Riverdale Season 5 Synopsis Confirms Time Jump

Riverdale‘s fourth season came to a close earlier this month, leaving the beloved The CW series on some pretty interesting footing going forward. With the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down production this March – resulting in three episodes planned for Season 4 being unaired – the question of what the future holds has been slightly up in the air, until earlier this week. It has been confirmed that Riverdale will be doing a major time jump midway through Season 5 — and new official synopsis for the season details what that might entail. You can check it out below.

“The fourth season of RIVERDALE began with a funeral and tribute to Archie’s late father, the beloved Fred Andrews (Luke Perry). Throughout the season, Archie (KJ Apa) tried to live up to his father’s memory by mentoring youths at his Community Center with the help of his pals Reggie (Charles Melton) and Munroe Moore. But the shadow of that tragedy loomed over Archie—and only darkened when Fred’s brother Frank arrived, bringing unforeseen complications with him, much to the chagrin of Archie’s mother (Molly Ringwald). Meanwhile, after Betty (Lili Reinhart) saved her mom (Mädchen Amick) and sister from the Farm cult, she joined her brother Charles’s Junior F.B.I. Training Program. Veronica (Camila Mendes) found herself locked in a season-long battle with her father Hiram (Mark Consuelos) and half-sister Hermosa over her burgeoning maple rum business. And, at the urging on FP (Skeet Ulrich), Jughead (Cole Sprouse) enrolled in a new school, Stonewall Prep, only to be caught up in a mystery that involved his grandfather, the secret author of a series of teen detective novels called “The Baxter Brothers.”

His classmates turned out to be killers—and it was up to Betty and Jughead (pretending to be dead) to solve the murder of…Jughead Jones! At Thistlehouse, Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) was trapped in a gothic nightmare, fighting her demons, literal and metaphoric, with the loving support of her girlfriend Toni (Vanessa Morgan). She finally put her brother Jason to rest while maintaining her control over the Vixens as resident HBIC against Principal Honey (Kerr Smith). Kevin (Casey Cott) got dragged into an illicit tickle scheme, but still found time to put on a Variety Show with hit songs from “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” And throughout the season, disturbing unmarked videotapes kept appearing on our characters’ doorsteps, ensuring that there would be one more mystery to solve.

Season five of RIVERDALE will begin with our characters’ final days as students at Riverdale High. From an epic Senior Prom to a bittersweet Graduation, there are a lot of emotional moments and goodbyes yet to come—with some couples breaking up, as everyone goes their separate ways to college—or elsewhere. Then, we will redock with our gang as young adults, all returning to Riverdale to escape their troubled pasts. And life—and romance—will only be more complicated now that they’re in their twenties…”

The time jump is something that has been speculated about throughout Season 4, given the ticking time bomb of high school graduation, and the five-year difference between the show and its spinoff, Katy Keene.

“We’ve been talking and planning on doing a time jump,” showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa recently explained. “And of course, usually time jumps happen in between seasons, because there’s a tease at the very end.”

“It felt like maybe what we’ll do is start with the last three episodes [intended for Season 4],” Aguirre-Sacasa added. “So what we’re doing is picking up right where we left off for the first three episodes, and then doing a time jump… after those three episodes.”

Riverdale will return with new episodes in January of 2021.