The new Riverdale Season 5 trailer is absolutely bonkers, so you'd be forgiven if you missed one of the weirdest details revealed. Don't be distracted by the new cult in town, Toni's baby, or the return of Josie and the Pussycats. It's Cheryl's paintings in the new Riverdale trailer that are worth taking another look at.
I'll cut to the chase: I'm convinced magic is coming to Riverdale. In fact, it might already be there, and the proof is in Cheryl's art. The Blossom family's ties to magic has been teased multiple times throughout Riverdale and its sister show, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. All that came to a head in the midseason finale, when Cheryl, her mother, and grandmother all prayed to save their home from the fire Reggie set in their maple grove — and it worked. Reggie called it a "freak windstorm," but I have always suspected magic. Riverdale writer Evan Kyle even told The Dipp that it's "not impossible" that the Blossoms are magic.
What does this have to do with Cheryl's paintings? Take a look and see for yourself.
In the teaser, you might notice that Cheryl's paintings appear three times throughout the clip. First, the promo opens with a head-scratching portrait of Jughead, wearing a crown (no beanie) and sitting on a throne with a couple of giant rats. I'll admit, at first, I had no idea what the hell this was about, but then, after watching the full trailer, suddenly it made sense: Cheryl is predicting the future with her paintings.
In the trailer, we see that Cheryl has painted an angry Betty wielding a bloody chainsaw. Dressed in her classic Season 1 Betty uniform of a button-down, sweater, and ponytail combo, this Betty is angry and determined. It's a terrifying window inside Cheryl's own mind and how she views others, but aside from that, it's also a huge magical red flag.
Clothes and creepy eyes aside, the image is nearly identical to a shot of the real Betty from moments earlier, when, she takes a chainsaw off the wall and walks towards an unknown person or thing. (The trailer clearly wants us to think she's going to chainsaw a suspect in Polly's murder to death, but I'm not sure I'm convinced.)
Coincidence? I think not! Either Cheryl is stalking Betty or she's got the magical ability to predict the future with her painting. and I'm betting on the latter.
What Does Jughead's Painting Mean?
Now that we've established that Cheryl's paintings are premonitions for our Riverdale crew, we have to figure out what the hell this painting means. Assuming this isn't a painting of Cheryl's Disney Channel crush, Dylan Sprouse, I'm going to go ahead and say that this is, in fact, a portrait of Jughead Jones. So, now that we've got that out of the way, a couple things stand out.
- The crown
- 4 rats
- The creepy red-eyed figure behind him
The figure behind Jughead in the painting also appears to be the mysterious figure the crew encounters later in the trailer (see below), suggesting it has something to do with the Mothmen. (Or, at the very least, something to do with Jughead's disappearance, which was fueled by a quest for the Mothmen.)
Here's my theory: high on his magic mushrooms, Jughead escaped the bunker through a secret tunnel, following the Mothmen (who are revealed to be just regular people living underground, but who have developed some biological anomalies after decades below the surface). The four rats could represent the core four group: Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead. They also could just signify that, wherever Jughead disappeared to, he's underground. As for the throne, it's reminiscent to the one Jughead sat on back in high school when he was Serpent King. Perhaps the Mothmen recognized his royal gang blood and made him their king too? Or maybe they're also obsessed with Game of Thrones.
Riverdale returns with new episodes Aug. 11, so hopefully we won't have to wait a whole lot longer to see just how magical Cheryl's paintings are.
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Image: Dean Buscher/The CW