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RIVERDALE: Marisol Nichols on the Lodge Family Dynamics in Season 2

The arrival of Hiram Lodge in season 2 of RIVERDALE has affected the town as a whole, but no one has been more impacted than Veronica and Hermione Lodge. While the two women had a certain dynamic in the first season of the show, Hiram’s return has shaken the foundation of the little family.

During a visit to the set of RIVERDALE in Vancouver, Marisol Nichols (Hermione Lodge) hinted that his arrival has absolutely changed her character. “I almost want to preface every episode this season with ‘I’m sorry!’ [Hermione] definitely has changed a lot. I like to say that we got to see, in the first season, the best version of her. She got to be the best version of a mom, the best version of a friend, everything that she wanted. And then as Hiram kind of makes himself known and that he’s coming back, she’s had to obviously change her operating basis. If you remember last season, Veronica’s going really hard against Hiram, really trying to call him out. That’s dangerous, and you don’t do that with Hiram. So my viewpoint was, it’s better for Veronica to hate me because that’s a lot safer than her hating Hiram, at least for the time being. Good Hermione is still underneath there somewhere.”

“Hiram is very interesting because he is very personable and likable, and you can see how people would want to do business with him and like him and respect him — and at the same time, from what I understand, most sociopaths are likable. That face that he puts on for everyone else, including his daughter, really messes with their home life and I like to think that Veronica, before he went away, had stars in her eyes for her daddy. Obviously with him going away, as we saw in the first season, those got ripped off like Band-Aids. The dynamic that has been brought in [season 2] is this element of danger — specifically for Hermione, because she’s walking this tightrope between not letting Hiram see the cards that she’s holding and also not letting Veronica see the cards that she’s holding. It has been a very interesting walk, for lack of a better word.”

Does Hermione feel left out in the close relationship between Hiram and Veronica, at least while Hiram is playing nice with his daughter? “I think that if she could put herself between Hiram and Veronica and stand there the whole time and answer all of his questions, she would. I don’t know if she feels left out, as much as ‘How do I handle these two, and keep them apart, and keep everyone nice and happy?'”

But does Hermione have anyone she can confide in as she navigates the dangerous place that is her home? “Poor Hermione — she doesn’t. I think the closest that we got to that was Fred last season. I think that when I had to break up with him, it was so hard because I really felt like Hermione learned to trust somebody again and got to be the kind of person she wanted to be. I had this huge backstory in my mind, and all that’s gone. I hope that we get to see moments of that again, come back, because I really could relate to that.”

As for the potential havoc that Hiram (and maybe even Hermione) could unleash on the town, Nicols left us with this warning: “I would say the one thing I have learned, at least from Hiram, is that nothing he does is by accident. Everything is completely planned out always and I think that is what the audience is starting to pick up. But I can also tell you I don’t even know what they’re up to. I don’t know the endgame at all. I wish I did because it would help a little bit more, but I can just say that things go deeper and deeper and deeper and they get more and more entrenched in Riverdale.”

RIVERDALE airs Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.

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