Riverdale: 5 Worst Things Betty Did To Alice (& 5 Alice Did To Betty)

On Riverdale, the picturesque town perched on the banks of Sweetwater River is home to a mob boss, crooked politicians, and serial killers: and those are just the parents. When she’s not covering a big story, Alice Cooper is playing the role of a helicopter mom. Alice tries to control every aspect of Betty’s life from what color lipstick she wears to who she dates.

Betty Cooper may have inherited her homicidal half from her father, but Alice’s stranglehold on her daughter has enabled the darkest parts of Betty to flourish. This mother-daughter duo is either partners in crime or at each other’s throats. Here are the five worst things Betty did to Alice, and the five worst Alice did to Betty.

10 Alice: Covers Up The Shady Man’s Murder

When Chic’s past comes back to haunt him during season 2, it leads to a violent confrontation, leaving a dead mystery man on the kitchen floor of the Cooper home on “Chapter Twenty-Six: The Tell-Tale Heart.” Betty wants to call the police, but Alice refuses, convinced she’ll lose Chic for good.

Alice is willing to let Betty help her clean up a murder scene and dispose of a dead body all for the benefit of a stranger. Alice’s actions also give Chic leverage to use against her and Betty. It’s a ghoulish form of mother-daughter bonding, and Alice isn’t just surprisingly okay with the whole thing (post clean up chocolate chip pancakes anyone?), she’s so adept at committing a felony it feels like she’s done it before.

9 Betty: Exposes Her Mother’s Serpent Past

During season 2, the Black Hood recruits Betty on his mission to purge Riverdale of sinners. Her first mission is to print Alice’s mugshot, exposing her Southside Serpent past on “Chapter Eighteen: When a Stranger Calls.”

The Black Hood forces Betty to jump through many hoops, but she derives some satisfaction from this particular task. Alice loses all of her credibility, it satisfies the Hood and Betty gets some payback for Alice constantly running down Jughead and FP. Alice is publically humiliated, and even though Betty is in league with a psychopath, her overall response is sorry, not sorry.

8 Alice: Goes Undercover With The Farm

It’s unclear when Alice’s fascination with Edgar and the Farm evolves into her working undercover with the FBI to take down the cult leader. Either way, all Betty sees is Edgar’s influence over Alice who slowly throughout season 3, emotionally and physically abandons Betty altogether.

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It’s arguable if Alice is a good mother even when she tries. All three of her children have serious mental and emotional problems, and she’s always eager to sacrifice the well-being of one in favor of another. Alice goes overboard trying to save Polly and while her back is turned, Betty almost gets lobotomized.

7 Betty: Brings Chic Into The Family

After Polly abandons her family in favor of the Farm, Betty thinks locating Alice’s firstborn is just the pick me up her mother needs. There are red flags all over the place that Chic is bad news. He lives in a rundown hostel, he’s less than happy to reunite with his mother and he makes his living as a sex worker.

Welcoming Chic into the Cooper household turns out to be the first in a long line of bad decisions on Betty’s and Alice’s part. Two seasons later and Chic still poses a threat to Alice, Betty, and Polly. His arrival opened an emotional floodgate that has made Alice’s judgment unreliable. Chic’s connection to the real Charles means more heartache ahead for Alice.

6 Alice: Withholds From Betty She Has A Half Brother

Betty learns on “Chapter Thirteen: The Sweet Hereafter” that her mother and father have been harboring a big secret: Alice got pregnant in high school and gave the baby boy away. This explains a lot of Alice’s controlling behavior, and it also calls into question how far Alice will go to maintain the illusion of familial perfection?

There’s the Alice Cooper who considers herself an ace reporter: someone whose job it is to expose the truth. There’s also the Alice Cooper who lies to Betty about herself, her father and her sister. If Alice isn’t betraying Betty outright, she’s guilty of omitting or manipulating information.

5 Betty: Hides Polly From Her Parents

Once Polly learns about Jason’s death during season 1, she escapes from the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. This poses a conundrum for Betty: where can her wayward, knocked up sister go? Betty keeps Polly’s whereabouts a secret, exposing her to the pernicious Blossoms and keeping her parents in the dark.

Betty’s solution is to send Polly to live with a mob boss’ wife and break the news to her mother that her oldest daughter is alive and well via a baby shower invitation. Betty’s meddling sends Polly into the belly of the red-headed beast. Comparing the Coopers to the Blossoms is like comparing apples to apples: madness runs in both families. Alice is a disaster, but at least she truly loves her children.

4 Alice: Sends Betty To The Sisters Of Quiet Mercy

Betty’s obsession with finding out the identity of the Gargoyle King during season 3 leads her to make some silly mistakes. She gathers together all the members of the Midnight Club and accuses one of them of being a murderer as if they’ll come clean to a Nancy Drew wannabe.

Alice doesn’t know how to solve a problem like Betty, so she sends her off to be deprogrammed by sadistic nuns on “Chapter Forty-One: Manhunter.” Nothing good happens at the Sisters of Quiet Mercy, yet Alice recalls the nuns as kindly and helpful, having taken care of both her and Polly when they were in a family way. Instead of protecting Betty, Alice delivers her daughter straight to Gargoyle ground zero.

3 Betty: Leaves Her Mom Alone With Chic

First Betty tracks down the person she believes to be her half brother without telling her parents. Then she brings him home, asks him to teach her how to do dirty things on the internet and not get caught, she helps to cover for him after he commits murder and finally decides he can’t be trusted and is too dangerous to be around.

Betty does attempt to warn her mother, but when Alice’s maternal instincts kick in, they are almost always in overdrive, so she refuses to put out the trash. This doesn’t stop Betty from leaving her mother alone with a sociopath. It’s as if Betty strikes a match, lights a fire and locks Alice inside.

2 Alice: Costs Betty The Quiz Championship

Alice just starts to patch up her badly beaten and bruised relationship with Betty by not opening her mail and returning her college fund. So what is she trying to accomplish by supplying Betty with the answers for the big quiz-bowl competition on season 4’s “Chapter Sixty-Eight: Quiz Show?”

We know Betty manages to solve mysteries and maintain a 4.1 GPA, but Alice doesn’t have enough confidence in her daughter to believe Betty can take down Bret and Stonewall Prep. The only thing dumber than Alice leaving the evidence in Betty’s dressing room is how badly Betty is at covering up the whole thing. Thanks to Alice, Betty gets suspended and presumably, she has to give back that cool trophy and kiss Yale goodbye.

1 Betty: Helps Polly Run Away

When the Black Hood starts targeting the citizens of Riverdale during season 2, Alice doesn’t waste the opportunity to make it front-page news. This means jeopardizing the investigation and the life of her children. Polly’s been trying to get out of town since the pregnancy stick turned pink, and a killer gunning for sinners (unwed mothers carrying their cousin’s babies) provides the perfect excuse.

A preggers Polly sneaks out in the middle of the night on “Chapter Sixteen: The Watcher in the Woods” with some help from her sister who doesn’t give Alice a heads up until big sis is long gone. A devastated Alice questions how she’s supposed to protect her children when she can’t keep them under the same roof. Betty playing go-between never ends well because she sends Polly out of the frying pan and straight into the fire.

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