Riverdale: "Back to School" Synopsis Released

Riverdale is preparing to enter a whole new era, as the plot of the hit The CW series will be undergoing a major time jump. As this week's episode, "Chapter Seventy-Nine: Graduation" teased, the series will pick up with its characters seven years into the future -- but it looks like Riverdale High won't be entirely in the rearview mirror. The CW has released a new synopsis for "Chapter Eighty-Two: Back to School", the sixth episode of the series' fifth season. Interestingly, the synopsis reveals that the Core Four will all be returning to Riverdale High as teachers, although it's unclear what subjects they'll be teaching.

"BULLDOG PRIDE — Archie (KJ Apa), Betty (Lili Reinhart), Veronica (Camila Mendes) and Jughead (Cole Sprouse) prepare for their first day as Riverdale High's newest teachers. Veronica introduces her husband Chad (guest star Chris Mason) to the group after he shows up unexpectedly in Riverdale. After realizing they are out of funds, Archie and Toni (Vanessa Morgan) turn to Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) for help restarting the football and cheer teams. Finally, Betty, Kevin (Casey Cott) and Alice (Mädchen Amick) follow a lead after learning that Polly (guest star Tiera Skovbye) may be in trouble. Mark Consuelos, Charles Melton and Drew Ray Tanner also star. Gabriel Correa directed the episode written by Ariana Jackson."

"Season 5 we're actually doing, I believe, a seven-year time jump into the future so we're not going to be teenagers anymore," Lili Reinhart, who plays Betty Cooper on the series, revealed in an interview last year. "I'm really psyched about it. I think it'll be nice to play an adult. But I also really appreciate that Roberto, our showrunner, was like, 'Yeah, let's revamp.' You know, we're not just stuck in high school for seven seasons."

"I think I'd known about the time jump pre-pandemic," Drew Ray Tanner, who plays Fangs Fogarty on the series recently explained to ComicBook.com. "So when the pandemic happened, we knew that we would go back to filming and it would sort of pick up on this time jump. So I was given nine months to grow out my hair, and to grow as an individual. I just kind of kept it in the back of my mind each day, as I was going through this life-changing thing. It was such a colossal thing -- I don't think anything has happened that big in my life, since graduation or something like that."

"As [an] actor, the best thing you can do is to learn from everything that's in everyday life. The best characters to learn from are people on the street and everyday interactions," Tanner continued. "You're constantly learning. You're constantly adding things to your tool belt. That's the job of the actor, to take life and to hopefully imitate it in art. So I was extremely blessed that I had [so much time]. As a TV actor, you don't get that much time to do something like this, but we really were given nine months to flesh it out and be aware of "Okay, this is where we're going with this. How do I build this up? And how do I make this character real? And how do I make it sort of a seamless transition?" It was extremely exciting. It was challenging, but I was given more than enough time to prepare."

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW. "Back to School" will air on February 24th.