Sorry, Folks: ‘Riverdale’ Is Never Leaving The 1950s

For the final season of The CW series, Riverdale shook things up in a big way. The show took the cast, turned them back into teenagers in their Junior year of high school, and thrust them back in time to the 1950s. In the intervening episodes, we’ve seen the rebooted Archie Comics characters acting closer to their comic book selves while grappling with serious issues like homophobia, racism, and teen sexuality. Even though many fans (this one included) have been enjoying the episodes, there’s a palpable sense of nervousness that fills the air as we head toward the series finale around one question: will the characters we’ve known and loved for six seasons return? Will the show ever leave the 1950s?

The answer, it turns out, is: no. With a little asterisk after it.

“I don’t know if I should answer,” Riverdale star Mädchen Amick told Decider as part of a longer interview about her return to the director’s chair in this week’s episode. After a pause, she continued, “No, we don’t get out of the 1950s. So I guess maybe that is a big spoiler. I will say you do experience the characters in different… dimensions, that you get to see a lot of closures that are outside of the 1950s. I can tease it that way. I think that’s saying enough.”

Earlier in the season, showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told Decider that, “The entire season will not be set in the 1950s,” so clearly something changed between that interview, which was held around the time the production was filming Episode 13 of the 20-episode-long season; and the series wrap, which happened this past Monday (June 26). Of note, the series finale, “Goodbye, Riverdale” is written and directed by Aguirre-Sacasa, so it’s not like studio finagling took things out of their hands.

However, to speculate wildly, it is possible that multiple factors led to this change, not limited to the production costs involved in changing over multiple sets from their 1950s looks to the more modern set dressing seen in the previous seasons. The Riverdale crew is incredible, but they’re only humans (though mind you, have done quick changes for the set in a weekend; but still). There’s also the WGA strike to think about, which meant that Aguirre-Sacasa and company would be unable to change the finale script after May 2; and the impending SAG strike, which could start as soon as this weekend (July 1), meaning that wrapping this past Monday, already three days past the expected wrap date, was sort of due or die for the series.

…or alternately, this is what was always intended. As Amick says, there will be “closures” for the characters outside of the 1950s. This could mean a zip through the decades Six Feet Under style as we watch the characters get older and die. The “dimensions” part of her quote could refer to a number of things as well, particularly since Riverdale spent most of Season 6 positing that the series was part of a larger multiverse that includes the dark, Tales from the Crypt style Rivervale, and a place called The Sweet Hereafter, which includes a classic ’50s version of Pop’s, as well as other idyllic areas of the Archie Comics universe. It’s entirely possible we could see different iterations of how the characters wind up in those dimensions Amick mentioned. It’s also possible she spoke and just meant we’re getting a “three-dimensional” look at the ending of the characters, meaning a well-rounded finale that really fleshes them out as human beings.

The bigger question, though, is whether the characters will get their memories back. In the season premiere (hang in there, this is going to get very complicated very quickly), Tabitha Tate (Erinn Westbrook) explained to Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) that everyone had nearly died in Season 6’s climactic comet crash. At the last second, Tabitha used her angel/time powers to shunt everyone earlier in history to keep them safe while she untangles the timelines enough to get them home. In the same episode, Jughead discovered that the same comet will pass overhead in two years’ time, meaning around high school graduation (again); he hopes that creating a similar combo of weird circumstances will be enough to get them back to the present.

Until the comet returns, Tabitha stresses to Jughead that they need to try to make Riverdale a happier, safer place than it was since the first season of the show, and she takes away Jughead’s memories of the previous seasons; everyone else, including a 1950s version of Tabitha, don’t remember the main timeline.

The important takeaway here is that nobody remembers the first six seasons of the show. And fans would like them to remember the first six seasons of the show since there are a lot of dangling plotlines — specifically relationship plotlines — that need to be tied up. If the cast stays in the 1950s and they don’t remember their pasts, a common fan lament is that this season is a “waste” because the conclusion (as it were) to the main plot of Riverdale (as it were) happened in the Season 6 finale.

What is clear is that the bulk of the season will take place in the 1950s, and the characters the way we’re following them now will at least physically continue the same way through the final frames of the series (or close to the final frames). There are still a lot of questions, though, and only seven episodes left to answer them.

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.

An earlier version of this story quoted Amick saying “three” different dimensions. That has been removed.