Whether or not your Riverdale favorite is Archie Andrews, it’s easy to see there’s a major character flaw which is preventing his growth: he is entirely too easy to manipulate.

Riverdale season 2 heavily focused on Archie’s relationship with Hiram Lodge, and much of this was Archie being manipulated by the head of the Lodge household. However, this is the second time Archie was manipulated by someone. Remember Ms. Grundy? Archie’s former music teacher took advantage of him in the worst way possible, yet Archie never realized he was being used and taken advantage of by this woman.

By the end of the current season, Archie, thankfully, realized the game Hiram was playing with his mental state and emotions, but does this mean he’s going to change? Probably not. It’s a key piece of Archie’s personality. After the Black Hood almost killed his father, the rage, fear, and heartbreak sent Archie into a frenzy that only highlighted the worst parts of his personality. Archie is so eager to please, showcase his masculinity, and come off as the Alpha Male in every situation that he doesn’t realize everyone in town is capable of playing him. Even his own girlfriend was playing with Archie’s emotions to manipulate him for her parents. Archie is entirely too desperate for people to like him.

If you’re doubting anything about how Archie is being manipulated, just remember he was ready to kill for Hiram by season’s end. The boy next door was ready to kill someone to please his girlfriend’s father because of his desperation to have some sort of control over the Black Hood situation and fit into the Lodge family.

Arguably, Archie Andrews is the main character of Riverdale, as the comic series is named Archie Comics, but the character in the show is almost unbearable at every turn. His desperation for people to like him, especially those who already have a negative opinion of him, leads him to commit cringy, obnoxious acts, like becoming a part of Hiram’s mob circle. Where’s the Archie that just wanted to do music, even if people repeatedly told him it was unrealistic?

If Archie is ever going to be taken seriously, he needs to be able to stand on his own and have a mindset where he can’t be manipulated by anyone in town with an ounce of charm and deceit in their blood. Now that his partnership with Hiram is over, he’s free of the main person who changed his personality and overloaded every negative emotion in him for their own personal gain. However, there’s still the problem of Veronica’s manipulation of Archie, too. In this relationship, Veronica has been used by her family far too often to stray Archie from his righteous path and lead him down the darker path.

Archie’s personality often causes unnecessary shifts in the group dynamic, too, as his newest thought process is always alienating him from one of his friends. It’s honestly ridiculous how fragile Archie Andrews is sometimes, and it’s tiresome to see his friends pay for his mistakes.

The theme of season 2 was clearly darkness, so without this common theme to tie all of the characters down, I’m interested to see where the writers go with Archie. Hopefully he grows from this terrible experience, especially now that he’s been arrested for a murder he didn’t commit due to Hiram’s manipulation, but it’s also worrisome because Archie’s change could be a complete change too far in the right direction. While he shouldn’t be able to be manipulated and treated like an idiot schoolboy, Archie also shouldn’t be too wary of others and not trust anyone in his life for fear of similar events. There’s a balance that Archie needs to successfully lead Riverdale in the direction the show needs to go in order to survive on The CW. We already have Betty, Veronica, and Jughead fighting with the darkness in their lives, Archie needs to be a breath of fresh air in a town that primarily revolves around him.

He may never be the fan favorite, but Archie has the potential to be a strong character in his own right, and he’s perfectly capable of leading Riverdale to greatness. He doesn’t need to be anyone’s guard dog or personal bodyguard to embrace the strength inside of him, he just needs to grow from the terrible experience of being a part of the Lodge family’s shady business ventures. Being the dopey, thoughtless high school boy isn’t going to work anymore.