Gershon calls Gladys "a product of Riverdale," and says she just "really needed to get away" from her bad relationship with FP. In her mind, she was still trying to get away from a bad situation when she told Jughead he couldn't come visit her back in season one, when FP had been arrested.
"I think she had to get away and get herself together, and become strong and finish high school, get herself a business," she says, and that's how we find Gladys in "Outbreak." She's got her life together in a way, running a salvage yard and taking charge of a group of Southside Serpents.
Gladys and Jughead both have different ideas of why she left in the first place, Gershon says, and why she wouldn't let Jughead come see her.
"I think there's a lot that Jughead doesn't understand about what Gladys has had to do to protect him. That's my take," she says. "Cole and I had lively discussions about this, because that's a typical thing, you know? Even with your own parents, you're all like, you did this, and they're all, no no no, you don't understand what the situation was. There's always two sides to every story."
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7prvNpaCnnV6YvK57zZ6urGdpboJ2hJRonqKmkWK0pr7SoaanZZmiuqawyJqrnqSpYq%2BwusOem2avmam1br7Ir5yrnJGhsm6%2FzqdknKecmnq0vNGorKyd