One of the most talked-about moments from last week's Riverdale episode was Betty's (Lili Reinhart) seductive dance for her South Side Serpent initiation. It was a perplexing scene, to say the least, given its context: Betty didn't get completely naked, but she did sing "Mad World" from Donnie Darko as she danced around a pole in black lingerie…while her mother, her boyfriend, and dozens of grown men (including Jughead's father) watched.

It's obvious why this gave many Riverdale fans pause. After all, she's only 16 years old and this wasn't exactly her choice: She only danced to get in with the South Side Serpents, Jughead's gang, because she thought joining them would make her and Jug closer—even though he's expressed, several times, that she should stay far away from the group.

Understandably, Twitter quickly blew up with reactions, with many viewers declaring the scene was forced and downright uncomfortable:

But Reinhart says that was exactly the point. "I didn't think it was going to receive as much backlash as it did," Reinhart tells Glamour. "People were very caught up with the fact that Betty is 16 and she’s dancing around all these men, but that's the point. That scene was supposed to make you uncomfortable because you’re watching this girl do something completely out of her comfort zone for the man that she loves. You’re watching her make a personal sacrifice, and that is the most important takeaway."

Reinhart continued: "It was supposed to make you feel uncomfortable and hard to watch because you don't want to see Betty go to the dark side like that, but she does because she loves Jughead. It only makes it harder to watch when they break up at the end of the episode because you know that she laid it all out on the line for him. He’s trying to protect her from that darkness, but she wants to be part of it."

So, yes, it seems Betty was pushed and pulled and pressured into doing that dance. Reinhart, however, says she had complete control and autonomy over it from an actor's standpoint. She worked in tandem with showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa to make sure the scene felt right for Betty—and comfortable for her. (That's comforting, given the recent wave of actresses who have come forward and talked about feeling pressured to take off their clothes or appear sexier onscreen.)

"We totally talked about it ahead of time," Reinhart said. "It was kind of an ongoing situation. The first draft that I got didn’t feel right to me, so I called Roberto and was like, ‘I think this should happen. This is how it should be.' We worked it out. It was all very well-thought-out and not spontaneous. It was planned and premeditated, so I was a part of it from the beginning. I wasn't surprised."

Reinhart even choreographed Betty's movements herself. "It was not easy. It was very intimidating," she says. "They offered me a pole dancing lesson, like the workout classes girls do, but I was like, 'No, I don’t think that's necessary because Betty wouldn't know how to pole dance. I just want to go in there and feel it out.' During lunch, before we shot the scene, I was in the set by myself just playing around a little bit and came up with some really simple choreography."

So what will this breakup mean for Betty and Jughead in the midseason finale? Tune in tonight at 8 P.M. on The CW to find out.

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