Betty Cooper

"I do everything for everyone, everything! To be perfect; the perfect daughter, the perfect sister, the perfect student. Can't I do this one thing just for me?"

- Betty argues with her mother

Elizabeth "Betty" Cooper is a main character on Riverdale. She is portrayed by Lili Reinhart.

Betty is a student at Riverdale High School and long time best friend of Archie Andrews, as well as Kevin Keller and new girl Veronica Lodge. She is also a River Vixen at Riverdale High. She is currently in a relationship with Jughead Jones.

Character Description
''Sweet, studious, eager-to-please and wholesome as apple pie with a huge crush on her longtime best friend, Archie. Tired of being the perfect daughter, student, sister, etc., she turns to her new friend, Veronica, for life advice — much to the consternation of her emotionally brittle mother.  ''

Early life
Betty grew up in Riverdale with her parents, Alice and Hal Cooper, and her older sister Polly. Her childhood best friend was Archie Andrews, and as the years passed, she grew to harbor romantic feelings for him, which she dared not reveal. Betty's family life was very tense, as her mother was extremely controlling, which led to her sister having a mental breakdown and being sent to live in a group home. Though her parents claimed this was caused by Polly's disastrous relationship with Jason Blossom, Betty knew better. As the only remaining daughter in the Cooper household, she was placed under immense pressure to be perfect in every way.

Season 1
At the Cooper house, Betty got dressed for an evening out with Archie at Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe, she was nervous, but at the same time believed that the time had finally come for her to ask him out. They discussed their summer activities as they sat in a booth at the diner, Betty loved her internship, but while pouring cement all summer was no fun for Archie, he did find a new passion, a love for writing songs. Betty then saw her moment to reveal her feelings towards Archie, but they were interrupted by the arrival of Veronica Lodge, who was picking up an order. On her first day as a sophomore, Betty's mother insisted that she do co-curricular and keep her guard up, as that year would be important for her college applications. Betty's mother also reminded her of the path that her older sister, Polly went down by getting involved with Jason Blossom, and how it ruined her life, Betty hadn't forgotten, she told her that Archie isn't Jason, so they shouldn't be compared.

Betty gave Veronica a tour of the school, it wasn't long before they were joined by Kevin, who made it evident to Veronica that despite the fact that Betty and Archie weren't together, they are end-game, this came up as Veronica spotted Archie in the hall. Later that day, Betty, Archie and Kevin were joined by Veronica, during which time Archie played them a sample of his music. Cheryl Blossom joined the table soon after, she invited Veronica to try out for the River Vixens, who then invited Betty to try-out as well. Cheryl coldly agreed, but not without taking a jab at Betty, saying that she already had so much her plate, alluding to the fact that Betty was not slim enough to be a cheerleader when she tried out last year. Betty had doubts that she'd actually make the team, but Veronica wasn't taking no for an answer, she encouraged Betty with compliments to her appearance and intelligence, then offering to assist her in preparing for the try-outs if that's what she truly desired.

In spite of their best effort at try-outs, Cheryl found their routine to be dull and boring, this prompted Veronica to kiss Betty in an attempt to save their routine. Sadly, Cheryl was not impressed, as she stated that lesbian kisses were outdated. Then came the interview portion of the try-outs, in which Cheryl pressured Betty into talking about Polly, more so Polly's relationship with Jason, Cheryl's brother. If bringing up her sister wasn't bad enough, Cheryl denied Betty a spot on the River Vixens, which led Veronica to come to her defense, she demanded that Betty receive a spot on the squad, or else she wouldn't join, with no other choice, Cheryl reluctantly agreed. After acquiring their River Vixens uniform, Betty asked Veronica why she defended her, as Betty was very much aware of the crowd that Veronica ran with back in New York.

Veronica's drastic change in character was due to the arrest of her father, they were verbally attacked through letters and emails, and what hurt the most was that everything that was being said about her family was true, so moving to Riverdale was a fresh start. Since Cheryl had previously brought it up, Betty decided to tell Veronica her about Polly and Jason's romance, it meant everything to Polly, but nothing to Jason, the relationship quickly grew to be toxic, which led to their mom turning on Polly. Jason may have hurt her, but it was their mother that broke Polly. Then moving on to their next topic of discussion, Betty was pressured by Veronica to ask Archie to the back-to-school Semi-formal but due to her lack of confidence, Betty ended up asking Archie to be her and Veronica's escort to the dance instead. Excited over Archie saying yes, Betty danced around her room, while wearing her cheer uniform, it was then that she was caught by her mother, who was angered by the fact that her daughter joined a cheer team led by Cheryl Blossom, as the Blossoms and Coopers had an on-going feud.

Betty refused to remove the uniform, tired of being the perfect daughter, sister, and student, she will not quit the cheer team as it is the one decision she has made for herself. Before leaving, she informed her mother that she would be attending the school dance with Archie and Veronica. As planned, Betty, Veronica, and Archie attended the semi-formal. She asked him if there was a chance they could ever go on to become a couple, unfortunately, Archie could not see such a future for them. Despite their current situation, they went to the after-party at Cheryl's house, where they played "", much to Betty's dismay, Archie and Veronica were up first, Betty abruptly left the party considering both of them had betrayed her. Archie went to meet Betty at her house in order to clear things up, she asked if he had romantic feelings towards her, but he didn't, Archie never wished to pursue a romantic relationship. The following morning, Betty stood at the shore of Sweetwater River as Jason Blossom's body was brought in.

Sunday night, following the discovery of Jason Blossom's body, Betty received a text from Archie, though she wasn't interested in talking. The subsequent morning, before leaving for school, she had a brief chat with her mother, who reminded her that people like Archie, Veronica, and Cheryl are not her friends, and that their recent betrayal is only further proof of that. Despite telling her mother that she would no longer seek friendship from Archie, Betty did the very opposite by asking him to walk her to school. She needed time to process the situation, to separate what she wanted from what her mom wanted, and what she wanted was to be friends with Archie. Betty was taken by surprise with Veronica's apology, one that included her being gifted with flowers, cupcakes and a manicures.

Although Betty accepted the apology, she did so while under the impression that Veronica was simply being shallow, and that she'd latch on to someone else eventually. Betty, Kevin, and Veronica joined Archie at lunch, while he worked on his music. At Veronica's request, he played one of his new songs, which overwhelmed Betty, and she ran away from the table as her eyes filled with tears. Archie caught up to her, wanting to talk, Betty explained that she felt safest and most herself whenever she and Archie were at a booth at Pop's, but after the events that took place that weekend, she no longer felt that way. Later, at cheer practice, she and Veronica got into an argument over Archie, her informing Archie of her true feelings towards him, and the awkward tension now between them because of it.

To get back at Veronica, Betty invited Cheryl to get a manicures with her, but it backfired when Cheryl again drilled Betty with questions about Polly and Jason's relationship. It escalated when Cheryl accused Polly of being the person who murdered Jason, having enough of Cheryl and her vindictive ways, Betty told her to get out the house otherwise, she'd kill Cheryl. At school, Betty admitted that Veronica was right about what she said pertaining to Archie, sometimes it's hard to admit things to yourself, Betty said. That night at the Pep Rally, Betty was shocked to see Archie's bruised eye after his fight in the student lounge with Reggie. Following a performance by Josie and the Pussycats, Cheryl took off the stage in tears with Betty and Veronica behind her, Betty watched from a distance as Veronica consoled Cheryl. Seeing this with her own eyes, Betty realized that she had been wrong about Veronica's motives, so they reconciled with malts at Pop's shoppe. Unexpectedly, Archie and Jughead entered the diner soon after, so Betty invited them to join her and Veronica.

Hoping to find Polly, Betty invited Jughead over for breakfast at her house, with her mother. Jughead asked for directions to the bathroom, and as planned, Alice escorted him, which provided a long enough distraction for Betty to go through her mother's purse and take photos of her check book. At The Blue and Gold, after doing a little digging, Betty and Jughead discovered one of the checks were made out to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy, a group-home for troubled youths. During lunch, they quietly discussed Polly and their next course of action, which was catching a bus to the group-home. Betty found Polly in the Garden of Deliverance, and the two reunited after months apart, she immediately noticed that Polly was pregnant with Jason's child, she's happy for Polly, but sad that she didn't come sooner.

From Polly, Betty learned that she and Jason only broke up because his parents forced him to, but after he learned of Polly's pregnancy, he was overjoyed, the two of them had planned to run away together on the 4th of July, but their parents found out and she was sent away because of it. Betty then realized that Polly had no idea that Jason was murdered, as she began rambling on, so Betty was forced to tell her the truth. She was then taken to a room, and kept their until her mother arrived, Alice explained that she's notified by the sisters whenever Polly receives a visitor. Before leaving the facility, Alice had a run-in with Polly, who confronted her over Jason's death, Polly is pulled away by two orderlies, but not before Betty told her that she loves her, and that she would get Polly out of there. After returning home, Betty was lectured by her parents, but she defended her actions as Polly needed to know the truth, however, she didn't find what she was looking for.

Betty then accused her father of not only breaking into Sheriff Keller's house, but possibly murdering Jason as well. Alice accused Betty of sounding just as crazy as Polly, but she insisted that her sister wasn't crazy. The next day, Jughead came through Betty's window with a ladder, she told him about her worries concerning her parents, Polly, and possibly herself being crazy, Jughead calmed Betty down and reassures her that they are not their parents, then he kissed her, to which she smiled, right before remembering the car Jason had stashed out by an old maple farm sign on Route 40 that Polly was rambling on about. That night, they found the car, hidden under a tarp and filled with Jason's things, like his varsity jacket, as well as an abundance of drugs. They took pictures and alerted Sheriff Keller, all the while as they were unknowingly being watched by someone hidden in the woods. The authorities arrived only to find the vehicle had been set on fire. Jughead and Betty then raced to rescue Polly from the group home but found that her room was empty, the window broken and blood coating the glass.

Relationships

 * Betty and Veronica
 * Betty and Archie
 * Betty and Jughead
 * Betty and Kevin
 * Betty and Cheryl
 * Betty and Alice
 * Betty and Polly
 * Betty and Trev

Trivia

 * Betty's literary hero is Toni Morrison.