Your Guide to All the 'Riverdale' Terms, from American Excess to the Whyte Wyrm
Despite all the zombie and witch theories making the rounds online, Riverdale has thus far remained a completely non-supernatural show. But even though the problems afflicting the town aren't paranormal, the dialogue occasionally veers into the realm of the strange. When they're not peppering their speech with pop culture references - Blue Jasmine, Betty Draper, and Ansel Elgort have all been name-dropped - the kids of Riverdale are saying things like, "Here's the wheels, Baby Jane" and talking about a drug called jingle jangle. Here, a guide to every important phrase, place, or thing mentioned on Riverdale, to be updated as season three continues.
American Excess. What they call American Express cards in Riverdale.
Aquaholics. Riverdale High's water polo team. You'd think a town with such a rampant crime problem wouldn't play so fast and loose with alcoholism puns.
Bean & Beluga. Store where Veronica likes to buy her chocolate almond croissants.
Bijou. Riverdale's movie theater. Jughead and Archie go here every year on Jughead's birthday, but when Jughead turned 16, Betty went with him instead.
Black Hood. The serial killer from the season one finale and most of season two. Also Betty’s dad Hal.
Blue and Gold. Riverdale High's student-run newspaper. Betty and Jughead serve as basically the entire staff; Betty's mother Alice serves as an advisor.
Bride of Hobo. One of Cheryl's nicknames for Betty. See also: Hobo.
Bughead. Betty and Jughead.
Bulldogs. Riverdale High's mascot. Also the name of the school's football team.
Choni. Cheryl and Toni.
Chugmo. A wonderfully named liquor store chain that was in talks to buy Pop's before the Lodges took over.
Dark Circle. Formerly the Red Circle and more secretive. Also headed by Archie.
Edgar Evernever. The leader of The Farm.
Evelyn Evernever. The daughter of Edgar Evernever.
Falice. F.P. and Alice, aka the best couple in Riverdale, then and now.
The Farm. A cult-like organization headed by Edgar Evernever. According to Polly, The Farm “saved” her. She successfully gets Alice to join between seasons two and three.
Five Seasons. Riverdale's most luxurious hotel.
Fizzle rocks. The ‘80s version of jingle jangle. In a flashback episode, Young Hiram (played by Mark Consuelos and Kelly Ripa’s son Michael) shares the drug with members of The Midnight Club, who met at the school at night to play Gryphons and Gargoyles.
Fox Forest. Local forest where Kevin likes to go cruising.
Gargoyle King. A giant, tree-like, possibly horned creature who is likely controlling Gryphons and Gargoyles and is the main suspect in the death of Dilton Doiley and possibly Ben Button, who jumped out of his hospital window on season three, episode two. Per the flashback episode on season three, young Betty first encountered the Gargoyle King at Riverdale High on Ascension Night while playing the game.
Ghoulies. The Southside Serpents' rival gang. They are known for drug dealing and being evil.
Greendale. A town neighboring Riverdale. It sits on the other side of the Sweetwater River and is the home of Sabrina Spellman. It's also where Mrs. Grundy was living when she was murdered in the season two premiere.
Grind'em. The Riverdale version of Grindr.
Gryphons & Gargoyles (also known as G&G). A mysterious, deadly game played by Dilton Doiley, Ben Button, and Ethel Muggs. On a season three flashback episode, it’s revealed that the parents of the Riverdale teens first played it in the late-‘80s, when they were juniors at Riverdale High.
Here's the wheels, Baby Jane. A Cheryl Blossom idiom that appears to mean, "This is how it's gonna be, bitch." It is likely a reference to the 1962 movie Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as sisters with an extremely complicated relationship.
Ho Zone. Riverdale's lone strip club.
Hobo. One of Cheryl's nicknames for Jughead. See also: Bride of Hobo.
Innuendo. A gay bar in Riverdale, dubbed "tragic" by Kevin.
Jingle jangle. An illegal drug, possibly an upper. In 1969, Archie's fictional band the Archies released a song called "Jingle Jangle." It does not appear to be about drugs.
In "Chapter Fifteen: Nighthawks," Midge and Moose are seen consuming jingle jangle like Pixy Stix. Reggie also says the drug is an upper, noting, "That'll keep you up for days, in more ways than one." So it's also Viagra? In "Chapter Sixteen: The Watcher in the Woods," Toni Topaz describes it as a "highly addictive gutter drug."
As of season three, the Ghoulies were manufacturing jingle jangle under the watchful eye of one Hiram Lodge.
Le Bonne Nuit. Veronica’s speakeasy underneath Pop’s. It’s French and serves mocktails only because its patrons are teenagers.
Leopold and Loeb Juvenile Detention Center. Where Archie is serving a two-year sentence after accepting a plea deal despite being wrongfully accused by Hiram for a murder near the Lodge cabin.
Mad Dog. What the warden at Archie’s detention center makes him when his cellmate mysteriously disappears. Turns out, every Mad Dog is required to fight in an underground ring of matches held during odd hours of the night.
Make my bones. What Archie says to Hiram on the season two finale.
Night jogging. What Kevin calls cruising.
Papa Poutine. A mobster who does business with Hiram Lodge. Papa Poutine criticizes Pop Tate’s poutine, noting the lack of Quebecois cheese curds. Unfortunately, this isn’t the reason Papa Poutine is later murdered.
Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe. Iconic Riverdale diner owned by Pop Tate. Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead all spend plenty of their free time there, but so do the adults. Hermione Lodge has worked there, Fred Andrews was shot there, and basically everyone else has been inside at least once.
Princess Etheline. Ethel’s name when she’s playing Gryphons and Gargoyles.
Red and Black. Southside High's student-run newspaper, or at least it was until gang activity and jingle jangle shut it down. Jughead is currently trying to revive it with help from Toni Topaz.
Red Circle. Archie's totally stupid, ill-advised squad of teenage vigilantes, formed in response to the Riverdale Police Department's supposed inability to deal with crime in the community.
River Vixens. Riverdale High's cheerleading squad. After Cheryl's resignation, Veronica is currently the team captain. Betty is also a member.
Serpent Adjacent. What Betty vows to be for Jughead on season two so she can invest in Serpent interests without actually becoming a Serpent. She later becomes his Serpent Queen because honestly, that’s a better title.
Sisters of Quiet Mercy. Group home where Alice Cooper sent Polly after discovering that she was pregnant with Jason's twins. Alice also spent time during her pregnancy with Betty and Polly's long-lost brother, who was put up for adoption.
Snake Charmer. Penny Peabody’s nickname.
Sticky maple. Method of slut-shaming employed by some of Riverdale High's more disgusting students. It involves posting a photo of the girl you hooked up with (or pretended to hook up with) on social media, but with maple syrup Photoshopped on her face.
Sugar Man. Longtime nickname of Riverdale's main seller of jingle jangle. The name has belonged to many different men, but the most recent is Southside High teacher Robert Phillips. Contrary to what Penelope Blossom told Cheryl when she was a child, the Sugar Man is not like "the Sandman or Krampus" - he's just your average drug dealer.
Sunnyside Trailer Park. Home of F.P. and Jughead Jones, located on Riverdale's south side.
Sweetwater River. Dividing line between Riverdale and Greendale. According to "Chapter Fifteen: Nighthawks," it's a "straight shot" up the Sweetwater to the Canadian border.
Thistle House. The other Blossom home, occupied by Cheryl and Penelope after Thornhill was burned down (by Cheryl). Penelope moved out (along with Clifford's twin Claudius) during season two.
Thornhill. Blossom ancestral home. Destroyed when Cheryl burned it down at the end of season one.
Twilight Drive-In. Drive-in movie theater where Jughead worked and sometimes lived before it was demolished by Hiram, who purchased the land it sat on for his SoDale development project.
Varchie. Veronica and Archie.
Vughead. Veronica and Jughead, briefly, when they made out in the hot tub in season two.
Whyte Wyrm. Preferred hangout of the Southside Serpents. It is notable both for having a completely insane way of spelling "wyrm" and being the place where Cliff Blossom shot his son Jason in the head.
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