Archie And The Gang Have A Lot Of Catching Up To Do In The Preview For Next Week’s ‘Riverdale’
by Rachel Bellwoar
Archie and his friends may have made it through graduation unscathed, in what ended up being a lowkey episode for Riverdale, but that’s just because the show was waiting to stir up trouble in the promo for next week’s episode:
And the reveals keep coming. Veronica (Camila Mendes) is married to some guy named Chatwick (Chris Mason). Betty (Lili Reinhart) is either having a nightmare or living out The Silence of the Lambs. Jughead (Cole Sprouse) is struggling to write his next big novel (or still angry no one showed up at Pop’s for the annual meet-up), and Archie (KJ Apa) is staging war in a football field (though that’s probably not literal).
Jughead wasn’t kidding when he said a lot had changed for the Core 4 in seven years, but what about the rest of the cast? Skeet Ulrich is leaving the show and, since Jellybean (Trinity Rose Likins) went with him, the show can bury the Auteur storyline. Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch), newly-reinstated Sheriff Keller (Martin Cummins), and Alice Cooper (Mädchen Amick) are the only characters who cite any intention to stay in Riverdale before the time jump (unless Katy Keene is still canon, in which case Kevin (Casey Cott) should be working at Riverdale High). Is this the last we’ll see of Reggie (Charles Melton), and what about Archie’s gym? Veronica made sure Pop (Alvin Sanders) owned Pop’s before she left, but did she leave the Bonne Nuit to him, too?
Then there’s the vague way the show left all the main relationships in “Graduation.” Not that their romantic statuses wouldn’t have changed in seven years anyway, but they shouldn’t have been able to get away with not having tough conversations, even if it meant angering one of the show’s ships. Other than FP (Ulrich) and Alice, and Cheryl and Toni (Vanessa Morgan) (who have the best lines in the episode: “Finally,” when Jughead gets rid of his beanie, and “Because it doesn’t have cheerleading?”), they all avoid talking to each other, and it seems wishy-washy on the show’s part, like the writers didn’t want to hold themselves to anything.
Riverdale airs Wednesdays on The CW.