The Bizarre Ending of Riverdale 

"One does not just watch Riverdale. One needs to be in the zone."

Don't cry because it happened. Smile because it's over.

I am very, VERY disappointed that the show didn't end with a 2D animated Jughead telling the story to his classmates with all of them baffled by what the hell they just witnessed.

The foursome is so funny not only as a bold choice to just _not making anyone choose_ but also by the fact that they made a point of not having jughead and archie being intimate. Like, the effort to not let cole sprouse be queer on screen after just erasing jughead's asexuality

Riverdale managing to nuke not only its own universe/continuity but also that of like 10 separate shows is the most Riverdale thing ever and ngl I kind of admire it

I *love* how Roberto was so passionate about bringing LGBT+ representation into Riverdale, and yet completely erased Jughead's canon asexuality. Almost like he didn't actually care and just wanted to sexualize a bunch of teenaged characters.

The Veronica Betty Jugheaf Archie foursome is one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen in a show. They really went on Wattpad for their ideas huh

30:16 I was sure you were going to say "It turns out that Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead all merged into one single entity".

When you mentioned Lili carrying the finale, I realized I have an intense desire for her to have a long and fruitful career now that she’s free of the monster

The first season wasn't perfect, but it had so much potential. I firmly believe the show would've been better if they just stuck to the premise of "aesthetic small town who done it murder mystery but teenagers are the detectives."

“Season 6 ends with Cheryl saving Riverdale from a magical comet.” Like, I KNOW that Riverdale’s storylines have been absolute insanity for years now, but I still can not wrap my mind around the fact that this is the same show that started out as this silly little murder mystery 😭😂

After living 80+ years, why would meeting up with people you really only hung out with in high school be what you want to do after your death? It would be one thing if the story had them continuing their close friendship post school, but its weird if they all split after graduation. What does that say about the quality of relationships they had as adults? Especially since the reboot season meant they didnt have the bonds from living through all the wild stuff in the first 6 seasons.

We gotta appreciate these actors who did such a professional job of keeping a straight face and staying in character throughout most of the series even when the show was completely bonkers x) We could see by the end of season 6 that they were so tired of it, but in s7 it's like the light came back in their eyes, they knew the end was coming and they were so happy to be free at last!

The fact that Roberto ended his chaotic show with the four leads in a secret quad relationship is peak fanfiction and the ending this show deserves Though it was awesome for the cast to be employed for seven years, I’m excited to see what they’ll all do outside of this world Goodbye Riverdale, you truly embodied the epics highs and lows of prime time teen television

What would have been cool for Riverdale was each season should have been a different year (1950s, 2017 ect.) with different love interests, storylines, murder who-dun-it, villians, and character arcs. And then MAYBE something besides MAGIC could have tied the whole show together. 😊

honestly, the whole concept of the final season is EXACTLY what I always wanted as a kid growing up obsessed with archie comics. Just a funny sitcom type show about fashionable teenagers in the 50s going to the beach and the diner and school dances. It's disappointing and feels like a waste that they didn't just do that from the start, it would have been so much better imo

50s Archie was so much fun and I feel sad for Apa to have waiting so long for this. He nailed it! (and dear god they did not let Archie nail his teacher this season)

FriendlyspaceNinja and Alex Myers, the unsung heroes of the Riverdale reviews. We thank you for your service

I've seen the show on and off over the years, and I never fully understood why KJ Apa had gotten the lead role until I saw clips from the last season. He's much more endearing as the final season's version of Archie, and it showcases his charisma as an actor in a way it just never did with the more "serious" versions of Archie. It's unfortunate that it took this long for the show to give him the opportunity to do that.

Cheryl staying my cringe queen from the first to last episode, we love consistency

Thank you Roberto for inspiring and teaching a generation of future writers to know that no matter how much self doubt they feel, no matter how bad their work might be, no matter how many edits they have to go through, to be rest assured that it could be worse. At least they had nothing to do with the writing on Riverdale.

Honestly my favourite thing about this finale was after all that teasing, two different ships, and a poly relationship, the woman Archie ends up with doesn't even get named in the episode. He just met some girl in Calafornia he settled down with, and we never even learn her name.

This feels like a non ending almost like a shrug like your dad telling you a story as a kid and they don't know how to end it and just shrugs going "I don't know they all go their seperate ways"

I think the cast of Riverdale deserves some special award for delivering their lines and acting with a straight face

Cole sprouse being basically the only actor you didn't mention about being excited to see in future was honestly a highlight lmao

I'm honestly not even surprised that it ended up with the four core all dating each other. It's on point for this ludicrous show. At least the cast are finally freed from the shackles of bizarre plots and mediocre writing.

My Grandma told me one time she was browsing on tv and saw Riverdale and she wanted to "see what was up with Archie and the gang" as she put it, but I guess she ended up watching right in the middle of some serial killer sex stuff which she probably wasn't expecting at all. I just remember her being so surprised and so disappointed when she mentioned it, suddenly coming across this review reminded me of her. Wonder how she'd react to the superpowered witch MCU multiverse ending.

An underrated detail of the finale is that among Archie's accomplishments YEARS LATER was that he was an amateur writer. He was never great to begin with, but I love that everyone else gets a hyperbolic take on their season seven arcs and Archie is still just mediocre at the thing he's supposedly most passionate about.

Archie Jughead Betty and Veronica being in a 4 way was the most Riverdale thing they could come up with. I'll guess I'll give them props for that.

Archie, Betty, Jughead, and Veronica getting into a quad relationship doesn’t even surprise me. Roberto had to get one last fantasy he had in there before the show ended

I watched all 7 seasons, and at times it definitely got bad, but I liked the ending. The very last scene where everyone is reunited in the diner, seems so appropriate to the source material. They will spend eternity, forever 17, living their happy lives in Riverdale, just like the comics have been for the last 80+ years.

I need everyone to know that "the characters watch their own show" is a fanfiction trope

I'm still shocked that according to the final season, Jughead created the comic Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Cheryl parents being satanist Soviet spies was the crazy kind of twist I expect from this show

Veronica’s actress was soooo funny in Do Revenge and it’s a shame that so much of her time had to be spent on riverdale LOL

It's just so clear that RAS wanted to merge Sabrina and Riverdale together years ago, and really lean into the supernatural elements early on. Make a supernatural mystery the core of each season.

Alex Meyers and Friendly Space Ninja, thank you for all the bravery you’ve shown covering this show extensively. A moment of silence for all the collective brain cells who were departed too soon.

The mental gymnastics you have to perform in order to listen and comprehend whats happening in this show is insane. And the moment Dylan started explaining the plot I couldnt stop laughing.

I interpreted the ending differently! After Jughead’s speech we hear typing- I thought this was like the very first episode when he began writing the ‘Riverdale’ story- so technically nothing we saw was true, and in fact we are all still in the storyline from Season 1 with Jughead creating the storylines we see in every season

I think the worst part of this is that the polycule just. Happened offscreen. People have been clamoring for an Archie/Veronica/Betty polycule for _ages,_ and then they just... half-ass it.

I wish the whole show was 50's Archie. It was such a better idea, kinder idea, and could have had so many of the fun storylines from the comics. Riverdale of the future was strange and evil.

I hope the actors find more interesting projects after this mess of a show, all the actors of the main cast were actually pretty good.

I’ll never understand why they didn’t make this show into an anthology from then beginning. The Archie catalogue is HUGE so much to work with and they chose to set it at some dudes high school for seven years. Like there’s a whole set of comics where they’re zombies! Zombies and we had to deal with love triangles and daddy issues for almost a decade. Annoying.

Is it weird that I can't help but respect Riverdale for its absolute crackhead direction? There's something impressive about how a show this long-running and so big could get so far by being absolute batshit bananas.

I’ve been saying this for years: I think Riverdale is a choose your own adventure story so the actors and writers never know what’s coming up. It’s based on the choices of…someone. A poll somewhere online? Rich people? The producers?

Honestly I respect the dgaf attitude towards the last season. Truly the greatest example of "how tf do you manage to crash and burn something thats already a burning wreckage"

The 1950s not having the word for serial killer but having the concept of a "quad" made me laugh so hard.

I've never watched a minute of Riverdale, but honestly hearing about it makes me so intrigued. It's almost like RAS wanted to pull off a years-long prank and actually managed to do it before the studio (hypothetically would have) decided to step in. I have to respect that level of tenacity and obnoxiousness.

“Roberto, are you flirting with me?” Made me audibly laugh😂

Goodbye, Riverdale. The cast & crew, you all suffered so much, and I thank you for your sacrifice. You embodied chaos in its purest form, and your trainwreck was interesting to watch. The ending was peak fanfiction, and I don't think anyone would've had it any other way. I'm glad you noticed Riverdale, you're weird, you're a weirdo. But you embraced the weirdness till the very end.

I'd love to see someone talk about The 100 that had an insanely bad ending. The series had a such a good start but turned to insanity after few seasons. SPOILERS How does teens that try to survive on apocalyptic earth kill all of humanity while basically becoming gods themselves at the end make any sense?? Who thought that would be a satisfying ending

The "characters of the show watch their own show or movie" is such a classic fanfiction story that it's always weird to see it in the actual program.

Never thought this day would come 😭 somehow it feels bittersweet??

The writers: "Can you fans forget about the weird shit?" The next episode. The writers: "Here's the weirdest shit we've got."

This entire last season just feels like a fanfic, complete with the writer's fav pairings. That last episode is like an end note with the other plot the writer didn't want to write. Fits with what we know about Roberto and his past with the source material...

I remember being really into Riverdale for the first three seasons. Kinda sad to see it ending. Almost like part of my teenage years died.

This show is what happens when you have a writer's room filled with fanfic writers more interested in making PG-13 fetish material with a cast of hot twenty-somethings than with telling a coherent story. It was the cinematic embodiment of the phrase "no thoughts, just vibes".

The finale is the perfect example that when you try to please everybody in the shipping world you end up displeasing everybody.

Riverdale is a living meme. Nobody has described the chaotic nature of Riverdale better than super eye patch wolf.

Ah yes, polyamorous relationships, the simplest type of relationship to be established in no time whatsoever. Famously very easy to organise and establish in both real life and fiction. It's wild. Ending love triangles in a polycule is the joke/ideal suggestion, but most people want to actually, y'know, see that happen. Not have it done off screen.

I really think if they had gone the anthology route this show could have been way more than it was. If each season was it's own story, with the same characters spread over different times, with new challenges and goals and each season being it's own complete story RAS could have told dozens of different stories with these characters without falling all over himself to make everything that didn't fit make sense. Imagine at the end of season 1, no shooting just the four main characters enjoying milkshakes. And then season 2 hits, maybe it's set in the 70s and the Black Hood holds up Pop's Diner and we get to try and figure out who the Hood is with everyone more or less at new start positions. They aren't the same characters so you really have no idea who it could be. Season 4 could be the Organ trafficking ring set 20 years into the future. Season 5 could be about witches set in the 1800s, etc... It would hardly be breaking new ground but it would have meant RAS could tell his insane stories without giving everyone an aneurysm. And, since every season the characters would be stripped down to their base component parts everyone would be a suspect, everyone would be discovering things about themselves. And, since a lot of people attach themselves to certain characters it would be a great way to mess with people's perceptions of themselves. A lot of people identify with Jughead as he was in season 1, someone who was going through a hard time and had to focus a lot on basic survival, like keeping a roof over his head. But what if in season 2 he comes from an affluent family and was as entitled as Cheryl or Veronica? Would he still be as beloved?

When Riverdale uses a Multiverse in its plot, you know the trope is dead.

Roberto did a nonsensical time travel storyline in “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” too. (Among other unforgivable things). He’s got some terrible obsessions with otherwise harmless tropes.

I had to pause at the halfway point because it is unreal to hear that they used one of the most self-indulgent fanfic tropes in a TV series that airs on cable television and it didn't get eviscerated on the cutting room floor. Love triangles, kitschy character/relationship dynamics, even fan-service are all one thing, but having your characters watch their own television show in a group together just to see their reactions? Never would have guessed. The pilot and these videos are the extent to my engagement with the Riverdale TV show and even after hearing all of what has gone on these past seven seasons, it's the watching your own series to remember your past that is tripping me up the most. Kudos to you Friendly Space Ninja for diving back in to finish chronicling this series.

If you look at this show as a wattpad fan fiction that started off strong but the writer got depressed so they just wrote down whatever to fill chapters and just used the fan fiction to cope with their own life and come up the most ridiculous things possible to then feel bad they completely stopped trying so they wanted to start trying again at the very end but the story has become so crazy that they don’t know how to make it better and they didn’t want to start over so decided to just reset everything without resetting everything and just end it but only tried to give that reset an ending Vs the whole fic, then the show is pretty watchable

The contrast between watching Nancy Drew (which aired before Riverdale every week) to Riverdale was insane. Like, ND got no promotional material whatsoever and was getting almost double the views every week compared to Riverdale which was flooded with promos by the CW. This week when they both ended felt like the end of the CW truly and seeing the two different reactions from each fandom made me glad I kept watching every week.

Riverdale kinda reminds of Glee in a way. A normal show about highschoolers that went off the rails and basically re-set itself by the last season. Except Glee did a finale right and it was an enjoyable and heartfelt finale that for the most part fans are happy with.

this last season being described like this feels very much like someone who just spent WAY TOO LONG on a bender doing all sorts of crazy things and trashing places and all, and then at the end they come back to the people they hurt being like "hey, can you forgive me for going wild, since you had fun at the party I threw that trashed the entire plot of land it was on? Pwetty pwease? 🥺"

36:26 In Season 6, during the Rivervale episodes, there were two Jugheads. The Jughead who's telling us the story, (and referred to as Narrator Jughead) and the Jughead who's inside of the story. Basically, I'm saying that the Jughead who guided Betty throughout the finale is Riverdale's Narrator Jughead. The Jughead who's been telling us the story of Riverdale since its very first episode.

Riverdale will be remembered as the epics highs and lows of weirdness. But Gossip Girl reboot will be remembered for absolutely nothing.

artemis fowl did "it ends by jogging the main character's memory by starting the entire story from the opening of book 1" first and better and more emotionally impactful

It's so weird that the end of the season three 90s flashback with the parents had a more satisfying way of explaining how the parents ended up where they did than the SERIES FINALE

Ain't gonna lie, this season actually feels like every fix-it fic on AO3.

You know what would be so fun? If they all had their memories wiped (just like it is in s7) and the plot(?) is the same... except in very random moments they reference stuff from 2023. And it gives you this unnerving feeling that something is off, even to the characters. And they, slowly, realise that theyre not in the right era. Conflicts happen, some characters prefer this era over the other yada yada yada. In the finale, they come back to their period.

i love that the "we had to merge the timelines so the show's original timeline" isn't just a copout to avoid dealing with all the shit that was set up for six seasons; it's also flagrantly stolen from DC's crisis on infinite earths. like i know they all belong to warner anyway but come on.

i dont think roberto even realized that he erased pll or sabrina or any of the other shows bcuz hes that incompetent😭....

I have to say it's so funny to see them rework the show into just a 1950s teen comedy all while seeing the 7 years of age on these "teenagers" face 😭

Thanks for treating us to two videos so close together, Ninja. I'm looking forward to seeing the cast move onto bigger and better projects. At least it kept them working for almost a decade, and I'll miss seeing You Tubers like you and Alex Meyers gloriously roast it.

Since you skipped a few episodes in Season 7, you missed that they kept name dropping the play "Our Town" in a handful of episodes. The Series Finale takes straight from the third act of Our Town--where the female protagonist after having died is given the chance to relive one day in her life that she chooses--which she does accompanied by the "Stage Manager" who has a quasi-angelic by way of rural New England presence about him. Throughout which the female protagonist dwells on the future of the people she encounters as well as eventually comes to realize that people don't appreciate the simple joys of life while living it--and how terribly sad that is. TLDR: The series finale is just a Riverdale adaptation of Our Town's Act 3.

It seems like this 1950s universe should’ve been the original trajectory of the show since they decided to drive it off a cliff after season 1

I love how "still better than the Gossip Girl Reboot" is basically a big meme for FSN's channel

The spirit Jughead that talks to Betty is clearly Dylan Sprouse.

It's crazy how minutes 6:55 to 8:29 of this video were just the same sentence being rephrased over and over again. I kept screaming "I GET THAT IT'S A REBOOT!!!! You don't have to keep repeating yourself, over and over again."

Eureka pulled a similar stunt, "let's send them to 1950 and re-roll the entire modern timeline when they make it back" and I feel like it's where Riverdale writers pulled this idea from

what I love about the ending is the amount of people tweeting (x’ing?) about the fact that Jughead and Archie were supposedly in a quad-relationship without ever having kissed on the show. KJ Apa has definitely kissed male actors on the show so people are saying it’s Cole’s fault 😭😭

Riverdale might be one of the last shows to be allowed to jump the shark and dip in quality. It's a lot more common now for series to be axed if they don't pull in numbers that these studios want, even if the show is really fucking good. In a way, it concluding marks the end of an era. With many good shows being cancelled at best and taken off of streaming services at worse, it's a sad feeling that regard.

Remembering only the good things is probably worse than remembering only the bad things. Imagine you're stuck in the 50s and you have the memory of a past life in the future where apparently everything was perfect.

See, the poly relationship could've been so interesting to explore if it wasn't just thrown there as a last ditch effort to satisfy their audience. I've never seen a show handle polyamory and honestly it'd be nice to see how they do it.

Excuse my French but it really fucking sucks that the only character who didn't get a reboot was Jughead. Of course the only character who remains a broody, egocentric modern version is one of the rare canon asexual characters we have in media who was completely robbed from us at the start of the show. I've been watching media my entire life and I've only seen a single asexual character on screen, ever. And they just botched the chance to give us that with Jughead. Which wouldn't have been this weird since two characters were put back in the closet so obviously they were fine exploring sexuality again. But an asexual character in the 50's would have been so good. This feels like such a slap in the face when you're ace and there just literally zero representation, ever, in anything.

Does anyone remember Josie McCoy is supposed to be Kevin’s step-sister? Nope? Only me? I don’t think they exchanged more than ten lines of dialogue in the entire show. Even the writers seem to have forgotten that, because they paired Kevin’s dad up with Archie’s uncle, perhaps because a gay relationship in the 50’s is more believable than an interracial one

i liked that they just got to have a lot of fun with the characters and explore a load of different dynamics and just enjoy themselves for their last season together, it’s very clear they all had a blast filming everything! it was fun to watch and refreshing from the previous seasons didn’t take itself seriously at all! it was fun to make fun of itself and just completely delve into a comic book TV show, like the 3 comic book stories episode was definitely my favourite! and the ending for them all in the sweet hereafter was very school. weird, crazy, camp, meta, reminisce on the journey they had and the relationships they formed over the last 7 years

I found it a bit weird at the end how they made jokes about Reggie's two actors, but Dilton's and Midge's actor change was never mentioned. Not only how funny it is kinda that they just took the Asian from Midge and put it to Dilton, but also how they (not) reacted to it when watching their memories on the magical tv. Also, Veronica was the one to ask Tabitha to only give them the positive memories and Clay didnt watch it because he just didn't exist, but what about Dilton and Midge who were both brutally murdered? Not one word to that.

It sounds like this being the last season was treated as an opportunity to adapt the comics without having to worry about audience and executive response.

I've never seen a single episode of Riverdale, but based on the reviews I've seen, it is such a bizarre fever dream of a series. Ending the show with the main cast being a poly relationship only for it to last for a few minutes in the finale is so strange. It sounds more like they wanted to attract some attention while still not committing to that relationship given that everyone loses touch with each other after high school anyway.

I knew a kid in middle school that was obsessed with Archie Comics. His whole room was themed around it. I often think about him and about what he thinks of this show.

Is it technically a quad relationship if Jughead and Archie aren't in a romantic relationship with each other?

I find it weird that the whole finale episode was centered around Betty when Archie is supposed to be the main character of the entire show and we were just told his ending instead of seeing it.

The polyamory cop-out makes me laugh so much, it's kinda genius ngl

Y'all I just found out that Lili Reinhart was found hospitalized after the filming of the series finale due to strenuous back pain from carrying the show for seven seasons.

Exactly. More love triangles need to end in polyamory. That's not the problem. The problem is that the Riverdale writers don't plan anything in advance and so it got basically no development and felt cheap. But, then again, that's literally this whole show. I need more shows with good and well developed poly relationships.