Welcome back to Riverdale season, people! It’s good to be here, because there is some unfinished business the show needs to attend to. At the start of season 5, we still don’t know the identity of the auteur—formerly referred to as the voyeur—who keeps leaving spooky videotapes all over town and recreating murder-y moments from Riverdale’s past. We’re here to investigate all the various theories about the identity of this mysterious person.
Up First: Jellybean Jones
Call me crazy, but after the premiere, my new theory is that Jellybean Jones is the auteur on Riverdale. Jughead’s seemingly innocent little sister is suddenly suspect. Think about it. Jughead and Betty deduced that the auteur would be in attendance at the Blue Velvet video store’s underground screening party. The only person there that they recognized just happened to be Jellybean. (Sidebar: Did that spooky rave look weirdly fun to anyone else, or do I just really miss going to movies and parties?)
As Jughead’s sister, she’s privy to information about her brother and Betty’s life and probably could have snooped and stolen that short story Jughead was working on about killing Principal Honey. Plus, she’s often the person who “finds” the videotapes and delivers them to our gang—and I think the way Riverdale went out of the way to show Jughead and Betty shooing Jellybean out of the room when they were watching “NC-17 stuff” was a bit of foreshadowing/a clue.
Some Other Factors to Consider
Unlike previous mysteries (aka serial killers) on Riverdale, there aren’t high stakes with this one. We don’t really know what the point of these videotapes and reenactments is or what the person making them wants. The voyeur/auteur technically hasn’t actually hurt anyone. They haven’t left any kind of warning or manifesto. So…maybe it is a kid.
It wouldn’t be the first time that a main character’s family member on Riverdale has kept a dark secret. Far from it, actually, and maybe Jughead is due to discover some skeletons in his closet. (Charles doesn’t count. We don’t like to think about how Charles is Betty’s boyfriend’s brother too.)
Jellybean doesn’t have a clear motive, but she was upset about Jughead leaving home for Stonewall Prep, and the tapes started showing up shortly thereafter. We also know that she has a macabre sense of humor. Remember how she pranked Betty by pretending to be dead on Halloween? Maybe these tapes are a kind of sick prank too, orchestrated by Jellybean and her friends to freak everyone out.
This is Riverdale, after all. The Gargoyle King turned out to be, like, four different people. Chad Michael Murray played a cult leader who flew off in a rocket. They could make up literally any reason, no matter how ridiculous, and we’d just have to go with it.
