However, things become dangerous as Archie's greediness worsens. He calls his friend Jed to assist him in pretending to kidnap him in order for the other boys to give Jed the money, leading to Archie fleeing with it. However, Kris runs to Nancy Hayton's (Jessica Fox) house with the money and plans to go to the police. Jed actually kidnaps Archie seriously and gives him an ultimatum; either he receives the money or he would throw Archie over a roof. Elliot, Zak, Kris and Nancy salvaged him but, realising how the money affected their friendship, Kris abandoned it. After this, everyone neglected Archie, furious for Archie's betrayal. During Freshers week, Archie has a one-night stand with India Longford (Beth Kingston) and humiliates her by ignoring her publicly. In October 2009, Archie receives a call, which he doesn't identify on screen. The unknown caller informs him that Zoe is charged with the murder of her best friend and Archie's ex-girlfriend, Sarah, who has just died in a skydiving accident when her parachute failed to deploy which resulted in her death. Unbeknown to everyone, Lydia, Sarah's girlfriend has framed Zoe for Sarah's death as she was the culprit who sabotaged Sarah's parachute that was intended to kill Zoe. Archie is keen to support his sister. During an argument with Lydia, Archie realises Lydia was the saboteur and accuses her during Sarah's wake. Zoe is found not guilty with everyone believing Sarah committed suicide. Archie develops a drug habit and drops an ecstasy tablet in Nancy's flat which is then nearly taken by her young nephew Charlie Dean (Joshua McConville). Elliot also gets the blame as he had let Archie in. Neither Nancy nor Elliot want to speak to Archie again. On a night out with Kris and Zak, Archie makes comments about Zak's dead brother Caleb who was killed on patrol in Afghanistan. These comments offended Zak and he punches Archie. This leaves Archie with no friends in the village. Archie leaves after Elliot is taken into hospital having taken Archie's pills. In 2009 Ruth Deller of entertainment website Lowculture criticised Archie stating: "Zoe’s generic lairy student brother serves no purpose, essentially being an even more obnoxious version of Zak, whilst Zak is still on the show. And there’s no believability about his relationship with Zoe whatsoever."