Riverdale’s final season has pushed its characters from their adult states back to a teenage facsimile — only this time, they’re stuck in the 1950s.
For some, the ’50s were the reset they’d been hoping to see from Riverdale, which can offer fresh, campy storytelling. For others, Riverdale’s foray into the ’50s has fallen hopelessly flat.
Riverdale Season 5 starts with a seven-year time jump that aged all the characters from high school seniors to aimless twenty-somethings. Divulging in more mature plots and relationships that the high school years hadn’t seen before, the time jump allowed the characters to continue to grow.
Riverdale Season 6 moved into the supernatural, with the season culminating in Riverdale Season 6 Episode 22, “Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen: The Night Of The Comet,” wherein the residents of Riverdale were faced with a new kind of peril as a comet hurdled towards them, threatening to wipe them off the face of the earth.
At the end of the Riverdale Season 6 finale, the characters were shown having been transported back to the ’50s, and Riverdale Season 7 has taken place entirely in the decade thus far. Early in the season, the time travel was explained by Tabitha Tate (Erinn Westbrook) as a way to keep everyone safe from the fallout of the comet.
As of Riverdale Season 7 Episode 13, “Chapter One Hundred Thirty: The Crucible,” the time travel has not been revisited, and it seems that the characters will likely be in the ’50s for the rest of the season.
Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa shared before Riverdale Season 7 that the characters would not be in the decade for the duration, but it remains to be seen if that’s true.
Regardless, the ’50s storyline has been an odd mix of kitschy nostalgia and Riverdale-style zaniness that hasn’t hit the same notes as prior seasons of the show.
For a final season, the ’50s story seems like a weak, flippant attempt at reinventing the characters rather than a proper send-off to the stories that remain woefully incomplete in the present-day timeline.
For fans of the series, the ’50s have presented more problems than solutions.
Narratively, Riverdale has constructed a fictionalized version of the town with Pep, still ambiguously located in upstate New York.
Riverdale is depicted as a place where the heartbreaking Emmett Till trial was highly publicized, and at the same time, LGBTQIA+ characters are not ostracized for their sexuality in public spaces.
It isn’t easy to accept that both could be true, but Riverdale asks that for the sake of their 1950s, viewers do.
While there are echoes of the past Riverdale stories in the ’50s, they are few and far between and don’t offer any of the resolution fans seek.
Some Riverdale Season 7 Storylines Are Falling Flat
The major storylines throughout the ’50s arc have done something that Riverdale isn’t typically guilty of incorporating all the characters.
Kevin Keller (Casey Cott), famously underutilized and underdeveloped in the present timeline of Riverdale, has been a big piece of the ’50s storyline though it may be to the character’s detriment.
In the first several episodes of Riverdale Season 7, Kevin was working through discovering his sexuality while dating the classic girl next door, Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart).
Kevin met Clay Walker (Karl Walcott), a new character in the ’50s timeline, and the two opened up with each other about their attraction.
While seeing their few scenes together was sweet, the lack of development involving their relationship after Kevin began to understand himself has been a glaring hole in the story.
On top of the fact that the storyline has been treated with a lack of depth, this has turned fans off entirely.
Elsewhere, Betty’s storyline has been sexualized since the beginning of Riverdale Season 7.
Typically repressed, Betty has been even more so during the ’50s. She has tried to learn about human sexuality throughout the season while her burgeoning feelings for her next-door neighbor, Archie Andrews (KJ Apa), continue to grow.
While Betty’s story of repression started as an exciting way to explore the character, it has shifted rapidly into a hypersexual series of fan-service moments, including Betty fantasizing about nearly everyone in the cast.
The dichotomy between Betty’s fantasy life and her real life, where she’s stuck in a war for her freedom with her parents, Alice (Madchen Amick) and Hal (Lochlyn Munro), is engaging in theory.
Still, the payoff has been minimal outside of seeing Lili Reinhart’s chemistry with her cast mates.
Betty’s story lacks depth, similar to Kevin’s, and doesn’t seem to have a natural endpoint.
Like the lack of depth in Kevin and Betty’s stories, the season’s mystery is particularly shallow.
Riverdale Season 7’s mystery revolves around a mysterious Milk Man. Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) is the main character involved in the mystery.
Still, rather than adding a Riverdalian spin to the story, the mystery has been more confusing and convoluted than anything else.
While the lack of context will be resolved in the coming episodes, it doesn’t feel enough to sell anyone on the mystery.
Riverdale’s Big Ships Are Winning But In Tough Circumstances
Riverdale’s Season 7 highlight has been the relationship between Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) and Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan).
Though the couple has been underserved in the past, the series has used Season 7 to highlight the relationship between the characters and organically build it up from a natural starting point.
Showing off the chemistry between Petsch and Morgan, who shine individually and together on the series, has been a highlight to a season with some low lows.
Still, even Choni’s relationship hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing.
Considering the characters are in one of the most repressed modern decades, Cheryl and Toni have had to deal with Cheryl’s traumatizing parents and the fact that they don’t have the luxury of being publicly out.
The storyline has been handled with care, but the writing at some times feels like the only high point of each episode.
Meanwhile, the slow burn between Betty Cooper and Archie Andrews has been one of the most long-drawn-out relationships in Riverdale history.
Though the characters got together in Riverdale Season 6, the ’50s see them back in the friend zone.
Betty and Archie have had some beautiful moments in the ’50s, showing their status as best friends as their attraction for one another grows.
However, there has been an irregular edge to the relationship created by Betty’s hypersexual storyline that’s been undercutting the story frequently.
For every step forward Betty and Archie seem to take, they take several steps back in the following episodes.
From agreeing to a late-night peep show in their adjacent bedroom windows to going on a double date with Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) and Reggie Mantle (Charles Melton), Betty and Archie have been in each other’s orbit.
While this is the traditional ebb and flow of a slow burn, something hasn’t entirely stuck the landing for fan favorites Barchie during the ’50s.
Without understanding Betty or Archie’s true feelings for one another, the missteps feel forced and confusing, and their near continuous misses seem more severe than they likely are.
Finally, the relationship between Jughead and his new-to-town girlfriend, Tabitha, is sadly missing in the ’50s.
As Riverdale’s Guardian Angel, a plot introduced during Riverdale Season 6, Tabitha’s character has been written out of the show for most of the season.
While Jughead is doing fine on his own, the dynamic between the characters is sorely missed, as is Tabitha’s presence.
What Can Riverdale Do In Its Final Sprint?
While the final moments of Riverdale Season 7 have already been written and filmed, there are a few things fans are hoping for as the show finally finishes out its impressive seven-year run.
First, many are hoping for clarity.
The storylines are sure to wrap up regardless.
Still, many are hoping to find out whether or not the characters will travel back to the present timeline before the end of the season to set expectations accordingly.
With so many stories still unresolved in the present, it would be difficult to ignore the fact that the characters who have existed for years still need to be wrapped up.
Second, put the plot to the sideline in favor of character development.
While Riverdale has always included a mystery plot, this is the final season.
The character arcs have been so convoluted in the first place with the time traveling that it would make more sense to focus on what’s happening with them over the Milk Man.
Many are hopeful that the final episodes spend time with more character-driven stories than inundating the audience with the plot.
Third: we all want a resolution. Riverdale has been a ride for those who’ve watched and those who haven’t.
With the series finally coming to a close, fans are hopeful that the series won’t leave the story entirely open-ended.
Instead, fans are hoping all their favorite Riverdale kids will genuinely have a resolution to their long-winding plots.
Whether it be a montage at the end of the series to wrap up the characters’ arcs or definitive answers to the burning questions (does Choni find their way back to each other?
Does Archie choose Betty or Veronica?
What is Baby Anthony up to?
Fans are looking for some answers.
Cher Thompson is a staff writer for TV Fanatic, who you can follow on Twitter.
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