Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge and Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper in Riverdale.Photo:Justine Yeung/The CW
Justine Yeung/The CW
Warning: this story contains spoilers from Wednesday’s series finale ofRiverdale.
That’s a wrap onRiverdale!
Afterseven seasonsof milkshakes, serial killer genes, cults, Gargoyle Kings, time travel and the epic highs and lows of high school football, The CW’s teen drama officially came to a close on Wednesday.
Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper.Justine Yeung/The CW
Season 7centered around the aftermath of a comet hitting the town of Riverdale. As a result of the catastrophe, Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook) had no choice but to transport the friend group back into the ’50s while she attempted to fix the current timeline. Their memories were wiped, leaving the characters with no recollection of the events of the prior seasons.
In the penultimate series episode, “The Golden Age of Television,” Tabitha returned as a Guardian Angel and everyone finally got their memories back. However, they elected to retain only the “good memories” — except for Betty and Jughead, who opted to remember it all. Due to some wonky multiverse laws, everyone besides Angel Tabitha ultimately remained in the ’50s.
The finale episode opened with elderly Betty sitting beside her granddaughter Alice as she read Jughead’s obituary in the paper. “That’s it, that means I’m the last of them,” she sighed. “Alice, honey… I wanna go back. To Riverdale, one last time. Before it’s too late.”
Later, Betty woke up to a young Jughead, who promised to make her wish come true. He first transported her back to her old high school bedroom. She instantly gravitated towards her window where she reminisced.
Cole Sprouse as Jughead Jones.Justine Yeung/The CW
“How many sunrises have I seen out this window? How many moons, how many times-” she started, stopping in her tracks at the sight of her red-headed neighbor. “How many times have I looked out this window into Archie’s?”
“In the thousands,” Jughead responded matter-of-factly. “At least.”
Archie had a “big talk” with his mom, Mary (Molly Ringwald), about his plans for after graduation. He ultimately went to work on a construction crew traveling out west, but promised, “Forget Riverdale?! Fat chance. This will always be my home,ourhome.”
It was revealed that Mary ended up with Brooke, her love interest from the previous seasons, and that they “stayed together until the very end.”
Jughead revealed that Alice became a pilot — she ended up marrying a kind passenger from a plane ride, who then took her all around the world. Polly had her twins, Juniper and Dagwood, and “led a happy life with her family.”
After catching up with Veronica and listening to Toni read a heartfelt poem over the announcements, Betty spent some time chatting with Fangs and Midge, who were about to hit the road for his big tour. Unfortunately, it turned out a happy ending wasn’t in the cards for them — shockingly, Fangs was killed in a bus crash just four weeks into his tour. However, Jughead added that he did achieve a gold record, leaving Midge and their daughter “taken care of for the rest of their lives.”
On the contrary, Kevin and Clay ended up living a “very spirited” life together in Harlem, with Clay becoming a professor and starting an off-Broadway theater company. Kevin lived to be 82 and Clay died a few weeks later.
“Turns out, after Angel Tabitha’s last visit, I remembered what it was like being with Jughead — and being with Archie,” Betty confided to Reggie. “And Archie and Veronica remembered what it was like being with each other. But Veronica and Jughead had just started a thing. And remembering all of that sort of just took the pressure of us having to make a single choice.”
“So the four of us realized that we could, and maybe should, just be… together. At the same time,” she continued as Reggie bugged his eyes out. “Some nights Archie would sneak into my bedroom and Veronica would go home with Jughead. Other nights, Archie would spend the night at the Pembrooke and I’d go over to Jughead’s. And sometimes, more often than you’d imagine, I would find my way to Veronica’s.”
Veronicafollowed her dreams and moved out to Hollywood, where she went on to run a big studio. “She became known for her impeccable taste and taking risks on young, raw talent,” Jughead explained. “She won two Oscars and produced some of the most iconic movies of our time.” She was eventually buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Betty became emotional, admitting that the four friends didn’t keep in contact much after high school. “I wish I had kept in better touch with her,” she cried. “With everyone, all of us. We were so close, inseparable. And then we just…”
Madelaine Petsch as Cheryl Blossom and Vanessa Morgan as Toni Topaz.The CW
The CW
Betty attempted to comfort the rest of the group as they received the news that Veronica would be moving to Hollywood. “Seriously, how lucky were we to have been brought together, given the opportunity to know and love each other across not one, but two, lifetimes?” she said. “We should be celebrating that, not mourning it. Not yet, at least.”
“Betty’s right,” Veronica quickly chimed in. “The future can wait. Tonight is about appreciating everything we’ve been through And let me tell you, we have been through ahellof a lot.”
Eventually, Betty worked up the courage to join her friends for one last night together. They gathered together to hear Archie read one final poem, “an ode to my best friends and every good thing that must come to an end.”
Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge, Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper, Cole Sprouse as Jughead Jones, and KJ Apa as Archie Andrews.Justine Yeung/The CW
Archie read a long, emotional poem about the friends' lives. Despite only keeping his “good” memories, he somehow remembered Cheryl keeping Jason’s corpse in a cellar and the organ-stealing cults from previous seasons. Regardless, the poem still brought everyone to tears.
Then, Betty and Archie shared a poignant, romantic — and heartbreaking — final moment together.
But, while Betty called it a “lovely sentiment,” she told him that wasn’t what the future held for them. “Your mom was right,” she said with a tear dripping down her cheek. “You make it to California and you don’t look back. Then you meet a sweet, strong girl who makes you laugh. And you settle down in Modesto and you have a beautiful family. You’re a professional construction worker and amateur writer and you are so, so content and happy. And when you die, you ask to be buried here in Riverdale next to your father.”
Archie and Betty shared one last sweet kiss, and that was that — leaving million ofBarchiefans' hearts shattered into a billion pieces.
Then, Betty and Jughead went to visit Pop Tate’s (Alvin Sanders) grave and had an emotional conversation about their lives. It is revealed that Jughead devoted his life to founding and running Jughead’s Madhouse Magazine, a comics powerhouse. Betty startedShe Says Magazine, the “go-to source for feminist and progressive causes” and adopted a daughter, Carla. Neither Betty or Jughead ever married.
When they arrived at Pop’s, Alice realized Betty had died in her sleep.
In the very last scene, teenage Betty walked into Pop’s, where all her friends were busy dancing and mingling. She greeted everyone with warm hugs, then made her way over to a booth where Archie, Jughead, and Veronica were already waiting for her. “Perfect timing, Betty,” Archie declared, pushing her a strawberry milkshake.
KJ Apa as Archie Andrews and Cole Sprouse as Jughead Jones.Justine Yeung/The CW
The cameras then cut to Pop’s sign flashing brightly. “So if you happen to see that neon sign some lonely night at the end of that long journey,” Jughead continued. “The journey that every one of us is on… pull over. Come on in. Take a seat. Know that you’ll always be among friends. And that Riverdale will always be your home.”
“Until then,” he concluded, “have a good night.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
source: people.com
