As unbelievable as it may seem now, Riverdale was once considered Good Television. Shocking, I know.

Now perhaps it wasn’t considered ‘prestige’ TV, but among its peers in the teen drama category, in the early days Riverdale was proclaimed to be clever, captivating, and heartfelt, with fun stylistic dialogue. One reviewer even went so far as to call it “the it-show of this century [with] all the ingredients for TV greatness”.

So what happened? To put it simply, Riverdale committed one of the great television crimes and Got Weird.

This article began as an exploration of various shows that Got Weird throughout their run (keep an eye out because I'm not done with that concept yet), but as I started writing, I couldn’t stop thinking about the first and most obvious candidate: Riverdale. You see, unlike the vast majority of people who began watching Riverdale in 2017, I watched the show to the end. And more importantly, I genuinely enjoyed the show all the way until its last episode just over a year ago.

So today I’m here to fight the vitriolic disdain that comes up anytime I even mention this show, by sharing some of my favourite insane plot points with you and encouraging you to embrace the chaos!

Betty (Lili Reinhart), Archie (KJ Apa), and Veronica (Camila Mendes) | The CW

Season 3 is most often cited as the place where Riverdale Got Weird because of the myriad of absolutely bonkers plotlines. But those same plots are what makes season 3 one of my favourite seasons of the whole show.

To start with the more grounded of the main three plots, the season begins with Archie being framed for murder and sent to juvie, where he is then forced into boxing in a literal underground fight club attended by the upper echelon. Who are these people? Why do they want to watch teenage boys fight each other to near-death? We never find out!! All we know is that there’s lots of sweat and bloody mouth guards.

Meanwhile, back in town, Betty and Jughead are dealing with cults (yes, multiple), while Veronica deals with… her dad? Or something? I never really cared about her until the last few seasons to be frank with you. But back to the cults!!

Jughead’s cult takes the form of an evil Dungeons and Dragons rip-off called Gryphons and Gargoyles that encourages people to commit suicide via a mix of blue Kool Aid and cyanide. Highlights of this storyline include the Breakfast Club homage episode “The Midnight Club” where all of the main actors portray their parents in the 90s, the Gargoyle King costume which is just *chefs kiss*, and the revelation that the game began as a way for the nuns who run the town's mental asylum to keep the patients under control.

On the other hand, Betty’s cult seems more modern in nature, with new members being made to spill their and their family’s darkest secrets as collateral. They live in a big compound together (the now-abandoned Sisters of Quiet Mercy nunnery after the mass suicide of all the aforementioned nuns), and use hypnosis to make members believe they’re talking to dead relatives. The big twist at the end of the season is that despite seeming like a hippy dippy spiritualism-based cult, the whole thing is actually a front for an organ harvesting farm!! Kevin gets a kidney stolen and Betty nearly gets lobotomised!!

Where many people have at least some level of familiarity with season 3, the viewership and cultural awareness of Riverdale had died down by the time season 6 rolled around. As such, the only way most people have heard of season 6’s plot, if at all, is via passing incredulous remark: “Hey, didn’t Riverdale get so weird they gave everyone superpowers?” To that I say, hell yeah they did! And it was glorious.

Season 6 began with a five-episode special event all culminating in the show’s 100th episode. Rather than taking place in the town of Riverdale, this event takes place in Rivervale, an alternate dimension where the supernatural runs rampant. Each episode deals with a different supernatural phenomena, including the last episode where Jughead becomes aware of the multiple dimensions and has to stop them colliding or they would both be destroyed.

Some particular favourite moments of mine from that last episode is when the two Reggies meet (the character had been originally played by Ross Butler in season 1 before Charles Melton took over from season 2 onward), and when Jason Blossom says his first ever words of the series. He was the catalyst/victim of the first season and, though he had appeared alive in the first episode and a handful of flashbacks, never said a word, something that had even been joked about in the dialogue of the show.

Jason (Trevor Stines) says his first line | The CW

Once we return to the main timeline, picking up where season 5 left us, it very quickly becomes clear that the Rivervale event did not pass without consequence. By the end of the first episode back, it is revealed that Betty and Archie now have superpowers! Betty can see red auras around people with evil intent, and Archie has super strength and invulnerability (not a very even distribution of powers but c'est la vie).

Over the course of the season, most of the core cast is revealed to have gained superpowers due to Rivervale’s magic seeping through to Riverdale. Jughead can read minds, Veronica creates poison with heightened emotions, Cheryl can create and control fire, and Tabitha can time travel and… is an angel? Like, an actual heavenly angel?? Oh, and don’t forget Archie’s dog Bingo who has super healing powers.

The season culminates in the gang using their powers, interdimensional travel, and Sabrina the teenage witch to defeat evil, racist wizard Percival Pickens. Except, he still gets the last laugh. In the midst of his defeat, he is able to redirect Bailey’s Comet to crush the town and all its citizens (no, I don't know why they changed it from Hailey’s to Bailey's. Surely there wouldn’t have been any legal disputes??).

The townsfolk are only saved by Tabitha’s angel powers as she transports the entire town to a ‘safe haven’. The season’s final scene shows Archie heading out the door to his first day of senior year in NINETEEN FIFTY FIVE!! Gag of the century!!!

Jughead (Cole Sprouse), Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch), Archie, and Julien (Nicholas Barasch) | The CW

Before we wrap this up, here is a rapid fire list of plots I haven't covered: Polly has twins with her cousin who she names Juniper and Dagwood; a man named Chic pretends to be Betty’s long lost brother Charles, and then later when the real Charles is introduced the two get married after breaking out of prison; Archie nearly gets mauled to death by a bear in the Canadian forest; almost everyone is some flavour of queer by the end of the show and the core four end up in a polycule in the series finale; once each season there is a musical episode and I love them so so much: for the final season it was all original songs.

To conclude these insane ramblings, please give Riverdale a chance! As much as you’ve heard that it Got Weird, that is what makes it so enjoyable. Who needs another bland teen drama when you could have musicals and cults and interdimensional wizards?? Just embrace the chaos!!

Riverdale Deserved Your Love: Convincing You to Embrace the Chaos

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