Riverdale‘s seventh and final season has come to a close, leaving its Archie Comics-inspired crop of characters on a unique footing. The finale jumped across decades of time and space to reveal what each protagonist’s life looked like — including one reveal that quickly set the Internet ablaze. Obviously, spoilers for the series finale of Riverdale, “Goodbye Riverdale”, below! Only look if you want to know! The episode sees an elderly Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) getting a chance to go back to the 1950s and revisit her high school days, giving her one last opportunity to say goodbye to her friends and family. While at school, she is soon reminded of one major detail of her social life — that she, Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse), Archie Andrews (K.J. Apa), and Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) all dated each other in a polycule during their senior year, after discovering their romance history in their future-past lives and deciding to not want to “choose” a certain coupling.
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In a new interview with Variety, Riverdale producer Sarah Schechter revealed that it was something of a happy accident that the show ended up on that combination, and argued that it was an attempt to go against the heteronormative standards at the time of the show’s setting.
Who Was Endgame on Riverdale?
“I think anyone who tells you there was always a plan, they’re lying,” Schechter revealed. “From the beginning, we had so many conversations about not wanting this to be retro in the wrong ways, and not wanting to be reductive in the wrong way. There’s this core of Archie Comics about family, town, growing up and everything universal, but there was always Archie picking between two girls. I think we made a really conscious effort to step away from that in the pilot, and have maintained that throughout. So I think it was modern and fitting. Each of these characters have such big lives that they were meant to lead — I do think it was such a brave and interesting choice. Them not ending up together, in a way, is more honest. It also helps you remember that each one of these relationships is equally important in its moment. If anyone ended up with anyone, it would say somehow that it’s more powerful. There’s a maturity to it that I love so much. A person’s life isn’t who they end up with: It’s deeper and more meaningful than that. [Showrunner] Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa] is such a theater fan, and you can really feel Our Town in it — with a quad. It’s still Riverdale! I thought it was kind of amazing choice, and they kind of all end up in the afterlife together. That allows people to root forever.”
Schechter also addressed why the finale did not show the combination of Archie and Jughead hooking up onscreen.
“I mean, that’s, like, too hot for TV,” Schechter argued. “I don’t think there was a reason for it. I think there’s a fantastic, fantastic amount of LGBTQ representation on the show.”
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