- This post is purely intended to show canonical evidence of adult Betty and Jughead still caring about each other, and dare I say wanting each other back, from Season 5 and Season 5 only. Because at the end of the day, what happens on social media, and whatever happens between actors in their personal relationships, has absolutely nothing to do with what happens between two fictional characters.
So, let’s start at the beginning.
5x4 (because lets be real, that’s the actual start of Season 5)
- Jughead still writes his stories on the typewriter Betty gave him (idk maybe that means it’s sentimental to him or something, I wonder if that’ll come up in Season 6)
- After Jess leaves him, he has a drunken one-night-stand with Cora (who is a decent Betty lookalike):
- Jughead is visibly shaken by Cora walking out in his S shirt, an obvious illusion to the way Betty wore this shirt after sex several times, and also after knitting him a new beanie.
- It seems like Jughead is an alcoholic, and his life is crumbling before his eyes.
- Meanwhile, Betty is very, very clearly closed off from her emotions. She has some kind of relationship (or casual fling) with definitely-not-a-serial-killer Glen Scot, and apparently has no friends. She is seemingly single-focused on working through the TBK case, and has PTSD because of her experiences with him. Refuses to open up to her therapist, and doesn’t want to get too deep with Glen.
- We see how tense Betty and Jughead are in each other’s presence. Likely, this is because Betty assumes Jughead hates her (see - voicemail), and Jughead assumes Betty doesn’t want anything to do with him (she hasn’t contacted him in years and didn’t go to his book launch).
5x5
- Jughead walks Betty home.
- This is the first mention of the voicemail. Jughead apparently doesn’t remember it, and Betty says that due to this voicemail, she assumed he didn’t want to hear from her. He’s sorry he gave her that impression.
- He says it’s nice to see her, she agrees even though it’s a little weird.
- Jughead’s preoccupation for the next few eps will be his need to write something new and publishable, as well as getting out of debt.
- Kevin asks Betty about the Bughead reunion, and she admits it went as well as could be expected. Notes that not everyone had luck with their high school sweetheart. Interesting point there Betty, I bet no one in the fandom will obsess over it.
- Betty hooks up with Archie for the first time. Makes it clear to him that they’re just adults having fun; important, because this shows she isn’t willing to have a deeper relationship with him. This is the second time in two episodes that it’s been implied she’s using sex as a coping mechanism. She also doesn’t want Jughead to know about it, but thinks it should be fine because they broke up 7 years ago.
- Betty has an argument with Polly and feels guilty about it. Queue Betty’s next season-long mystery.
5x6
- Betty reveals her students are scared of her because she’s the Black Hood’s daughter. Archie says: “oof, that sucks”. Luckily, Archie knows sex will distract her. I wonder if Archie will get distracted by Veronica’s husband this episode...
- Jughead has a new niche obsession - the Mothman. He also thinks he has an encounter with Aliens. Betty’s new distraction technique is banging Archie when she doesn’t want to deal with her worry for missing!Polly.
- Nothing really in the realm of Bughead this ep but their focus for the rest of the season is important.
5x7 (the episode where Betty and Jughead still caring for each other really shines through)
- Betty and Jughead say “hey” to each other. Jughead seems pretty interested in Betty. She smiles at him.
- When Jughead is drunk at Cheryl’s party, Betty looks at him with concern. She also moves to catch him when he stumbles (maybe she cares about his welfare?).
5x9 (Jughead definitely still cares about Betty. Betty opens up to him)
- Jughead low key flirts with Betty: “You’re having a party? And you didn’t invite me?” Insert cheeky smirk. Betty smiles/looks amused.
- Betty opens up about how she’s worried about Polly being missing and that she’d probably been held hostage somewhere. Jughead tells her he’s sorry. Looks genuinely worried. This man, who is in mountains of debt, offers to leave work to help her look for clues - Betty accepts his help (she, who just found out her sister is dead, is later understandably frustrated when Dreyfus starts raving about the Mothman, and Jughead seems to feel guilty for wasting her time. If only they’d known...)
- Betty is losing it, has kidnapped a man, and is about to shoot him to get justice. But then Jughead calls her. Jughead, who she DOESN’T send to voicemail, manages to interrupt her at the right time and unknowingly stops her from going past the point of no return and actually killing someone.
- Betty immediately pauses her attempt to deliver her own version of justice to help Jughead look for his missing student. Betty then accompanies Jughead to the school to discuss the situation with Weatherbee and Lerman’s parents.
- Betty and Jughead go to Pop’s to talk about the disappearances.
5x10 (indications from Jughead that he still wants Betty)
- Betty wants to keep Jughead involved in the case, but is thwarted by Glen.
- Jughead needs to write a book and the whole mess with Tabitha, Jess and the Maple Mushrooms happens.
- During his Mushroom trip, Jughead makes the comment about Betty ruining things just as they are getting fun. Interesting. He then hallucinates Betty letting him out of his handcuffs and begging for forgiveness, which he immediately gives to hallucination!Betty. This shows that despite the pain he felt in the past, he very much WANTS to move past it with her. The fact that he reaches for her and kisses her shows that he also wants to rekindle their relationship, but it seems he needs to work through what happened between them first (fair).
- The wanting look in his eyes says it all.
5x11 (indication from Betty that she still cares for Jughead)
- While Betty is annoyed, she agrees to help Tabitha look for Jughead. This is significant because she doesn’t have to help. She is still searching for her sister... but because she cares about Jughead’s welfare, she takes the time to go out and look for him.
- She still remembers his phone passcode.
- We finally find out why she’s been borderline icy towards Jughead. She is very clearly hurt about the voicemail he left her 2 years ago. Likely because he took jabs at her insecurities (we later find out the context of that voicemail, but that’s another episode). The implication seems to be that Betty also thinks Jughead wrote shitty things about her in The Outcasts. While the audience knows this probably isn’t true, Jess uses that possibility to gain Betty’s sympathy and get the manuscript. As yet, not much is confirmed about the book in regards to Betty other than that ‘it’s a sexy book’. We don’t even know if Betty read it.
5x14 (finally, context)
- Jughead goes to AA (woo!!) which is a big step towards his healing process.
- It’s revealed that he started drinking in college. But, he also secured a book deal with an agent in New York.
- Jughead’s first phone call about his new writing adventure is to Betty. And she answers his call. It is revealed that their first conversation is a positive one. She is very happy for him.
- and then, for what seems like a long time, they stay in contact. They both had other partners, Jughead was living with Jess by now, and Betty was seeing someone; and yet they were secretly, it would seem (since Jughead was hiding his phone from Jess), communicating with each other.
- Betty tells Jughead she wouldn’t miss his book launch. Therefore, he is understandably upset when she does miss his book launch.
- Because Jughead has started living the party lifestyle, drinking, doing drugs, and all around lets his grief over Betty bailing on him get the best of him - he sends her what he describes as a toxic voicemail (this is what likely led Betty to believe he’d written terrible things about her in his book, since that’s literally what he tells her: that everyone would see what a cold, fake, duplicitous bitch she was). He barely remembers it, but he knows it was bad. The fact that he regrets it shows he didn’t want to cut Betty out of his life, and he was never intending to hurt her.
- This is when the source of his trauma is revealed: while drunk, he falls into a sinkhole and is bitten by rats, thereby contracting rabies and hallucinating the shit out of the Rat King.
- But even though he was devastated with Betty’s no-show because he cares for (and was, at that time, probably still in love with) her and still wants her in his life, his mind concocts a new hallucination:
- Betty appears to him and saves him from drowning in the underground tunnels. His mind literally came up with a saviour!Betty hallucination that leads him out of the dark and away from death. This implies that he thinks that Betty is his light in the dark - which is significant because of the references in the series that lead to Betty giving herself the ‘darkness’ persona.
- After all that, Jughead believes that nobody really cares about him, which is just devastating to hear.
5x15
- Betty stands up for Jughead to Josie, because she knew the context of Jughead robbing the diner.
(Betty cheering was me during that scene)
5x16
- Jughead’s AA recommended apology tour starts with Betty, but she’s not home, because she is still hunting for information on her sister. But she was the first person he wanted to talk to - again.
- It’s revealed through texts that Betty and Jughead apparently hang out with each other and Archie after work. More importantly, Jughead wants to talk her, and so we get this beautifully directed and scored texting scene. Jughead is about to commit literary fraud, but before he does so, he needs to talk to Betty, and she agrees to meet him in the bunker for privacy.
- Again, Betty is very preoccupied with her search for Polly, but she makes time for Jughead.
- The bunker scene is very telling, so here it is in its entirety:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUMAB9O2vtg
- Jughead tells Betty he is sorry. Explains the circumstances of the voicemail. He admits he’s an alcoholic. He cries.
- Betty finally acknowledges that she, too, has a problem. We finally get a better look inside of Betty’s head. She is obsessed with hunting serial killers, and she’s more comfortable doing that than living a normal life. This is the first time she has been raw and vulnerable with someone this entire season. ONLY with Jughead does she feel safe enough to admit what is going on in her life. It’s clear that Betty is on the verge of breaking down completely, but she gets a lot off her chest with Jughead - then leaves when he’s distracted, probably because she’s overwhelmed by the admissions.
- Later, Jughead, the King of Stress Eating, is so worried about Betty that he can’t eat. Tabitha the goodest pal encourages him to focus on his recovery (smart).
5x17 (the iconic investigative duo is back and together they will solve the crime in one episode)
- There’s not a crime these two can’t solve, so Tabitha asks them to help find her missing friend. Betty gives Jughead a smile.
- This episode has plenty of Bughead-team up moments. They investigate together, uncover the mystery together, and figure out who the highway killers are. They still work well together, and can put their heads together to figure out what all the clues mean.
- The key piece of evidence from the episode as to whether or not Betty really cares about Jughead is this: Betty has just been choked by a serial killer, has a flashback to TBK, and then the second she’s freed by Toni, and hears Jughead may be in trouble, she runs to him.
Throughout the season, there was plenty of evidence that Jughead still feels something for Betty, but in 5x17 it becomes clearer that Betty, despite the fact that she’s completely shut off her own feelings, also still feels something for Jughead.
5x18 and 5x19
Now, there are little-to-no Bughead scenes in these episodes. But I don’t think that takes away from everything else present in Season 5.
Throughout the season, there are also scenes with Jughead and Tabitha that show Tabitha cares for Jughead, and that they are becoming good friends. And there are several moments in the season suggesting they could give dating a shot. Them deciding to date is what they want at the moment, so we will see where that leads.
It’s established from episode 4 that when Betty can’t process her emotions, she distracts herself with the company of men. And she just lost her sister. She is devastated. Archie, having just lost Veronica, is in a vulnerable position and wants to move on (plenty of thoughts on the Varchie ship this season, but this post is about Bughead). From what we’ve seen of Betty this season, it makes sense that she’d throw herself into a relationship so she doesn’t need to feel the pain of losing Polly. And yet, Barchie hooking up in the last few scenes of this episode leads on to RiverVale, where Betty helps sacrifice Archie in episode one, so make of that what you will.
Neither Betty nor Jughead had any indication from each other that there could be a realistic or healthy rekindling of their past relationship. They’re also adults and well within their rights to date other people.
But that doesn’t mean their relationship is over forever.
One need only watch the entirety of the rest of Season 5 to see that neither Betty nor Jughead is over the other. Even with them dating other people, Jughead especially is very unlikely to go from openly admitting to Tabitha that he is not over his breakup with Betty... to randomly being over it. There are multiple instances of Betty and Jughead not only still caring for each other, but wanting each other in their lives. Neither Betty or Jughead are particularly healthy at the moment - but the only people who properly understand and accept them, flaws and all... are each other.
Betty and Jughead are Endgame, and thank you for coming to my TEDtalk.
happy five year anniversary to me watching season one of riverdale on the couch during my staycation and nearly throwing my bowl of popcorn across the room when Jughead Jones called Betty Cooper “Betts.”
It has been (and continues to be) a wild, wild ride, y’all.
two years ago today, I recorded 4x16 with my friend Hailey, unaware that it would be my last time recording @bodysuitsforbughead in person due to both the pandemic and my disinterest in watching what happened in 4x17 and beyond. I hope this show provides a satisfying conclusion to bughead’s story so I can one day return. and yes, I still hope to do the Lost Episodes (1x10-2x09) eventually but have been more inspired to do @leftistteendrama and fanfic things than canon riverdale lately 🤷🏻♀️
