Who Will Die in the ‘Riverdale’ Musical Episode?

Cheryl is, of course, playing HBIC Heather Chandler. In the movie version, it’s a relatively small role, as the leader of the elite squad of Heathers dies in the first act. In the stage show, she comes back as a ghost a bunch of times.

Regardless, fans have become increasingly worried about the ginger meanie for a few reasons. First, there’s how Heather C. dies. After a cup gets “accidentally” switched by bad boy J.D., she drinks some blue drain cleaner and dies. On Riverdale, there’s been a season long arc about an evil role-playing game called Gryphons & Gargoyles that only ends when you drink from one of two potentially poisoned chalices and “ascend.” The liquid in the chalices? A blue juice drink called Fresh-Aid, and cyanide.

There’s another clue we should worry about Cheryl, and that’s a promo that dropped before the season even started, showing her crashing through a glass table and lying “dead” on the floor. That’s exactly what happens with Heather C. in Heathers.

So, is that it for the remaining Blossom twin? Heck no. She may end up in serious trouble this episode, but there’s no way the show is killing off Cheryl. The Core Four (Veronica, Archie, Betty and Jughead) and Cheryl are the only characters on this show completely protected by plot armor.

There’s the aforementioned plot armor for Veronica (Camila Mendes), but also in her favor? Heather M. is one of the few characters who doesn’t die in the show, despite a suicide attempt by pills in the bathroom. Of the Heathers, she’s the most sympathetic.

Though the usually sweet Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) is cast against type as Heather D., that character also doesn’t die — despite a fantasy sequence to the contrary in the movie version. Also there’s no way Betty will ever die on this show.

The “hero” of Heathers, Josie McCoy (Ashleigh Murray) is playing Veronica Sawyer, the part made famous by Winona Ryder in the movie version. There’s a pretend suicide attempt Veronica uses to fake out J.D. later in the show, but I don’t expect we’ll see Josie really hanging, for two reasons: first, she was filming up until about episode 18 or 19 of the season; and second, Murray’s currently in New York City filming Riverdale spinoff Katy Keene, which takes place after the events of Riverdale. Unless she’s starring on that show as a ghost, Josie will be fine.

Here’s where we need to start really worrying about characters. J.D. dies in every version of Heathers, blowing himself up after unsuccessfully trying to do the same to the school. Though Sweet Pea (Jordan Connor) has been a staple of the show for years, his gang member is — frankly — pretty disposable. And we haven’t seen anyone explode yet on Riverdale, so why not? Still, a knock against him kicking the bucket is that it wouldn’t have the same impact (sorry Sweet Pea fans, it’s true) as some of the other, bigger characters. We’ll see!

Ha ha ha what? No, Archie (KJ Apa) is not going to die. He got attacked by a bear and survived. He’ll be fine, even if mean jocks Kurt and Ram end up as the second and third students to die by the hands of teen serial killer J.D.

…On the other hand, you may want to start worrying about Reggie Mantle (Charles Melton), the other half of that couple. In Heathers, Kurt and Ram’s deaths are made to look like a double suicide after J.D. tricks Veronica (Sawyer, not Lodge) into using what she thinks are “Ich Lüge” bullets. J.D. tells her they’re tranquilizer bullets, but of course… They’re not. So could we see something similar happen here, where the production thinks there are blanks in the gun, when in fact Reggie gets shot with a real bullet?

There are certainly a few plot points that could indicate this may be the path Riverdale will go. Reggie previously got shot in the arm during a heist, and was bummed he couldn’t tell everyone about it. And last episode Veronica (Lodge, not Sawyer) broke up with him, meaning his main plotline this season is at an end (for the moment).

There’s also a real world consideration here, which is that Melton has been off filming Bad Boys for Life in Atlanta for the past several months, and hasn’t been seen on set other than to stop by and visit his real life girlfriend, Camila Mendes. So is that it for Reggie 2.0? Certainly if young Mr. Mantle buys the farm, it would be a major death for the series; and despite his character being crucial to the Archie Comics canon, other than his plot this season with Veronica the show hasn’t exactly figured out what to do with him.

It would be a bummer, mind you, because Melton has been hilarious this season, so I do hope they keep him around. But we’ll see…

Pretty Poisons gang-member Peaches ‘n Cream (Bernadette Beck) was a surprise addition to the “Heathers: The Musical” cast, and Beck has been taking full advantage of pumping up her role. A recent tweet asked fans, “Ok. Who’s excited for the musical episode? Personally, I’m dying to see how it turns out.”

Which, you know, not that subtle on the “dying” front. As far as we know, Beck has only been contracted up until this episode, so it’s possible we may be saying goodbye to her before we even find out how she got that name.

Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) has almost been killed a few times this season, including one time he was dropped on his head, but so far he’s pulled through. Will it make he make it past the musical alive? Maybe? Again, this doesn’t seem like a huge death for the show, necessarily. But would be sad for anyone who ‘ships Swangs (Sweet Pea and Fangs) or Kevangs (Kevin and Fangs). By the way, on the latter front, Kevin Keller (Casey Cott) does appear in the musical, but we’re gonna go out on a limb and say he’ll make it out of this one alive, too.

This is a bit of a head-scratcher, as Betty Finn is a character from the movie — not the stage show. In the film, she’s an old friend of Veronica’s shunned after she joined up with the Heathers. On stage, that role is taken by Martha “Dumptruck” Dunnstock, who doesn’t show up on Riverdale. So mostly, Toni seems to be playing Betty just to add to the confusion.

Could she die? Sure. But I tend to think Riverdale is smarter than killing off one of their openly LGBTQ+ characters. So let’s say she’s safe! For now.

Where to stream Riverdale