Veronica Lodge establishes herself as the window into all things trending within the first ten minutes of Riverdale (as well as the character with the best snappy one-liners and lipstick choices.) One of her first lines of dialogue in episode one is a reference to Capote, right after she introduces herself to Betty and Archie.
“Are you familiar with the works of Truman Capote?” she asks them, with a closed-mouth half-smile. “I’m ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ but this place is strictly ‘In Cold Blood.'”
It’s the kind of dialogue you never hear teenagers use in real life, but that’s part of her charm: just as she rejects the “popular girl” mold at Riverdale, she in some ways rejects teenage-hood with her sharp references that would put her more at home in the Gilmore household than among a group of seventeen-year-olds.
While re-watching the show, I found myself smiling again and again at her lines, amused by her references. Then I began writing them down.
“10 minutes in and I’m already the Blue Jasmine of Riverdale High.”
“As hot and smart as you are you should be the Queen Bey of this drab hive.”
“Hi, team Outlander!”
“Can’t we in this post-James Franco world be all things at once?”
“Romeo and Juliet are the exception not the rule.”
“His conversation is not the stuff of Oscar Wilde or even Diablo Cody.”
“You’d better be willing to go Full Dark, No Stars.”
“I vote for anything starring Audrey Hepburn. Or Kate Blanchett.”
“You may be a stock character from a 90s teen movie but I’m not.”
“Okay, Miss Gyver.”
“Be the Jay to my Bey?”
This is not a comprehensive list, but it’s also only a few episodes. To take full stock of Ronnie’s references would make a many-page book, and it will undoubtedly pop up on Etsy sometime soon.
Until then.
