10 Loose Ends Riverdale's Final Season Needs To Resolve Before It's All Over

It’s almost time to say goodbye to the Town with Pep. After more than five years of some of television’s most ridiculous storylines, Riverdale is coming to an end in spring 2023 with its seventh season. But before they polish off that last Pop’s milkshake, the Riverdale crew has a pretty huge mess to clean up. The show has teased so many will-they-won’t-they relationships over the years, not to mention all the killer secrets, dead-or-alive mysteries, and that timeline-altering Season 6 finale twist that seriously complicates things. Needless to say, Riverdale Season 7 needs to answer about a million questions to fully bring the series to a satisfying end, and some of them are absolutely crucial.

By now, every Riverdale fan knows all too well that the show never shies away from going big. In between all the universe jumping, organ-harvesting cults, bear attacks, and seizure-causing water, a lot of stuff has yet to be properly explained. And honestly, most of it probably won’t be — we’ll just have to accept the fact that Cheryl using her “power of the Phoenix” to destroy a comet would naturally result in teleporting all of Riverdale to 1955 for some reason. Sure, why not? But there are several mysteries that are so pivotal to the show’s core that Riverdale simply cannot end without finally answering. Of course, the main ones all have to do with the show’s absolutely favorite word: which couples are “endgame”?

1. Is Barchie or Varchie endgame?

Season 6 put a lot of work into upping the tension between the Barchie/Varchie love triangle. As it stands, Barchie has the clear upper hand since Betty and Archie had been going strong ever since they reconnected in Riverdale, and they even got engaged in the Season 6 finale. However, Veronica is still harboring feelings for her ex. Plus, the 1955 reset effectively nullifies everything, so both Barchie and Varchie have a solid shot in Season 7... at least until everyone somehow gets their memories back. That has to happen at some point, right?

2. Is Bughead or Jabitha endgame?

Honestly, the biggest threat to Barchie being endgame is Bughead. Betty’s already been in a fan-favorite relationship with Jughead, and although it fizzled out after high school, there’s definitely a chance the Bughead romance could be rekindled at the show’s end. Then again, Jughead’s bond with Tabitha has grown much more intense in recent seasons, and Jughead’s the only person who still has his memories in 1955, so there’s no way he’d move on from Tabitha right away.

3. Is Choni endgame?

I posed this as a question, but I think we all know the answer. Of all the main couples, Choni has to be endgame. Cheryl and Toni’s chemistry is so undeniable that Heather broke up with Cheryl once she realized the two were soulmates. Yes, Toni did marry Fangs and they had Baby Anthony in Season 6, but... I’m sorry... who is shipping Toni and Fangs? As probably the most beloved ship, a Choni reunion is pretty much a lock for Season 7.

4. Is Falice endgame?

Ah, remember the good old days when Alice Cooper wasn’t totally the worst mom ever? Back before she just willingly teamed up with every bad guy terrorizing the town for whatever reason? Those were the days of Falice. The Riverdale parents don’t really get a lot of romantic storylines, but F.P. Jones’ fiery affair with Alice is the major exception. Unfortunately, the relationship was cut short when Skeet Ulrich left the show in Season 5, but Falice shippers are still holding out hope Ulrich could make a return in the final season to give Alice a happy ending.

5. Will the show return to its core timeline?

Season 7’s big gimmick is that the town has been transported back to the ‘50s with only Jughead retaining his memories from the future. It’s unclear how long the show will stay in the ‘50s, but Riverdale surely wouldn’t just throw out the past six seasons and do a full reset for its entire final season. Jughead’s memories remaining are a clear sign that everyone else will remember everything in due time. But will the gang be able to travel back to the present? The retro twist could mirror Season 6’s Rivervale event and only last five episodes, or it could be the new normal.

6. Is the supernatural stuff done for good or not?

For a long time, Riverdale only flirted with the idea of the supernatural, but never actually implemented magic or monsters. But that all changed in Season 6, which ripped open portals to parallel dimensions, gifted each character with a superpower, and introduced witchcraft as Cheryl tapped into her family’s spellbinding ancestry. It was a huge departure for the show, and it’s unclear whether the weirdness is done or not. According to Jughead’s narration in the Season 6 finale, Cheryl destroying Bailey’s Comet also got rid of everyone’s powers, so it at least sounds like the superhero arc is done. But... is Cheryl still a witch? Is Rivervale still a thing? Could Sabrina bring the supernatural back with her if she returns in the final season? It’s all still up in the air.

7. Will Chilling Adventures of Sabrina get a proper ending?

Speaking of Sabrina, CAOS fans are still waiting for everyone’s favorite Queen of Hell to get a proper sendoff. The way Chilling Adventures of Sabrina killed her off in its series finale caused so much controversy, and although she was able to come back for two Riverdale cameos, her story still feels very unfinished. Her latest cameo at the end of Season 6 revealed she was brought back to life, but sadly, her love Nick Scratch is still stuck in the Sweet Hereafter. It also didn’t address literally any of the other CAOS characters, and since we know there was a full-on crossover event planned before CAOS’s sudden cancelation, Riverdale’s final season might double as the perfect way to give CAOS the ending it deserved, too.

8. Is Hiram really dead?

Each season of Riverdale introduce some new villain to terrorize the town, but if the show as a whole has one main antagonist, it’s Hiram Lodge. Veronica’s mobster daddy has been behind pretty much every terrible thing that’s happened to Archie and friends, and it just kind of wouldn’t feel right to end the show without him. Supposedly, Hiram died in Season 6 when Veronica hired a hitman to take him out, but it’s pretty sus that we never actually saw the killing, and the only confirmation of his death was the shady hitman telling Veronica the job was done over a phone call. There’s no way Hiram is actually dead, right?

9. Will Betty give in to her “darkness” and “serial killer genes”?

For as long as there’s been Riverdale, there’s been Betty’s “darkness.” For the entire series, Betty’s internal struggle has been the same: embrace the light with Archie or succumb to her “serial killer genes” that give her an impressive talent at solving crimes and tracking down bad guys. Although it may sound like the “dark” path is the wrong choice on paper, it’s actually more complicated than that in the world of the show. What Betty sees as her darkness is also what makes her a stellar FBI agent and a driven, protective “hunter of hunters,” as Agent Drake puts it. It’ll be very interesting to see which path Betty ends up taking at the end of the series.

10. Was the whole show just inside Jughead’s head?

The final season will be Riverdale’s last chance to finally prove or disprove the predominant fan theory that’s been passed around the fandom since the very first season: Is this whole show just in Jughead’s mind? The long-discussed theory points to Jughead’s role as the narrator as well as a fiction writer as evidence that the show’s final reveal will be that all seven seasons were actually an epic novel Jughead had written. Honestly, I’m hoping the series finale doesn’t go this route, but I’d also not be surprised if it did.

The final season of Riverdale will begin airing on The CW in spring 2023.