We’re four episodes in to the newest season of Riverdale, but the hit The CW series has already thrown quite a lot at its viewers. After three episodes wrapping up the high-school-age stories of its teenage characters, the show has now jumped forward seven years into the future, picking up on the ensemble as post-college young adults. This week’s episode, “Purgatorio”, showcased exactly what that will entail — but one line of dialogue raised some eyebrows in the process. Spoilers for this week’s episode of Riverdale, “Chapter Eighty: Purgatorio”, below! Only look if you want to know!
Part of the episode followed Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes), whose life has changed in major ways following graduating high school. After becoming what she called “The She-Wolf of Wall Street”, Veronica fell in love with a fellow trader named Chadwick (Chris Mason) and they got married, only for the two of them to get into a near-deadly helicopter crash on their way to Martha’s Vineyard. This made Chad convince Veronica to take on a less stressful occupation, especially as he hoped they’d soon have a child. Veronica wasn’t fond of this idea, remarking at one point that “It’s 2021, Chad. Women can have it all.”
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While the line of dialogue seems innocuous at first, it opens a bizarre can of worms, as Riverdale High’s graduation was previously confirmed to have taken place in 2021. This would place the real events of the flash forward somewhere in 2028 — a detail that, according to a new interview with showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, was accidentally overlooked.
“Very good question! I mean the aesthetic will always be timeless, but we did let that go,” Aguirre-Sacasa explained to Entertainment Tonight. “It’s funny and I’m not sure, but I think in some banner in the graduation episode, it says ‘Congratulations Class of 2021.’”
“This is kind of like the bummer of not having the natural summer break in between seasons four and five because it really highlights how totally insane the Riverdale timeline really is,” Aguirre-Sacasa continued, “But yes it feels like we are finally in the present day, though the aesthetic will remain hopefully as timeless as ever.”
Granted, this isn’t the first weird wrinkle in continuity that the Archieverse has had yet, but at least this serves as some sort of confirmation of where the show is currently set.
Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
