Riverdale: here is the (surreal) end of the series

After 7 seasons and 137 episodes, Riverdale ended this Wednesday, August 23. The series The CW, distributed by Netflix internationally, is a strange monument in pop culture: a strange surprise at its launch, which brought fame to several members of its cast, the teen drama has left many spectators on the floor over its ever more surreal seasons.

So if you’ve already given up Riverdale but you still want to know how the adventures of Archie, Betty, Jughead and Veronica end, we debrief the end of the series. Fasten your seat belts.

Season 7 takes place in 1955 because of an evil comet

Beforehand, it should be noted that the last season takes place in 1955, with characters who have gone back in time. They have all lost their memory of the past events of Riverdale. Except for Jughead, who is trying to restore his comrades’ memories.

Yes, because, at the end of season 6, an evil wizard launched a comet on the town of Riverdale, then destroyed. But, luckily, just before the impact, a character with psychic abilities—Tabitha—saved everyone by throwing them back in time. The need to always anticipate evil comets! (Remember that we are in the same “fantastic” universe as the series sabrinaso, yes, there is magic.)

The penultimate episode of the season sets the stage for the grand finale. Tabitha informs the group that she managed to “consolidate” this timeline to save Riverdale. However, they will remain stuck in this new timeline, with their youth in 1950. It leaves them the choice to find their complete memories or not. Archie and Veronica decide to exclusively restore their happy memories, while Jughead and Betty agree to regain the bad memories as well. That’s the pre-requisite.

Betty returns to high school at 86 thanks to Jughead becoming an angel

At the beginning of the final episode, in the future, we discover that everyone is dead. Of old age, however, after a rich life, rest assured.

At this point, only an 86-year-old Betty remains. This one, on her deathbed, wishes to relive her last day of high school. In the night, she is visited by an angel with magical powers, who is none other than Jughead, who died 2 years ago. This allows him to go through a magic door to go back in time to this last day of high school, for a last goodbye for a day. She then resumes the form of the 17-year-old Betty.

In polyamory then finally not: what becomes of Betty, Jughead, Veronica, Archie?

Riverdale was not just a love triangle, but rather a kind of love square between Archie, Betty, Jughead and Veronica, a real relational ping-pong. At the end of the series, the solution is all found: we discover, during Betty’s time travel, that they form a polyamorous “quad” together at the end of high school. They have realized, in fact, that they have unquenchable mutual feelings for each other. So they live this love, without dividing it into couples.

However, there is a twist in the twist : the quad lasts only one year. After high school, Archie, Betty, Jughead and Veronica will eventually move away…for the rest of their lives. By the 86-year-old Betty’s own admission, she doesn’t even know what has become of her friends. You read that right: no one ends up together, and even friendship doesn’t stand up to the passage of time into adulthood.

Over the course of the episode, however, we know a little more about the future of each and everyone after high school:

• Veronica moved to LA, where she became a film producer and won two Oscars. Even though Betty attended a few screenings of her movies, they didn’t keep in touch. Veronica was buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
• Archie: when Betty and Archie say goodbye, Archie tells her that he has ” always thought it would be you and me in the end because it all started with us, right? “. But Betty tells him that, no, in the future, they don’t end up together. Archie met someone new, started a family, became a construction worker and a hobby writer. When he dies, he will be buried in Riverdale, next to his father. Note that Betty and Archie are allowed one last kiss at the end of this scene.
• Jughead: he never married and, moved to New York, he founded a humor magazine, Jughead’s Madhouse.
• Betty: she also went to New York and also created a magazine, She Says, dedicated to feminism and progressivism. She never married, but adopted a daughter, Carla. At the end of her life, she is a grandmother to a young Alice.

What about “Choni”? The couple formed by Cheryl and Toni, after season 1, had become the most solid relationship of the series. And this will be the case until the end: we learn that the two women remained together until the end of their lives. Likewise, Kevin and Clay also stay together for the rest of their lives.

Betty is in the afterlife and they are all enjoying a milkshake together

Are you still there? Because the real end – even more melancholy – comes now. In her granddaughter’s car, the 86-year-old Betty dies. At that moment, in a movement of the camera, it is the 17-year-old Betty who gets out of this same car to go to Pop’s house – the famous dinner in the center of everything Riverdale. There, she is greeted by…everyone, who are happily chatting and having fun. She joins her three friends, Veronica, Archie and Jughead, to enjoy a milkshake.

Jughead’s voice is then heard, against a background of a typewriter noise, and we gradually move away. He describes the dinner as ” this Sweet Beyond » (Sweet Hereafter), before ending his monologue thus: So if you see this neon on a lonely evening at the end of this long journey — this journey that each of us is on — stop. Come in. Sit down. And know that you will always be among friends. And that Riverdale will always be your home. Until then, have a good night. »

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