| “ | We'll leave them here, I think. Where they're forever Juniors. Forever seventeen. Always grabbing a burger, or a shake. Always going to, or coming from, some dance, talking about school, the big game, who's dating who, homework, whatever movie's playing at the Babylonium. You know, the moments that make up a life. It's where they've... where we've, always been. In this diner, in this town, in the Sweet Hereafter. So if you happen to see that neon sign, some lonely night, at the end of that long journey, the journey that every one of us is on, pull over, come on in, take a seat. Know that you'll always be among friends and that Riverdale will always be your home. Until then, have a good night. | ” |
— Angel Jughead
| ||
"Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Seven: Goodbye, Riverdale"[1] is the twentieth and final episode of the seventh season of Riverdale and the one hundredth and thirty-seventh episode of the series overall, serving as the series finale. It premiered on August 23, 2023.
Synopsis[]
NOW LEAVING RIVERDALE — Back in present day and longing for her former life in Riverdale, 86-year-old Betty turns to a special friend to help her relive her last day of senior year with her friends as they were, their memories restored.[2]
Plot[]
67 years have passed, and now Betty, an 86-year-old grandmother, is resting in a small room in her granddaughter's house, where she checks the obituary every day; this day in particular she is reading about Jughead's passing. She explains to her granddaughter, Alice, that she and her friends had many adventures in their adolescence, and with Jughead's recent death, she's the last of her gang. With that in mind, Betty wants to go back to Riverdale one last time, before she forgets everything. Assuming she's well tomorrow, Alice agrees to drive her. Betty falls asleep and later awakens to teenage Jughead sitting across from her. She was going through their yearbook and trying to remember everything she had forgotten, though going through the pictures makes her want to go back to how things were back in high school. Jughead tells her to pick a day, and he'll take her, but she won't just be living that day, she'll be seeing herself live it. Betty decides to go back to senior year, the day everyone got their yearbooks, a day she missed because she had to stay home due to the mumps and never got her yearbook signed.
The following morning, Betty walks through a door labeled "Betty's Bedroom" and finds herself back in her bedroom at her childhood home and 17 again. Betty is surprised by her appearance and can't remember why she ever wanted to change anything about herself back then.
Meanwhile, Archie and Mary discuss his plans to join Vic's crew, where he'll be driving around the country with a dusty road crew while pouring concretes and digging ditches. Mary can't make sense of it, but Archie sees it as an opportunity to find inspiration for his poems. He assures his mother he'll only be gone for three months, but Mary argues otherwise. She thinks he'll get one look at the Pacific Ocean and forget all about Riverdale. Archie reminds her so much of Fred, who always dreamed of settling in the west. He never did, but maybe Archie will, with her blessing of course. Archie thanks his mother and says that he loves her.
Betty questions what became of Mrs. Andrews. Jughead reveals that after she bought the dress shop, one day, a woman named Brooke came in. They started a conversation, and a few weeks later, she moved into the Andrews house. They stayed together until the very end. Betty says that Mary was always such a kind woman and recalls how Archie's mom gave her mom hell for disowning Betty, who then hears her mother and sister laughing downstairs. Betty rushes down the steps and greets both Alice and Polly. Alice has divorced Hal and became a stewardess, just as she dreamed, though it's not all she imagined. Before leaving for school, as Betty claims to no longer has the mumps, she embraces her mother, and then her sister, explaining that she's happy to see them both again.
Not only just a stewardess, Jughead reveals to Betty that one night, her mother's pilot had a heart attack. So Alice took control of the plane and flew it from Riverdale to Poughkeepsie. One of the passengers on the plane asked her out to dinner to show is gratitude for her saving his life. And a few months later, they got married. He offered to show her the world, and she wrote Betty postcards from everywhere they went, until one day, the postcard stopped coming, Betty recalls. As for Polly, she had her twins, Juniper and Dagwood and led a happy life with her family, but she never got back to performing as Polly Amorous.
Betty and Jughead make their way to Riverdale High, where Betty is amazed by how young and beautiful everyone is. Veronica arrives, and Betty embraces her. The school bell rings, and they head inside, where Veronica reminds Betty about the yearbooks. Betty can't believe this is the last time they will be walking into Riverdale High. They haven't even graduated yet, and Betty is already swamped with nostalgia. As Veronica heads into the restroom to powder her nose, Toni speaks over the intercom. As their senior class president, she reminds all students to pick up the yearbooks in the lounge. On a more personal note, as they look forward to graduation, she shares one final poem, entitled Dreams by Langston Hughes.
To Cheryl's surprise, Betty approaches for her yearbook despite word circulating that she caught the mumps. Betty insists that it was a false alarm and asks Cheryl to sign her yearbook. Cheryl promises to sign it later, as she is expecting Betty to attend her and Toni's art show opening The Dark Room tonight, and afterward, they're hosting a get-together at Thornhill, which Betty also promises to attend.
Betty asks Fangs to sign her yearbook. Now that he has a hit single on the charts, which made it to number 8, Midge says that her parents have finally begun to warm up to the idea of them getting married. Fangs now has to leave for a recording session before going on his six-week summer tour. Betty is thrilled for Fangs, only to learn from Jughead that four weeks into his tour, Fangs' bus was heading over the Rocky Mountains when one of the tires blew. There were no survivors. Betty recalls that he was the first of the gang to die. But Jughead points to his gold record hanging on the wall, which will hang in that room for as long as there's a Riverdale High. As for Midge, thanks to Fangs' songs, Midge and their daughter were taken care of for the rest of their lives. Betty remembers, she's remembering more and more. Kevin then enters and invites Betty to join him and Clay for lunch.
Kevin signs Betty's yearbook, in disbelief that this is the last time they'll ever have lunch together at school. Kevin then reveals that he and clay will be roommates next year. With Clay going to Columbia to study literature, and Kevin going to NYU to study musical theater writing, it just makes sense for them to get an apartment together, or at least that's what they told their parents. As for their end, Jughead reveals that they lived a very spirited life in the heart of Harlem. Betty remembers visiting them once before. Clay became a professor at Columbia University, and Kevin started an off-Broadway theater company. Kevin was 82 when he went to sleep and never woke up. Clay passed away a few weeks later. He went out to enjoy some sun in Central Park, sat on a bench to feed some pigeons, and took his final breath. Betty tells Kevin and Clay that they are soulmates. Speaking of which, Kevin asks Betty what the four of them are going to do, referring to her quad relationship with Archie, Veronica, and Jughead for the last year, which she had forgotten all about
Betty asks Reggie to sign his yearbook. He thanks her for helping him fix up Bella and wonders why they never pursued a relationship, likely due to Archie, Reggie alleges. Betty says that she didn't choose Archie over Reggie and shares with him that after Angel Tabitha's last visit, she, Archie, Veronica, and Jughead began dating each other at the same time, much to Reggie's disbelief. It started with the four of them going on double dates and naturally evolved from there, with them spending nights together, including Betty and Veronica, who talked about bringing Reggie into the mix, but they felt as though he was too focused on basketball. Betty is glad she got to know this version of Reggie and kisses him on the cheek, certain that he is destined for greatness, which he was. Reggie went professional. The following year, he played at Kansas State before being drafted by the Lakers. During the off-season, he worked at his family farm until his parents died, at which point, he had to sell the land. Afterward, he started coaching at Riverdale High until his death, when he was buried in Duck Creek, next to his wife and his parents, but not before fathering two sons, who still run the used car dealership Mantle Motors.
Betty and Jughead head to the Babylonium, where Veronica reveals to Betty that she's going back to LA. Josie McCoy's words about taking over Hollywood has been ringing in Veronica's ears since her visit, so she called her friend Peter Roth and got a job working for him. Betty is proud of Veronica and says this move feels the most right, as if it were her destiny to be in the movies. The only thing is that California is so far away, but Veronica promises Betty they will always be in each other's lives. Betty then joins Jughead in the theater, where he shares that the summer after graduation, Veronica started as an assistant at Silver Shield Studios. But within a few years, she was running the place. She became known for her impeccable taste and for taking risks on young, raw talent. She won two Oscars, and produced some of the most iconic movies of their time. Veronica was buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Betty recalls, as well as going to some of her premieres. She wishes she had kept in better touch with Veronica and the rest of the gang.
Betty and Jughead attend Cheryl and Toni's art show opening at The Dark Room. Cheryl thanks everyone for coming. Their relationship is the most thrilling thing she could've ever imagined. They're always creating and there's no separation between their art and their love. In addition to the art, Toni is selling a collected edition of the first six issues of Black Athena, Riverdale High's acclaimed literary magazine. Jughead reveals that Cheryl had an incredible career as a painter, and her work was shown in galleries and museums across the country, even in Europe. Toni and Cheryl stayed together and moved out west. They settled in the Oakland hills in a Craftsman house, where they lived as artists and activists, and they had a son, Dale, named after Riverdale. They passed away peacefully after living full, gorgeous, sexy lives.
Betty joins Archie, Jughead, and Veronica as the latter reveals her plans to leave for Los Angeles. They all knew they were going separate ways after graduation, but now it feels real and final. Betty says they were lucky to be brought together and given the chance to know each other for two lifetimes. They should be celebrating, rather than mourning. She expresses how much she loves them and says that meeting them was the best thing that could've ever happened to her, at which point, they hold hands and Archie proposes they take one last ride in his hot Rod together to Cheryl's party.
As planned, Archie and the gang attend Cheryl's party at Thornhill. Archie has written a poem to commemorate their time together, reciting it for the party, with each of his friends having their own dedicated portion.
Archie finds Betty before she can sneaks off. He's certain they'll see each other again and maybe even end up together. He always thought that it could end with the two of them, as it began with them. While that's a lovely sentiment, it's not what happens in the future, Betty says. She goes on to reveal that Archie's mom was right about him making it to California and never looking back. There, he meets a sweet girl, with whom he settles down with in Modesto and has a beautiful family with. Archie is a processional construction worker and adventure writer, and he's so content and happy. Teary-eyed, Betty tells Archie that when he dies, he asks to be buried in Riverdale next to his father. Before parting ways, they share one last kiss.
Betty exits Thornhill to find Jughead waiting. There's one last person she wants to visit before they leave, that being Pop Tate, whose grave they leave flowers at. He passed in his sleep right at the beginning of senior year. Betty wonders what happens to them when they die. For a man like Pop Tate, Jughead feels he's probably still doing what he loved most, flipping burgers and making shakes for the rest of eternity.
Betty and Jughead take a seat on a nearby bench, where they discuss their lives. Betty says that Jughead lived a full life, as he was the editor-in-chief of his own magazine, Jughead's Madhouse Magazine. He tries to downplay his achievements as juvenile satire, but Betty assures him that people love it, and they still do 70 years later. As for Betty's legacy, she doesn't think about her own much, but Jughead believes she should. First it was The Teenage Mystique, a self-published bestseller. Then there was her advice column, Betty's Diary, then it was freelancing and protesting in New York. The same fights back then continue to this day, but the younger generation is fighting them now, the same generation that grew up reading the magazine Betty started, She Says Magazine, the go-to source for feminist and progressive causes, which is still being published today. Jughead asks Betty if she has any regrets about not getting married, which she doesn't, but she's happy that she adopted her daughter Carla. She loved being a mother and grandmother. That's her true legacy. As for Jughead, he does regret not getting married sometimes. He then takes Betty's hand as she expresses how she wishes they could stay in Riverdale forever, with all of their friends, as they were, young, beautiful, and full of hope, though they both know it's not possible, and in fact, it's time to take her back.
Jughead takes Betty back to present day, where her granddaughter Alice drives her back to Riverdale. After they pass the town sign, Betty says goodbye to Riverdale as she takes her final breath, passing away in the backseat just as they pull up to Pops. Betty, a youthful teen once more, finds herself in the Sweet Hereafter. She exits the vehicle and enters Pops, where she finds all her friends awaiting her arrival. Forever 17 Betty greets her friends before joining Archie, Veronica, and Jughead in a booth, where they await with a strawberry milkshake specifically for her.
Cast[]
Trivia[]
- This is the series finale of Riverdale.
- An extended cut of the episode was released the day after the episode aired, featuring many new scenes.
- Cheryl and Toni's son, Dale, is played by Vanessa Morgan's real-life son, River Dante.
- Veronica's tomb outside the Babylonium reads 'I don't follow rules, I make them'. This is a line she said in Chapter Three: Body Double.
- This episode followed the Barbenheimer trend that was occuring at the time this episode aired - the series finale of Nancy Drew also aired on August 23, 2023, on The CW.
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