The Big Picture
- Riverdale hit its peak in Season 2, with a perfect balance of mystery, comedy, romance, and teenage drama that appealed to all ages.
- The season introduced the creepy storyline of The Black Hood, who was actually Betty's father, and brought shocking twists and multiple murders to increase the suspense.
- Season 2 of Riverdale was the last time the show felt genuinely promising, with a cohesive plot that connected various storylines and kept viewers engaged, unlike the messy seasons that followed.
After 7 Seasons, 137 episodes, and many insane storylines, Riverdale has come to an end. The show had no shortage of weird and wacky storylines, often boggling the minds of both fans and critics, but despite its absurdity, it endured. Some argue that the show overstayed its welcome, having lost its own plot somewhere along the way (though, did it even have a plot by then?), which is a valid opinion. But as someone who has stuck with Riverdale since the beginning, I find it hard to decide where the show ideally should have ended. Season 1 left me wanting more while Season 2 had me flabbergasted. Season 3 was a mess, but Season 4 felt like a return to form. Season 5 brought a time jump and with it an entirely new dynamic, plus it was gut-wrenching and had some of the best acting of the show. But then Season 6 came along and went fully off the rails, and well, Season 7 didn’t exactly remedy it. Ultimately, however, the show hit its peak in Season 2, and everything after was not up to par. That’s not to say Season 2 was perfect — not by a long shot — but it was the last season that Riverdale felt like a genuinely promising show, and not one just designed to farm out memes.
'Riverdale' Hit Its Peak in Season 2
Season 1 of Riverdale was a perfect addition to the teen drama/mystery genre. It had a great balance of mystique, comedy, and romance, with just the right amount of teenage drama to coincide with the network it aired on. It was an intriguing take on the famous “Archie Comics” and appealed to audiences of all ages, so when the Season 1 finale set up yet another small-town mystery, it was a no-brainer that we’d be returning to the town with pep very soon. The Season 1 finale left off on a cliffhanger as a masked gunman shot Fred Andrews (Luke Perry), leaving his fate up in the air as he bled out in Archie’s (KJ Apa) arms. Season 2 picks up where Season 1 left off, with Fred in the hospital, and Archie and his friends trying to figure out why someone would want to take a hit out on Fred. But as it turns out, it wasn’t just an isolated incident like originally believed, and it becomes clear that the town is dealing with a serial killer. Dun, dun, dun!
The killer is deemed The Black Hood, and for the entirety of the season, he’s tallying up bodies in shocking volumes. Season 1 focused on the singular murder of Jason Blossom (Trevor Stines), so multiple murders is quite the shake-up. And it’s not just the adults he's coming for — he’s claiming the lives of the teens who inhabit the town as well and taking no mercy. To make matters extra creepy, he strikes up an alliance of sorts with Betty (Lili Reinhart), complete with an eerie ringtone of “Lollipop” by The Chordettes. And in a shocking twist, it’s revealed that The Black Hood is actually Betty’s father Hal (Lochlyn Munro), who believed the town of Riverdale was filled with sinners who deserved to die. Oh, and his father (Betty’s grandfather) was the Riverdale Reaper, an unknown killer who killed a family of four without reason forty years prior. You know, just casual family things in the town of Riverdale.
But there’s more going on than just The Black Hood storyline. As we learned in Season 1, Betty’s mom Alice (Mädchen Amick) got pregnant when she was Betty’s age, and gave birth to a son named Charles. The reveal was shocking enough, but as we learn in Season 2, the baby was not Hal’s. She and Betty eventually track down the elusive son and learn that he goes by the name Chic (Hart Denton) now. While Alice is too blinded by guilt and a need to do right by him, she’s unable to see that Chic is a bit of an odd duck. We eventually learn that Chic is not actually Alice’s son, but an old friend of the real one, whom he accidentally murdered. (Don’t worry, this ends up not being true, and we meet the real Charles (Wyatt Nash) in Season 3.) Oh, also to be mentioned is that the Coopers (aside from Hal) find themselves covering up a self-defense murder with the help of FP (Skeet Ulrich) and Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse). And it also turns out the father of Alice’s baby is none other than her high school fling FP Jones – the father of Jughead, who’s dating Betty throughout Season 2. Awkward!
But that’s not all, because on top of everything else going on, Veronica’s (Camila Mendes) elusive father Hiram (Mark Consuelos) makes his much-anticipated return to town. Hiram sparks up an odd little feud with Archie that overstays its welcome way into the show’s run (seriously, we don’t get rid of him until Season 5!). Jughead becomes Serpent King, Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) meets Toni (Vanessa Morgan), falls in love, and is inducted into the Serpents. Betty attempts to join the Serpents by doing the Serpent dance (much to Alice’s horror.) Oh, and we get the show’s first musical episode! What a wild ride.
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Why 'Riverdale' Season 2 Somehow Works
I know it seems like a lot happened in Season 2, and a lot did, but unlike the seasons going forward, Season 2 balanced everything quite well. Despite there being a lot going on, when you break it all down, the big plots are evenly dispersed among the characters, making it not feel quite so crowded as it looks on paper. One of Riverdale’s biggest struggles is that it overfills its plate and adds far too many storylines and characters to properly flesh out. After Season 2, not only were there too many storylines going on, but none of them really connected to each other, there’s no cohesiveness, no uniformity, nothing — it’s just a mess. The brilliance of Season 2 is that plenty is going on to keep the viewer interested, but each storyline filters back to the overarching story. The Chic storyline goes back to The Black Hood storyline as Betty basically sacrifices him to the masked assailant, while Hiram is suspected of being The Black Hood by his own daughter and her friends.
On the other hand, though, Season 2 of Riverdale was just fun — plain and simple. The mystery was thrilling, the relationships were getting deep, and we couldn’t peel our eyes away. It was the last time Riverdale truly felt like it did in Season 1. After Season 2, the small-town mystery aspect tends to fade away. There are supernatural aspects brought in, organ-harvesting cults, aliens, and superpowers?! Long gone was the offbeat, dark little teen show that we loved. But Season 2 was a perfect counterpart to Season 1, and with a longer episode order, was able to really dig into the seedy underbelly of the town. It took everything we loved about Season 1 and incorporated it in, crafting a season that will forever be known as the last, genuinely good season of Riverdale.
