Warning: spoilers ahead for Episode 19 of Riverdale Season 7, called "The Golden Age of Television."
An era is ending on The CW in the 2023 TV season with the upcoming series finale of Riverdale, and the penultimate episode set the stage for the end of the show's wild seven-season run. Season 7 has been set in the 1950s after the comet hurtled toward the Town With Pep at the end of Season 6, with none of the core characters remembering their 21st century lives for most episodes. There have been big questions throughout the season, and "The Golden Age of Television" finally provided some answers with just one episode left... but I'm still befuddled by how Riverdale is handling Betty and Archie.
How Riverdale Explained The '50s Timeline
"The Golden Age of Television" initially didn't feel all that different from the other Season 7 episodes that weren't really building to anything, but that changed when the real Tabitha showed up in her guardian angel role to finally restore Jughead's memories. She did this by setting him up to basically binge-watch Riverdale starting with the pilot – yes, really – and arranged for the rest of the characters to get their memories back as well.
For Archie, that meant that he relived the final years with his dad via the memories that had been erased by the jump into the '50s timeline. For Betty, that meant realizing that her family in the original timeline was hiding far darker secrets than Hal as Ethel's secret dad and Alice losing her shot to become a stewardess. There was no chance for them or any of the other characters to return to that original timeline, however.
Tabitha explained the situation, saying that she had to merge all the timelines of the multiverse together in order to save them after the comet, which meant that she could restore the characters' memories but could not return them to 2023. According to Tabitha, their social progress in the '50s is helping the healing process, so I guess there arguably was a point to what felt like standalone episode after standalone episode (including one final musical).
She gave the characters a choice: they could keep all their memories of the timeline they lost or go back to just knowing their '50s lives. Veronica had another idea: keep only the good memories and lose the bad. That was apparently possible, and Tabitha set them up for a screening of the highlights of their previous lives with clips of early Riverdale episodes. Ultimately, only Jughead and Betty decided to remember everything.
Why I'm Confused About Betty And Archie
It may seem strange for me to say that "The Golden Age of Television" left me puzzling over Betty and Archie when I myself didn't even note any important interactions between the two of them in the section above, but the lack of interactions is precisely the problem for me. Both Betty and Archie regained their full memories for at least part of the penultimate episode, and should therefore have remembered that one of the last things they did before the comet hit was get engaged.
In fact, as you may remember from the sixth season in 2022 or watching via Netflix subscription, they were in a very serious relationship, and each proposed to each other – with Betty getting the "yes" from a surprised and delighted Archie – in the Season 6 finale not too long after Archie's reveal that his heaven was a life with Betty and two kids.
The closest that Riverdale came to acknowledging the good ship Barchie in "The Golden Age of Television" came during the montage of characters watching the screening of their memories together, set to "Twilight Time" by The Platters. One of the blasts from the past was a clip of Betty and Archie sharing their kiss in the Season 4 musical that was an homage to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, when she was still dating Jughead and Archie was still dating Veronica.
On the one hand, I do get a laugh out of the fact that Riverdale decided to include Betty and Archie's cheating kiss as part of the montage of good memories, and I appreciated that the scene at least paused long enough to show both of them smiling at it. Plus, Betty and Archie kissing during that Season 4 episode was ultimately a huge game-changer for the series, as it led to the splits of both Betty/Jughead and Archie/Veronica ahead of the time jump. It made sense to include that kiss.
But why would their kiss from their senior year of high school be the only Betty/Archie moment included? Not only was their engagement arguably an emotional climax of Riverdale's last episode before the '50s, but their relationship was previewed as "endgame" going back to the first season. KJ Apa and Lili Reinhart are the two top-billed stars; why wouldn't the show at least spend some time on Betty and Archie's relationship beyond one teenage kiss before wiping half of his memories?
Why I Still Care About Betty And Archie
Even if Riverdale wasn't/isn't going to give Betty and Archie the heavily foreshadowed endgame, I would expect the show to at least let the two characters acknowledge that they had been engaged before Tabitha sent everybody back to the '50s. Even a meaningful glance actually at each other in "The Golden Age of Television" would have helped! I'm hoping that Barchie gets more material in the series finale, but I'm also not too optimistic at this point based on what we know.
The series finale, which airs on August 23, is called "Goodbye, Riverdale," and the episode description from The CW is wild enough that I anticipate it earning a spot among the show's craziest:
Back in present day and longing for her former life in Riverdale, 86-year-old Betty (Lili Reinhart) turns to a special friend to help her relive her last day of senior year with her friends as they were, their memories restored.
"Goodbye, Riverdale" was penned by showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and nothing about the description makes me particularly hopeful that the show will pick up where it left off for the characters in the Season 6 finale... or even as recently at Season 7's Halloween episode. So, why do I still care about Betty and Archie's fate as a duo in Riverdale?
Well, I honestly stopped bothering too much with the show's plot quite some time ago, which is why I got a good laugh out of Jughead mentioning the bear that mauled Archie as one of the moments from their pre-comet lives. Riverdale just isn't a show to watch if you're going to be a stickler for plot consistency. After all, who would have guessed back in the pilot that the series would someday include witches, superpowers, and a multiverse?
I've held on because I care far more about the characters than about the plot, and Riverdale spent a lot of time in developing Betty and Archie to the point of their engagement at the end of Season 6. So, I'm hoping for at least a slight nod to that relationship before the final credits roll on the series finale. The promo for the episode unfortunately doesn't give a whole lot away:
Look, I didn't say that it was a GOOD idea to still care about the relationship! Based on the promo, the length of Betty's ponytail makes me think that we're in for a time jump (or reality jump?) in the story, but other than that? Only the episode has all the answers. Tune in to The CW on Wednesday, August 23 at 9 p.m. ET for the series finale of Riverdale, following the series finale of Nancy Drew at 8 p.m. ET.
