'Riverdale' ending explained: How the finale wrapped things up (2024)

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the series finale of Riverdale, "Goodbye, Riverdale."

Grab some tissues, because we're breaking down how Riverdale said goodbye.

In the teen drama's series finale, an 86-year-old Betty got the chance to revisit one day from her senior year of high school, a day she originally missed because she was home sick with the mumps. The day in question? Yearbook signing day! And her chance to say farewell to the people (and the town) she loved so much.

Let's break it down.

Who dies?

Well, here's the thing: Everyone dies. At 86, Betty (Lili Reinhart) is the last living member of her high school class. She literally kicks off the episode by reading Jughead's (Cole Sprouse) obituary. So during the episode, we learn what happened throughout the lives of everyone else.

Let's start with Polly (Tiera Skovbye), who had her twins and led a happy life with her family. Then there's Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner), who married Midge (Emilija Baranac) and set off on his summer tour. However, four weeks into that tour, his bus crashed in the Rocky Mountains, leaving Midge to parent their daughter alone.

Clay (Karl Walcott) went to Columbia, while Kevin (Casey Cott) attended NYU. They then lived together in Harlem. Clay was a professor at Columbia; Kevin started an off-broadway theater company. Kevin died at 82, and Clay died a few weeks later on a bench in Central Park.

Toni (Vanessa Morgan) and Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) moved west, settling in Oakland Hills, where they lived as artists and activists. (Cheryl was a very successful painter.) They had a son named Dale... after Riverdale. They passed peacefully.

Reggie (Charles Melton) played basketball at Kansas State before playing for the Lakers. He then coached at Riverdale High and had two sons, one of whom still runs Mantle Motors.

Nana Rose (Barbara Wallace) was reincarnated multiple times... naturally.

Pop Tate (Alvin Sanders) died in his sleep right at the start of senior year.

In an extended version of the finale, which drops Thursday, it's revealed that Julian (Nicholas Barasch) enlisted and died in Vietnam, whereas Frank Andrews (Ryan Robbins) and Tom Keller (Martin Cummins) were murdered by a hustler they picked up one night named Chic.

What happens to the parents?

According to a version of Jughead we can only assume is an angel, Mrs. Andrews (Molly Ringwald) bought a dress shop and then fell in love with a woman named Brooke. They stayed together forever.

Alice (Mädchen Amick) finally divorced Hal (Lochlyn Munro), became a stewardess, and once safely landed a plane when her pilot had a heart attack. She then married a passenger on that flight who showed her the world.

What about the core four? Who ends up together?

Long story short, none of the core four ended up together. They were in a quad senior year, but after that, they parted ways.

After high school, Veronica (Camila Mendes) went back to Los Angeles, where she became a very successful movie producer. She won two Oscars! And when she died, she was buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Betty attended a few of her premieres, but wishes they'd kept in better touch.

Archie (KJ Apa) also went west to build the highways, but he always intended to come back home. As he tells Betty at their goodbye, "I've always felt that it would be you and me at the end of the road. It started with us, didn't it? A boy and a girl next door to each other." But Betty informs him that's not what happened. Instead, he stayed in California, where he met someone and settled down and created a family. He became a professional construction worker and an amateur writer. When he died, he was buried in Riverdale next to his father. (Betty and Archie share one final kiss before they part.)

Jughead moved to New York City, where he started Jughead's Madhouse Magazine. (And he grew sideburns!) He never married.

Betty did the same, moving to New York and starting She Says Magazine, the "go-to source for feminist and progressive causes." She never got married and she doesn't regret it. She did, however, adopt a daughter, named Carla. She now has a granddaughter, named Alice.

It's Alice who brings 86-year-old Betty back to Riverdale, where she dies in the backseat of the car as it pulls into the Pop's parking lot.

What's the final scene?

Once Betty dies, we flash back to teenage Betty, now in the Sweet Hereafter, as she walks into Pop's and sees all of her friends. As she joins Veronica, Jughead, and Archie in a booth for some milkshakes, we head outside, where narrator Jughead says, "We'll leave them here I think. Where they're forever juniors, forever 17, always grabbing a burger or a shake, always going to or coming from some dance talking about school, the big game, who's dating who, homework, whatever movie is playing at the Babylonium — you know, the moments that make up a life. It's where they've, where we've, always been, in this diner, in this town, in the Sweet Hereafter. So if you happen to see that neon sign some lonely night, after that long journey, the journey that every one of us is on, pull over, come on in, take a seat, and know that you'll always be among friends and that Riverdale will always be your home. Until then, have a good night."

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