Riverdale Season 6 Episode 3
“If Rivervale is the final battleground between good and evil, is anybody’s soul safe?” With just two more episodes until the “Rivervale” experiment concludes, it is safe to say that the writers have perfectly utilized this break from their, what I will laughingly refer to as “traditional” storytelling, to completely revitalize the series creatively. Three weeks into the show’s sixth season and Riverdale is the most entertaining it has ever been — no small feat given that it accomplished this without its main character or usual narrative structure. And all it took was taking the show to hell. We’ve come a long way from Jingle Jangle and bear attacks. Why “Rivervale” is so successful thus far is by how it is fully embracing the darkness that has been the show’s undercurrent since it’s debut. As the huge body count to date reinforces, anything can happen here and no one is safe. As viewers we realize that it’s just matter of time before the status quo is restored — there is no way that Archie would remain dead, even if K.J. Apa wasn’t seen back on set — yet there is something exhilarating about this series no longer having to deal with the baggage that comes with Hiram Lodge’s schemes and other plot points that were dragging it down. The time jump in the fifth season was meant to be a creative jolt, but ultimately it just amplified the series’ weaknesses by illustrating how some characters (Archie and Kevin especially) remain inherently rudderless no matter how much time has passed. Now with Archie out of the picture and Kevin heading off to perform a revival of The Boy from Oz with Hugh Jackman, plus all the rampant supernatural occurrences and a brewing war between heaven and hell, Riverdale‘s huge swing is paying off. Unburdened by the very rules they put down, the writers have a sense of liberation. Shortly, the “Rivervale” saga will be completed, and then the series goes on hiatus until March. It has already been established that some of the events that occurred in this five-episode experiment will have consequences in the main series. While that doubtlessly will be true, I hope that the true impact of Rivervale is that it has proven that the audience is more than willing to take the journey into weirdness with these characters. In turn, the series can continue to try to tell different types of stories that aren’t tethered to the reality it has created.
