In a Dale-spin: Thoughts on seasons 4-6 of Riverdale...with SPOILERS

Since I already shared my overall thoughts on why I love Riverdale (a.k.a. The Dale), I'm going to jump right in with sharing my thoughts on seasons 4-6. Yes, there will be lots of spoilers, so if you haven't seen these seasons yet, it's not too late to back out of reading this post....

Courtesy of Newsweek

There is sooooo much to process from these past three seasons. First of all, I forgot to mention in my previous post that the youth prison where Archie goes in season three is so much like Shawshank Redemption that I don't get why they didn't name that prison Shankshaw instead of the one in town. The warden's last name is Norton too. 

Anyway, season four is where Jughead goes to that fancy school so he can write a book. However, he comes up against Bret and Donna, who are both terrible. First of all, Bret only has one T in his name. That annoys me. And Donna is just a total b*tch. The headmaster guy was awful too. Jughead should have just left the moment he sensed something weird going on. Also, being stuck in that coffin overnight was just too horrifying. Then again, things weren't much better at Riverdale High with Principal Honey, a.k.a. Jack from Dawson's Creek. He was such a jerk the entire time. And it seemed like he was gaslighting everyone too. I really loved the Hedwig episode though. Kevin was so great in that costume! I like the music from Hedwig and the Angry Inch and I had just rewatched the movie recently, so it was fresh in my head. Also, Jughead has a great singing voice, so that adds to it. 

Courtesy of Wikipedia

The whole situation where Betty was tricked to think she killed Jughead but then she finds out what really happened and plays along to mess with Bret and Donna...that was just such a fun plot twist. I loved seeing Jughead alive again and knowing he masterminded everything to take those two entitled jerks down. However, I did NOT like that she and Archie kissed for real in the Hedwig episode. I was okay with it when it was a ruse to mislead everyone but not when it was the thing that would drive wedges between Varchie and Bughead. 

The Farm situation also bled into season four. No one will be able to forget Edgar Evernever's rocket...

Finally in season four, we say goodbye to Fred Andrews. That was at the beginning of the season, due to Luke Perry's death from a stroke. It was definitely a sad episode, even with Shannen Doherty making an appearance. I may have cried a couple of times.

Courtesy of USA Today

Onto season five! It picked up where they left off from season four and celebrated the end of school. However, there was something nefarious going on with weird videos that people were sharing with everyone in town. That also started in season four. We found out that Jellybean was behind the videos because she wanted to give Jughead something to do so that he wouldn't go to college. After she confessed, she and F.P. left town. That didn't work so well for F.P. and Alice rekindling their relationship though. Charles also confessed to some murders, from what I remember, and he went to prison. Betty finally told Jughead about kissing Archie and that was pretty much the downfall of Bughead. :( Archie went off to join the army. Cheryl and Toni broke up because of some family conflict. That was sad too.

Suddenly, it's seven years later and we see the Riverdale gang leading different lives. Betty is in the FBI and trying to catch the Trash Bag Killer, who kidnapped her for two weeks. Jughead is a struggling writer who owes a lot of money and is always drunk. Archie is back in Riverdale after an injury that forces him out of the army. Veronica is married to some rich guy and running a secret jewelry store. Cheryl is a recluse and Toni is a social worker. Riverdale is falling apart though, thanks to Hiram, of course. He wants to run the town into the ground, but thankfully Archie is back to stop that from happening. Polly gets herself into some situation where she ends up being killed. Oh, and there are aliens or something like that. They're called Mothmen and I think they're responsible for Polly's death. Some supernatural things happen too. There's a new girl working at Pop's....his granddaughter Tabitha. Of course, she's a romantic interest for Jughead. And why not? She's pretty and she can sing. (The actress, Erinn Westbrook, was on Glee even though I don't remember her at all from that show.)

Courtesy of TV Fanatic

They did a Next to Normal episode, which was pretty good overall. It was kind of surreal with Alice seeing dead people (namely Polly, since Charles is only in prison). I haven't seen Next to Normal, but this episode does fit well with the premise of that musical, based on what I've heard.

There's also the Dickinsons, which is a terrible family whom you don't want to cross. Darla is so evil and terrifying. Thankfully, Archie figured out a way to take them down. 

Speaking of taking down villains, everyone finally ganged up on Hiram and blackmailed him into getting out of town for good. However, Hiram left one last surprise in Archie's room, which leads us to the most bizarre season of all so far...season six.

I don't even know how to explain season six. It starts out as Rivervale. Some really strange stuff happens in Rivervale and people are being killed left and right, starting with Archie. However, Jughead finds some connection between Rivervale and Riverdale and opens some portal that allows multiple versions of him to show up. The best was when the first Reggie showed up to face off with the current Reggie. I'm all used to Charles Melton as Reggie, so it's weird to even remember that he wasn't the original in that role. Anyway, we're suddenly back in Riverdale after that and the surprise in Archie's room, which is a bomb, just went off. Thankfully, Betty received a call before it happened and was able to get them both out of Archie's room. (I forgot to mention that Betty and Archie are currently together. They were together after the seven year leap, but then Archie got back with Veronica and when that fell through, he went to Betty again. Consolation prize, anyone?)

Archie is now invulnerable and can't be hurt. Betty sees auras around dangerous people. And Jughead can read minds. Cheryl has lots of magical powers, like being able to throw fire from her body, also known as pyrokinesis. In the meantime, this British guy named Percival Pickens shows up out of nowhere and starts using his mind control powers to take over the town. Archie, Betty, Jughead, Tabitha, Toni, and Fangs can see through his trickery though. However, that doesn't stop him from being a completely horrible menace. He's even worse than Hiram and it actually makes me wish Hiram would come back. Oh wait, he can't because Veronica hired a hitman to kill him. Meanwhile, Zig from Degrassi shows up, but his name is Heraldo on this show. 

Anyway, back to Percival Pickens. There are very few people who make it to my ultimate hatred list, and he is one of them. Yes, he's a fictional character, but that's just how truly despicable he is. I HATE HIM SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything that Archie and the gang try to do to take him down, he finds a way to one-up them. He even finds out about Archie's palladium weakness and uses it against him. Not surprising though. Percival is pretty much invincible. He does so much to mess with everyone's head and trick them into doing his bidding. And when he doesn't get his way, he casts all these spells. (If you ever wanted to know about the plagues in Egypt that are part of the Passover story, look no further than Percival and his band of evil emissaries...) He looks like Christian Bale and that has basically ruined Christian Bale for me. Ironically, they do an episode with songs from the American Psycho musical and Christian was originally in that movie. Hmmm.... 

Courtesy of Personality Database

I mean, look at him! Don't you just want to smack him?!? UGGGGGH!

Speaking of musicals, I wish they had done Spring Awakening. It is such a good one for them to perform on Riverdale. The only connection is that Duncan Sheik also did the music for American Psycho. However, Riverdale hasn't moved me to listen to the cast recording all the time like I do with Carrie. I liked the performance of "You Are What You Wear" and the song Betty performed because she sounded amazing. By the way, why did Veronica invite Drake to the bachelorette party if she was annoyed at her for hitting on Betty?

I love how Rivervale comes back into play and how it helps everyone get rid of Percival. It was genius how Jughead tricked him, especially after how he messed with Jughead's mind. I was furious when he did that!!! Not that I wasn't furious about anything else, but this was the last straw. I was glad when Kevin and Reggie finally saw through Percival's BS.

I also love Cheryl's witchy storyline this season and how she reunites with her girlfriend from middle school. Heather was really cool and reminded me of Lisa Loeb. I love how she helped Cheryl enhance her skills, like with becoming invisible. She also softened Cheryl's personality a lot. 

I'm glad Betty was able to kill TBK. I think he was some guy who maneuvered his way onto Archie's construction crew and tried to kill Archie, but they don't show his face again even after Betty kills him.

How is the mortician also the town doctor? Dr. Curdle gives me the creeps too.

Am I the only one who gets annoyed at Toni and Fangs calling their son "Baby Anthony"? We know he's a baby. BTW, he looks really good as an adult and I love his curls. I also love that he's gay in the sweet hereafter.

I love the meta use of comic books this season, especially when Jughead was in someone's mind and using them to access their memories. 

Anyway, even with Percival gone, there was one last issue to contend with, as he put a spell on the town with the comet and the lockdown. I love how Cheryl and Veronica worked together to solve that problem though. However, it took Riverdale into a completely new direction....back to the 1950s. And Jughead is the only one who knows differently. It will be interesting to see what happens in season seven, now that there's a blank slate for all the characters. Will Hiram be returning even though Fred clearly can't? How will the time warp get reversed? There's so much to process and we might have to wait until early 2023 to find out. I just hope Bughead gets back together!

Courtesy of TV Fanatic. I couldn't share
this post without at least one Jughead pic!

I know I shared a lot of random Riverdale thoughts today, but so much has happened in these past three seasons and it's a lot of work to try to remember everything. I'm always glad to discuss Riverdale though!

What do you think of the past three seasons?

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