Does Riverdale's Series Finale Create a Major Plothole?
The CW's shows ending may have raised another question along the way.
After seven years and countless off-the-wall storylines, Riverdale has come to an end. The long-running The CW series ended its run on Wednesday night, bringing its Archie Comics-inspired storytelling to a close. Amid the emotional and often-sentimental moments of Riverdale's finale, one particular scene might have broken the show's own canon. Obviously, spoilers for the series finale of Riverdale, "Goodbye Riverdale", below! Only look if you want to know!
Midway through the episode, Archie Andrews (K.J. Apa) gathers the gang around to celebrate their status as almost-graduated seniors in the 1950s, and all of the paths they will be going on in the future. Archie writes a poem/roast about each of his friends, which pokes fun at an array of previous story elements from the show — including Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) having the "serial killer gene"; Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) locking her brother's corpse in a cellar; Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) motivating his teacher, Rupert Chipping (Sam Witwer) to suddenly jump out of a window to his death; and Fangs Fogarty (Drew Ray Tanner) joining an organ-harvesting cult. Archie even references "the epic highs and lows of high school football" — a line he previously said while being falsely imprisoned in juvie.
The only problem? In the world of Riverdale — more specifically, in the prior penultimate episode — it was revealed that the majority of the gang didn't remember the "bad parts" of their previous lives in the present day. After Angel Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook) arrived in the 1950s and played literal episodes of Riverdale to each of the gang, nearly all of them asked to only remember the positive highlights of their future-past. Only Jughead and Betty had specifically asked to remember all of the moments. Therefore, Archie and the rest of the group should theoretically not be aware of these darker moments.
There are some ways that this detail can be explained away — for starters, maybe Archie and the rest of the group gradually learned about these moments over their junior and senior years. (That would especially make sense for Archie and Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes), since the finale revealed that they were in a polycule with Betty and Jughead.) Or maybe Riverdale was quietly trying to argue that you can't fully have the "good parts" without the darkness — and that all of the death, destruction, and heartbreak only made the happy moments even happier. After all, the show's final scene essentially argues that as well, showing that the afterlife the gang ended up in, after living long and complicated adult lives, was a never-ending junior year night at Pop's diner. Either way, Archie's roast makes for an earnest look back at some of the show's wilder moments, even as it raises some questions about the show's own storied history.
What did you think of Riverdale's finale? How do you feel about this potential plothole? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!