Riverdale’s 10 Weirdest Storylines

This week, Riverdale and over those seven seasons, to say that there have been some wild storylines would be an understatement. As teen dramas go, Riverdale has never been typical, taking on elements of the supernatural, plenty of murder mysteries, delivering fun musical episodes, and more riffs on pop culture references than one can count. Even the show’s seventh and final season has itself been one wild storyline of its own as the beloved characters ended up time traveling not only back to their high school years after a seven-year time jump that made them adults in Season 5, but back to the 1950s after a comet destroyed reality and this new timeline was the only place they could be safe until “Angel Tabitha” could figure out how to fix things.

Now, with Riverdale‘s finale coming up on Wednesday, we’re taking a look back at ten of the weirdest storylines in the show’s seven seasons. For the purposes of this list, we combined some things into one — particularly when it comes to the Blossoms who always seem to have something insane going on — and tried to summarize some of the bonkers developments without getting too in depth. After all, there’s a lot to the evil cult leader who is harvesting organs and trying to escape in a homemade rocket that just has to be watched to believed.

So here they are, ten of Riverdale‘s weirdest storylines. They are in no particular order and this is by far not a comprehensive list, but they are ten that stick out to us. Read on for our choices and be sure to share yours in the comments.

Riverdale‘s series finale airs Wednesday, August 23rd at 9/8c on The CW.

Betty and the Serial Killer Gene

The idea of Betty Cooper having a dark side is something that was a major part of Riverdale throughout its entire run — there was literally even a Dark Betty at some point. However, the most bananas thing the show did with that was to introduce the idea that Betty might be genetically evil. Season 3 saw the show introduce the idea that Betty had the so-called serial killer gene and that Betty was an anomaly in the Cooper family. The series would lean into this idea of “born evil” for Betty, particularly during the Black Hood of it all when it’s revealed that Hal tried to groom Betty into following in his footsteps as a child. As an adult, the idea of the gene would be a constant theme haunting Betty, at least until Season 6 when she finally came to terms with who she is — and that she isn’t actually evil.

Riverdale’s Version of The Secret History

Season 4 sees Jughead go off to Stonewall Prep on scholarship and also sees the series do its own version of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, complete with a heavily lifted plot and some hilarious riffs on famous names: Donna Sweett (for Donna Tartt) and Bret Weston Wallis (for Bret Easton Ellis). The season also features Mr. Chipping jumping out a window to his death. Season 4 also has the “who killed Jughead” murder mystery — except Jughead staged his own murder the whole time.

Archie Fights a Bear

Season 3 of Riverdale was pretty bonkers in its own way, but the real winner of the wild storyline here might just be the one involving Archie and a bear. In Season 3, Archie escapes from an underground prison fight club (which he ended up in because of Hiram Lodge, it’s a whole thing) and is hiding out in the Canadian wilderness. While in the wilderness, Archie ends up attacked by a grizzly bear and fights it off. Now, the fight occurs off screen, but we definitely hear about it later on when Reggie sees his scars in the locker room and Archie tells him he was attacked by a bear. It’s also worth noting that Archie ends up hallucinating while recovering from the bear fight and at some point during this beats down another version of himself with a bat. 

All Things Blossom

Another “weirdest” element of Riverdale that is almost impossible to break down into specific moments falls under the category of anything involving the Blossom family.We’ve already mentioned the haunted Julian doll and the Jason corpse, and even the weird ghost of Abigail, but the series has also given us Clifford Blossom having an evil twin, Claudius, Penelope Blossom being adopted by the Blossom’s as a child and then married to Clifford (ew) and eventually becoming a serial killer and the mastermind behind the Black Hood and the Gargoyle King. In the 1950s timeline, she’s revealed to be a Russian agent.

If the story involves the Blossoms, it’s guaranteed to be weird.

All of Season 6

When trying to compile the “weird storyline” list, so many elements of Season 6 kept coming up that it just made more sense to give Season 6 its own section. Season 6 of Riverdale featured an alternative reality (Rivervale) following a bomb detonation at Archie’s house at the end of Season 5. The nuts and bolts of things is that this alternative reality situation somehow (even though it was technically a separate story arc) has to deal with the immortal villain Percival Pickens who was bringing about biblical plagues with the hopes of using Riverdale — where he ended up because of a rift between universes due to the explosion — with an intent to turn the town into its own sovereign state where he can raise the dead. A lot goes on in the season, including witches, the gang getting super powers, Cheryl’s ancestor Abigail posessing her body. The season also set up Season 7 with Bailey’s Comet colliding with Riverdale and sending the gang back to the 1950s, but it turns out that there were a few more little gems from Season 6 sprinkled into Season 7 as well despite it being completely insane.

Edgar Evernever, The Farm, and The Rocket

Seasons 3 and Season 4 saw a lot of craziness on Riverdale — Season 3 was the season that had the Gargoyle King of it all — but that wasn’t the wildest thing. Oh no. That belongs to the cult, The Farm, and specifically in Season 4, Chad Michael Murray’s cult leader Edgar Evernever and his absolutely bizarre attempt to escape Earth in a self-built rocket whilst wearing a knockoff Evel Knievel jumpsuit. The whole thing is as wild as it sounds. Edgar cult lures in much of the town, is secretly harvesting organs, and there’s a twist that Alice is actually working with the FBI to stop Edgar.It all culminates in some wild attempt by Edgar to “ascend” in his rocket, but Alice shoots and kills him before that can happen.

Honestly, that summary doesn’t even scratch the surface. Trust us: it’s bonkers.

Archie Goes to War

Here’s one we’ve never quite been able to figure out. In Season 5 after graduation, Archie ends up joining the Army and heads off to basic training. The next we see him, seven years have passed and Archie is being discharged from the Army after a stay at the VA Hospital and, apparently, Archie has been fighting in a war. The series never actually explains where Archie went off to war, who the war was against, or really anything about it. All we know is that Archie went to war and then came back to Riverdale and like the rest of the gang, ends up teaching at Riverdale High to save it as part of the overall effort to save Riverdale from unincorporation at the hands of Hiram Lodge.

Corpse Jason

Season 4 was all kinds of bonkers for Riverdale — and that goes double for the Blossom family. Not only did the season see Cheryl dealing with Haunted Doll Julian, but there was also the weird issue of Cheryl exhuming her dead brother Jason and living with his corpse. Season 4 saw Cheryl keep Corpse Jason in the chapel at the house where she dressed him up and pretended like he was alive and there with her. Fortunately, Cheryl does eventually burn Jason’s corpse on a funeral pyre and sends it out onto the waters of Sweetwater River.

Julian the Creepy, Haunted Doll

When Season 7 of Riverdale arrived and saw Cheryl Blossom with her brother Julian, some fans did a bit of a double take and for good reason. The last time fans saw “Julian Blossom” he was a creepy, haunted doll and that’s what makes this one of the weirdest storylines in Riverdale history. Another gem from Season 4, the season saw the introduction of a Blossom triplet. That’s right, it wasn’t just Cheryl and Jason. There was Julian, who according to Nana Rose, Cheryl had absorbed in the womb and now, he was haunting her via a very creepy doll.  Cheryl ended up drowning Haunted Doll Julian in a bathtub to rid herself of him and, in Season 7, the very much alive Julian opted to not get his “memories” when Angel Tabitha restored everyone’s pasts to them once he found out is previous reality was that of unhinged spooky doll.

Kevin and the Tickling Videos

While Riverdale has some outlandish storylines, it also has some that are both weird and unintentionally funny at the same time — and that includes the Season 4 storyline involving Kevin Keller and tickling fetish videos. The storyline saw Kevin go on a date with a guy named Terry who ends up luring Kevin into making tickling videos for him, paying him five thousand dollars to do so. Kevin eventually gets Fangs and Reggie in on the videos with him with the trio going into business on their own. They also have to deal with Terry at some point, semi-mob style. The whole thing is just wild, made even wilder when you consider that tickle fetish videos are a real thing.