Veronica Lodge/Season 7 (2024)

Arrival in Riverdale[]

Veronica arrives in Riverdale on what she claims to be a sabbatical from the Hollywood lifestyle. She makes the acquaintance of Archie and the Gang and reveals to them that she personally knew the recently deceased James Dean, who she claims was bisexual, which angers Cheryl. As the school day comes to an end, Archie offers to walk Veronica home, but she's already agreed to be driven home by Julian. To her surprise, the following day, she arrives at school to find Archie waiting outside with his car. He's hoping to give her a ride home today, an offer she gladly accepts. Archie takes her to Pop's and tells her about some of his interest. Unfortunately, their date is interrupted by Cheryl, who reveals that Veronica was lied about her reasons for being in Riverdale. To Archie, Veronica confesses that she was banished by her neglectful parents, who Veronica has to beg to even spend Thanksgiving with.^[1]

As the annual sock hop dance approaches, Veronica is asked out by several young men at Riverdale High, namely Archie and Julian, who are warring for her affection. And so, she invites them to the Pembrooke in order to get to better know her suitors. Unfortunately, the gathering doesn't go as planned after Julian instigates a fight with Archie, one in which Veronica is deeply apologetic for and even goes as far as going to Archie's home to apologize, where she is warned by Mrs. Andrews not to hurt Archie any more than she already has. Having given Mary's words some consideration, Veronica decides to go to the dance alone. However, after finding the poem that he wrote for her but threw away, she asks Archie to dance, though he joins his mother instead, at which point, Julian joins Veronica and extends his hand to dance, which she reluctantly takes.^[2]

Make-out Party[]

After failing to convince Archie to give her another chance, Veronica decides to host a make-out party at the Pembrooke, where she uses a game of "Post Office" as a ploy to passionately kiss Archie in an attempt to get him to reconsider. However, Cheryl is also vying for Archie's attention, leaving Veronica to choose between Jughead and Julian, ultimately settling with the former, who she discovers that she has quite a bit in common with. Not only does she read, both Veronica and Jughead like monster movies, with Creature from the Black Lagoon being their favorite. Jughead even compares her to Julie Adams, which seems to spark in Veronica a romantic interest with Jughead.^[3]

Developing feelings for Jughead[]

Veronica dons her Norma Charles' hat to help Jughead prove his and Ethel's innocence. She tracks down the coroner and the autopsy performed on the Muggs proves Jughead's innocence as he was in the audiotorium at the time of the murder. At Pop's, Ronnie and Jughead celebrate the boy's release and plan to have Julian testify as he forced himself on Ethel while he gave her a ride to Sock Pop. The two confront him in the school hallway, where Jughead punches him.

Ronnie and Jughead celebrate at a booth at Pop's, and she invites him to stay at the Pembrooke as his train car was trashed during the inspection. Over breakfast, the two delve into their relationship, even as Jughead feels like Little Orphan Annie at the luxury hotel. Veronica proves she's his Daddy Warbucks when she fixes Jughead's train car with the help of her prop friends from Los Angeles. The two share a kiss in her suite while watching a movie together.^[4]

Veronica stops by Jughead's train car to ask him to take her to a movie at the Babylonium, but she ultimately decides to stay inside and listen to his short stories for Pep Comics. After hearing his first three tales, she notices that she has yet to have a starring role. She'd like for it to be something romantic or about female friendship, leading Jughead to flip the classic teenage love triangle, one in which she and Betty don't go at each other's throats, rather Archie's after discovering that he was playing the two of them. The tale concludes with Veronica and Betty cutting Archie in half; Veronica takes Archie's top half and Betty has his bottom half. Jughead asks Veronica about her thoughts on his final story. She has detected a pattern. The sexual politics in most of his stories are troubling, and she accuses Jughead of demonizing women. Now that he's done, he asks her out to catch the last showing at the Babylonium, but Veronica is no longer interested, though she claims that she's simply tired. Unfortunately, this is not entirely true. The following day at school, Jughead and Veronica's relationship has changed. They' pass each other in the halls, but they're no longer the Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller of Riverdale High.^[5]

Veronica is approached by Betty, who enlists in her help with becoming more sexually appealing. They begin with Veronica inviting Betty to the Pembrooke to try on some black lingerie. As opposed to feeling sexy, she feels embarrassed. She wants to change back into her clothes, but Veronica encourages Betty to give herself a moment to get used to the lace. The following day at school, she reluctantly assists Betty with asking out Archie, but when he declines, they got out on a double date with some boys from Stonewall Prep instead. When that proves uneventful, Veronica and Betty decide to spy on Archie from Betty's window. They watch as Archie enters his room and undresses. They panic and duck when he looks their way.^[6]

Buying the Babylonium[]

As punishment for her role in Archie and Betty's sexual escapades, Veronica's allowance is revoked, and she's forced to work at the Babylonium. She works alongside Clay, who reveals that he wants to study filmmaking. As for Veronica, she's always loved being near cameras, which leads Clay to propose that maybe her destiny is to run a studio one day, and then she'll hire Clay to direct his first movie. Veronica then learns that the Babylonium is dying now that TV has taken a giant bite out of their business, not to mention the new drive-in making things worse. However, Veronica proposes they film a commercial to remind people of the feeling they get when coming to the theater. It isn't until after they're done that Veronica learns her parents intend to buy the Babylonium and turn it into a parking lot. Rather than see it destroyed, Veronica would like to buy the Babylonium, trading in an original Edward Hopper painting.^[7]

As the proud new owner of the Babylonium, Veronica invites Reggie to stop by or even board as a new hire. However, it is Kevin who takes Veronica up on her offer of employment. Given that Kevin is friends with Clay, Veronica is hopeful that he can help her sus out Clay, who she claims to have romantic feelings for, but in reality, she suspects that Kevin and Clay have feelings for each other and forces Kevin to admit this. Once he does, Veronica is overjoyed and excited for the adventures that await.^[8]

James Dean double feature[]

Veronica invites her classmates to the Babylonium's James Dean double feature. Kevin wonders why they're giving out tickets for free, to which Veronica replies that they make most of their profit from concessions. Clay then asks about Veronica's plan to invite the Bulldogs, as they suspect she's only actually interested in Reggie, who she personally invites. Unfortunately, that night, Veronica gets on stage and reluctantly informs the crowd that they are unable to screen the James Dean double feature and thus, she is forced to offer full refunds after they begin booing and throwing popcorn at her.

The following day, Veronica confronts Mr. Roth for sending her unplayable prints. Mr. Roth claims he has no idea how this mishap occurred, and, to make matters worse, there's no more available prints for him to even rectify the issue. To make matters worse, after calling around to other studios, Veronica learns that she's being blacklisted by her parents. After a brief chat with Jughead, Veronica comes out with an idea to sell the only movie she could get her hands on, The Crawling Eye, with a gimmick to attract customers. And so, she employs Archie and Reggie to dress up as monsters and scare the crowd for a 4D experience. With the overwhelming success of the Babyloium, Veronica finds herself too preoccupied to make her date with Reggie. And if that wasn't bad enough, she's been kicked out of the Pembrooke by her parents, forcing her to sleep at the Babylonium.

Veronica hopes to make up with Reggie for not making their date at the Babylonium. However, the following morning at school, she reveals to Betty that it was Reggie who appeared too preoccupied this time around. Betty expresses a similar sentiment about Archie and their date. And so, Veronica proposes they go on a double date to Fangs' Centerville performance. However, on their way to Centerville, Archie's car breaks down on the side of the road after running out of gas. With Pop's five miles back, Archie and Reggie are forced to walk back as Betty and Veronica remain in the car. Luckily, Cheryl, Toni, and Midge arrive soon thereafter and offer them a ride.^[9]

References[]