The first Golden Age of Television existed from roughly the late 1940s until 1960. It was characterized by live productions of plays and musicals, considerably more “high culture” than later perceptions of The Boob Tube.1
A generation of Riverdale viewers are probably more familiar with the second Golden Age of Television. This era is usually considered to have begun in 1999, when The Sopranos debuted on HBO. It was characterized by creator-driven dramas, often with dark protagonists, often airing on HBO. Some say we are still in this era, and others will say it died off in the latter 2010s with the advent of streaming and Endless Content.
Most people don’t consider anything that aired on on The CW to be part of this Golden Age, what with its trashy, soapy teen dramas. But most people aren’t me. As Rachel Alter put it in her lovely interview with the cast for Vulture:
The show ends August 23 as one of the last of its kind: the 22-episodes-a-season teen soap. (link here)
I’ve been thinking about this a lot due to a recent episode of The Bill Simmons podcast, where Bill talks with his daughter Zoe about Fox’s premiere 2000s teen soap, The O.C., which she started watching and got really into, despite being born after the show started. Zoe and Bill discuss the fact that the first three episodes of The O.C. are chaotic - so many things happen in those three episodes that would take an entire 13-episode season of television now. There’s something magical about the 22 episode teen drama, where you’ve got so much space to explore small little arcs and character relationships. The difference between something like The O.C. and Riverdale is that the latter was ostensibly structured around season-long mysteries. But Riverdale was both those things, so you get a season-long mystery, and you get great little character detours like Archie the vigilante, Kevin doing tickle porn, and Veronica and Cheryl starting a rum business.
When Riverdale ends, my personal Golden Age of Television will also end.
This recap is going be part “heartfelt reflection on what the show’s been, where it’s gone, and where we are now”…and part “just for fun pedantic rundown of the logic puzzles that Tabitha’s gift brings the gang”.
I’m not really gonna recap the whole plot. I’m going to get to what matters. Angel Tabitha returns to give Jughead his memories back. Why, you ask? Here’s my theory. Tabitha knew the whole time that their original universe was fucked from the comet, and any other multiverse she could have brought them to was fucked in a similar way. She knew that she had to send them back in time in a different universe so that they could prevent the forces of societal rot from getting Riverdale into the state it tends to get into.2 This episode has the Riverdale parents and students supporting a black school principal at an integrated high school - Mr. Weatherbee, at last! The River Vixens all either come out as queer or as supportive allies. Jughead publishes antiracist art (based on W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Comet), and Veronica and Clay plan to make a film version, censors be damned! The worst people in town have either been driven out (The Blossoms, Featherhead, Werthers) or are possibly redeemed by gay love (Frank and Tom, I don’t know how I feel about it). I think we can all assume that Angel Tabitha saw into the future, saw that the rotten little town of Riverdale is not so rotten anymore.
However, something something…she can’t take them back to the future. The in-universe explanation is that all the other multiverses needed to be folded into this one, and moving through it would only get them all unstuck again. I buy that. I like it when actions have consequences.
So, why give Jughead back his memories at all, if it means knowing he’s lived a whole other life he can never go back to? The simple answer is that this is for us - the fans. We needed our characters back. But also, Angel Tabitha knows she’s going to have to leave Jughead forever - there’s already a Tabitha in this universe, and it’s a Tabitha who’s not going to be with Jughead. She wanted a chance to say goodbye. I was never a die-hard Jughead and Tabitha shipper - though I rooted for them as the only two who got together as adults who didn’t know each other as kids - but gosh darnit this pulled at my heartstrings. Great acting from Cole and Erinn.
Besides the Jabitha of it all, I do think that while the memories are traumatic, it was necessary to at least offer them back - because Tabitha wiped everyone’s memories without their permission! And if they don’t want them back, turns out she can easily take it away again. But the gang decides on a slight compromise - they will remember only the good things. I was irked at first - you can’t have the good without the bad - but Jughead reveals to us that he and Betty separately decided to each keep all their old memories. This settled for me the age-old Riverdale question: Betty and Jughead are actually the main characters. “Our story is about a town,” we hear over and over, as our gang watches footage from the pilot of Riverdale3, but I think it’s also a story about Betty and Jughead. Not Bughead4. But Betty, and Jughead.
Watching my favorite teens watch scenes from my favorite CW show while Jughead locked them in a bunker, I felt seen - and I mean that non-ironically. I dream one day of showing all 7 seasons of Riverdale to friends new and old. And as Betty told Alice, no dream is silly!
And now, seven silly questions I have about the implications of the “Edited for Maximum Joy” Riverdale supercut that Tabitha puts together:
How does Julian feel about having a whole other sibling out there in the multiverse?
For that matter…can you even have good memories of Jason Blossom without the bad memories? If Cheryl’s only gonna remember the good things, is she just gonna un-remember Jason’s murder?
How does Reggie reconcile having two completely different sets of parents, two of whom no longer exist?
As my podcast cohost Kennedy brought up in our group chat, how does it work when there’s a good memory (Archie watching Veronica and the River Vixens dance to “Jailhouse Rock”) wrapped up inside a bad memory (Archie being in prison)?
Is Baby Anthony a happy memory for Toni and Fangs? How does that impact their current relationships?5
Is Jughead content with not having any relationship with FP (and Jellybean if she exists in this world), or will he go looking for them armed with his new memories?
Does anyone wonder what happened to the characters who didn’t come back, like Sweet Pea, Val and Melody, Moose?
Stray observations
I called Toni bringing in Weatherbee
I refuse to accept that Jughead had a direct line to W.E.B. DuBois’ literary representatives.
I’m so happy Mrs. Thornton got her job back
Loved seeing a Classic Cheryl Plot with a River Vixens dance-off
If Jughead is without FP, I hope Mr. Fieldstone is his replacement daddy.
The Tom and Frank bit….a good troll.
Alice has the right reaction to Betty’s book cover…it’s a bad cover!
Mädchen Amick acted her face off, which is more than Alice deserves, but I did really love her emotional beats this episode
I do wish that Archie and Reggie would explicitly date before this is all over, and travel the U.S. like in Route 66.
I did not remember that the song “Tell Me” was used in the pilot, but I love how they used it here—it’s so achingly David Lynch.
I noticed that there was no Hiram in the good times montage, lol. But of course we saw Fred <3
Jughead summing up six seasons of Riverdale: “The good, the bad, the bear.”
Plug for this week’s episode of DMV Comic Book Nerds:
Next week…we say goodbye, Riverdale. Please leave a comment telling me how you’re going to celebrate the series finale, or how you plan to cope going forward. Until next time…for the last time.
Time to bring up my favorite Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa quote: “I don’t distinguish between higher art and low art”.
I’m assuming there was no Percival Pickens in this universe, for a start.
I don’t think they are literally watching the pilot of the CW show Riverdale, by the way - I think Tabitha is basically showing them movies from their mind.
Don’t come for me…I was a Bughead shipper in the early days!
I think there’s a 99% chance that Fangs and Midge’s baby will be named Anthony. But where does that leave Toni?