Archie and Jughead

The relationship between Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones is rather complicated and hasn't been deeply explored in the show yet.

Archie and Jughead used to be best friends, but the two temporarily broke off their friendship at the start of summer due to unknown circumstances. They are now attempting to mend it.

History
Archie and Jughead had been best friends since childhood―Fred recalls Archie sneaking out at night to go to Jughead's treehouse. Archie and Jughead were supposed to go on a road trip on July 4th, but Archie cancelled at the last minute as he had arranged a clandestine meeting with Geraldine Grundy, with whom he was having an affair. Sometime before or after this, Jughead and Archie got into a serious fight that disrupted their friendship. They did not talk about it for a long period of time, which Jughead bitterly notes when Archie runs into him at the Chock'lit Shoppe looking for Betty.

Season 1
After Archie and Veronica kissed at Cheryl's after party, Archie went looking for a heartbroken Betty to apologize, which led him to Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe where he found Jughead, sitting alone. Archie awkwardly walked over to his old friend and asked to sit in the booth with him. They talked about Jason's death and Jughead gave him a piece of advice, to just talk to Betty, because it could go a long way; it would have gone a long way with him.

At school Jughead had a brief conversation with Archie in the hallway, where his sardonic humor over Jason Blossom's death fell short with Archie. Before heading off to class, Jughead recalled that he and Archie were suppose to go on a road trip during the summer, over July 4th weekend, the day Jason was thought to have been murdered, which Archie just so happened to bail on at the last minute, which led Jughead to believe that Archie was hiding something.

He found out exactly what when he discovered Archie was having a secret affair with his music teacher, Ms. Grundy; he stumbled upon them as they were in a close embrace, leading Jughead to confront Archie later that day at the Andrews house. Archie revealed that he and Ms. Grundy had been in a relationship since the summer, and that they were both at Sweetwater River on July 4th, when Jason was ostensibly killed. They heard a gun shot that day, which Jughead urged Archie to report to the police, but he resisted, having been manipulated by Ms. Grundy into keeping this information to himself for fear their relationship would be discovered. Jughead claimed that she cared more about herself than she did Archie, the fact that she was the one who told him to keep quiet only supported Jughead's claim. Scared that Jughead would reveal his secret, Archie began to threaten him, but Jughead cut him off, wondering what exactly he would do. Before he left, Jughead remarked that although the Archie he used to know wasn't perfect, he at least tried to do the right thing.

Despite the rift between them, when Reggie Mantle began picking on Jughead in the school lounge, accusing him of being Jason's killer, Archie immediately stepped up to protect his friend and ended up getting into a fistfight with Reggie. Jughead tried to help Archie by trying to separate them, however, he was grabbed by one of the other football players, preventing him from stopping the fight and had to watch as Archie was knocked out.



Eventually, Archie came to his senses. He approached Jughead at the annual fall Pep Rally to inform him that he would be bringing his knowledge of the gun shot to the police. Archie then apologized for the crap he said to Jughead the previous night, which jughead accepted, which marked the beginning of them rebuilding their fractured friendship. To celebrate, they headed to Pop's shoppe for milkshakes, where they ran into Betty and Veronica, who welcomed the boys to join them.

Jughead attended the Taste of Riverdale event to question Dilton Doiley and met up with Archie who had snuck in, despite being grounded, in order to listen to the song that he helped Josie and the Pussycats write, a song which Jughead admitted wasn't too bad.

Jughead was seated in a booth with Betty, Veronica, and Kevin at Pop's when Archie entered the diner with his father and Ms. Grundy. Betty immediately went to speak to Archie, as she had recently found out about Archie's affair with his teacher. Jughead hid low in his booth as Archie asked Betty if Jughead had been the one to tell her, though he hadn't, she figured it out on her own. The next day at school, Jughead explained to Archie that not getting involved in the situation with him, Betty and Grundy was the most moral, apathetic choice he could've made, he also mentioned that Archie had nothing to worry about as Jughead assured him that Betty would never do anything that could possibly hurt him. Probably, he joked. He then asked Archie what he saw happening long-term with Ms. Grundy, what did he want? Archie wanted to be with her for as long as he could and asked Jughead to warn him if Betty did decide to do something about his secret.