‘Riverdale’: Archie’s 9 Dumbest Decisions

Riverdale is known for a number of things — convoluted mysteries, Cheryl’s biting insults and Jughead’s morose narration among them — but there’s one aspect of the show that seems to remain constantly unaddressed.

While Archie Andrews is, ostensibly, the main character on Riverdale, he’s also perhaps one of the most dense, often making poor decisions without fully thinking them through. It’s true that Archie always has good intentions, but they often get the best of him and lead to some pretty sticky situations for the redheaded hero and his friends.

Scroll through for a few of Archie’s worst decisions yet on Riverdale, though knowing him, there will likely be a few more to come.

When he had a sexual relationship with his teacher

During Riverdale‘s first season, Archie was sexually involved with his music teacher, Miss Grundy, who was eventually killed by the Black Hood after seducing another underage student in a different town. While the affair was fully the fault of Miss Grundy, a legal adult, Archie really should have avoided the whole thing.

When he created the Red Circle

When the Black Hood began terrorizing Riverdale in Season 2, Archie took it upon himself to form a vigilante group made up of his fellow students, naming the group the Red Circle.

Their adventures included driving around town on patrol armed with baseball bats, recording a video message to the Black Hood (with Archie, for some reason, the only member with his face exposed) and putting graffiti all over the South Side, with Archie waving around a gun when confronted by Serpents. While the Red Circle was disbanded, its slightly uncomfortable video message will live on.

When he got the Ghoulies arrested

Ahead of a street race with the Ghoulies, Archie made a deal with Sheriff Keller, leading to the police’s arrival at the race and the Ghoulies’ arrest, which ultimately made life much worse for Jughead, Archie’s best friend. The Ghoulies’ arrest meant Archie and Jughead had to run drugs across town to Greendale, though the two ultimately managed to get out of being Penny Peabody’s permanent delivery boys.

When he attacked Nick St. Clair

Yes, Nick St. Clair is one of the worst characters on Riverdale and fully deserved what he got, but Archie attacking him was still a dumb move. Not only did Archie badly injure Nick when he was already laid up with a broken leg, Archie arrived completely undisguised. This gave Nick an immediate grudge against Archie, later kidnapping the redheaded wonder as he did something he had been told not to and attempting to hold him for ransom.

When he started working for Hiram

After an initial period of intense dislike, Hiram Lodge appeared to take Archie under his wing, offering him a sort of business internship. As it was clear from the start on this show that Hiram is namely interested in all things illegal, it wasn’t exactly Archie’s best decision to get so close to a man who only likes making money in criminal fashion. There was also the fact that the Lodges are a mob family, with Archie quickly getting involved in Hiram’s criminal activity in a number of ways.

When he threatened Hiram to his face

After Archie eventually realized that Hiram is a total criminal with no plans of going straight, Archie decided to quit working for him, which was slightly awkward since he had already fully committed himself to the Lodge family by basically becoming blood brothers with Hiram. However, Hiram attempting to drive a wedge between Archie and his father is the one thing Archie wouldn’t stand for, so he eventually decided that he was through with working for Hiram and decided to tell him to that his face and also threaten to kill him, which Hiram did not exactly appreciate.

When he accepted the plea deal

Season 3 began with Hiram framing Archie for the murder of Cassidy Bullock, a crime Archie overheard, but did not carry out himself. After the jury was unable to come to a decision, it appeared a retrial would have to take place. Instead, Archie, for reasons fully unknown to literally everyone, accepted a plea deal that would land him in juvie for pleading guilty to a crime he was totally innocent of, a natural Archie move.

Sure, he claimed to be trying to protect those he loved by avoiding them the drama of a second trial, but Archie, this was just dumb.

When he left the bunker wearing only a baseball cap as a disguise

Not so much as a dumb decision that actually went badly, this is more of a simple case of Archie having no common sense and deciding to leave the only safe space in Riverdale, which at the time was Dilton Doiley’s underground bunker, and disguise himself only with a baseball cap. Seeing as how basically the whole town was looking for him at that point, it’s sheer luck that he wasn’t spotted thanks to his impression that a simple baseball cap would fully hide his now-signature head of flaming red hair.

When he told Lisa his life story

Season 3 Episode 7 saw Archie and Jughead arrive at a farm in the middle of nowhere after going on the run to attempt to protect Archie from Hiram, a seemingly fruitless endeavor that will no doubt end up with the whole gang back in Riverdale.

While Archie initially attempted to conceal the pair’s identity upon their arrival (with possibly the fakest pair of names to exist), he eventually let his guard down and spilled all the details of his recent tragedies to Lisa, the farmhand who offered to let Archie and Jughead stay the night. Naturally, she turned out to be working for Hiram, immediately calling him in to attempt to capture Archie. Luckily for Archie, Jughead was on hand to convince his friend to escape and not attempt to fight Hiram right then and there, a classic Archie move.

Photo Credit: The CW