Riverdale Just Showed Us A Whole New Side Of Cheryl & It's Terrifying

Riverdale's showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa tweeted a photo of Cheryl holding a bow and arrow that could be a sign of some very terrifying things to come. "Did people say they wanted a pic of Cheryl from this week’s Riverdale?" he tweeted, along with a shot of Cheryl, played by Madelaine Petsch, looking like an haute couture Katniss Everdeen.

While no one would complain about seeing more Cheryl — after all, the most common reply to Aguirre-Sacasa's tweet was "Cheryl deserves more screentime" — it was shocking to see the photo. Not just because, Cheryl is aiming a weapon at something (or someone), but because the description of next week's episode doesn't offer one mention of her.

According to TV Guide, "Chapter Twenty-Six: The Tell-Tale Heart" will see Betty turning to Jughead for help when the consequences of that death in last week's episode come back to haunt her, while Veronica's hoping to set things right with her dad, Hiram; Archie's dad FP; and Jughead. Oh, and Archie is busy with FBI Agent Adams, who may or may not be a ghost.

As to what Cheryl's up to, there's not even one detail that could explain this photo which, honestly, could just be a sign that Cheryl's getting very into archery. But, that might be the point. After all, Aguirre-Sacasa has already teased a possible endgame finale that has pissed off Bughead fans. This photo is just a crumb to help us on the trail to a later episode. Specifically, the upcoming Carrie-themed musical episode, in which we might see Cheryl might get a little blood on her hands.

Now, hear me out: throughout season 2 Cheryl has shown signs that she is not doing so well after losing both her brother Jason and her dad, Clifford, who, it turns out, murdered his own son. Honestly, would you be doing OK if you found out your family tree wasn't just full of murder, but incest, too?

Cheryl might not have clocked enough screentime for fans, but that doesn't mean she hasn't been busy. When not low-key stalking Josie, she's had to deal with being sexually assaulted and finding out her mom is a sex worker. It's hard to believe that Cheryl is going to meet her breaking point before this is all through and what better way to do that then through song, right?

Riverdale's musical episode is set to star Cheryl as the titular character and the parallels between her and Carrie are hard to ignore. The Stephen King novel is about a young girl with supernatural powers who is bullied until she can't take it anymore. If it does come out that Cheryl is Josie's admirer it's likely that the kids at Riverdale High won't be too kind.

Carrie ends up killing her mom and knowing how fraught the relationship between Cheryl and Penelope is, it's possible this archery photo could just be foreshadowing something much more sinister. As one fan tweeted, "Penelope better be standing there with an apple on her head" and honestly, that could be where this is all headed (no pun intended). At the very least, the Carrie episode offers Riverdale a chance to tease the upcoming dark Sabrina, The Teenage Witch series with a bit of dark magic, which would probably help with Cheryl's aim.

Of course, no one will know whether this theory is true or not until April 18, but that just gives us all more time to think of some other theories of why Cheryl is holding that bow and arrow.