‘Riverdale’: Who Is The Voyeur?

True to form for The CW’s Riverdale, even in the midst of a celebratory (and heart-breaking) musical episode things are bound to get dark and weird — and that’s exactly what happened in the final seconds of this week’s “Wicked Little Town.” All season long, Riverdale has been teasing a mysterious voyeur, someone who has been filming hours long VHS tapes of the Riverdale citizens’ doors (and not much else). But as Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) delved further into the bizarre tapes, the mystery finally moved to the forefront: who is The Voyeur?

Spoilers for Riverdale Season 4, Episode 17 “Chapter Seventy-Four: Wicked Little Town” past this point.

“The voyeur mystery’s been… a really slow burn throughout the season,” showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told Decider. “So much so that fans would always be like, ‘Wasn’t there supposed to be something about that this year?'”

In fact, the initial art for the season teased “sex. lies. videotape,” positioning the VHSes as the primary mystery for Season 4. Who was watching the teens of Riverdale? Would it tie, in some way, to The Farm cult from last season — another mystery that focused on secrets and videotapes? Or be something new?

Over 16 episodes, the VHS mystery only popped up a few times, mostly at the beginning of episodes and was shoved to the side in favor of the bigger mysteries and relationship drama of Riverdale. Instead, the season delved heavily into another mystery, focusing on Jughead’s new, elite high school Stonewall Prep. Tying into a Season 3 cliffhanger, Jughead faked his own death in order to get to the bottom of a tangled web involving, self-reflexively, a teen mystery series, betrayals, and secret societies. Or rather, the Stonies (his fellow Stonewall students) hit him on the head with a rock, and then framed a drugged Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) for Jughead’s murder.

Then in “Wicked Little Town,” in order to avoid doing his homework Jughead volunteered to watch through hours of videotape for his half-brother, FBI Agent Charles Smith (Wyatt Nash). Though the majority of the tapes were nothing but front door footage, Jughead discovered something strange in one video of the woods: someone who was wearing a mask that looked very much like the classic, Archie Comics version of none other than Jughead. Not only that, but a second figure wearing a comics canon mask of Betty appeared, and hit the masked Jughead on the head with a rock. Horrified, Jughead watched as “Betty” looked directly into the camera. Cut to credits.

Though this ending parallels nicely with the shocking, dark endings of the previous two musical episodes — at the end of Season 2’s Carrie episode “A Night To Remember” Midge Klump (Emilija Baranac) was found crucified on stage, and last season’s Heathers episode “BIG FUN” ushered in cult leader Edgar Evernever (Chad Michael Murray) — it wasn’t always part of the plan.

“We did do a cut of the final number without the mystery element and without the scene of Jughead,” Aguirre-Sacasa recalled. “We went back and we tried a version without the Voyeur, and with the Voyeur; and versions where you saw what was on the screen and versions when you didn’t see what was on the screen…  After viewing all the different versions it felt like to honor what Riverdale is and the truth of Riverdale, we should include this crazy video … we should just own that. And it felt like it wove the episode more into the fabric of the season.”

The big twist here, of course, is that The Voyeur knows — or thinks they know — what happened in the woods that night with Betty and Jughead. Naturally, they’re wrong, Betty never hit Jughead with a rock nearly killing him because she was instead drugged with a zombifying dose of Devil’s Breath by Stonewall student Donna Sweett (Sarah Desjardins). Unless, of course, she wasn’t, since it was Jughead and Betty who offered up the info about Donna’s Devil’s Breath usage, not Donna herself?

Regardless, the bigger question is: who is The Voyeur? Or who are The Voyeurs, since there are two people in the video Jughead spies. The most reasonable guess is Charles and Chic (Hart Denton), the latter a villain who has plagued the Riverdale gang in the past. Charles and Chic were seen bonding while the latter was in prison, and were/are in a relationship. Whether Chic has made it out of prison to depict one of the people in the video, and the other is Charles, is a few logical leaps, even for Riverdale. But still, a possibility.

Another possibility? The Stonies. Donna was handily beaten by Betty, and her fellow student Bret Weston Wallis (Sean Depner) literally beaten by Jughead. But they’re both still out there and around, and know very well what actually happened that night in the woods.

Whoever The Voyeur is, it’s clear they’re just getting started.

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

Where to watch Riverdale