Riverdale “Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Four: Dirty Dancing” Synopsis Released

The CW has released a synopsis for “Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Four: Dirty Dancing,” the seventh episode of Riverdale‘s seventh and final season. The episode is scheduled to air on Wednesday, May 10th. With the series having sent its familiar characters not only back to high school, but back to the 1950s, keeping everyone on the straight and narrow has become a focus for the adults in Riverdale, particularly for Principal Featherhead as well as the school’s child psychologist, but from the sound of things in this episode, it’s Alice Cooper who is concerned about things, particularly where it involves Betty and going down the “wrong path”. You can check out the synopsis for yourself below.

“AMERICAN GRANDSTAND” — Fearing that Betty (Lili Reinhart) is going down the wrong path, Alice (Madchen Amick) forces her to join the after-school dance show, “American Grandstand.”  Meanwhile, Kevin (Casey Cott) is forced by Tom (guest star Martin Cummins) to join the Riverdale High basketball team, and Veronica (Camila Mendes) finds herself cut off by her parents.  KJ Apa, Cole Sprouse, Madelaine Petsch and Drew Ray Tanner also star.  Jesse Warn directed the episode written by Aaron Allen.

Who — or what — is the “villain” of Riverdale‘s final season?

Speaking with ComicBook.com previously, series showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa explained that while previous seasons of Riverdale had very specific “big bads”, this final season has a different approach to its villain. This time, the gang is dealing with society itself.

“Usually, when we talk about the season, when we’re planning the season, we usually have a big bad or a villain that all of the kids are at some point or other engaging with and fighting against. And in season six, it was Percival Pickens who was an intergalactic time-traveling sorcerer. But when we were talking about this season, we really felt like the villain or what they were fighting against society was the 1950s,” he said. “And that the conflict that all of our characters to some extent or other were caught up in was, how do we live honest, authentic lives that are individualistic and that allows us to be exactly who we want to be in a society that represses that and that demands conformity and that punishes anyone who falls outside of the carefully constructed mores of the 1950s, the institutions of the ’50s celebrated, which is to say via traditional American family, traditional American gender roles, traditional … a social order that has since been exploded and broken down and rebuilt time and time again since that time? So, it felt like the villain, if there was one, were the 1950s. And by the way, we have characters that symbolize that… but the big conflict was with society at large and them sort of bristling against that.”

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW. “Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Four: Dirty Dancing” airs on May 10th.