The 35 Wildest Moments on ‘Riverdale,’ From Bear Attacks to Musicals and the *Serial Killer Gene*
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Riverdale is a wild show. Whether you're still a loyal fan (GO BULLDOGS!!), dropped off when things got too weird, or haven't seen a single episode of the CW series, you know that it's a wild show. One of the best things about being a Riverdale die-hard is that I can tell someone who stopped watching anything about what has happened on the show since they ditched and they'd probably believe it. There's one more season to go, and things are probably going to get even weirder and bigger than ever! To prep for that final goodbye, here are the wildest moments on Riverdale in (more or less) chronological order.
1. When Betty and Jughead started dating
Season 1, Episode 8
This wasn't wild because of the chemistry between the two characters. Their actors dated IRL, so obviously it was there. The development was wild because in Archie comics the character Jughead doesn't have a love interest and, in 2015/2016, became canonically asexual. Riverdale premiered a year later and said a big "nah" to that, apparently.
2. When Cheryl showed up to her brother's memorial
Season 1, Episode 5
In the dress she was wearing the day he was killed, no less. Where were you when Kevin whispered "yes" at Cheryl's big entrance?
3. When Polly learned that Jason was her cousin.
Season 1, Episode 12
The first season of the show was tame by comparison, but they still beat the Targaryens to the on-screen incest plotline. And it didn't end there! Remember when Jughead and Betty's parents started dating and then learned that they share an older half-brother? WHAT?!
4. When the girls beat up Nick St. James during a performance of "Out Tonight"
Season 2, Episode 5
Listening to Rent has never been the same since.
5. When Betty went dark again, and again, and again
Season 2, Episode 8
Dark Betty emerged as early as season 1, but personally, my favorite was when she did a pole dance and sang "Mad World" by Tears for Fears.
6. When the show became a musical
Season 2, Episode 18
There were many musical episodes to follow, but the Carrie episode was transcendent.
7. When the Black Hood was Betty's father
Season 2, Episode 9
Riverdale used to be a show about hot dads and then pivoted to murder dads real quick.Sure, Archie starting a vigilante gang called the "Red Circle" to combat the serial killer was pretty wild... but the reveal changed the course of Riverdale forever.
8. When Betty dreamed about the twins floating
Season 3, Episode 1
The third season got off to a wild start, with Betty having a seizure and the arrival of the Gargoyle King.
9. When a board game enslaved the town
Season 3
Candy-based illegal drugs weren't macabre enough for Riverdale. This season's storyline had so many wild moments (the cast playing their character's parents in a flashback, creepier nuns, the introduction of a creepier cult, and so much death) it's hard to pick.
10. When Riley Keough tweeted her way onto the show
Season 3, Episode 7
This really happened.
11. When Archie was attacked by a bear
Season 3, Episode 9
This is the wildest thing that people still talk about to this day, I think. Right? Sure, it was wild that Archie was framed for murder, entered into an underground juvenile detention fight club, and staged a prison break. But we all forgot about that when Archie was attacked by a bear because he was ATTACKED BY A BEAR. How can you think about anything else?!
12. When Toni's organs were (almost) harvested
Season 3, Episode 21
The farm/cult storyline bled into season 4, but this was kind of the scariest part.
13. When Cheryl stole Jason's corpse
Season 4, Episode 3
Everybody was really up to their own thing in season 4. Archie chose to be a vigilante after his father died. Cheryl chose to cavort with her dead brother.
14. When a cult leader flew away on a rocket
Season 4, Episode 3
Not to pick favorites, but I pick this WTF moment. Enough people had dropped off watching Riverdale after ~the bear incident~ that they missed Chad Michael Murray as a cult leader who tried to escape Betty and Alice Cooper by flying away on a rocket he made himself... dressed like Evel Knievel.
15. When Betty was diagnosed with the serial killer gene
Season 4, Episode 4
It wasn't enough to call Betty's morbid and violent tendencies "Dark Betty" or wonder aloud whether her similarities to her Black Hood father were nature or nurture—the show had to go out of its way to tell us that murder was in her DNA. Sure!
16. When Betty and Kevin became FBI trainees
Season 4, Episode 5
I don't remember that extra-curricular activity.
17. When Harvard called Veronica on the phone
Season 4, Episode 8
If you're the type of person who gets annoyed when fictional college acceptance letters come in tiny envelopes, you probably hated when Veronica found out she got into Harvard because Admissions called her in the middle of the day.
18. When Kevin made tickle fetish videos
Season 4, Episode 11
See what I mean about everybody having their own wild side quest this season? Even Jughead went to a prep school that may or may not have been trying to murder him... but compared to some of the other stuff, that wasn't so wild.
19. When Veronica and Cheryl started a rum business
Season 4
Granted, Veronica had already opened a speakeasy and a casino before her high school graduation. She might as well sell alcohol. It's not like anyone in Riverdale is carding.
20. When they faked Jughead's death
Season 4, Episode 13
They really had us going with this one!
21. When Archie took a bus to the war
Season 5, Episode 3
It's not wild that Archie joined the army. It is wild that he did so by going to a bus stop in the middle of the field and getting on a camouflage green US Army bus. It is wild that in the next episode, seven years later, he had WWII flashbacks set on a football field.
22. When the time jumped forward (but actually didn't)
Season 5, Episode 4
The show allowed its actors to play their ages and finally graduate high school in season 5. Seven years passed, during which the characters went their separate ways. However, the Class of 2020 returns to their anything-but-quaint hometown seven years later... in 2021.
23. When Veronica went full Uncut Gems
Season 5, Episode 4
Betty's Silence of the Lambs-inspired FBI future wasn't surprising, but Veronica's homage to the Safdie brothers was random and wild AF.
24. When Fangs, Kevin, and Toni raised a baby together
Season 5, Episode 8
Now that's a modern family.
24. When Charles and Chic got married
Season 5, Episode 10
Just to recap: Chic is the guy who pretended to be Betty and Jughead's half-brother but was actually dating their half-brother and stole his identity after allegedly killing him. Charles is Betty and Jughead's actual half-brother who also has the serial killer gene. Chic and Charles reunited in prison, then broke out and forced the Cooper family to marry them in a hostage situation.
25. When Cheryl became... Jesus?
Season 5, Episode 15
Meanwhile, in season 5, Cheryl's mother Penelope (whose many wild plotlines have included serial poisoning and sex work) started a ministry. Midway through the season, Cheryl took it over by performing miracles for the congregation.
26. When a bomb blew up Archie's house
Season 5, Episode 19
Little did we know that everything was going to get about 100x wilder.
27. When Riverdale became Rivervale
Season 6, Episode 1-5
If you hung onto the show for this long, you were rewarded with the wackiest season yet. Like... Archie was ritually sacrificed in the first episode. A ghost kidnapped babies in the second episode. Sabrina Spellman from The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina showed up and helped exorcise Blossom women from Cheryl's body. The literal Devil showed up as well, but somehow not the Devil from The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Ultimately, Jughead realized that the gang was trapped in a parallel universe that's about to collide with his own universe. But not before the next thing happened.
28. When Veronica tried to have a threesome with two versions of her boyfriend
Season 6, Episode 5
OG Reggie returned, and Veronica shot her shot. The Marvel Cinematic Universe in all its multiversal madness would never and that's all I'm gonna say about that.
29. When the gang got superpowers
Season 6, Episode 6
Jughead could read minds. Archie had super strength, invulnerability, and durability. (Didn't he already? Let's be real. He was even a vigilante!) Cheryl was possessed by her ancestor... again... and could control fire. Veronica could generate poison in her body. Betty could see auras. A man named Percival could control minds and uses his power to take over town.
30. When Tabitha went back in time
Season 6, Episode 11
Her quest to save Riverdale took her to 1944, 1968 and 1999. And it was guided by an Angel. And the rest of the group time-traveled in a later episode and met their ancestors.
31. When Percival weaponized overdue library books
Season 6, Episode 13
The evil, immortal, magical mayor of Riverdale used the library as an excuse to collect collateral from our heroes so he could perform a spell to torture them with past trauma.
32. When Pop's Diner was literally haunted
Season 6, Episode 15
Seriously, season 6 was just a non-stop wild ride.
33. When they did a tribute to a Broadway musical written by the showrunner
Season 6, Episode 17
Back in Riverdale, Betty tried to catch a serial killer by hosting a serial killer convention in town with performances of Duncan Sheik's songs from the musical adaptation of American Psycho. But what they failed to mention is that the book (script) of that show was written by one Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa, creator of Riverdale.
34. When the gang destroyed a comet heading for Riverdale
Season 6, Episode 22
Yes, like... a space comet. I mean this was wild for so many reasons. It's not just that a comet was heading toward Riverdale. It's that the comet was redirected towards the town because Percival put a curse on Riverdale after going through a portal to Rivervale and was attacked in his own mind palace. It's that they destroyed the comet using magic and the spirit of Abigail Blossom. It's that Veronica siphoned everyone's superpowers and gave them to Cheryl so she could save them. And it's what happened next.
35. When everyone went back in time (and back to high school)
Season 7, Episode 1
Welcome to the '50s!
You Might Also Like
