Riverdale’s Luke Perry Tribute in “Graduation” Has Fans Emotional

Riverdale‘s fifth season has already been filled with some undeniably emotional moments, especially as the series’ roster of teenage characters go through the milestones of senior year of high school. That all culminated in a major way in this week’s episode, “Chapter Seventy-Nine: Graduation”, which showcased the Riverdale High graduation in its full glory. Along the way, the series acknowledged just how far it has come since its series premiere — including with one heartwrenching flashback sequence. Spoilers for Season 5, Episode 3 of Riverdale, “Chapter Seventy-Nine: Graduation”, below! Only look if you want to know!

As Riverdale High’s senior class prepared for graduation, each of them had wildly different perspectives and emotions going into the event. For Archie Andrews (KJ Apa), the moment was definitely conflicting, especially as he began to consider whether he would stay behind and finish high school or potentially pursue a path into the military. To make that conflict even more tumultuous, Archie began to have dreams about his dad, Fred Andrews (Luke Perry), who passed away offscreen from a hit and run in the Season 4 premiere. This culminated in a sequence — one that was previously shown in Season 2’s “A Kiss Before Dying”, as a dream sequence while Fred wrestled with his own fate after getting shot by the Black Hood — of Fred at Archie’s graduation, remarking to Mary (Molly Ringwald) that he didn’t think he’d live to see the day.

While that scene was definitely emotional in its original context, it has taken on a whole other meaning after Perry passed away in 2019 due to complications from a stroke. Riverdale fans quickly took to Twitter to share their emotions surrounding the scene — and here are just a few of those responses.

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