When we last saw the young women of “Riverdale,” Polly Cooper was going to stay with Veronica’s mom – Hermione Lodge.
But, as the show returns to The CW on Thursday, don’t expect the mom of the pregnant teen, Alice Cooper, to embrace the move.
“Yeah, Alice doesn’t take it well,” Mädchen Amick told AccessHollywood.com of her character’s reaction. “She’s a huge control freak and she doesn’t like it when anybody makes those kind of decisions, especially about her precious daughters. So, she doesn’t take it well, and that’s why there’s a sit down that Hermione has to call Alice into at the diner. So it’s going to be fun to watch the two of them and what Hermione proposes to Alice.”
We know there’s history among the parents of “Riverdale,” but don’t expect Alice and Hermione’s own high school past to come up during this sitdown like it did for Fred Andrews and FP Jones in a recent episode.
“We don’t get to the Hermione/Alice backstory as much in the first season as what I [hear] is planned in the second season because there’s just so much going on between the Coopers and the Blossoms that I think we have to deal with first — get that out of the way,” Mädchen said. “But, with all the characters in town and even with Mary Andrews — Archie’s mom — coming back into town, you get to learn all of the mess of the parents’ history and how that relates to the kids and what they’re going through. So it’s fun to see all the layers and all the history in town.”
One history that’s already been established is the long-running feud between the Coopers and the Blossoms — over a maple syrup dynasty. Alice’s husband Hal was born into that particular conflict, but is Alice too harboring the grudge? And what’s her role in keeping that feud going?
“That’s a really good question because that was actually something that I wanted to clear up with [Executive Producer] Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa], was — how much is this something personal that she feels? How much of this is just kind of what she’s doing [for her husband]? And she pretty much has taken on the rivalry to defend her husband and Hal’s feelings, and Hal’s family’s feelings. And then, I think that’s also created animosity just naturally between Penelope and Alice. But you will see later on that there’s actually something even deeper that Hal has kept from Alice and it absolutely throws Alice for a loop.”
Within all the drama, there is some light. Alice Cooper is on board with her daughter Betty’s romance with Jughead Jones! While Betty hasn’t come out and told her mom she’s dating FP II, Alice is aware and kind of ships it.
“We don’t get to see that actual moment where she says, ‘Hey mom, this is my new boyfriend, Jughead,’ but I think, Alice knows and what’s kind of fun is that Alice actually really likes Jughead,” Mädchen said. “Surprisingly enough, she doesn’t have a problem with it. So, it’s kind of fun to see that Alice supports her in it and that she has a little bit of a soft spot for Jughead. She may not show that or know how to show that because she always going to keep everybody on alert. No one is allowed to hurt her babies. But, yeah, I think it’s kind of cute – out of all the people Alice ends up accepting Jughead.”
“Riverdale” continues Thursday at 8/7c on The CW.
— Jolie Lash