Jughead And Betty Pay Their Respects In A Preview Of The ‘Riverdale’ Series Finale

Over the course of seven seasons, many characters have come and gone on Riverdale, with one of the hardest hitting being Fred Andrews because it occurred after Luke Perry passed away in real life. The question the trailer for the series finale raises, though, is who’s grave would have both Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Jughead (Cole Sprouse) visiting it in the show’s final hour? If this were the series’ regular timeline they’d have their pick of losses to commiserate over but 50’s Riverdale hasn’t been as lethal (which is saying a lot, since there was a serial killer this season). Betty wasn’t close to Brad Rayberry (Christopher Shyer) and neither her nor Jughead look older in the clip, so does that mean someone new is dying and, if so, why would they be the only ones visiting the grave?

Betty and Jughead do have something in common now. They’re the only ones who opted to keep both their good and bad memories from their future life, which is pretty far-fetched even by Riverdale‘s standards. Firstly, there’s the pretentiousness of Jughead thinking he’s the only writer in town in an episode where Betty literally published her own book. Besides that, though, given that Angel Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook) has taken returning to 2023 off the table, what was the point of telling 1950s Riverdale what their lives were like, when they won’t be that now? There’s very little they can do with that information and why was everyone so eager to get it in the first place? Even holdouts Clay (Karl Walcott) and Julian (Nicholas Barasch) weren’t allowed to stay firm, and does knowing about Baby Anthony, for instance, do Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) and Toni (Vanessa Morgan) any good?

Maybe the grave site visit in the trailer is metaphoric, like Jughead and Betty mourning what their lives could’ve been or the deaths that haven’t actually happened in this timeline but did in 2023… The whole thing’s almost as messy as Archie (KJ Apa) and his glamorized view of what it means to be a poet which, if being a poet requires having experiences (which it doesn’t, but Archie seems convinced that it does) why wouldn’t he want to keep his bad memories? Wouldn’t that have been the best move for his craft?

Whatever happens in the series finale, there surely will be some guest returns, but the trailer isn’t spilling anything so it’s all conjecture for now.

Riverdale airs Wednesdays on The CW.