There’s technically two plots but they’re related. Structurally however, it’s entirely focused on Betty, leading to a single A-plot. Each of the characters talk about, or struggle with, their plans for after graduation, recount for us a few of the developments that senior year brought, and display the culmination of their work during that year. There’s a palpable sense of finality in the air that becomes harder and harder to escape, initially papered over by the joy of shared bonds and the promises of the future. Bittersweet, still kinda kooky, and infused with meaning. The events of Graduation Day are exactly as you would expect. It’s a shockingly straightforward episode and yet densely packed. Everything I have to say could fit into one or two very long thoughts, or 20 micro thoughts. I know I’m going to struggle with the rest of this review. It’s less beholden to the trappings and structures of a typical episode and doesn’t have to be as concerned with placing us alongside these characters. There’s not a lot of attention brought to it but I thought it was fun.īy doing all this, “Goodbye, Riverdale” is changed from being just another Riverdale episode to something special. You can feel it in every word, every mannerism. In this case, that someone else is the older version of Betty trying to be the younger version. This gave Lili Reinhart the opportunity to do my favorite thing actors can do: pretending to be someone else. We’re finally given the final chapter of the book, full of closure and reflection. We not only say goodbye to the characters as we knew them here, just as we said goodbye to the characters as we knew them pre-comet last time, we hear the arc of their lives. Instead of purely revisiting “Graduation” and reworking it into the season finale it was always meant to be, “Goodbye, Riverdale” uses the supernatural elements of season 6 to craft a framework by which Riverdale can have its cake and eat it too. I’m really fighting hard not to dive straight into my observations about Betty’s reactions as she agrees and inhabits her former self’s now-mumps-less body. His presence is a soothing throughline, creating a true sense of completion. The best thing to come out of Rivervale, he’s here to escort Betty (and us) through one final day long-past. You all don’t know how happy I was to see Narrator Jughead sitting in that chair in Betty’s room. Things have to be at least a little funky. One would expect us to take a visit through the town as it is now and use that as a springboard for exploring the past but no. Just that Betty is the final survivor of the Riverdalians sent back in time, now elderly and reminiscing about the town she left long ago. We don’t know any of that at the beginning, of course. Love me some good ‘burns.įacial hair aside, beyond a few glimpses into their futures in the 60s-70s, that’s our lot. I mean, we kind of did but Jughead with sideburns doesn’t really count. I was fully convinced we’d end up getting at least versions of Archie, Veronica & Jughead. I was shocked we only got one glimpse at an older version of the characters. Plus, it’s always weird when they just gray-up someone’s hair and then say “OK. It may have been a nice nod to Riverdale’s use of the younger generation playing the older generation in flashbacks but by giving us wholly new faces, it sells the passage of time and further reinforces the season’s themes. I’m very happy they chose to not have Mädchen Amick nor Lili Reinhart play Old Woman Betty or her granddaughter. The Years Start Coming and They Don’t Stop Coming Now it’s time to say goodbye in the most Riverdale of ways possible: with a good ol’ fashioned riff on It’s a Wonderful Life.ġ. Riverdale has been with me, week after week, year after year, for nearly seven glorious, sometimes frustrating, years. To be fair, I have been reviewing the show for the majority of its run, beginning with my three-part, season 2 fill-in coverage for our previous reviewer Ken Godberson III before taking over in full on Chapter 26, “The Tell-Tale Heart.” I will not comment on whether that is a confession as to where Ken went. In fact, I think this finale may be the only episode I did not watch before the next episode aired and because it’s the finale, not even that’s true. I rarely went a full week without watching the latest episode. Sexy Archie, as it became known, quickly became appointment TV. I was enthralled with the ongoing adventures of these kooky teens and the mystery of who killed Jason Blossom. Strange, mysterious, dark, and so unlike its progenitor’s “wholesome, inoffensive” aesthetic and tone, I couldn’t turn away. I was a junior in college when the first episode of Riverdale released.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |