How Does It End for the Gang?
Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for the series finale of Riverdale.
In the penultimate episode of The CW’s Riverdale Season 7, the gang begins to prepare for their next steps in life. Archie (KJ Apa) decides to travel the world over summer vacation before senior year begins, as he writes his poetry, though he decides to fill in for Reggie (Charles Melton) on Reggie’s family’s farm during harvest season so Reggie can attend basketball camp and secure his future. Jughead (Cole Sprouse) publishes one last comic for Pep Comics before, then gives Veronica (Camila Mendes) what she needs to adapt the Du Bois story it’s based on as a major motion picture — with Clay (Karl Walcott) as the screenwriter. Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch), her parents now locked away as Russian spies, steals back her Vixens and announces her relationship with Toni (Vanessa Morgan). Meanwhile, Betty (Lili Reinhart) receives a copy of her book, The Teenage Mystique, and convinces her mother Alice (Mädchen Amick) to read it, opening a new door toward honesty between the embattled mother/daughter duo.
However, after nearly an entire season spent in the 50s without their memories of the present day, Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook) returns to town having merged all the timelines (instead of unraveling them). This, unfortunately, comes with a consequence though: She cannot return them to the present. With Jughead’s help, she poses the opportunity to everyone to remember everything of their former lives. Eventually, they all give in, watching their lives unfold on television. In the end, they all choose to remember the good aspects of their former lives, though Betty and Jughead are the only two who decide to remember everything. Though her mission is complete, Tabitha cannot stay — and the 50s Tabitha we’ve watched occasionally throughout the season is gone for good — so she bids Riverdale adieu after one last kiss with Jughead. So, what’s next? Let’s break down the eventful, unexpected, and extended series finale of Riverdale.
The ‘Riverdale’ Season 7 Finale Brings Us Back to the Present Day… Temporarily
67 years later, in the present day, we find 86-year-old Betty reading Jughead’s obituary with her granddaughter Alice. Betty remarks that she is the last one left, and she wants to go back to Riverdale one last time, as her memory slips more and more each day. Her granddaughter agrees to revisit the subject the next day, but that night, Betty is visited by a special friend: Angel Jughead. He promises to take her back to a day, any day, so she can relive how things used to be, which she is yearning for after looking over yearbook photos.
Betty decides on a day during their senior year, the day when everyone got their yearbooks but she had to stay home sick because she had the mumps, causing her to miss getting her yearbook signed. Next, Betty walks through the door of her bedroom and is transported back to the ‘50s, back to her old life. As she takes in her old room and her old self with Angel Jughead, she takes in the sight of Archie through their windows one last time, just as everything is about to change for the gang.
What’s Next for the Characters of ‘Riverdale’?
With graduation approaching, everyone is preparing for the next step forward in their lives in the ‘50s. Archie, after a conversation with his mother Mary (Molly Ringwald), has decided to join a crew for three months and travel the country, pouring concrete and creating highways all the way to California, but Mary doesn’t think he’ll come back after getting a glimpse at the Pacific Ocean. Back with Betty, she and Angel Jughead recount that Mary ended up buying the dress shop and happily living with a woman named Brooke (Luvia Petersen) until the end of their lives.
Hearing laughter downstairs, Betty rushes down to find her mother Alice and sister Polly (Tiera Skovbye) talking about Polly’s baby — as she is, once again, pregnant. Betty is thrilled to see they’re alive and getting along and gives her mother a long hug. At this point, Alice has divorced Hal (Lochlyn Munro) and become a stewardess, just as she always dreamed. However, as Angel Jughead informs Betty, Alice’s life takes a turn later. After a flight where the pilot had a heart attack, Alice successfully piloted the plane from Riverdale to Poughkeepsie. A man on the plane asked her to dinner, and they got married a few months later. Then, as Alice always wanted, they traveled the world together, and Alice sent Betty postcards from everywhere they went. Meanwhile, Polly had twins Juniper and Dagwood again, and lived a happy life with her family, though she never performed again.
The First Tragic Loss of the ‘Riverdale’ Series Finale
At school, as President Toni addresses the school, Betty recounts how Toni always made sure — using the Blue & Gold, first and foremost — that the school was in dialogue with whatever major event was going on across the country. Angel Jughead begins to tell Betty what happened to Toni, but Betty cuts him off, saying she doesn’t want to know yet. Later, Betty grabs her yearbook from Cheryl; when Betty asks Cheryl to sign, she says she’s busy and will sign it later, inviting Betty to an art show at The Dark Room that evening and a party at Thornhill after. So, Betty goes to Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) and Midge (Abby Ross) to have them sign it. They give Betty an update about Fangs getting a single at #8 on the charts, preparing for a tour over the summer, and Midge’s parents coming around to them getting married. But, as Angel Jughead recalls, things don’t work out as planned because Fangs dies in a bus accident four weeks into his tour. But, thanks to Fangs’ songs, Midge and their daughter were taken care of for the rest of their lives.
Kevin and Clay’s Happily Ever After
Then, Kevin (Casey Cott) interrupts and invites Betty to lunch with him and Clay where they excitedly talk about living together next year and their futures together. Angel Jughead recounts their lives for Betty — Kevin and Clay moved to an apartment in Harlem, embracing the spirit of the city, where it seems they stayed for their entire lives. Clay became a tenured professor at Columbia, while Kevin started an off-Broadway company. Kevin went to sleep and never woke up at 82, and Clay passed away a few weeks later. When Kevin snaps Betty out of her grief-induced haze, he shocks Betty by confronting her about the “quad” relationship she has been in with Archie, Veronica, and Jughead for their senior year as her lovers wait for her across the parking lot.
Reggie Gets the Life He Always Deserved
With Reggie, Betty details how Angel Tabitha giving them their memories back made each of the core four remember what it was like to be with one another, but they also didn’t want to lose their new connections that were created in the ‘50s, explaining how they decided not to make a decision and all date each other. Reggie is stunned, but mostly, he’s disappointed they didn’t bring him into the mix, too. Angel Jughead tells Betty that Reggie went on to play for the Lakers, sold his land in Duck Creek after his parents died, moved back to Riverdale to coach the basketball team, and was married with two sons — who run the used car dealership in town in the present day. Julian Blossom (Nicholas Barasch) died at 28 in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Nana Rose (Barbara Wallace) was reincarnated multiple times. Principal Weatherbee (Peter James Bryant) and Ms. Thornton (Frances Flanagan) got married. However, Tom Keller (Martin Cummins) and Frank Andrews (Ryan Robbins) were murdered by a hustler named Chic.
Veronica, Cheryl, and Toni’s Dream Endings
At the Pembrooke, Veronica announces she’s moving back to Los Angeles to become a movie producer and, eventually, run a studio of her own. Then, we learn that Veronica started as an assistant but was running the studio within just a few short years. She won two Oscars and produced some of the most iconic movies. Facing Veronica’s death, Betty is reminded of how they all fell out of touch with one another over the years, missing so much of each other’s lives. At the Dark Room, Betty and Angel Jughead discuss Cheryl and Toni’s life. Cheryl became a successful painter, having her work shown at galleries across the country and in Europe. Toni and Cheryl moved out west, stayed together as they embraced their lives as activists and artists, and even had a son: Dale (played by Morgan’s real-life son). In the end, they both passed peacefully after living full lives.
The Last Time the Gang’s All Together
At Cheryl and Toni’s party at Thornhill, Archie delivers a magnificent poem to all of his friends, with details of their present and previous lives. (Though one has to wonder how he recalls so much if he and most of his friends only decided to keep the good memories.) Afterward, Betty and Archie share a final goodbye before Betty returns to her life in the present day. But, Archie says it’s not goodbye as he knows they’ll see each other again. He wonders aloud whether they’ll end up together, as he’s always felt they would. Unfortunately, that’s not how things go. Betty recalls, on her own, that Archie makes it to California and doesn’t look back. He meets a girl, settles in Modesto as a construction worker and writer, and has a beautiful family. He lives a happy life. When he dies, he asks to be buried in Riverdale next to his father. Finally, the two share a kiss.
Where Did Betty and Jughead End Up in Their Respective Lives?
Before heading back to her time, Betty and Angel Jughead bring flowers to Pop Tate’s grave as they ponder what happens after you die. Then, Betty and Jughead recount his own life, including the magazine he started that was and is a wild success. As for Betty, her book was a bestseller. She began an advice column — Betty’s Diary. She freelanced and protested in New York before starting She Says Magazine, the go-to source for feminist and progressive causes, which continues to be published in 2023. Betty never married and doesn’t regret it. (Jughead, however, does regret it sometimes.) Betty happily adopted her daughter, Carla, and loved being a mother and grandmother, which, she remarks, is her true legacy.
The End of Life and ‘Riverdale’
As Betty drives through her hometown with her granddaughter Alice, she recounts how lovely it was to grow up there, remarking on all the places she spent her youth. When they arrive at an empty Pop’s that’s up for sale, Betty has passed away in the back seat. But, her story isn’t over. A younger version of Betty exits a vehicle at a bustling Pop’s and Betty has officially joined her friends. She happily embraces her loved ones before sliding into her booth with Archie, Veronica, and Jughead, sipping a milkshake. Outside, Angel Jughead — the narrator of this entire story, it seems — speaks directly to the audience once more, saying we’ll leave them here, forever 17 and juniors in high school. Always talking about school, homework, going to dances, or the big game. Where they’ve always been: In the diner, in the town, in the Sweet Hereafter.
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