Riverdale‘s most bonkers season yet was also its most political
Somewhere beneath the introduction of the multiverse, the supernatural, and the afterlife, the CW series hid a surprisingly progressive message
TV Features Riverdale
Every so often, a stray quote or plot line from Riverdale finds its way into the cultural conversation and causes mass confusion. There was the town’s jingle-jangle epidemic, Archie’s “epic highs and lows of football” speech, and that vague war he fought in during the show’s time jump, to name a few.
“You could tell me anything about this show and I’d believe it” is a common refrain from skeptics. They’re not wrong about just how crazy the series has gotten since the first season’s atmospheric teen murder mystery. (If there were any sharks in Sweetwater River, Archie surely would’ve jumped them by now.) But what non-viewers might find more surprising is that amid throwing seemingly every possible story at the wall, Riverdale’s writers actually have something to say.
It’s a disservice to the show to try and sum up its zaniness in one paragraph, but here’s an attempt for the uninitiated: The sixth season introduced the parallel universe “Rivervale,” which is even spookier and more supernatural than “Riverdale.” For scientific-sounding reasons, the universes began bleeding together, and a major multiverse explosion caused our heroes to become superheroes with a variety of powers. It also brought in a Rivervale villain, the immortal sorcerer and mind-controller Percival Pickens (Chris O’Shea), whose crossover prompted the final battle between good and evil at the hellmouth beneath Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe (seriously). The gang is eventually able to defeat Percival, but as a final act of revenge he magically alters the course of Bailey’s Comet to destroy the town. In season-six finale, which aired July 31, the group’s combined superpowers manage to thwart the comet with outrageous consequences. (We’ll circle back to that later.)
As bonkers as it sounds (and it is bonkers), the season’s conflict is actually grounded in shockingly sharp political commentary on real-world issues. “Good vs. Bad” is usually pretty easy to define on Riverdale. (Archie is good, and anyone against Archie is bad.) But Evil, as embodied by Percival, is defined this season in a very particular way. Sure, he’s a magical maniac, but his power moves are that of a (literal) soulless capitalist.
His opening gambit in “the battle for Riverdale’s soul,” to quote Jughead’s narration, is to use his mind-control powers to evict the unhoused residents from Sketch Alley. (This mirrors a real-life problem that, while not unique to L.A., was recently relevant there when activists battled film productions over encampment sweeps.) Archie, in contrast, rallies for a solution that gives the unhoused a place to stay. “Riverdale takes care of their own, and the people that live in Sketch Alley are citizens of this town just as much as the rest of us,” he says. “We need to show them that we care.”
And then, as the season continues, Percival uses his unholy influence to become mayor and seduce workers away from Andrews Construction for a non-union railroad job. (Fred Andrews, played by the late Luke Perry, was a longtime “union man,” something Archie reminds us often.) In an ongoing arc, Archie and Tabitha Tate (Erinn Westbrook) lead the defecting railroad workers on a strike. At one point, to break through Percival’s mind control, they perform a musical rendition of “Bread And Roses,” a poem long associated with women’s suffrage and the labor movement. Surprise: Goofy old Riverdale is one of the most vocally pro-labor shows on television.
Of course, this isn’t the first high-roller big bad. The series’ longtime villain was Hiram Lodge (Mark Consuelos), who had similarities to Percival on paper (becoming mayor by underhanded means, trying to destroy the town). But unlike Percival, Hiram had moments where he displayed honor, loyalty, and generosity. His Lodge Industries successor, Veronica (Camila Mendes), proudly proclaims that her casino’s employees “are all citizens of Riverdale who are paid a generous living wage,” whereas Percival believes that “worker’s rights and equal rights … are lies.” The wealthy Lodges may have engaged in some low-level villainy, but Percival ups the ante. In the episode aptly titled “Blue Collar,” Jughead (Cole Sprouse) explicitly defines the clash as “a conflict between good and evil or, in this incarnation, between those who work and those who exploit workers.”
None of this is to say that Riverdale has become a serious political show. All of these surprisingly thoughtful moments are woven into the fabric of the show’s most out-there season yet. For instance, Percival’s non-union railroad job is intended to build a “ghost train” which would bring souls from the “Sweet Hereafter” (recruited by his long-deceased genocidal ancestor) to Riverdale in order to help him fight in the final battle. (“Which of course, one can’t just go around saying to people,” laments the self-aware Cheryl Blossom, played by Madelaine Petsch.) The righteous and the ridiculous go hand-in-hand on Riverdale, like the CW soap equivalent of sneaking vegetables into a child’s meal.
Going into next year’s final season, we have to ask: How can Riverdale possibly top its most politically progressive and entirely nuts storyline to date? Well, that “extinction-level event” comet (which Cheryl stopped with a combination of her Phoenix power and the superpowers of her friends, bestowed upon her by a kiss from Veronica, natch) gave Riverdale a hard reset, booting the town back to before the show’s inciting incident of Jason Blossom’s murder. Like way before, all the way to 1955, an era that closely resembles the original Archie comics–and only Jughead remembers the time “B.C.” (“before the comet,” of course).
It’s the show’s boldest move yet in a series of seriously big swings, and there couldn’t be a more fitting way for Riverdale to stage its finale. While loyalists and skeptics alike may get distracted by the sheer audaciousness of the story, the Riverdale writers have set up some intriguing themes for the final season. Will the ’50s setting explore the pitfalls of nostalgia for an insidious “simpler time”? Is sending the characters back to high school a meta commentary on television’s tendency to trap grown-ass actors into playing teens long past their prime? Is there a larger point being made about storytelling in that Jughead, our fourth wall-breaking narrator, is the only one who retains his memory? There are a lot of juicy questions heading into the final stretch. If there’s one thing we can guarantee, it’s that Riverdale will have surprising (and hopefully surprisingly meaty) answers.
27 Comments
The fifties!? oh god we’re gonna get Riverdale tackling segregation aren’t we, and Reggie having sexy shirtless internment camp flashbacks… or, lord help us, Riverdale’s take on the bus boycott.
Either that or the kill Hitler.
Don’t try to step on River Song’s toes here, sweetie!
season 6 actually had an episode where tabitha traveled in time and tried to prevent the assassination of MLK, which also dealt with the notion of riverdale being a sundown town. there was a lot of wild plotlines i couldn’t even fit in this piece!
Maybe we’ll finally see Archie’s jalopy!
I gave up on watching Riverdale quite a while ago but live vicariously through my son & wife who still watch it together. Last night as I was getting ready to go to bed I was repeatedly interrupted by my son popping his head in, laughing maniacally, and simply stating, “Riverdale got hit by a comet & now it’s th 50’s! Jughead has his crown!”
That’ll teach you!
I think going back to the 50’s for a final season is clever, unexpected and full of possible great story arcs right off the bat. Whether it is breaking into song and dance for no apparent reason, inciting terrible swaths of violent behavior/passionate couplings or spinning the episode out of control with supernatural gobbledegook, no writer’s room hijacks a plot line like Riverdale.
I love how, after executing a seven year time jump because the actors were too old, now three years later they’ve made them teenagers again. I love this show.
Verily Riverdale finally blossomed into its ideal self. Now
that it’s genuinely supernatural, the kooky character motivations &
loopy internal logic actually make more sense. After pulling punches
for years, it’s exhilarating to see the show just go gonzo with gusto.https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2022/08/01/season-six-is-riverdales-magic-number/Cheryl is officially the season MVP (Most Valuable Petsch). Can she please keep all the superpowers in this new timeline?
This show is completely bonkers off the rails… and I have never loved it more. I loved Cheryl’s “I’m SO glad you delivered that line and not me.” It’s absurdistly brilliant.
I only ever saw the first season. This sounds wild. I kinda want to just binge it now, except that I deleted my Netflix account.
The Season 6 finale was excellent and I’m incredibly excited for next season. I’m hoping that they jump through the decades as the season progresses so we get to see the characters in the 70s and 80s until they end up in the present day.
Betty scolding Kevin’s cruising during the aids crisis would certainly be… something.
Why stop at present day? Why not go to like 2280, when all the characters are living on space station RVDL and living in a poly-amorous conglomerate?
Don’t temp me with a good time.
Sounds a lot like Agent of SHIELD’s final season and I’m okay with that.
As with any Riverdale article, I will also promote Nancy Drew, the best show on television. Hopefully it endures past this upcoming season, and all should watch!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It is a goddamn crime that AV Club has not been reviewing Season 6 of “Riverdale”.
And that finale?Man, just when you think “Riverdale” can’t get more “Riverdale”, “Riverdale” just goes out and out-”Riverdale”s itself.Let’s face it: There is no such thing as peak “Riverdale”.
Seriously – What the flying fuck? I knew “Riverdale” as a ridiculously sexed up take on Archie. But apparently its now a ridiculously sexed up take on “Charmed” too?
Somitting I found particularly effective was how Percival Pickens was a better version of Randal Flagg than the “official” one in the recent adaptation of The Stand. His evil was all about control and efficiency, rather than debauchery. I also loved that they corrected the rather unfair death of Sabrina from the final episode of Chilling Tales, amd did so in a way that felt true to that show as well.
I was watching this finale while my wife was watching Euphoria on the iPad in the kitchen, and despite her gasps at what she was watching, i had to ask “Does YOUR show have two body-swapping lesbian witches having sex?”Remember when Ellen kissing a woman was a big deal?
never watched this show and never will, but despite that i think it just might be the defining tv show of this generation. like, of course this generation’s archie is a bleak murder mystery co-production with a streamer that eventually became a springboard for earnest movie parodies and multiverse shenanigans. the constant pivoting, the mercenary use of the IP, the fact that it was inexplicably a hit. it all just screams ‘yeah, this represents the content of the late-teens/early 20s’
I watched some of S1 – never can believe the plots I hear about this show.I can’t even imagine what craziness is left for them to do. Maybe the craziest thing would be to have an entire season just based on classic Archie comics now. No murders or supernatural stuff. Just Archie trying to date two women and Jughead taking down stacks of burgers.
I had gotten kinda bored the last few seasons of Riverdale, but this one was an absolutely blast. Every week I thought things had gotten as insane as they could possibly get, then holy hell they took it up another level.