The sixth season of the CW’s “Riverdale” got off to a rousing start.The show, narrated by Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse), introduced viewers to a parallel town to the titular one: Rivervale, where things were so dark that its residents participated in ritual sacrifice, resulting in the death of Archie Andrews (KJ Apa) when the entire town came together to offer him up. Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) committed the act, reaching into his chest and yanking out his heart, leaving it to pulse in her palm for a few seconds in front of an enraptured audience. But how did they end up here?
The “Twilight Zone”-style narration suggests that this could be a parallel universe. Archie waking up at the start of the episode and telling his girlfriend Betty (Lili Reinhart) that he had a dream about a town called “Riverdale” could be a foreshadowing that the plot here is some kind of “from the mind of” scenario.
Some may believe this is a storey Jughead is working on. Whatever brought these characters to this new location, the experiences they have during this five-episode mini-arc are intended to continue the plot from the end of Season 5, creator and showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa tells Variety.
“Because it’s very much in-continuity, we’re not picking up in [Episode] 606 as we would have before it.” In a strange way, it is continuing all of the episodes from the end of Season 5. “The idea was, ‘Let’s swing for the fences, let’s do something that fans have been requesting,'” says the author. Aguirre-Sacasa elaborates.”When is “Riverdale” going to go full-horror, full-supernatural?” fans were asking, he clarifies.
That’s always a big decision and a big swing, but it felt like, ‘Oh well, this might be the time.'” “I believe that if we had proposed that everyone in Riverdale band together to sacrifice Archie for their own personal gain, eyebrows would have been raised.” Even in Rivervale, eyebrows were raised, but we allowed ourselves to push the characters a little further and go a little more extreme. For example, in [Episode] 602, you’ll see a different side of Veronica and Reggie, as well as Tabitha and Jughead. “In Rivervale, everyone gets to be the darkest version of themselves, which is fun,” Aguirre-Sacasa says.
Aguirre-Sacasa goes on to say that Rivervale has “huge levels of danger,” noting that Archie is only the first casualty. According to Aguirre-Sacasa, the five-episode Rivervale arc will continue some of Season 5’s dangerous threads, such as the Trash Bag Killer and Abigail’s (also Petsch) curse. During this arc, witch Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) reprises her “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” role.
“The tone is more ‘Riverdale’ than ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,’ but it’s definitely more out there than we’ve been on ‘Riverdale,’ as difficult as that is to imagine,” says Aguirre-Sacasa of the episodes.Aguirre-Sacasa says they have embedded clues in both “dialogue and the background of the visual world” for the audience who wants to figure out exactly what is going on and why.
When Jughead got sentimental with Archie during the pancake-eating contest in the season premiere, it may have appeared to have a double meaning. However, Aguirre-Sacasa claims that this was because Jughead knew “he’s going to sacrifice Archie and asking for forgiveness before the sacrifice,” rather than because what was said was something an unconscious Archie in the Riverdale universe was leaking into Rivervale.”
Archie is not in a coma as a result of the bomb,” Aguirre-Sacasa confirms of Riverdale, referring to Hiram’s (Mark Consuelos) act of aggression against the hero at the end of Season 5.
But in Rivervale, Archie is truly dead, he continues.At least for the time being. Because this arc will carry over into later episodes of the season, when things will be back to normal in Riverdale, it’s difficult to imagine he’ll be dead for long. According to Aguirre-Sacasa, these episodes have opened the door for the writers to delve even deeper into the horror genre and “let the supernatural creep in a little bit more,” and Archie appears to be the most ripe with potential in that regard right now.
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