Here's What Riverdale's Season 6 Finale Twist Means For Season 7
The show really out-twisted itself this time.
At this point, it seems like Riverdale has done it all. What started out as a dark murder mystery transformed countless times, into a gritty mob drama, a psychedelic cult fantasy, a full-on musical, a magical sci-fi series, and most surprisingly of all, a superhero epic. So when it was confirmed that Season 7 would be Riverdale’s final act, everyone knew the show would go all-out with some unexpected new twist, and now we finally know what that is. Riverdale’s Season 6 finale ended with a peek into Season 7’s brand-new world, and the twist means big things for the final season.
Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers from Riverdale Season 6’s finale. The sixth season of Riverdale showed just how far the series is willing to stray from its teen drama roots. The entire season centered on the town’s residents developing superpowers, which they used to defeat a centuries-old sorcerer from another dimension bent on taking over Riverdale. Yeah, we’ve come a long way from that quaint “Who murdered Jason Blossom?” mystery.
But Riverdale will be getting back to its roots in a much more unexpected way in its final season, as the last moments of the Season 6 finale confirmed. Turns out, the side effects of Cheryl absorbing everyone’s powers and using them to destroy Bailey’s Comet was time travel and memory loss. Though the town was saved from destruction, it was reverted back to 1955, where somehow the whole gang has become teenagers again and has no memory of anything that’s happened.
Well, that’s not entirely true — Jughead is the only person in this new reality who remembers everything. So, this retro Riverdale isn’t a total reset, but it will definitely feel like a fresh start when Season 7 goes all the way back to the iconic beginnings of the Archie Comics.
And yes, that means a ton of relationship shakeups as well. “None of them are in relationships yet [in 1955 Riverdale],” showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa confirmed in an Entertainment Weekly interview. “So we can tell those first time stories — the first kiss, the first crush, the first heartbreak.”
That means Archie and Betty getting engaged in the Season 6 finale has effectively been erased, as has Cheryl and Toni growing closer, Jughead and Tabitha’s glimpse into their future together, and Veronica’s resolve to move on from Archie and set out on her own. Aguirre-Sacasa confirmed Season 7 will bring back some beloved pairings, but will also introduce some new ones. “Some of the couples that are spotlighted in the finale will continue,” he told Decider. “Some will evolve into new things, and there will be new… There will also be new pairings, for sure.”
Get ready for a blast from the past when Riverdale’s seventh and final season premieres sometime in 2023.
