Riverdale: 20 most important characters on the show

Riverdale — “Chapter Forty-Nine: Fire Walk With Me” — Image Number: RVD314b_0643.jpg — Pictured: Gina Gershon as Gladys Jones — Photo: Jack Rowand/The CW — © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

16. Gladys Jones

It took until the third season, but we have finally met Jughead’s mother Gladys and his little sister Jellybean. Following suit with the rest of the parents in Riverdale, save for Archie’s, Gladys arrives with secrets and an agenda.

She rolled into town and immediately started working over Veronica, then she set her sights on manipulating Hiram. Gladys Jones is shaping up to be a game-changing force for a town that thinks its seen everything.

Gina Gershon brings the rough around the edges Gladys Jones to life, and she’s everything you would expect a former Serpent queen to have become. She’s gruff, no holds, barred and unafraid to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes — especially her son, Jughead.

With little more than a stern, but even tone and tactful manipulation, Gladys can invoke fear in even the most fearless, putting her estranged husband and the whole Lodge family unknowingly in their place.

Our new problematic favorite Gladys Jones continues the trend of Riverdale parents not being the greatest representations of authority figures to their children. Instead of support, she wields power, sharing her true motives with only Jellybean.

Although Gladys Jones has merely just begun her reign, she could end up being one of the most influential characters to the narrative. No one has been able to best Hiram at his own game, but if anyone can, it’s Gladys Jones.