By Sophia Ahmadi, Courier Staff Writer
DISCLAIMER: This article contains spoilers revolving the finale episode and overall plot of the show.
After thirteen episodes, one of The CW’s newest shows, Riverdale, has officially finished it’s first season.
Riverdale is a mystery/drama television show that is based on the Archie Comics and and features the characters Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper, and Veronica Lodge. The story begins on the first day of Archie and his friends’ sophomore year, right after a very eventful and tragic summer in the city of Riverdale. Narrated by Jughead, who is played by Cole Sprouse, the viewers learn what happened over the summer that has the entire town in a time of mourning.
On the Fourth of July, Jason Blossom, quarterback of Riverdale High’s football team was pronounced dead, after a mysterious boat ride with his sister, Cheryl. Nobody was there to witness his death, but Cheryl claimed that he fell into the water and drowned. After further investigation, it came to conclusion that there was the sound of a gunshot near the river around the same time. Also, Jason’s body was never found, which lead people to believe that Cheryl was lying about what happened. The story of the series progresses as Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead try to unveil the truth about Jason’s death.
In episode twelve, the episode before the finale, the group uncovers many secrets. The first, being the fact that somewhere along their family tree, the Blossoms and Coopers were related, and siblings nonetheless. This explains the feud between the two families and uncovers the reasoning behind the anger about Polly and Jason’s babies, which are technically a result of incest. Another thing we discover is the thing that we’ve been waiting for all season. Who killed Jason Blossom? After finding a flashdrive hidden within the seams of Jason’s letterman jacket, Betty, Archie, Veronica, Jughead, and Kevin, the son of the police chief, are finally onto something. They sit down, plug the flashdrive into a laptop, and click on the video file. No one would have guessed what they saw. It was Jason tied up to a chair and his own father pacing in anger. At the end of the video, we hear the sound of a gunshot and see the reactions of the kids watching the video. Each one of them are terrified and in tears as they realize that Mr. Blossom was the murderer of his own child. They tell the police and follow them to the Blossom’s house, but it’s too late. They open the shed to see Clifford Blossom hanging from ropes, an result of his suicide.
Now, let’s talk about the finale. Viewers went into the episode with many questions. Why did Clifford kill his own son? What was he hiding? Was his wife, Penelope, working with him or completely unaware of it? These questions are answered, along with new questions being raised. We learn that Clifford Blossom was, in fact hiding something. His maple syrup franchise was actually an underground heroine business. Jason had somehow found out about this and this threatened Clifford deeply, even to a point where he wanted to kill him. Throughout the finale, we see how Cheryl and Penelope cope with theh new information. Penelope tries to move on casually with life while Cheryl feels there is no way out of the pain, except to join her father and brother in death. She quits the River Vixens and gives Jughead her loved spider brooch. Then she heads to Sweetwater River, where she tries to drown herself in the freezing water. However, she is pulled out of the water and saved by Archie. Later on, Archie meets with is father at Pop’s for a burger. While Archie is in the restroom, he hears the sounds of a robbery happening within the restaurant and he slowly walks out to see what was happening. The robber then brings his attention to Fred Andrews, and even though Archie jumps in front of him, Fred has gotten shot. The episode ends with Archie on the floor of Pop’s, while his father is on the lap, bleeding from the wound. Did Fred Andrews die? Who was the robber? Will the Blossoms be okay? These questions, along with many more will haunt me until the premiere of season two. I encourage everyone to give this show a watch because once you start, you won’t be able to stop!
