Warning! This piece contains spoilers for Riverdale and its series finale.
How do you end a show like Riverdale? Well, after 7 Seasons fans just got their answer: a nostalgic trip through the last day of senior year (in the 1950's era of the show) that allowed the show to catch us up on the fates of the sprawling cast of characters. Within that often saccharine and extremely campy hour of TV, there were surprisingly few shocking twists, but there was one massive reveal that got everyone talking and answered one of the biggest questions in Riverdale canon, who was the show's endgame relationship? The answer was far cheekier — and more perfectly in tone with the wild series — than any of us expected.
The season finale begins with the astonishing Jughead (Cole Sprouse) voiceover that "67 Years have gone by..." once again establishing just how little Riverdale worries about playing by the rules. It was an extra silly turn of events as the show then immediately used a Christmas Carol style ghostly arrival of Jughead — who recently died in the modern day — to send Betty (Lili Reinhart) back in time to the 1950s so she could experience a day from High School that she missed. It's a smartly ridiculous twist on the time travel that has been so key to Riverdale's last few seasons as we get to have Betty as our in-character asking about the fates of her friends and loved ones, allowing the show to essentially tell us what happened to everyone. Why does Betty need to know? Well, in 2023 she's the last surviving one out of the crew of her friends and is slowly losing her memory, but luckily ghost Jughead keeps her (and the viewer) of the comings and goings of the teens that we've followed throughout the series.
In a show which has included multiverses, guardian angels, multiple serial killers, atomic bombs, time travel, pyrokinetic lesbians, bear fights, haunted dolls, tickle porn, aliens, a cult leader in a homemade rocket, human sacrifice, the Holy Grail, and much, much more it can be hard to surprise your audience. But as Betty sat at the lunch table with Kevin (Casey Cott) and his loving soon to be life partner Clay (Karl Walcott) the show revealed its final big twist when Kevin prompted Betty to tell the truth about her recent relationship. Ever since the first episode of Riverdale in 2017 the big question has been who the show's Endgame relationship would be and in "Goodbye, Riverdale" creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa found a way to keep the show's sensational spirit alive and give almost every viewer what they wanted, because Betty hadn't just been dating Archie (KJ Apa), or Jughead, instead she'd been in a "Quad" dating both the boys and Veronica (Camila Mendes). Incredible reveal, 10 out of 10 no notes!
Subverting expectations has long been at the heart of what Riverdale has done best. From its inception as a darker, Twin Peaks influenced take on the classic American comic book, Riverdale was never that worried about living up to what people thought it should be. And as the show grew and evolved under creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa it also became one of the rare broadcast TV series with multiple queer lead characters. With Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch), Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan) and Kevin Keller blazing the trail the show became queerer as it went on, introducing new characters as well as established queer canon figures. So, giving us the Betty and Veronica ship — via some '50s swinging — that we all wanted wasn't just in keeping with the show, but exactly what they should have done. Though we didn't get to see whether Archie and Jug were also hooking up the implication was there and it was perfect. The show also allowed its other queer partnerships (Kevin and Kyle, and Toni and Cheryl) to have long and happy lives, dying at an old age after fulfilling and fantastic lives.
Despite the fact that the episode was about a ghostly trip to the past, the reveal about who the core four ended up with was surprisingly real. While Betty, Archie, Jughead, and Veronica spent senior year together enjoying numerous amorous beautifully lit Riverdale hook ups — a status quo that was established after the penultimate episode where the entire cast binge watched every episode of Riverdale giving them their memories that had previously been wiped back, reminding all four how fun it was to date each other, leading to their Quad! — none of the core four actually ended up together. In fact, Archie was the only one who got married after moving to California to pursue his dream of being a Beat Poet. Veronica, Betty, and Jughead never tied the knot and instead pursued their dream careers, all becoming incredibly successful. It's another unexpected choice that shows that as ridiculous as Riverdale can be, it understands the realities of the real world and those of us who live in it. We don't often end up with our high school sweethearts, and actually for many of us — especially queer folks — life, love, and fulfillment often exist outside of the traditional ideas of marriage, heteronormativity, and "settling down."
Don't worry though, the show wasn't overly concerned with reality as the series came to an end. The final moments showed Betty dying in the back of her granddaughter's car and entering Heaven — which in this case was Pop's Diner — as a teenager. There she reunited with her many friends and her three young lovers to spend the rest of eternity as a horny teen sleeping with her pals, wearing pastels, and drinking milkshakes. Thank you Riverdale, for giving us a happily ever after that was just as wild, surprising, and utterly ridiculous as the 7 seasons that came before us! All is right in the world — and the great hereafter.
Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.
