Camila Mendes knows some Riverdale fans will be furious after tonight's episode.

The show returns tonight after a month-long hiatus with its “core four”—couples Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Jughead (Cole Sprouse), and Archie (KJ Apa) and Veronica (Mendes)—packing for a “romantic getaway” at the Lodge family lake house, per a recommendation from Veronica’s scheming father, Hiram (Mark Consuelos). The night ends in murder—as it so often does in Riverdale—but that’s not even the most controversial part of the episode.

"I read that, and I was like, 'Oh, God, I'm not even gonna look at my Twitter that day. I'm just going to turn it off,’” Mendes says with a laugh, after I ask her about the steamy Veronica-Bughead hot tub kiss midway through the episode. Riverdale fans take their favorite couples very seriously, and the #Bughead and #Varchie fandoms nearly exploded when show-runner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa teased the moment with a photo last week.

But the two sacred couples remain intact at the end of the episode, since the shocking moment was merely payback for a rebound kiss between Betty and Archie earlier in the season, after each couple had broken up. “The show does a good job of riling up the fans,” admits the 23-year-old. "That is kind of the charm of our show." And that's not necessarily a bad thing, she points out: "It just shows how passionate the fans are, and how firmly they believe in their ship."

But even though each ship has safely navigated dangerous waters for the time being, Veronica's future is far murkier. We've watched her struggle with her father's growing corrupt influence in Riverdale, and as of tonight's episode, he now owns half of it. "She's trying to stay one foot in the world of good and one foot in the world of evil so that she can find a middle ground and try to constantly find compromise," Mendes says of Veronica's internal conflict. "But the more she plays with that, the deeper she gets into it, and she gets more sucked into the family business. And now she's kind of stuck—there's no getting out of it."

Even Veronica doesn't know the full extent of her boyfriend's work with Hiram—like Archie witnessing Hiram's henchman killing a home intruder in the final moments of tonight's episode. But Mendes promises we'll see Veronica and Archie grapple with these secrets in coming episodes: "They will be digging even deeper into that storyline."

Below, Mendes talks more of that #Vughead moment, reflects on her surreal first year with Riverdale, and teases more of what's to come in the rest of Season 2.

Kathryn Wirsing

Riverdale premiered almost 14 months ago (January 26, 2017). How do you look back on the last year of your life?

That's crazy! I feel like so much has changed so fast that I've never even had time to sit down and think about it. Every once in a while I'll be in bed, right before I fall asleep, and I'll be like, "Whoa, what it is my life now? How did it go from what it used to be to what it is now so quickly?"

Like the quality of my life, in terms of what kind of problems I have to deal with on a day-to-day basis, and how much that differs from what I used to deal with. I was in college before, and my stress came a lot more from assignments, and papers, and having to do monologues for class, and final presentations, things like that. And now, the quality of my problems is so different and more complex. And it's like I'm really starting to learn about this industry and how to navigate through it.

I'm still in the very early stages of building my career. It's like I had to decide what I wanted my career to be before I fully developed that vision. So now, I'm just kind of taking it day-by-day and building it as I go.

You're almost done filming Season 2. How did that experience differ from Season 1?

It's so different. I think Season 1 had a different energy to production because for so long nobody had seen it, or while we were shooting, nobody had seen it. So we really had no idea how people were gonna respond to what we were doing with the Archie Comics characters. We were antsy and nervous about the reaction, but now, we have so much more engagement with our fans, and we get feedback constantly. I think that has changed the way we read scripts, and the way we interpret certain situations. I can read something and be like, "Oh, the fans are going to love that," or, "Oops, the fans are gonna hate that." There's a bit more of an awareness of what people will think.

That being said, I don't think that interferes with the writing. I think the writing is always gonna be original and Roberto [showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa] has a specific vision. I think he'll always stick to that. But now there's a different voice in the back of our heads, a different perspective that we always consider.

"I read that, and I was like, 'Oh, God, I'm not even gonna look at my Twitter that day. I'm just going to turn it off.'"

Let's talk about that big kiss between Jughead and Veronica in tonight's episode.

That's kind of what I was just referring to. Fans are gonna hate that. [Laughs] I read that, and I was like, "Oh, God, I'm not even gonna look at my Twitter that day. I'm just going to turn it off." I don't want to know.

Honestly, the show does a good job of riling up the fans. That is kind of the charm of our show. As much as we can say it's frustrating when fans fight with each other and go to war about some of these ships—that's definitely not a healthy thing to do on the Internet—it also fuels the fire. It just shows how passionate the fans are, and how firmly they believe in their ship. And it's fun to watch, in a sense. They care, and they have their opinions. And I think [with this episode] it will kind of be that. It will be the fans deciding how they feel about it. And the way that it happens is very specific and not necessarily what the audience expects from what they saw in the trailer.

In the first episode we have Betty and Veronica kiss. That was kind of like, "Whoa, where did that come from?" And this kind of feels like that. It's the moment that's shock-worthy and will get everyone riled up, but it plays into the story of that episode. So I do think it does make sense within the context of the story, but it's not necessarily something I think the writers are trying to develop. I don't think there's a Vughead happening.

Veronica is fascinating this season because she's very committed to shedding her mean girl image and being a genuinely good person, but she's also tied up in the murky underworld of her family business. Is there a conflict within her over that?

I think that's her whole character arc this season. How much is she willing to compromise her integrity? She's trying to have each foot in both worlds. She's trying to stay one foot in the world of good and one foot in the world of evil so that she can find a middle ground and try to constantly find compromises, or steer her parents into a direction of good. But the more she plays with that, the deeper she gets into it, and she gets more sucked into the family business. And now she's kind of stuck—there's no getting out of it. She is now firmly rooted in the business, in the corruption, and it's hard for her to keep her head above the water.

She so clearly doesn't want Archie involved with it. She tells him in this episode, "This is non-negotiable. This is you and me now, not you and my father"—yet he's in really deep.

She's trying to protect him. And I think if it were up to her he wouldn't be involved, but Archie has his own agenda, and Archie is kind of in this protective mode, and he's found his darkness a little bit, and Hiram fuels that darkness for Archie. So now they've formed their bond, Veronica can't even interfere with it. She can't even control Archie.

Does Veronica know the extent to which Archie and her father are working together? Has that been clarified fully?

It will be with the episodes to come. They will be digging even deeper into that storyline.



We saw in this episode that Hiram is purchasing a lot of property and businesses in Riverdale, like Sunnyside trailer park and The Riverdale Press. What effect will that have on Veronica's relationships with her friends, whom she often refers to as her extended family?

It has a massive effect on her relationship with her friends because now they all know that her father's taking over the town. And they also, I think, are building a little bit of suspicion around Veronica, particularly Jughead. Jughead out of everybody is the one who is most suspicious of Veronica and how much she knows. Archie knows how much Veronica knows because Archie's part of the family now. But Betty seems to be kind of on Veronica's side for the most part, until there's an episode where—I think I can tease—there's a little bit of a conflict between Betty and Veronica involving my parents and what they've done. I think her friends are gonna feel betrayed by Veronica for what Veronica knows and how she's remained quiet throughout all of it.

It's feels like the situation is about to reach its boiling point in their friend group.

One hundred percent, because there's so much happening in Riverdale all the time, and now, it's all crashing down at once. Everybody's family is getting involved, and that's kind of causing this massive civil war in Riverdale.



"I think her friends are gonna feel betrayed by Veronica for what Veronica knows and how she's remained quiet throughout all of it."



Everyone seems to be juggling several secrets at once. Do you and your co-stars have a hard time keeping up with the timeline, and who knows what at what time?

You have no idea how hard it is, especially because sometimes we're shooting several episodes at the same time, so we have to reset our brains and be like, "Okay, wait, did she know about this yet? Did this person die? What episode does this happen?" It's so hard to keep up with the storyline, but luckily we always have the writers on set.

And you all seem like you have a really good time when you're filming.

I think it's important, the cast, to have that bond outside of set, because then it creates a better bond with our characters. When we're all together we have so much more fun. Honestly, it creates a problem because sometimes we have too much fun, and it's hard for us to focus when we're in scenes that require all of us there. So when I'm doing my scene, K.J. will start laughing and then it will make me laugh, and then we all start laughing. It's hard to stay focused when everybody around you is so funny.

You've been playing Veronica for more than a year. Does she feel comfortable and familiar, or are you still discovering new facets of her?

She definitely feels very comfortable and familiar, but she kind of always did to me. There is a Veronica in me that has always been there, like before I got the role. Do you know what I mean? I have that in me so much, and now, I think, I've gotten so used to the writing, and the way that Roberto writes, and the beats that they're looking for when they make them. And I'm used to working in these familiar environments as well, like the Lodge apartment, the study at Archie's house. I've gotten so used to the environment and how Veronica feels in those environments, so now, I have a good intuition for what a scene needs and how Veronica operates through it.



Veronica is clearly the peacemaker of the group, and in the last few episodes in particular she's been almost like a litigator. Have you thought about what sort of career she would pursue? I'd watch a Riverdale spin-off with Veronica in law school...

It's funny, when we shot the pilot, Roberto sat us down and he was like, "What do you see for Veronica?" He had a conversation with each of us about character development and what the end goal is and what we had in mind because he's very respective of our opinion. And we talked about how Veronica can easily be in the fashion world. I was like, "Yeah, I see her working in fashion. Maybe even a creative director. Something that has power, something where she can be a leader." But then recently, Roberto and I talked, and we're like, "You know what? That's so expected." Veronica was always fashionable in the comic. I think it's so much cooler if Veronica was a businesswoman, or a lawyer. I think Veronica would make a great lawyer because she's so good at being the devil's advocate and dealing with two parties and finding the middle ground. She definitely needs to be in a position of power and leadership.

Kathryn Wirsing

Riverdale's teen fans get to have a strong, unwavering young woman who's not afraid to speak her mind as a role model.

And she's always so confident about what needs to happen. Whenever a problem comes up, Veronica will falter maybe for a second, and then she's like, "I know what to do." She has this perseverance that really makes her so strong.

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8 PM EST on The CW.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

