Riverdale’s 22 Wildest Storylines Ever, From Time Travel to Alien Abductions
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Oh, Riverdale. We’ll miss a lot of things about you, but we think we’ll miss your crazy plot twists most of all.
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When it debuted on The CW in 2017, Riverdale was a sharp departure from the squeaky-clean Archie comics it was based on, adopting a dark tone and taking on decidedly adult themes. Early on, the teen drama stayed somewhat grounded in reality — but that went right out the window as the years went on, with increasingly bizarre storylines being thrown at us. And we’re not talking just garden-variety plot twists here like musical episodes, time jumps and murder mysteries. No, Riverdale took it to the next level, and several levels beyond that, with outlandish flights of fancy that left us completely bewildered and unsure of what, exactly, we just saw.
Now that Riverdale has just two episodes left in its seven-season run — the series finale airs Wednesday, Aug. 23 at 9/8c on The CW — we’re taking a fond look back at the absolute wildest plot developments that the show has cooked up for us. (We ranked them, too, just to separate the merely odd from the truly deranged.) Now to be clear, we mean all of this with great affection. We’ve been loyal Riverdale viewers from the start, and the show’s fearless dedication to pushing the storytelling envelope to “WTF?!” extremes may in fact be its greatest legacy. And for any readers who haven’t actually watched Riverdale before: We swear that all of these things actually happened.
Read on to see what Riverdale storylines were wild enough to make our list — and which one we ranked at the very top — and then grab a booth in the comments to tell us your own personal favorites, and point out any that we might’ve missed.
22. Archie has an affair with Miss Grundy
Riverdale came right out of the gate and let us know it would be different than the Archie comics we grew up reading in its very first episode, with Archie carrying on a steamy liaison with his high school music teacher Miss Grundy. (She was just a nice white-haired old lady in the comics!) Their affair was exposed, and Miss Grundy was exiled to the nearby town of Greendale, where she was later killed by the Black Hood. But she popped up again as Archie’s English teacher in Season 7’s 1950s timeline — and no hanky-panky this time.
21. Veronica runs a nightclub as a teenager, and then a casino
Yes, Veronica is a spoiled little rich girl, but we still raised an eyebrow when, in Season 2, she managed to own and operate a speakeasy in the basement of Pop’s called La Bonne Nuit… while she was still a high school student. After the Season 5 time jump, she moved onto opening and running a luxurious casino in town, which is something a lot of women in their mid-20s do, right?
20. Archie gets involved in the mob
In an effort to win over Veronica’s dad Hiram (fat chance of that), Archie worked as an underling in Hiram’s crime empire in Season 2, helping deliver cash and serve drinks at underground poker games. That’s where we were introduced to the fantastically named Canadian mobster Poppa Poutine, who was later whacked in a gangland slaying. Thankfully, Poppa Poutine was survived by his son… Small Fry. (No, we’re not kidding.)
19. The Black Hood is Betty’s father
Season 2’s Black Hood mystery, with a masked serial killer murdering people all over town, was fairly tame by Riverdale standards; it didn’t involve magic or superpowers or anything. But the final twist, where we learned the Black Hood was actually Betty’s father Hal Cooper, was a bit of a curveball. Who knew that this mild-mannered newspaper editor would turn out to be a demented killer dead-set on bringing sinners to justice? Oh, and this also led to Betty finding out she has the “serial killer gene,” which helped explain her “Dark Betty” alter ego.
18. Archie becomes an underground boxer
After Archie was framed for murder in Season 3, he was sent to juvenile detention, where he went full Tyler Durden and started competing in an underground fight club, with the wardens and guards betting on which prisoner would prevail. Archie was a natural, of course, and befriended fellow fighters Mad Dog and Baby Teeth (!) along the way, but his promising fight club career was cut short when he managed to break out of juvie later that season.
17. Sabrina shows up (twice!)
Archie’s comic book pal and teenage witch Sabrina got her own spooky Netflix spinoff, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and the long-awaited crossover finally happened in Season 6, during the “Rivervale” story arc. (At that point in the series’ run, a witch casting spells in Riverdale didn’t even seem that far-fetched.) Sabrina reunited with her old friend Cheryl to help her sort out her tangled family history, and then returned later that season to resurrect a deceased Archie and Jughead. She even tied up some loose Sabrina plot threads while she was at it!
16. The town becomes obsessed with Gryphons & Gargoyles
Role-playing games are typically the exclusive realm of nerds and geeks… but not in Riverdale! In Season 3, the Dungeons & Dragons-esque game took over the whole town, driving those who played it insane and leading to a number of ritual suicides. The whole season was dedicated to figuring out the identity of the “Gargoyle King,” a malevolent woodland beast that was using the game to control the town, and we eventually learned it was Chic, the diabolical criminal who formerly posed as Betty’s long-lost brother.
15. Cheryl is possessed by the spirit of her ancestor Abigail
The Blossoms have a rich history in Riverdale: Cheryl’s ancestor Abigail was burned at the stake for being a witch by the townsfolk, and Abigail returned in Season 6 to take possession of Cheryl’s body. Abigail vowed to get revenge on Archie, Betty and Jughead for their ancestors’ sins — and also looked to rekindle things with Toni, who she saw as her beloved Thomasina. The gang eventually managed to get Abigail exorcised out of Cheryl’s body, and she enjoyed a happy reunion with Thomasina in the afterlife. So happy endings all around!
14. Archie gets framed for murder
Sure, what red-blooded American teen boy doesn’t stand trial for murder at one point or another? Archie didn’t do it, of course — he was set up by Hiram Lodge, who didn’t like Archie dating his daughter Veronica — but he still was dramatically arrested in the Season 2 finale and had to stand trial in Season 3, eventually taking a plea deal and getting locked up in juvenile detention.
13. The Auteur is… Jughead’s little sister
Riverdale served up another one of its trademark whodunit mysteries in Season 4 with the arrival of the Auteur, who left creepy VHS tapes on people’s doorsteps that featured reenactments of local murders. The mystery wasn’t solved until the following season, when we learned that it was all the handiwork of Jughead’s little sister Jellybean, who created the mystery in an attempt to keep Jughead from leaving town. Aw, sweet… disturbing, but sweet.
12. Everyone gets zapped back to the 1950s
Riverdale finally embraced its gee-whiz Archie comics roots in its final season, when a battle with a deadly meteor sent Archie and his pals back to the year 1955, where they’re all back in high school again with no memory of their former lives. The twist also jumbled up the show’s main couples, with Betty dating Kevin and Archie dating Cheryl. Plus, Cheryl’s brother was alive again, and named Julian this time? At this point, we’re seven seasons in, so we’re just gonna go with it.
11. Cheryl is haunted by Julian the doll
It was only a matter of time until Riverdale introduced a creepy doll, and that time came in Season 4, with Cheryl discovering a doll that seemingly carried the ghost of her dead twin brother Jason. But then her Nana Rose explained that the doll was actually a representation of Julian, a previously unknown triplet that Cheryl had consumed in the womb (!). The doll continued to creep Cheryl out until she finally put an end to it by drowning Julian in a bathtub with a brick on top of him.
10. Kevin gets into, um, tickle videos
Betty’s gay BFF was often sidelined throughout Riverdale‘s run, but he did get one particularly memorable storyline in Season 4, when he and Fangs decided to make some extra cash by participating in a series of tickle fetish videos. It’s not pornography! They’re not even naked! But after Toni used the tickle videos to blackmail Nick St. Clair, the storyline got dropped and was never mentioned again. And we can see why.
9. Jughead is abducted by aliens (sort of)
In Season 5, Jughead investigated tall tales about an extraterrestrial species called the Mothmen that had visited a number of Riverdale residents over the years. He even discovered what he thought was an old alien skeleton before being blasted by a bright white light himself. Later, while under the influence of maple mushrooms (yep, you read that right), he had another close encounter with an alien in the bunker. Like a lot of things on Riverdale, though, this turned out to have a perfectly sensible explanation: The aliens were simply a cover story for the Starkweathers, a clan of illegitimate Blossom descendants who lived far out in the woods. See, sensible!
8. Betty has a long-lost brother named Chic — no, make that Charles
Betty’s mom Alice had a baby while she was still a teenager and gave it up for adoption, and that child reentered her life in Season 2 as the now grown-up Chic. Alice felt so guilty about abandoning him, she ignored all the many, many red flags around Chic — until we found out he was a sleazy crook who was merely impersonating Alice’s son. Her real son was Charles, who grew up to be a clean-cut FBI agent. But wait! We later learned that Charles and Chic were actually some sort of twisted criminal couple? And that Charles was a serial killer as well? Forget it, kids: It’s Riverdale.
7. Tabitha tries to stop the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination
When Archie and the gang all discovered they had cool supernatural abilities in Season 6 — much more on that later — Pop’s waitress Tabitha began hopping through time to various points in the past, including the day before Martin Luther King, Jr. would be shot dead in 1968. She did her best to prevent the tragedy, but her guardian angel Raphael told her that, sadly, some events are fixed in history and cannot be changed. Later, Tabitha learned that she is a powerful spiritual being who serves as Riverdale’s guardian angel… because sure, why not?
6. Archie fights a bear
Listen, we know Archie is in great shape. We know this because he takes his shirt off in almost every episode to prove it. But while we can buy him beating up regular-sized humans, we didn’t like his chances when, in Season 3, he stood toe-to-toe with a bear in the woods while on the run after escaping juvie. Now the bear did maul him pretty badly, and he barely survived, so we should give the show credit for that bit of realism. But don’t worry: Soon enough, Archie was all patched up and back at school, ready to cram for his SATs.
5. Jughead fakes his own death
We didn’t actually believe that Jughead was dead, even though Riverdale tried to convince us of that all throughout Season 4, with a somber flash-forward to Archie, Betty and Veronica burning his signature beanie in a fire. And we were right: It was all an elaborate ruse to point the finger at Jughead’s enemies at Stonewall Prep for plotting his demise, among other crimes. We’d explain further, but we still don’t fully understand it ourselves.
4. Cheryl talks to her dead brother Jason’s corpse
Cheryl has always been a little kooky about her twin brother Jason, who was found dead in the series premiere. But she went fully cuckoo bananas when Jason’s corpse was dug up and Cheryl decided to keep it around in her house, having entire conversations with him like he was alive and well. She eventually faced the truth, though, and gave her beloved bro a Viking funeral, burning his body in a boat set adrift on Sweetwater River.
3. The “Rivervale” parallel universe
After years of toying with the supernatural, Riverdale dove in headfirst with a five-episode arc in Season 6 that introduced “Rivervale,” an eerie parallel universe where strange things are happening all over. Archie got murdered by the whole town! Toni became a mournful ghost called La Llorona! The devil showed up! It was a wild ride that ended with an utterly incomprehensible 100th episode where Jughead discovered the parallel universe and somehow put things back to normal. Or as normal as they ever get in Riverdale.
2. Archie and Betty have superpowers
Despite all its certifiably insane twists and turns, Riverdale managed to stay somewhat grounded for a while… until Season 6, that is, when the writers decided: Let’s just give the kids superpowers! After an explosion at Archie’s house, Archie suddenly discovered he was super strong and invulnerable to attacks, and Betty realized she could see people’s auras, with a red aura surrounding anyone with ill intent. Plus, Jughead could hear people’s thoughts and Cheryl developed pyrokinesis, all of which came in handy when they had to go up against super villain Percival Pickens. That whole storyline — and that whole season, really — was Riverdale boldly turning the insanity dial all the way up to eleven.
1. The Farm, Edgar Evernever and his space rocket
At first, the Season 3 storyline about the Farm — a cult of people dressed all in white and led by a charismatic guru named Edgar Evernever, played by Chad Michael Murray — was weird, but not too weird by Riverdale standards. But oh, it got so much weirder.
Betty’s mom Alice and sister Polly became members of the cult (and seemingly gained the ability to make babies levitate through prayer?), and Betty discovered to her horror that the cult was a front for harvesting organs, almost becoming a victim herself. But that’s not even the weirdest part! It turned out that Alice was working undercover to expose the Farm, but not before Edgar and his followers holed up in a motel, armed to the teeth and demanding safe passage out of town.
Which all led to the single most ridiculous moment in Riverdale history (and that’s saying a lot): Edgar donned an Evel Knievel-style jumpsuit and prepared to escape in his own homemade rocket (!!!), only to be shot dead by Alice before he could take flight. We swear this actually happened. God bless America… and god bless Riverdale.
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