the town: american hauntings - part 2
re-viewing the magic of riverdale season 6
Last week, I wrote about the plot of Riverdale’s spooky, supernatural, surprisingly pro-union sixth season. I’ve also written previously about the first five seasons of the show and the five episode first arc of this season, which can all be found in my archive. Here, I’m talking about my favourite episodes, characters, and moments of the show, reflecting on some of the interesting and strange themes that this season seems to grapple with, and looking ahead to the final season of Riverdale.
Reflections on the season:
Riverdale season 6 is all about duality- Good and evil, life and death. Creation and destruction. Proletariat and bourgeoisie. Riverdale and Rivervale. Epic highs and lows.
I really enjoy the way that the supernatural battle of good and evil that plays out across this season is so directly tied to the earthly battles occurring in Riverdale over issues like labour and class inequality. I kind of love the superhero logic of this season that fighting against injustice is paralleled to fighting against bad guys and monsters. The idea that evil is personified in the fiction of this story through unsafe and underpaid labour, or the failure to protect vulnerable communities in a small town creates a really strong core for the ideas of good and evil across the season, and what our heroes(and villains) stand for within the twisted narratives of Riverdale, and beyond.
Yet, often, these themes are overly flattened, and they have a tendency to obscure the real forces that produce social injustice. The complex capitalist machine fueling the anti-union efforts is ignored in favour of Percival just being a Bad Guy. The racism in Riverdale’s history is detached from structural injustice and instead gets tied to the magical forces of evil penetrating the town. I found this point specifically really troubling when we see a 1990s version of Tabitha sit down with a teenager who was caught spray painting a neo-nazi dog whistle on the diner. Instead of representing the real ways that structures of bigotry create these outcomes, or the radicalization of young people into extremist viewpoints, this is all resolved by the reveal that, as usual, Percival and his mind control powers are the explanation for an act of racist vandalism.
I certainly don’t think that Riverdale is genuinely trying to convince its audience that the answer to all of America’s problems is a creepy immortal dude running an antique shop. I think that the show has good intentions in depicting real issues and having its character fight injustice and inequality on screen, and I think that at times, it is pretty successful, such as in Archie’s union activist storyline, but it often tries to make its points and include these themes in such artificial and convoluted ways that it does not succeed at saying anything.
One other thing that bothers me about this season and especially its efforts at depicting serious issues is the way that it tries to incorporate real figures in a way that it does not often do directly, and particularly the invocation of Martin Luther King and his real life assassination as a plot point. This is a show where the Wall Street Journal is called the Wall Beat Journal. This is a show where characters shop at Lacy’s department store with American Excess cards. This is a show where witches were being burned in the 1890s. This is a show where the United States is actively at war in the 2020s. This should not be a show that genuinely tries to get emotional depth from the real life death of a real life civil rights leader. While lots of real world people have been named or talked about on Riverdale before, (often this is true of authors or filmmakers who influenced the programme) in more specific cases like this one, it is incredibly jarring and feels inauthentic and kind of exploitative to invoke real life tragedy to prop up the writing of this story, and once again it flattens the complexity and nuance of American history into this angels-and-demons dichotomy, where injustice is wrought by Bad People and justice is sought by Heroes. This is a tale as old as time, but in many points in this season where the show tries to somehow blend a nuanced take on social justice with this sort of magical dualism, it fails to do so effectively, and the result is confusing and uneven at best.
Yet, even with these many thematic shortcomings, I would argue that there is a lot of interesting work being done in this season to think about Riverdale as a microcosm of the Americana and American history with which it is so interested. The forces of evil emerging in this season are so rooted in themes of historical injustice and social inequality, touching on racism and disenfranchisement, police violence, class issues, anti-communism, homophobia, religious purity culture, sexism, etc., all of which are depicted as forces of wrongdoing in the collective history that continue to haunt the world today, where the Riverdale of the present is threatened by contemporary social issues alongside the legacies of its past, resulting in a doomed town, marked by haunted spaces and cursed inhabitants. Further, the folklore, comic books, and other storytelling devices incorporated into the narrative of the season speak to these themes of injustice and the return of the past, and even the Biblically tinged, apocalyptic final arc seems to speak to the way far right religious ideologies and doomsday conspiracy theories play such a sinister part in these sociopolitical discourses, revealing the ways in which Riverdale is possessed by the stories we tell about the past, terrorised by the horrors of its own history, facing the ultimate battle for its own soul as just another cycle of narratives, violence, eschatology and creation.
The story of Riverdale season 6 is that of the great American haunting.
Favourite episodes:
1. The Jughead Paradox
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: this episode is unbelievable. It’s incredible. It’s iconic. It is everything that makes Riverdale great.
I wrote about this episode and how it fits into the Rivervale arc of this season in another Riverdale newsletter, but I wanted to add a few extra notes:
The two Reggies(the original, played by Ross Butler, from season 1, and the second Reggie played by Charles Melton) do not get along and compete with eachother, but Veronica thinks that she can resolve their issues by flirting with both of them and trying to have a threesome ???
When Writer Jughead and Narrator Jughead enact their plan to save Rivervale, the Narrator warns his counterpart that he will be eternally alone writing the story. But later, when we see Jughead writing in the Bunker, he’s there with Ethel Muggs?1 This is never explained or elaborated on.
The whole plot point of Veronica and Jughead working together to save Riverdale is great. Out of the core four, they are the duo we see the least of, so of course it takes an alternate universe to bring them together.
Jughead(the writer) on why Riverdale is worth saving:
“It does exist… it’s a universe of high school dances and masked serial killers, of football and milkshakes and musicals and cults, diabolical board games and murderous nuns.”
2. Ex Libris
I’m highlighting this one because I find the premise so memorable. In “Ex Libris”, Percival Pickens plans to shut down Riverdale’s library, and takes on a mission to recover all unreturned library books before he does so. He visits Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Cheryl, Kevin, and Reggie, all of whom have lost library books, and demands that they give him the book or an item as collateral, allowing him to gain access to prized possessions, and through a sort of magical realism each character finds themself deeply affected by these losses.
Archie’s lost book was a songwriting book, and Percival takes his guitar as collateral, bringing back painful memories of Archie’s experience with Ms. Grundy, finally forcing him to confront their relationship and the long term impact of his trauma. Betty has a childhood diary confiscated, causing her to uncover deeply buried memories of her father, who wanted to train her to become a vigilante justice inspired killer like him. Reggie, we learn, is dyslexic, and his library book helped him learn how to read as a child; when Percival takes the book back, Reggie loses the ability to read. Each character must battle something from their past, brought to life by the books and objects of their youths, totems of the past which continue to hold power in the material world of the present.
3. Biblical
Incredible, densely packed, thrilling episode. There are two full musical numbers. There’s a wedding. Percival Pickens starts acting like a quirky tumblr villain. We watch our main character die for the THIRD time this season. If someone literally jumped over a shark in this episode it would only make me love it more.
4. Night of the Comet
This is the season six finale episode, and it is nonstop - the plot is completely ridiculous and unbelievable, the most over the top of all over the top episodes - it’s got drama, laughs, songs, magic, and the salvation of the soul of Riverdale!!!
And, of course, the incredible final narration and twist:
“So what happened next? Did Cheryl, with our combined strengths, melt the comet? Did Veronica’s last minute plan to augment Cheryl’s phoenix powers save our loved ones’ lives? The answer is yes.
But, I suspect that the milkshake-like combination of all our gifts, arcane magic, time travelling, opening portals into other dimensions, did something wholly unexpected, and yet also utterly inevitable.
Riverdale and its citizens survived the ultimate battle between good and evil. And it was still our Riverdale.
But somehow, we were in a different time. Maybe, to survive, we had to go back to a simpler time. Before Jason Blossom’s murder, before the Black Hood, back to a truly innocent time.
Somehow, the year is 1955.
And somehow, Archie Andrews and all his friends, me included, are teenagers again. And I’m the only one who remembers what our lives were like B.C. Before the comet.”
Most valuable players:
Once again giving this to Tabitha! I just think she’s a great character, and I love how much she gets to do this season. I love seeing her become Riverdale’s guardian angel, and I think Erinn Westbrooke gives really genuine and compelling performances throughout the season.
My other MVP for this season is Drake. She is cool, knowledgeable, and very capable. She does so much of the heavy lifting for the other characters in their super hero arcs, providing answers and exposition for everyone’s powers, and she helps to move the narrative forward a lot in spite of the fact that she doesn’t get to do much on her own. Also, it’s kind of funny that she tries to break up Betty and Archie multiple times.
Unions.
Least Valuable Players:
This is by far Kevin’s worst season. Worse than when he joined a dangerous new religious movement and almost got his best friend Betty lobotomised. Worse than his terrible direction of Heathers the Musical. Worse than when he broke up with Fangs(again!) because he did not want to stop hooking up with truckers in order to start a family. First of all, he becomes a cop this season.2 His worst plotline for me this season is when he tries to sue Fangs and Toni for custody of Baby Anthony, steals the baby’s DNA for paternity testing, and tries to smear his former co-parents. It’s gross and even when other characters like Moose are telling him how poorly he is behaving, he just keeps making terrible choices. But, for some reason, Betty and Veronica still decide to have him be their star performer in American Psycho at their serial killer convention. Later, Kevin, Fangs, and Toni reconcile and he even performs at their wedding, which is cute, but this is only the most recent season where Kevin does some kind of terrible stuff and betrays his friends but then they bring him back into the circle and he sings a song, which is just a very weird pattern!
Heather. I don’t actually have anything against Heather, and if the writers had made any effort, I think she could have been a really cool character as a librarian witch. But instead I just find her annoying, and I hate the way they style the character. I don’t know if it's the glasses or what, but in their attempt to do a weird sexy librarian thing, she has a little bit of a Ms. Grundy vibe? She’s another character in a long line of Riverdale women who gets the same boring, super feminine, mini skirts and sweaters, preppy millennial wardrobe, and I find this especially annoying when they specifically do this to all of the lesbian and queer female characters. Do they know that women can and do dress in other ways? Will a woman on Riverdale ever be allowed to have short hair? Did any lesbians work on this show?
sorry to this woman(Heather) Also, I can’t believe that they finally have a character named Heather and for once Cheryl isn’t making Heathers references. Does this count as character growth?
It’s very frustrating to watch Veronica go through the same little character arcs that she’s gone through over and over again the past four seasons, and I wish that the writers would come up with a single plot line for her that does not revolve around her relationships with men, whether that be Archie, her father, Reggie, etc. They are always put at the centre of her stories, and it becomes very frustrating and, frankly, uninteresting.
Iconic Moments in Riverdale History:
Archie’s dog, Bingo, survives the explosion and develops super healing powers!
Veronica saying that the serial killer convention will include the “Holy Grail of serial killer musicals” and Charles is so excited and says “Sweeney Todd???”3 and then she reveals that it is actually American Psycho and he looks so sad about it
For this season’s second Sondheim reference: Veronica’s performance of “The Ladies Who Lunch” from Company4 at Toni and Fangs’ party.
Everybody rise!!! Veronica to Sabrina: “Sure yeah. Kill me temporarily so I can visit my ex boyfriend in heaven.”
Breaking mind control through the power of union songs
Jughead explains the stakes for his eschatological game of dominoes against Percival: “Winner takes the soul of Riverdale - loser gets lobotomised.”
Veronica tells Cheryl that she can transfer magic power to her via a kiss, and Cheryl accuses her of ‘queerbaiting’, leading to one of the best Riverdale lines of all time - “It’s not queerbaiting, it’s saving the world.”
Foreshadowing
This season’s vision of Riverdale’s past and the 1950s returns in a major way.
In “Angels in America” Tabitha is sent back in time and encounters the familiar face of Jughead in a booth at Pop’s, who tells her “I’m not Jughead. I’m an angel. I’m your guardian angel.” a scene which is (Arguably. But I am willing to argue.) foreshadowing for their relationship in future, and will be paralleled in season 7.
The show’s weird disinterest in many of its characters in season six leads to a lot of them disappearing from the final season.
We’ll get into this more, but a lot of ‘ship’ moments from this season seem to act as foreshadowing for the next season and the series finale in particular - ‘Vughead’ finally becoming ‘canon’ and all of the Jughead and Veronica team ups this season; Betty’s suggestion for Veronica to kiss Archie while he is dating Betty, Betty and Archie inviting Veronica to be their date to the wedding, Archie’s almost proposal to Betty at the end of the season - even though prior to the series finale, none of this really stuck out or made sense.
Finally, the lack of real foreshadowing that this season sets up for season 7 is, unfortunately, in itself foreshadowing.
Season Rankings(so far…)
Season three
Season six
Season four
Season one
Season five
Season two
One season remains.
Ethelhead is real!!
This is something that the show clearly wants us to be aware of as a negative with him, because in all of the other periods of time where we see Riverdale or Rivervale historically, actor Casey Cott plays villainous law enforcement characters, from an anti communist sheriff to a racist FBI agent.
I’ve thought so many times about how badly I wish one of Riverdale’s musical episodes was a Sondheim show, and Sweeney Todd is definitely high on the list of shows they could do. It’s a bit obvious and on the nose, sure, but I don’t care! I want to see it! Do you think Sweeney Todd had the serial killer genes???
Actually, even more than Sweeney Todd, if Riverdale were to have done a Sondheim episode I would love for it to be Company! I think that the themes of the show could actually map very well onto the post-high school timeline of Riverdale as all these old friends deal with their adult lives and relationships, loneliness and disconnection, struggling to find and follow the expected path in life, etc. The show already has featured two songs from the musical - “The Ladies Who Lunch” this season, and “Another Hundred People” back in season 3, but I just would have loved to see more of this. It would have been terrible and hilarious, but also, like, Jughead and co. singing “Being Alive” would totally make me cry!!!
Other Sondheim shows I would like to have seen on Riverdale:
Into the Woods(this is an obvious one. The woods are Fox Forest, replace the giant with whatever serial killer they’re tracking down, lots of great material for relationship drama and then a poignant full cast performance of “No One Is Alone”. Easy.)
Assassins(maybe they do this as a school musical. It would basically be the Heathers episode but better. Again, it just feels like an obvious pull.)
Follies(I think this is a harder sell but it would be amazing: the past relationship story of the musical could be mapped onto the relationships and break ups of the core four and others when they were in high school. There are lots of fun songs for the cast to perform - “Rain on the Roof”, “I’m Still Here”, “Waiting for the Girls Upstairs.” Most importantly, I want to see the Riverdale rendition of “Losing My Mind”! It would be awful and so good.)
Anyone Can Whistle(a much less popular show, but it is about a small, failing town being taken over by a fake miracle. Literally a perfect Riverdale plotline. The political drama of the mayor’s office from the musical would be excellent for any number of Riverdale characters - “me and my town just want to be loved!” - the Sisters of Quiet Mercy could be involved with the miracle cure, there are great songs for our main cast like “There Won’t Be Trumpets”, “With So Little To Be Sure Of”, “Everybody Says Don’t”. The cast of Riverdale could do a cover of the song “Come Play Wiz Me” that would be so unbearably cringeworthy it actually might make me quit watching television forever. I deserve to see this!!)