"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Favorite Characters: Betty Cooper (Riverdale)



Oh, Betty… There’s a lot to enjoy about crazy, glorious Riverdale, but probably my favorite thing about it is how it handles main girls Betty, Veronica, and Cheryl.  While I like both Betty and Veronica in the comics (Cheryl has yet to show up in Jughead, so I can’t speak to her there,) all three girls are just fantastic on the show, none more so, in my opinion, than Betty (a few Betty-related spoilers.)

Even in the pilot of the series, which heavily features the famous triangle from the comics, Betty is immediately interesting.  She’s painfully into a woefully clueless Archie, yes, and her insecurities start to mount as soon as gorgeous Veronica breezes into town, but it’s clear from the start that she’s not just “one of the two girls” in Archie’s story.  Hers is the strongest perspective in the opening triangle stuff, and the story takes time for things happening in her life besides Archie, like her genuine burgeoning friendship with Veronica and her attempt (with Veronica’s backing) to stand up to Cheryl and join the River Vixens.

But there’s so much more going on with Betty, and the pilot only begins to delve into it all.  She has a personal stake in Jason Blossom’s murder, since her sister had been his girlfriend, and Betty is kept in the dark about a mysterious Something that went down between Polly and Jason.  Her interest in finding the truth there, along with nearly-singlehandedly running the most ambitious school newspaper around, leads her to begin her own investigation into Jason’s murder and the many secrets that surround it.  It doesn’t take too long to realize that Sheriff Keller’s investigation skills are laughable compared to Betty and Jughead’s, and the pair are our first really significant window into the murder.

The investigation shows off a lot of Betty’s great qualities.  She’s smart, obviously, as well as curious, determined, and creative.  She can be a lot steelier than she’s usually given credit for, and her pursuit of the truth brings out her courage in spades, both in confronting intimidating people and in facing truths she might not be ready for.  Also, during a non-related mini-investigation, we discover that she can jimmy open the lock on a car and employ assorted other lockpicking skills.  I love how pleased she sounds with herself when she credits Nancy Drew books with teaching her the latter; Betty Cooper is a wonderfully-nerdy badass.

Even better, the show explores Betty’s flaws and fears in a pretty serious way, too.  Her parents, especially her Everything Just So mother, have done a number on her.  Betty’s perfectionism is a stress-filled need, not a desire.  Although she of course wants to do well, fit in at school, etc., she’s been taught to maintain a carefully-constructed façade of a prototypical happy suburban family, and her role within in it is that of the impeccably-behaved high achiever.  Her mom’s expectations for her, coupled with Betty’s awareness that she doesn’t know the full truth but realizes her family isn’t as polished as it pretends to be, fuels her anxiety, and she fights hard to suppress her strong emotions.  Betty does tons of plot heavy-lifting with the mystery and a major romance, but another huge part of her story is finding the courage to be who she is:  to allow herself to deal with her messier parts honestly and to let her parents see her rather than just the person they want her to be.

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