archie’s bio, he gives a shout out to “his girlfriend, Veronica.”
This is only borderline spoilery, since the pair have been dating pretty regularly since the middle of last season or so. Still, with Archie actively engaged in spying on Hiram and repeatedly lying to Veronica in order to enable it, things have seemed from the outside like they could spiral at any moment.
The real question, given how much plot they cram into any given hour of Riverdale, might be whether those shoes are still waiting to drop come April or whether they will have played themselves out by then and Varchie somehow managed to weather the storm.
Bughead Forever?
Speaking of fan-favorite ships: Bughead is back?
Once again, Betty’s bio refers to Jughead as her boyfriend, and the bio ends with a #BugheadForever hashtag.
This sounds less like something Betty would write and more like something that Kevin would do — but given the fact that he is directing the play, it seems unlikely that he would do something which could potentially create opening-night drama by placing that in the program if it weren’t true.
So, after a handful of episodes apart, will Jughead and Betty finally find themselves together again in time for this twisted high school musical?
A Cheryl Mystery
A number of intriguing characters are blacked out in Cheryl’s bio, creating the phrase “send a grand bisous to .…………………………………………………”
It is impossible to know who or what that is — but in light of tonight’s last few minutes of screen time it is worth noting that it is the correct number of characters for the phrase “My stepfather, Hal.”
That’s a HUGE leap to take, though, especially when we don’t actually know whether the number of characters is pertinent to anything.
Also: “grand bisous” is basically “big kisses,” which is something that Cheryl would be unlikely to send Hal’s way. Perhaps, though, it could have to do with Polly or the children, which would make a ton of sense given the proximity of the “grand bisous” line to her memory of Jason.
Josie and the Pussycats (?)
Here, Josie McCoy is identified as the woman fronting Josie & the Pussycats, with no “former” or anything like that. Also, no mention of Veronica and the Pussycats, which seems likely to be a one-time or at least very short-term engagement.
It would not be unreasonable to assume that given that context, Josie and the Pussycats will be back up and running again before April, right?
…Well…
Josie, Alone
…even though she is credited as the frontwoman of Josie and the Pussycats, it appears that Josie McCoy will still have her debut solo album coming to iTunes later this year.
There are a few things there: it seems as though the record exec that Cheryl Blossom hooked Josie up with was for real, and not a cruel prank as some had guessed. Also, the solo album comes at a time when, as far as we know, the Pussycats have not actually released any recorded music, which tells you something about Josie’s (or at least Sierra McCoy’s) priorities.
Last but not least: we have to wonder whether Ashleigh Murray might have an honest-to-God Josie album coming in late 2018. After all, it is not as if Riverdale does not regularly release singles from the on-screen music!
Probably worth a note: the italicization of “her” when she thanked her mother for all of her support. Could it be that this indicates more drama between Josie and her father, who was relentlessly negative and brought tears to her eyes during his one appearance last season?
“Legitimate Extracurricular”
At the start of her bio, Toni Topaz shares a bit of backhanded enthusiasm.
Why? Well, she says that she is glad to be a part of a “legitimate extracurricular.”
What is an illegitimate extracurricular? Well, it sounds to us like Toni took the opportunity of being printed in the program to throw shade at Jughead’s Serpent-safe roleplaying club.
Cold-blooded.
Toni Gets a Mystery Too
Who could be the “redacted” in Toni’s bio?
It’s thirteen characters (again, assuming that the actual number of characters makes any difference at all). That could be “Jughead Jones,” although why that would be redacted is difficult to guess, since he is listed further down on the list.
A solid guess, though? It could be that the redacted text for Toni and Cheryl are somehow connected.
While they do not walk in the same circles or have any relationship as yet onscreen, actresses Vanessa Morgan and Madelaine Petsch are offscreen best friends and have indicated an interest in exploring the idea of Toni and Cheryl as a couple.
Certainly, as we will get to later, it seems that dating between North Siders and South Siders is not exactly verboten here…!
Fangs Fogarty
Not mentioned in the casting list, but in the breakdown for the musical itself, it was noted that Fangs Fogarty will be working closely with director Kevin Keller on this project.
It seems like Kevin will have a Serpent boyfriend for the second season in a row.
That is reading between the lines with a magnifying glass, but it is not exactly an unreasonable guess considering that Kevin and Fangs have had a lot of meaningful glances and dialogue in the last couple of weeks, leading a lot of fans to ship them and wonder when it’s going to happen.
Seems like maybe…April?
Experience
How much experience does Veronica have?!
She is listed as having major roles in three musical theater productions at her swank school in New York, but somehow she failed to ever mention this before, or for that matter go out for anything that previously might have been going on at Riverdale High?
This, coupled with the revelation that Alice Cooper was once a musical theater star, really begs some questions about what we do and do not know about our Riverdale talent pool.
