What’s to be Expected This Upcoming Riverdale Season

The final season of The CW show Riverdale has released its trailer, and my goodness, it’s a lot.

I think I should start off by going over the 7th season trailer. It’s a doozy. However, I want to mention that I have been keeping up with Riverdale since its beginning. I’ve seen the face, starting with the solving of a murder of a teenage boy. Still, the show has become a series with serial killers, cults, alternate universes, superpowers, a quasi-Wanda Maximoff, murders, the occasional deadbeat father, and so much more that I’m probably leaving out. I can only think to myself, How did we get here? What happened? Needless to say, Riverdale has been an experience in itself, and it has definitely veered off from what it was initially about.

In reviewing this trailer, even as an avid watcher of the series, I’m confused throughout watching it. It seems to be lacking in direction. I can’t see its end goal to whatever it may be trying to achieve. It just doesn’t make sense to the storyline of the show.

The 7th season trailer leads from where we left off in season 6, where Cheryl absorbed the powers of the core four, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, and Archie, to stop the incoming comet that would have destroyed the town of Riverdale. Still, Cheryl, the supposed phoenix of Riverdale, had stopped the comet from destroying the city. Also, because of her heroics, she stopped the merging of Riverdale’s alternate universe, Rivervale, where all of the worst that would happen in Riverdale happened in Rivervale. Except her efforts weren’t really that helpful. When Cheryl blasted the comet with her powers, she sent the entire town back into the 1950s. So that’s that.

As I write this season 6 recap, I’m having trouble keeping myself as serious as possible. It’s ridiculous how we got from a teen show about solving murder mysteries to a knock-off Wandavision, where the most influential person in town must use her supernatural abilities to stop the incoming comet from destroying her town. Also, there are alternate universes. 

The trailer for season 7 opens on a well-manicured hand operating a Jukebox, and it pans to the title, “Rock Around the Clock. Riverdale: Final Season. Great Balls of Fire.” For the next few seconds, the trailer displays a montage of what seems to be 50s-era teenagers. Jughead, one of the series’s main characters, begins his narration by being brought back to 1955, explaining that to the core Riverdale group. He later explains that they “need to get back 67 years ago, but in the future.” The expressions of the core group reacting to Jughead’s news are only reminiscent of what Riverdale’s audience is thinking; This is insane. What the hell? Throughout his narration, he explains that none of them remember their lives before the comet explosion (BC). However, while confused, Archie makes a good point that can be expressed beyond the initial confusion of Jughead’s theory and be asked regarding the series itself. “Life is good. Why would we wanna go back?”

At the beginning of the series, it was about solving the murder of small-town heartthrob Jason Blossom, Cheryl’s brother. Season 1 of the show was good, well-received, and, most importantly, easy to follow. Life in Riverdale season 1 was good, simple even. So, I must ask again, how did we get here?

Returning to the trailer breakdown, Jughead tells the audience that Riverdale is different now. Surprisingly, that is one of the few accurate things about this new season, at least what we can assume. For one, we see that Betty is in love with Kevin, who is still gay. We later see that Veronica is a young Hollywood movie star returning to Riverdale for the reason that has yet to be explained. Cheryl and Archie are getting married. This is reminiscent of the faint love story between Cheryl and Archie in season 1. I think Cheryl’s gross obsession with Archie stems from her mourning process for her twin brother, who resembles Archie. This raises some eyebrows because Cheryl is a pale redhead, like her brother, as is Archie. Suspicious if you ask me.

Jughead reiterates his previous point that they need to get out of the current world that they’re living in. But it seems that only Jughead knows they are stuck in this world. 

The trailer ends with some dark montages of the teens and the question of whether they can get back into the future.

Now regarding the direction of the show moving forward into this new season, I’m still confused about where this show is going. In my opinion, the central conflict that comes ahead between the core four and some evil beings has made Riverdale the show that it is today. Season 1 was about figuring out who murdered Cheryl’s brother. Season 2 was about stopping the serial killer, The Black Hood. Season 3 focused on dismantling the Gargoyle King, the leader of a board game-based cult. In season 4, Jughead was trying to solve the mystery of a private preparatory school with cult-like behaviors. I feel like I shouldn’t need to explain more regarding this topic of the main antagonists of the core four. Needless to say, there’s a pattern in Riverdale.

All in all, the vision for each season seems clear: an evil thing is happening, and they must figure out why and stop it. I don’t see that happening in this trailer. The issue with this upcoming season is that there seems to be no reason for who or what could keep them stuck in the world of 1955. I’m also not finding why they should try to return to their current time.

I must say, however, something that keeps me coming back to this show is how much the insanity builds up on each other. It always finds a way to top itself on the level of craziness. So, I’m not exactly sure what to expect, but I will be surprised if they top last season after Cheryl absorbed the powers of the core four characters and blasted a comet that sent the entire town of Riverdale back in time to the year 1955.

Riverdale comes on The CW channel at 9/8c Wednesdays, beginning March 29th.