The TV Boyfriend Jacket. You know it, you love it, but did you recognize it in Wednesday's Riverdale mid-season finale? It's important, because this one Riverdale detail proves that Bughead is endgame. PERIOD. End of discussion.
Jughead and Betty have been on the outs since the seven-year-time jump early in Season 5. They've barely said two words to each other, and they didn't even share a scene in the mid-season finale, "The Pincushion Man," and yet, the episode was full of hints that high school lovers will be together eventually. From Jughead admitting to Tabitha that he never really got over her, to Betty trying to take Jughead with her to her FBI meeting with Glen. But the biggest hint came at the end, when Betty is getting ready to go undercover as a truck driver on the Lonely Highway.
Notice the jacket she's wearing as she loads her gun? It should look familiar to fans, after all, it's identical to the jacket Jughead wore throughout Season 1. The denim variant of his beloved sherpa-lined jacket. (He's been wearing a corduroy version post-time jump.) As @FanPageForCole noted on Twitter, if it is the same jacket, then that would mean that Betty's kept it for seven whole years. And, remember, they weren't even speaking for most of that. Keeping the jacket of your high school boyfriend who you haven't talked to in over five years, and then bringing it out to go on a covert mission to try to save your sister, is not something you do when you're fully over said boyfriend. It's just not.
Other than giving Bughead shippers everywhere hope, Betty's decision to wear Jughead's jacket also signals something deeper in their relationship. After all these years, when she needs some courage or comfort, or a little bit of both, she still reaches for something that reminds her of Jughead.
If that isn't enough proof that Bughead is coming, then consider this Season 4 callback, as noted by @BettyJug_, who tweeted screenshots of Jughead specifically telling Betty that if he were ever to go missing, he's confident Betty would find him. Well, now he's gone missing. So, Betty, I hope you're ready to find him.
Bughead still has a long way to go before getting back together. For one thing, Jughead seems to have disappeared after a bad trip with maple mushrooms. Meanwhile, Betty's still looking for her maybe dead sister, and we still don't know what Jughead said in his message to Betty that led to them not speaking for years. They've got more than a few things to get through before they can truly live their best Bughead life.
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