The Riverdale 2018 midseason premiere trailer introduces Betty's long-lost brother Chic Cooper into the mix. Chic is being played by relative newcomer Hart Denton in the Archie Comics-based TV series and was cast prior to the start of the ongoing season 2. Denton even made his social media debut as the Chic Cooper character a few months back, by way of a set photo posted by Mädchen Amick (who plays his onscreen mother, Alice).
While Chic Cooper has long been a staple of the Archie Comics, his younger sister Betty (Lili Reinhart) had no idea that he even existed on Riverdale until the season 1 finale. In the Riverdale mythology, Alice was pregnant with Chic when she was still in high school and was essentially forced to give him up for adoption, after her future husband Hal (Lochlyn Munro) found out and sent her to the Sisters of Silent Mercy. Some Riverdale fans even suspected that Chic was secretly the sinister Black Hood, given the lost Cooper sibling's tragic past on the show and the killer's obsession with Betty. However, now that the Black Hood has been seemingly unmasked as being someone else, it's time for the missing Cooper brother to enter the picture.
Related: Riverdale Midseason Finale Reveals the Black Hood's Identity
The trailer for the Riverdale 2018 midseason premiere, which is titled 'Chapter Twenty-Three: The Blackboard Jungle', confirms that Chic will make his debut on the series during the episode. For a sneak peek at what's to come when the show returns next year (including, naturally, Alice looking rather emotional about meeting her now grownup son), watch the full trailer for 'The Blackboard Jungle' in the space above.
'Blackboard Jungle', like every other episode of Riverdale to date, gets its title from a cult B-movie of the same name. The film Blackboard Jungle was released in 1955 and tells the story of an English teacher who takes a new job at an extremely unruly and violent inner city high school. It's a fitting title for the Riverdale midseason premiere, as the trailer confirms that the episode revolves around Southside High School being closed and its students - including, Jughead (Cole Spouse) and the other teenaged Southside Serpents like Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan) - becoming members of Riverdale High School.
Following the reveal of the Black Hood's identity, Riverdale creator and showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa confirmed to CBR that the second half of season 2 "kind of shifts back to Riverdale High in a way that we had first season, that we’ve moved a little off of." The final scene in the midseason finale made it clear that the impact of the Black Hood will continue to be felt through the rest of the season (especially, when it comes to Betty), but Aguirre-Sacasa also promised that there's "a little more fun and character stuff" in the pipeline, to go with the dark elements and soapy drama that continues to be the show's bread and butter.
Between the Serpents attempting to integrate themselves into the flow of things at Riverdale High (or, rather, not attempting to), Betty still reeling from her experience with the Black Hood, and Alice reaching out to Chic, the Riverdale midseason premiere promises to deliver all the fun character interactions and melodrama that fans of the show have come to expect and love. The episode should also lay the groundwork for the show's next big (murder?) mystery, following season 1's Jason Blossom murder storyline and the Black Hood's reign of terror against The Town With Pep.
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Riverdale continues Wednesday, January 17 with 'Chapter Twenty-Three: The Blackboard Jungle' on The CW.