'Riverdale': Cole Sprouse Teases Jughead Family Drama, Lili Reinhart On Betty's Search For Polly

Life is about to get even more complicated for Jughead Jones in The CW’s “Riverdale.”

In Thursday’s new episode, Jughead (played by Cole Sprouse) will go and see his dad, FP (Skeet Ulrich), to ask him to consider going back to work for Fred Andrews (Luke Perry), and AccessHollywood.com has a sneak peek at the heartbreaking scene.

In the clip, Jughead tells his dad, whose home is littered in alcohol bottles, that taking the job could help FP on the path toward fixing the Jones family.

Cole previously told AccessHollywood.com that things were going to get “so much worse” for his character. And when we caught up with the actor earlier this week, he revealed Thursday’s episode will pave the way even more on that story arc for his character.

“This upcoming episode you really learn quite a bit about Jughead and the family life, but this is just sort of the launching platform,” Cole said. “Episode 7 is where you first learn about why Jughead’s the way he is and then, from Episode 7 on wards, oh, it just gets so much worse for poor Jughead.”

Although there is trouble with his dad, and the teenager is still without a permanent home, there is some light in Jughead’s life – his budding relationship with Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart). The two shared a kiss in last week’s episode. Betty’s response to the kiss was unexpected as she changed gears, turning her attention to finding Jason Blossom’s car. Jughead did make note of Betty’s response — saying, “Wow, that’s what you were thinking of in the middle of our moment?” — but he didn’t take it as a slight, Cole said.

“I had sort of read it as, well, if Jughead can be a force of clarity in Betty’s life in that moment where she’s sort of hyperventilating and panicking — if his romance with Betty can be the thing that allows her to see clearly, that’s something I think he [would take] pride in,” Cole told Access. 

When the investigative duo of Betty and Jughead eventually went to go find Jason’s car, Jughead started sifting through the contents of the trunk – a moment that had us thinking, “Don’t touch what’s in the trunk!” It had Cole thinking that too.

“Yeah, definitely. Definitely. But it’s important to remember that they’re also kids,” he said. “Jughead and Betty are 16, 17. Especially in these moments where they’re probably having a rush of emotions, mixed emotions, about excitement and finding the car, being in front of the authorities in how to lead the case and all those other mixed emotions, I think it’s also understandable to me why Jughead really wouldn’t be paying too much attention to it.”

Someone was watching Betty and Jughead from behind the trees when they found Jason’s car. Lili Reinhart, who plays Betty, told Access that the mystery of who was spying on them will eventually be answered.

“I was really worried. I was hoping nothing bad would come of that, that they wouldn’t be harmed,” Lili told Access, when asked about her reaction to reading the scene in the script. “It definitely adds to the mystery. You’ll find out eventually who that person was.”

Thursday’s episode will also focus on the search for Polly Cooper, who was missing at the end of Episode 6.

“Betty takes her sister’s situation extremely seriously. As you’ve seen throughout the whole season so far, Polly means everything to Betty and Betty will go to any length to find Polly,” Lili said. “And in Episode 7, she definitely kind of headlines a search party for her sister.”

The search party will involve the whole Cooper family, but despite their talk last week, Betty hasn’t taken her folks off her list of potential suspects in the murder of Jason Blossom.

“I think Betty is still very suspicious of her parents and I think she can’t officially knock her parents off the list until she can talk to Polly more because she really didn’t have the opportunity to in Episode 6, to really talk to Polly about her parents,” Lili said. “So she can’t just yet after Episode 6.”

“Riverdale” continues Thursday at 9/8c on The CW. 

Jolie Lash