Riverdale Goes Black and White in New “For a Better Tomorrow” Photos

The CW has released photos for “Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Five: For a Better Tomorrow”, the eighteenth episode of Riverdale‘s seventh and final season. The episode is one of the final three for the fan-favorite series and while the episode title seems to be leading the series towards the idea of a better future, the previously-released synopsis reveals that Cold War paranoia comes to Riverdale in the episode — along with a shocking discovery for the Cooper family. It’s not exactly clear why these episode photos are in black and white, though it’s an interesting stylistic choice. You can check them out for yourself below along with the episode synopsis.

“COLD WAR PARANOIA – As the gang gets swept up in Cold War paranoia, a new mystery brewing in Riverdale leads Jughead (Cole Sprouse) to suspect it may have ties to a string of suspicious murders in town.  Archie (KJ Apa) reconsiders his future after Uncle Frank (guest star Ryan Robbins) gives him a hard time about his poetry writing, and a shocking discovery involving her family shakes Betty (Lili Reinhart) to her core.   Camila Mendes, Madelaine Petsch, Madchen Amick, Casey Cott, Charles Melton, Vanessa Morgan, and Drew Ray Tanner also star.  Greg Smith directed the episode written by Ted Sullivan & Greg Murray.”

Cold War Paranoia is Just The Latest Issue Riverdale is Tackling in its Final Season

With Riverdale‘s final season being set in the 1950s, it’s natural that the series would touch on the Cold War and the tensions and paranoia that came with the era. The idea of darkness and injustice just below the shiny, All-American, wholesome veneer is a major element of Riverdale‘s seventh and final season. Thus far we’ve seen racial injustice, sexism, book burning, anti-gay sentiment, and other moral panics thus far this season — all things that existed in the 1950s. Exploring these topics is something that showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa spoke with ComicBook.com about earlier this season when discussing the season premiere’s addressing of the murder of Emmett Till.

“When we first started talking about the 1950s, I think the biggest conversations that we had in the writers room and that I had with various cast members were, and you yourself had even talked about, was is this going to be an idealized whitewashed 1950s where everyone was accepted and where it was okay to be gay, and it was the same being a black teenager as it was being a Caucasian teenager? And very quickly it was sort of like, ‘No, that’s not right, because that’s not true.’ And that’s just not the struggle that people were going through at the time,” he said.  “And if you remember, in our season finale at the end of season six, when Archie and Jughead went back in time after the comet, which was so long ago, Archie comes downstairs and his mother says, ‘Something terrible happened. James Dean died.’ And James Dean represented a certain kind of American youth, like handsome movie star, and it was a national tragedy.”

He continued, “And when we were researching the 1950s, and specifically 1955, it was within weeks of James Dean’s death, it was the trial of Emmett Till’s murderers who of course were acquitted and set free. And it felt to us in the writers … when we were talking about it, wow, two different tragedies, two very different teenagers, covered completely different by the media, meaning completely different things. And it felt like a way to immediately dive into the thematics that we wanted to explore is by telling what we hoped was a meaningful sensitive story about Riverdale High being recently integrated, and what the black characters at Riverdale High would be feeling on the other side of that verdict coming down. Of course. And that felt like it was around that time period. And we talked about it a lot in the rooms, and Tabitha Tate, who is a character who’s always … and Toni Topaz, who has always … they’ve always been proud and political, and I don’t want to say social justice warriors, but they’ve always been concerned with those themes. It felt like it would be strange for them not to be talking about that and to have an episode where everyone’s just talking about James Dean. It felt that in our world if Riverdale High had recently integrated and this had happened, these are the kinds of conversations that some of our characters would have and that all of our characters should be having.”

When is Riverdale‘s Series Finale?

In May, The CW announced the series finale dates for both Riverdale and Nancy Drew. Both shows will air their series finales on Wednesday, August 23rd. Nancy Drew‘s finale will air at 8/7c with Riverdale‘s airing at 9/8c.

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW. “Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Five: For a Better Tomorrow” airs August 9th.