Riverdale, oh Riverdale.  What a tangled (and enjoyable) web you have woven with this final season.  I’m beginning to get a drift of where you are going.  It seems that we have much to rectify before the new “improved” Riverdale is revealed.

I’ve been saying for weeks that this year’s show seems to be echoing our world today.  Last night, I think it became even more obvious when Jughead talked to a fellow Pep Comic worker.  Jughead wants to know about the first comic with a “milkman” killer. The discussion included a line that Riverdale is so homogenized.  That ties so well into the “milk man” story but it also reveals much about the Riverdale we are seeing.  Everyone in Riverdale seems the same but better.  According to the Oxford Language, homogenized means “to make uniform or similar as in a ‘homogenized society’.”  While Archie and the gang have grown, the adults haven’t.

Riverdale this year is showing this true to form.  With Alice, Sheriff Kline, the Blossoms and others we see a view of the 1950s (with echoes to today) but maybe we should dig a little deeper.  Is this whole 1955 thing a chance for the characters to rectify their past and become better people?  If so, why are the adults more at fault than the teens?  And does this have more to do with Rivervale than we know?  Let’s look at a few things I picked up on with last night’s “Halloween” episode.  Since I mentioned the “homogenized” reference already, I won’t do it again, I promise.

Let’s first look at the “Halloween” issue.  Riverdale teens can’t celebrate Halloween due to an accident that happened a few years ago that took the lives of four kids.  First, I must admit, I liked the reference to the movie, “Footloose”.  If you are not familiar with Footloose, teenagers in a small town could not have a prom due to an accident that killed four teens, one of which was the preacher’s son.  We don’t go that far here (at least not yet) but the beginning of the tale is here. 

Veronica’s “Ghost Show” does have other implications.  While I was surprised at Fangs’ number, I really found it intriguing that Veronica’s song connected with the famous interactive midnight movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  This “ghost show,” sees the change in the air with the kiss that Toni and Cheryl share in front of their classmates.  Plus we have the youth defying the adults with a gathering that seems open and entertaining.  They didn’t sit home as they were supposed so Hal and Alice could perform a dumb story.  Alice’s showing up gave us hints to where she is now – she still caught in the “body cult”/Pickens ideas — and afraid to change.  But more importantly it shows present day references filtering through to an age before they existed.

Let’s move on to Ethel and Jughead.  Jughead and Ethel talk on the phone about the “convent school” where Alice stuck Ethel.  To hear Ethel describe it, it is still in the “Body Farm” and Gargoyle and Griffin style with mind control.  When Ethel escapes, she goes to Jughead’s train car.  By the way, do any of you see the train car as similar to the bunker.  Does the bunker still exist in this version of Riverdale?  More later on this theory.  Ethel is close to 18 when she won’t have to stay in the convent/school.  Jughead is going to let her stay at Ray Bradberry because Ray has conveniently paid the rent for the year. 

Yet, this is where the “milk man” angle comes in.  We see many references to this from Jughead’s talk with Sheriff Kline to the haunted house and finally to the apartment.  I really thought Archie and Betty would find the milk and clue in at the haunted house.  Instead, it is Ray’s apartment where the final act comes.  Ethel enters the apartment (where the milk man hides) and Jughead starts to leave only to meet the nosy neighbor who mentions she heard the milk man.  In Jughead’s heroic manner, he goes back to save Ethel who has saved herself with a butcher knife and the milk man is dead.

So why is this important? Could this be an echo to season one and the maple syrup killer?  Could there be some nefarious use of the milk that the milk man delivers?  Could this potentially be a scam the Blossoms family doesn’t want people to know? Could this be how the “bend toward justice” must work?  Let’s face it, the time capsule proved that there’s something strange going on in a land lost to time.  Could the maple syrup situation and the milk man have a similar function that Cheryl must deal with? 

While it could be redemption for Cheryl, I doubt it.  There’s more there that needs to be revealed with Julian.  The brother Cheryl grew up with was her twin, Jason.  Julian comes from the “Blossom 666” comics and the doll.  The doll, Julian, supposedly held the spirit of the brother that Cheryl absorbed (which can happen in the womb).  More importantly, it is the Blossom family who are in control of the media with Alice as their agent.  Why do they want to control people’s thoughts?  Remember that the 1950s was the McCarthy/communist time and many actors found themselves blacklisted due to their views.  Alice did this in a way when she put Veronica “on notice” and even Veronica shook her head at that. 

The dramatic ending had Reggie in the car with Julian who had an accident on Sweetwater River bridge while “wilding.” The river itself has quite a history in Riverdale.  When Frank woke up Archie with news of the wreck and missing kids, well Footloose did come to mind.  But also there was something else.  The show opened with the murder of Jason Blossom while he was leaving in a boat to pick up Polly Cooper to move to the “farm”.  Now, previews for the next episode shows Julian in the hospital.  Is this the start of bringing all seasons together?

Here’s my main theory.  I said back at the start of Riverdale season six that Rivervale set up a time/space paradox.  If sci fi has taught me anything – from Ray Bradberry to Star Trek and especially Doctor Who – you can’t mess with time and space because you can’t impact history.  If you do, you could impact your own history.  We know that the location is present day (or at least season six) due to the time capsule.  We know Tabitha had to wipe Jughead’s memory because he remembered the season six story.  What if Rivervale is once again blending into Riverdale?  Could time/space be impacted by the comet by opening a worm hole?  Could Tabitha/Ethel serve the same purpose?

When we last saw Rivervale, we had three Jugheads.  One Jughead, our Jughead, had to return to the gang in Riverdale, deaf.  One had to go back to Rivervale and one must remain in the Bunker writing comics with Ethel providing food and companionship.  Rivervale had a sense of the past.  1955 Riverdale echoes that to a certain extent.  What if the two are interacting again?  We have Jughead living in a train car that resembles the bunker.  We have Ethel back and she was last seen alive in Rivervale bringing food to Jughead.  Could the two need to merge?  It would explain Ethel (but not Dilton) being back from the dead.  (Honestly, I am still working on Dilton’s appearance.)

There are a few other clues.  We still have the Alice of early episodes who was easily influenced by evil like the cult and Percival Pickens.  Alice does have the tendency to follow cults.  Sheriff Kline was another of Pickens followers and reverted to early season when he wasn’t accepting of his son’s sexuality.  The only one of the adults that Percival killed in season six that has changed is Frank.  He seems to have an open mind and wants to help Archie who has become the heart of the show.

One more note.  For things to change, there had to be an odd man out.  People on Twitter last night were upset because Jughead, once again, was out of the main group.  I have a suggestion as to why this is.  With Jughead’s hidden knowledge, he can no longer be an active participant in the gang.  What would happen if he suddenly remembered?  He must write the comic that will make all make sense.

Again all this may be subject to change.  Most of it has been in my mind since episode one but I was afraid to post in case the executives at Riverdale made changes.  I know production is almost through and the strikes are beginning to have an impact on everything.  I hope we do get a conclusion and a wrap-up to these suggestions.