‘Riverdale’ Cast Recaps Season 3 Premiere, Explains Episode’s Major Moments

Summer comes to an end during the Season 3 premiere of The CW’s “Riverdale,” and so does Archie’s (KJ Apa) murder trial. But that’s only one of the big moments the cast broke down for fans when chatting at New York Comic Con over the weekend.

*Spoilers ahead*

“It’s a tough situation. It’s tragic,” Apa told IBT about his character heading to a detention center. “It’s sad, and I feel like that from the minute he steps foot into that juvie, he’s in survival mode. And I feel like he changes a lot inside juvie. He changes a lot, and he’s isolated a lot from the other characters, too, which changes his relationship with Veronica, his dad.”

He explained that Archie’s time being locked up will majorly affect his connection with his friends and family. Throughout this season of “Riverdale,” he and his dad, especially, will have a change in their relationship because Archie begins to see him in a new light. He’s growing up fast, “grown into more of a man” and starts to feel like he’s more on the same level as Fred.

As for that new Serpent tattoo Archie got? Apa also teased going to need it in juvie. He’s in “survival mode” there, and the new piece of body art will be helpful in trying to keep himself safe.

When it comes to that Season 3 premiere ending of Betty (Lili Reinhart) seeing her mom, Alice (Mädchen Amick), and her sister, Polly (Tiera Skovbye), throwing the twins into a fire and them levitating, which brings Betty to faint and have what looks like a seizure, Reinhart and Amick have a few thoughts.

“How much is real? How much is twisted? How much is — could it be magical or supernatural? Don’t know,” Amick told IBT. “You’ll have to find out. To be honest, some of it has been revealed [to the cast], but there’s still a question, even now, halfway through the season. So, there’s an open-ended reasoning behind that.”

Reinhart, meanwhile, explains that the incident might be connected to all of the other strange happenings on “Riverdale” this season, including, possibly, the new villain AKA the Gargoyle King.

“I would kind of explain the mystery in Riverdale as an epidemic, something that’s involving the whole town, especially the kids,” she said. “It’s very mysterious. No one really knows where it’s coming from, what’s going on, who’s causing it. It’s very up in the air, and I think Betty is kind of freaked out by what happened, but I think it just makes her more suspicious of the farm.”

The actress continued: “She’s like, ‘Okay, now that my mom is with the farm, all of these weird things are happening. The farm has relocated to Riverdale, so obviously, the farm has something to do with this epidemic that’s happening. So, something’s wrong with this thing, and I gotta tell them to [expletive] off.’”

Find out what happens next when “Riverdale” airs new Season 3 episodes on The CW on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EDT.