New York Comic Con hosted its first Riverdale panel with KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Mädchen Amick, Luke Perry and creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa at the Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden on Sunday (October 7), where the cast debuted the first act of the first episode from the series' upcoming third season.

**SPOILERS BELOW!**

The episode opens with Jughead narrating, saying how what could’ve been a normal summer was actually spent in court for Archie’s trial. The judge decides to halt the trial until the day after Labor Day, giving Archie some extra time to spend with family and friends. But really, the most exciting thing about the first part of the episode is seeing Fred Andrews finally punch Hiram Lodge.

The core four meet at Pop’s afterwards, where Betty and Jughead suggest spending Archie’s (possible) final days of freedom searching for evidence at the crime scene that could exonerate him. But Archie would much rather spend his time doing something low-key with his friends. Cheryl, however, has something more fun in mind: Naturally, she makes a dramatic entrance with her cherry-red Serpent jacket and invites everyone to her pool party “before Archie walks the Green Mile.”

In addition to the sneak peek, the cast also gave away plenty of exciting spoilers, giving fans tons to look forward to.

This season, we’ll finally meet Gladys, Jughead’s mom, who’ll be played by Gina Gershon, and Jellybean, or “JB,” Jughead’s younger sister, played by Trinity Likins. There are also two other new characters: Evelyn and Edgar Evernever. Evelyn appears in the Little Archie and Betty & Veronica Spectacular comics, and Reinhart revealed that the character is ultimately going to cause some issues for Betty, though it’s not clear what her role within the gang’s dynamic will be.

As for Edgar, he’ll be the leader of the cult Polly’s involved in, who moves to Riverdale at Polly’s request and gets close to Alice. During the panel, Amick revealed that he becomes one of her love interests in the upcoming season, so he'll be stirring up some drama of his own, too. (The casting for the Evernevers still hasn’t been announced.)

If you’re been waiting for “Bughead” and “Varchie” updates, there’s good news and bad news. Reinhart assures fans that things between Betty and Jughead are “so far so good,” saying that they’ll actually work together as a detective duo throughout the season. But, as far as Archie and Veronica’s relationship, Apa says that things will get even more complicated for the couple.

One thing that’ll really excite fans is that we’ll finally get to see a flashback episode featuring the gang playing their parents. This episode, according to showrunner Aguirre-Sacasa, will air on Halloween and will delve into how “they became friends and how it fell apart.” This episode will also have a nod to Amick’s Twin Peaks days by having Reinhart don the actress's big, curly hair from the show.

Aguirre-Sacasa and the cast also delivered some big-yet-vague spoilers that hint at this season being just as intense as the second. Aguirre-Segarra said there will be a new villain called the Gargoyle King who will torment the gang, and also said Archie is “going to find himself in a situation where he is fighting for his life."

There’s so much to look forward to, but luckily, the new season begins in just three days, on October 10.

Before They Were on Riverdale

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