‘Riverdale’: Who Is Donna Sweett, Really?

In between the reveal that Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) is very much alive, and despite a fake-out kiss things might not be over between Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) and Archie Andrews (KJ Apa), Riverdale semi-casually dropped a pretty big bomb: the key to this season’s mystery is the identity of Donna Sweett (Sarah Desjardins), who is not who she says she is. So who is Donna Sweett on Riverdale?

Unfortunately for one real person who was discovered by many Googlers last night (March 4), she is not the Donna Sweet, MD who is an internist in Wichita, Kansas. Neither is she Donna Tartt, the author of best-selling novels “The Goldfinch” and more importantly “The Secret History,” which was at least in part an inspiration for this season of Riverdale. She is played by Sarah Desjardins, who has been evil-ing it up all season as Stonewall Prep student Donna Sweett, and previously appeared on Impulse and Project MC2.

But none of that answers the question of Donna’s true identity. Though she initially seemed demure and supportive of Jughead, while fellow Stonie Bret Weston Wallis (Sean Depner) seemed to be the Alpha, this week’s “To Die For” officially flipped the script, revealing Donna as the mastermind and Bret as her flunky. For unknown reasons, Donna has been at the center of several mysteries at Stonewall, all of which promise to be revealed on the next episode, titled “The Locked Room.” Those include the death of Stonewall teacher Mr. Chipping (Sam Witwer), framing Jughead for plagiarism, stealing his novel and selling it as the next Baxter Brother book (a psuedo Hardy Boys mystery series), and of course, almost killing Jughead. Luckily, a blow to the head with a rock was cushioned by his trusty beanie, but the intent was there. Also, she seemingly murdered her other flunky Jonathan (Alex Barima), and maybe other people as well.

Thanks to some digging from Veronica Lodge’s (Camila Mendes) half-sister Hermosa (Mishel Prada), Jughead and friends discovered that Donna is not who she says she is — and it’s a clue that according to the newly revived Mr. Jones brings the whole mystery together. But which true name could be so obvious and satisfying at the same time that it would tie everything up with a bow?

Naturally we’ll have to wait a week to find out for sure, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do some speculation.

The most obvious connection is that she’s related, in some way, to Francis DuPont (Malcolm Stewart), the Stonies’ English teacher, and former ghost-writer for the Baxter Brothers books. Why that would be a big deal is a little unclear… She’s trying to consolidate the fortune and keep Stonewall in the family, instead of with the Jones family, who originally created the series? Maybe, but that seems convoluted, even for Riverdale. There’s also no real reason for Donna to keep that a secret: she’s a Stonewall Prep student, he’s a teacher, the whole school is about legacy anyway. It wouldn’t really change much if she was related to DuPont, honestly.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, she could be Donna Evernever. Edgar Evernever (Chad Michael Murray) was the leader of evil cult The Farm last season before building a homemade rocket and dying in Season 4. Donna has visited Edgar’s daughter/wife Evelyn Evernever (Zoe de Grand Maison) before in order to get info on Betty, and certainly the Evernevers have a serious bone to pick with the Cooper/Jones/Smith family. That said? The Evernevers are much more focused on Betty than Jughead; and while the plot has shifted to pit Betty against Donna, it’s again pretty convoluted that the school would target Jughead, when they could have as easily gone after Betty if Donna is, in fact, an Evernever.

Or maybe Donna is actually Donna Peabody. Penny Peabody (Brit Morgan) is a gang leader with a serious passion for trying to destroy Jughead, to the point that she seemingly killed him back in Season 2. They’ve battled multiple times (one time she stole his dog!) and is still out there, somewhere, alive. Revealing that Donna is Penny’s daughter would make it much more personal for her to take out Jughead; and I could see a storyline where Donna has done everything she could to get ahead with the preppies, worked and lied and pretended to be one of them; when ultimately Jughead came in and got special privileges seemingly just because he’s a man. Not saying they’d go that route, but it certainly would focus the reveal more on revenge.

There’s also the possibility that she’s related in some way to the new Riverdale High principal, Mr. Honey (Kerr Smith). Making a “Sweett” and “Honey” connection would be classic Riverdale logic, and there is an episode later in the season titled “Killing Mr. Honey.” Meaning after the Stonies are taken care of, there might be bigger fish to fry. And Mr. Honey was the one who initially got Jughead into Stonewall Prep, thanks to some recruiting from Mr. Chipping, so it’s not like there’s no connection there. It would also help the overall structure of the season… Though the Stonewall Prep story seems to be wrapping up next week, there are still six episodes to go in Season 4, which would mean there most likely is some uber-villain the teens still need to deal with post-Donna. Mr. Honey, perhaps, fills that bill.

That all said? This is Riverdale, so ultimately they could reveal that Donna’s real name is Donna Riverdale, the heir to the town of Riverdale, and we wouldn’t bat an eye. Whoever Donna Sweett is, there’s one thing we know is true, though: please don’t bother that poor internist in Wichita.

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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