Betty Cooper, Riverdale's Female Gothic

confinement, abuse, escape

Betty Cooper, in the earlier Riverdale comic universe, is characterized as the sweet, hard-working, girl next door. Many Archie comic stories feature her “tom-boy” side, showing her to be a talented athlete or skilled car mechanic, but most often the circumstances reveal that she is a compassionate girl who puts the needs of others before her own. In her depiction on the show Riverdale, this caring side, a personality trait that is typically admired, is exploited, transformed into a weakness, and used to cause her downfall.

This exploitation is emphasized through The Sisters of Quiet Mercy plotline. Until its closure in the middle of Season 3, The Sisters of Quiet Mercy was a residential institution dedicated to reforming the troubled youths of Riverdale. While claiming to aspire to honest and good values, such as hard-work and spiritual devotion, the so-called ‘Sisters’ ran an illegal distillery, used conversion therapy, and gave the resident teens Fizzle Rocks, a drug that induces hallucinations. In a plan to rescue local teenagers being abused at the corrupt institution, Betty sneaks in. She is discovered and confined. Ultimately, she escapes, taking the residents with her. Once out, she learns that her mother was once a resident of the institution and remains connected to the self-serving and cruel ‘Sisters’ running the estate. This pattern of confinement, abuse, and escape is at the core of the female Gothic. David Punter, in his description of the female Gothic, observes that “Critics [theorized the] female Gothic through psychoanalytical readings of the female protagonist. These critics read the typical plot of confinement and escape as representing the daughter’s struggle towards psychic individuation”. Betty’s struggle to break free from her mother’s influence and control continues with her interactions with The Farm, a cult that purchases the estate after The Sisters of Quiet Mercy is forced to close.

The Farm, led by a controlling and crooked leader, takes advantage of the secluded location, using it as a place to covertly harvest the organs of those who come looking for healing and spiritual guidance. Betty, seeking to save those being harmed by brainwashing and the undisclosed removal of their organs, works her way into the group and uncovers the leader’s treachery. Consistent with her characterization carried over from the comic series, Betty prioritizes the needs of others before her own. In Riverdale, she puts herself at risk both physically and mentally. These two plotlines, The Sisters of Quiet Mercy and The Farm, are examples of how the Gothic cycle of confinement, abuse and escape, shape and energize her individual plotline, pulling her away from her friend Veronica.