We’re getting ever closer to the end of Riverdale‘s Season 6 with the season set to conclude on Sunday, July 31st, but with a handful of episodes remaining, the stakes keep getting higher and higher for Archie and the gang and now, it seems like we’ll be headed back to an unusual location as the fight against Percival Pickens grows more intense. The CW has released the synopsis for “Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen: Return to Rivervale”, the twentieth episode of the season set to air on July 17th.
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As fans will recall, Rivervale was the alternate reality of sorts that the first five episodes of Season 6 explored so it will be very interesting to see what a return to that setting has in store — or how the gang gets there in the first place. You can check out the synopsis for yourself below.
“THE ULTIMATE MAN OF MYSTERY — Archie (KJ Apa) and the gang gather intel about Percival (guest star Chris O’Shea) so they can better understand where he came from and use that to their advantage. However, when their plan results in an unexpected outcome, the gang is left having to pay a terrible cost. Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Madelaine Petsch, Mädchen Amick, Casey Cott, Vanessa Morgan, Charles Melton, Erinn Westbrook, and Drew Ray Tanner also star. Anna Kerrigan directed the episode written by Ted Sullivan & Devon Turner.”
This return to Rivervale is a bit of a surprise, but in some ways not entirely unexpected. Series star Vanessa Morgan had previously teased that the events of “Rivervale” would have major impact on Season 6, and it seems now that may be paying off quite literally with this “return”.
“If you believe [in other dimensions] then there’s alternate realities all going on at the same time, different versions, different outcomes, all playing out at your life at the same time,” Morgan said. “I believe in that, and I feel like we’re kind of touching on that. And then I think toward the end of the season, it’ll all come together, and you’ll really realize how it all relates.”
Whatever happens with this return to Rivervale as well as with Season 6 more generally, fans are already bracing themselves for next season which is set to be the series’ last. Series creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa recently teased that Season 7 will be a big one for the series and that things will wrap up in a really exciting way.
“It came out of conversations with the studio and The CW and [network president] Mark Pedowitz,” Aguirre-Sacasa told TVLine. “When we were renewed for Season 7, though we weren’t told at the time it’d be our final season, I think we were all feeling that it might be. When Mark and I talked about it… it was bittersweet. That said, we are so proud of the run we’ve had, and the call did come as we were working on the last episode of Season 6. We were debating on what the final beats of that episode would be and torn between a very big swing and a quieter ending. And it definitely emboldened us to go for the big swing for Season 7. It’s really exciting.”
Riverdale airs Sundays at 8/7c on The CW. “Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen: Return to Rivervale” will air on July 17th.
