Series / Riverdale

"What makes a place feel like home? Is it warmth and familiarity? Some idealised, make-believe TV version of the American Dream? Is it love and acceptance? Or is it simple safety?" ^note From left to right: Cheryl Blossom, Toni Topaz, Fangs Fogarty, Veronica Lodge, Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper, Tabitha Tate, Reggie Mantle and Kevin Keller.

"Our story is about a town. A small town. And the people who live in the town. From a distance, it presents itself like so many other small towns all over the world. Safe. Decent. Innocent. Get closer, though, and you start seeing the shadows underneath..."

— Jughead Jones

Riverdale is a television series aired on The CW and based upon the Archie Comics franchise. Set in modern times, the show is a subversive take on the franchise's characters. It premiered on January 26, 2017 and aired for seven seasons of 137 episodes, with the series finale airing on August 23, 2023.

Archie Andrews (KJ Apa), Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse), Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart), Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes), and their friends and families live in the titular small town, which has more darkness and weirdness than suggested by the town's wholesome façade. Over the summer, Jason Blossom dies and leaves his sister Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) grieving. Though initially believed an accident, it's soon discovered that Jason was murdered, and the ensuing investigation causes a trove of small-town secrets to start creeping to the surface.

Rounding up the main cast are Josie McCoy (Ashleigh Murray), Cheryl's best friend and singer; Kevin Keller (Casey Cott), a popular student at Riverdale High and son of the town sheriff; Reggie Mantle (Charles Melton^note replaced Ross Butler after the latter departed from the show in season 2), Archie's nemesis and member of the school football team; Fred Andrews (Luke Perry), Archie's father; Alice Cooper (Mädchen Amick), Betty's mother and editor of the local newspaper; Hermione Lodge (Marisol Nichols), Veronica's mother; and F. P. Jones (Skeet Ulrich), Jughead's father and leader of the Southside Serpents, a notorious biker gang in Riverdale. The second season introduces Hiram Lodge (Mark Consuelos), Veronica's formerly imprisoned father; and Southside Serpents members Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan) and Fangs Fogarty (Drew Ray Tanner). The latest to join the main cast is Tabitha Tate (Erinn Westbrook), heiress to Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe who has plans to expand her family business.

The series' executive producers include Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Afterlife with Archie) and Greg Berlanti (Arrowverse). The show is also available on Netflix outside the USA, Latin America, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Middle East and Africa with each new episode uploaded on the streaming service the day after airing on television.^note Despite being shown on the service with "A Netflix Original Series" appearing in the opening titles in the series' credit typeface, it is not produced for the service

The show's success has prompted two spinoffs:

• Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, based on the classic Archie character Sabrina the Teenage Witch, adapting the horror-based comic of the same name. Originally intended as a companion series to Riverdale for The CW, Sabrina ended up airing on Netflix, mostly as a standalone series, although there were a pair of minor character crossovers: Ben Button (Moses Thiessen) cameos in the first season of Sabrina ("Feast of Feasts"), while on the flipside, Billy Marlin (Ty Wood) cameos in the fourth season of Riverdale ("Varsity Blues"). After her series ended in December 2020, Sabrina Spellman herself appeared in two episodes of the sixth season of Riverdale, with Kiernan Shipka reprising her role.
• Katy Keene, a musical comedy based on the titular character from Archie lore, starring Lucy Hale in the title role and premiering as a mid-season companion to its parent series' fourth season. Unlike Sabrina, Katy Keene has a more direct link to Riverdale, it being set a few years in the future from the (then-current) continuity of the latter. It co-stared Josie, who departed from the show after its fourth season. However, Katy Keene only lasted a season, with Josie later returning back to Riverdale in guest capacity from the fifth season.

It also got comic-book tie-ins, including:

• Riverdale One-Shot (2017) - A one shot featuring four short stories set before the first episode.
• Riverdale (2017-2018)
• Riverdale Season 3 (2019)
• Riverdale Presents: South Side Serpents (2021)
• Riverdale: The Ties That Bind (2021) - A graphic novel with four interconnecting stories.
• Archie Meets Riverdale (2022) - Intra-Franchise Crossover with the original comicbook Archie and friends

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This series provides examples of:

A to E

• Abusive Parents:
  • At this point, the only parents we see who aren't abusive or corrupt in some way are Fred and Mary Andrews, and Sheriff Tom Keller. The original script also planned for Sheriff Keller to be abusive and homophobic to his son Kevin, though this was scrapped in favour of him being a Reasonable Authority Figure.
  • Both the Coopers and Blossoms in particular are nasty, the former emotionally abusing their daughters while keeping them separated so as to lie to them both, while the latter are abusive towards their daughter, and Jason evidently had enough issues with them that he wanted to run away with his girlfriend and their unborn child. Alice and Hal Cooper at least have some Pet the Dog moments to balance it out. Penelope and Clifford Blossom, on the other hand, are horrible. Penelope is extremely emotionally and verbally abusive to Cheryl, and it occasionally dips into physical territory. When she's on her best behavior, she's just neglectful. Then, she sent her daughter to a gay conversion program. How delightful! And can you believe she's the better of the two? Clifford killed his own son.
  • Hiram Lodge is a straight-up criminal with a domineering and controlling side. While his genuine love for Veronica is one of his few redeeming qualities, his shady ways nonetheless prove to be a bad influence on her, and have consequences in her day-to-day life. His behaviour finally crosses into full-on abuse in "Labor Day", when he tells Veronica that framing Archie for murder is intended as a punishment for how she "betrayed" him.
  • In Season 7, almost every adult in 1955 is some degree of abusive and controlling. The only exceptions are Mary (who’s a good person but ineffective overall), Jughead’s boss at Pep Comics (who has some shady business practices but is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold) and Brad Rayberry (who is genuinely nice if rough around the edges until he’s murdered).
  • Reggie endured constant physical and emotional abuse from his father growing up- until he got hip to the fact that he towers over his old man and outweighs him by about 50 lbs.
• Action Girl: Cheryl has her moments. The most notable one is when she uses her bow and arrows against Black Hood in Season 2's penultimate episode. During the 7 years time skip, Betty becomes this thanks to FBI training.
• Actor Allusion: Borders on Casting Gag; so many of the parents' actors' breakout roles were as high schoolers.
  • Mädchen Amick has previous experience with a drama about a small town involved with a murder mystery where the body's found at the edge of a river.
  • Also, Luke Perry has prior experience with a drama about high schoolers.
  • Robin Givens appeared in a sitcom about high schoolers. It also turns out Mayor McCoy was a lawyer before she got elected. Much like the one Givens played on Sparks.
  • Skeet Ulrich was, of course, a very skeevy person even in the first Scream movie. And once again his character is the primary suspect in a murder. This time he's innocent, though.
    • Also extends to Chapter 41, when FP enters a bedroom through a window during a tense scene. Certainly not the first time Skeet has done that.
    • And during the Jughead murder plot, Skeet Ulrich would be the one to know the difference between real blood and corn syrup.
  • Molly Ringwald plays Archie's mother, Mary, and you can click on that link if you don't know what high school roles she's played. Not to mention it isn't the first time she's played the divorced mother of a redheaded teen.
  • Chris Britton makes an appearance as the judge in episode 15, after previously voicing police commissioner Soichiro Yagami in the Death Note anime and live-action films.
  • In "The Midnight Club," a teenage FP claims he's living on Elm Street when he's actually in a trailer park. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) was the film debut of Johnny Depp, who Skeet Ulrich was often accused of being a "trailer park version" of early in his career.
  • Fred's coma dreams were a homage to the 1995 Beverly Hills, 90210 episode "The Dreams of Dylan McKay", the show that kick-started Luke Perry's career.
  • KJ Apa's Shortland Street character had a relationship with his teacher too.
  • On Orphan Black Zoé de Grand Maison's character's father was a cult leader too.
• Adaptation Dye-Job:
  • Josie goes from being a ginger to having black hair because of her Race Lift.
  • Melody has dark brown hair instead of blond, also because of a Race Lift.
  • Kevin Keller has light brown hair instead of blond.
  • Ethel, who usually has black hair, is a redhead due to being played by Shannon Purser (though the earliest version of Ethel in the comics was a chubby redhead).
  • Mrs. Lodge, who usually has white hair, has black hair (though most Archie artists draw Mrs. Lodge with dark hair when her younger self is shown).
  • Moose has brown hair instead of blond.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: At 2017 WonderCon, creator and showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa stated that, in creating the show, they did not want to do the classic Archie/Betty/Veronica Love Triangle, but instead one between Archie/Betty/Jughead.
• Adaptational Badass: The whole core group (that is, Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and Kevin) is much more prone to action than their comic counterparts; given the gloomy and dismal nature of this continuity and their insistence on getting involved in it, it's kind of a requirement to be badass in order to not die.
• Adaptational Attractiveness:
  • Cole Sprouse is definitely more handsome than Jughead's traditional cartoonish appearance, though the character is depicted as attractive in some stories.
  • Luke Perry plays Archie's father, who is tubby and bald in almost all appearances. His mother is played by Molly Ringwald. Jughead's dad is now former teen heartthrob Skeet Ulrich. Mrs. Cooper is sometimes portrayed about as attractive as her actress◊.
  • K.J. Apa has "incredible abs"—probably not the first attribute you associate with Archie. This one is Lampshaded, and it's a moderately important plot point that he got hot over the summer.
  • Did you ever expect the elderly Miss Grundy to be played by Sarah Habel? Well you shouldn't, because that's not actually Ms. Grundy.
  • Redheaded, pretty, curvy Shannon Purser is playing Big Ethel, who traditionally had been a homely, buck-toothed, flat-chested girl with a scrawny body^note and resembles a female Jughead. She's slightly less conventionally attractive than the other girls.
• Adaptational Diversity: Compared to the mostly white cast in the comics.
  • Several Race Lifts, such as Veronica and her family being Latino, Reggie and Dilton being Asian, and Weatherbee, Pop Tate, and Josie (as well as Josie's family) being black. All of these characters were white in the comics.
  • Sexuality changes include Cheryl being a lesbian and Moose being bisexual. Both of these characters were heterosexual in the comics.
  • Due to this series being Darker and Edgier than its lighthearted suburban source material, quite a few characters are portrayed as mentally ill, notably several members of the Blossom and Cooper families.
• Adaptational Sexuality:
  • Moose is portrayed as straight in the comics but in the show, he appears to be either bisexual or gay but in denial. In season 1, he propositions to Kevin during the dance and later they're shown going to the river to "do everything but kiss". As of season 3, Moose and Kevin appear to be in a relationship.
  • The comics have always portrayed Cheryl as exclusively interested in men (perhaps even a bit boy-crazy), but in the show she is now confirmed to be a a lesbian.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • In the comics, Chuck Clayton is a sweet-natured athlete and artist with one steady girlfriend and more respect for females than any of the other boys. In Riverdale he's an arrogant womanizer who slut shames his unsuspecting dates online. Beginning with Season 2, however, he reforms into a much nicer character, more closely resembling his comic self.
  • Alice Cooper is a gentle, loving parent to Betty in the comics, not the least bit like her controlling, borderline abusive TV counterpart. As with Chuck, she too slowly starts to reform as the series progresses.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Blossom are also nice loving parents in the comics, unlike their cold creepy TV versions. This is gradually turned up to eleven as the series goes on, culminating in the reveal that Penelope Blossom is a cruel, abusive matriarch who at best neglects her daughter, and Clifford murders his own son for threatening his drug dealing business.
  • Hal Cooper initially appeared to be an aversion, as he seemed sympathetic and not controlling in any way, unlike his wife, and as much under her thumb as his daughter is. It was soon played straight, where it turned out he was stealing from the police and seemingly lied to his child about her sister. He also planned for Polly to get an abortion, due to her baby being a Blossom. Throughout the rest of the series, he also shows a more prickly and aggressive side in general. He is ultimately revealed to be the Black Hood, surpassing even Clifford as the most profound case of Adaptational Villainy in the show.
  • Forsythe Jones II has a normal, respectable job in the comics. In the TV show, he's a gang leader for the traditionally villainous Southside Serpents, though he himself remains a pretty decent person and a good father for the most part.
  • Hiram Lodge has his faults in the comics, but crookedness isn't one of them. In the TV show, he's been prosecuted for shady business deals and is a well-known criminal mastermind.
  • The Black Hood of the comics is an Anti-Hero at worst. Here, he's an out-and-out Serial Killer.
• Adapted Out: Played with. In the comics Betty and Polly have an older brother named Chic who doesn't appear to exist on the show ... until the first season finale reveals that Alice and Hal had a son in high school that they gave up for adoption.
• Adults Are Useless: Played with in the sense that the adults can cause problems for the teens with either incompetence or malice, but largely averted in the show's overall themes and story. The adults are extremely involved in the plot as main characters, and it is clear a large part of the story is the adults having to answer for their previous sins that affect their children in the present day.
• Affectionate Nickname: Veronica, just like in the comics, occasionally calls Archie "Archiekins" as a term of endearment. She later calls Reggie "Reggikins" when they start their relationship down the line. Betty and Jughead call each other "Bets" and "Juggie" respectively. Veronica is often called "V" or "Ronnie" by other characters.
• Age Lift: Miss Grundy is getting on in years in the comics, here she's being played by Sarah Habel, who is in her 30s. Actually completely averted. The real Miss Grundy died of old age seven years before the series began.
• Alliteration & Adventurers: A major plotline in Season Three revolves around some old RPG called Gryphons & Gargoyles, whose cover is definitely meant to call back to the old White Box set of Dungeons & Dragons released back in 1974. The storyline itself reads like an Afterschool Special straight from the height of the Satanic Panic, with occultism and ritualistic suicides galore.
• Alliterative Name: As usual in the Archieverse, they abound:
  • Archie Andrews
  • Arthur Adams
  • Barnabas B. Blossom
  • Ben Button
  • Chuck Clayton
  • Darryl Doiley
  • Dilton Doiley
  • Evelyn Evernever
  • Fangs Fogarty
  • Jughead Jones
  • Kevin Keller
  • Laurie Lake
  • Moose Mason
  • Marty McMantle
  • Michael Minetta
  • Penny Peabody
  • Percival Pickens
  • Toni Topaz
  • Waldo Weatherbee
    • Later revealed to be the case for two characters' maiden names: Mary Maiden and Sierra Samuels.
• Amateur Sleuth: Jughead and Betty are trying to solve the mystery. Kevin and Ethel may follow suit.
• Amicable Exes: Fred and Mary Andrews have split up, but it's pretty civil.
• Anachronism Stew: There are laptops, but old style cars are commonplace. A local gang are referred to as "greasers", and Jughead dresses in an emo style rooted in The '90s. The football uniforms look largely dated, but the students use modern slang, and attitudes towards sexuality and race are modern as well. The dialogue even explicitly states that the timeline takes place in the present day. Really, it's a healthy mix of the 1950s and the 2010s. It’s Lampshaded with the drive-in being torn down because with the times have changed. The season 2 premiere re-emphasizes the point; we see the Riverdale General Hospital, and what the Doctors and Nurses are wearing can definitely not be seen today.
• And Starring: "With Mädchen Amick And Luke Perry."
• Apathetic Citizens: Nobody seems to have made the connection between Hiram Lodge returning from prison and basically buying up most of the town and the shocking decline in law and order that has coincidentally happened at the same time. The current Sheriff (FP) used to be an alcoholic gang leader involved in numerous crimes (including as an accessory to the murder of Jason Blossom). This is barely even noticed. Many people seem to be turning to the Farm as a way of emotionally distancing themselves from their town becoming a Wretched Hive.
• Arch-Enemy: Season 1:

  • Clifford and Hiram possibly. The former is responsible for the latter's incarceration.
  • The Cooper and the Blossom because of a fratricide despite the fact they're cousins.
  • Betty and Veronica were this for Cheryl and Chuck. Lampshaded by Cheryl in 1.10. But the episode shows Veronica is more of one for Cheryl and Betty for Chuck, emphasized with a Death Glare exchange at Jug's birthday. Maybe more a rival dynamic.

  • Season 2 :
    • Black Hood for Archie and Betty. Archie hates him for shooting his father and becomes obsessed with revenge. With Betty it's more psychological because The Hood wants to isolate Betty from her relatives, forcing him to harm them, and this motivates Betty to hunt him down. Due to his true identity being Hal Cooper, the Black Hood became a Arch Nemesis Dad for his own daughter.
    • Archie and Hiram in the finale until the middle of Season 3.
  • Season 3 :
    • Hiram for Veronica in the first part due to his efforts to destroy her boyfriend Archie's life.
    • Betty and Edgar Evernever seem to go in this way, because he corrupts Polly and Alice with his Farm. His daughter Evelyn can count for Betty as well.
  • Season 4 :
    • The Stonewall Prep students for Jughead.
    • The Autuer for Jughead and Betty, as well as the rest of the town for taking disturbing videos. It’s actually Jellybean.
  • Season 5 :
    • Hiram returns as this, but for the whole town. Especially towards Toni and Archie.
    • TBK (the Trash Bag Killer) for FBI agent Betty.
• Arc Symbol: The crescent shaped cuts on Betty's palms.
• Artistic License: In the Season 2 premiere, Pop Tate is shown mopping up the blood from the crime scene himself. Such a thing is usually done by specialized clean-up crews (as seen in Sunshine Cleaning) - which the police would likely bring in and pay themselves. The reason is that the crime scene is a health hazard, and there's bound to be harmful bacteria.
• Artistic License – Biology:
  • Jason Blossom's body had supposedly been in the water for weeks if not months, but it shows nowhere near enough signs of decay. Averted as it's revealed that his body was kept frozen, and he was not killed until the week after the 4th of July.
  • Jason's body was kept frozen for an undetermined period of time before being dumped in the river, and yet the coroner is able to determine time of death down to the day.
  • The Blossoms' annual sap-tapping appears to take place in the late fall. This is ridiculous, since maple trees don't produce the sugary sap until early spring.
  • The ways twins run in the Blossom family. In reality, identical twins like Clifford and Claudius don't run in families at all; as best as scientists can tell, the splitting of a fertilized egg happens at random. Fraternal twins like Cheryl and Jason or Juniper and Dagwood, which are a completely different phenomenon from identical twins, do run in families, but only on the mother's side.
  • In the Season 3 finale, the Coopers reveal to Betty that after she got a concussion from riding her bike when she was little, the doctors conducted a bunch of tests and found that she carries the MAOA and CDH13 genes, otherwise known as the "serial killer genes", and these genes do not exist in her family members. What makes this unrealistic is that one, a concussion doesn't warrant Betty getting her genes traced; two, it is impossible for you to not have genes from either of your parents except through artificial genetic modification; and three, the "serial killer genes" theory has long been debunked.
• Artistic License – History: goes right along with the show's Anachronism Stew.
  • The season 5 finale reveals that Cheryl’s ancestor was executed for witchcraft. In 1890. She was also burned at the stake, which aside from being wildly inappropriate for the time period, was not the method of execution given to convicted witches in England or its American colonies.^note Burning at the stake was the common punishment for witchcraft in Continental Europe, but had largely fallen out of use by the 18th century. In England and the American colonies, the accused were hanged.
  • The precursor to the town of Rivervale, Sweetwater Village, was established in 1580, predating the (unsuccessful) Roanoke colony by three years, and Jamestown by twenty-nine.
  • The unions only came to Riverdale in 1949, well after the heyday of America's unions, notably after the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947.
• Author Appeal: Riverdale and its sister series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina share a pattern of obsessive, adversarial, and sexually or romantically tinged father-daughter relationships that suggests a certain level of creator preference for the trope.
• Auto Erotica: Archie and 'Miss Grundy' have sex for the first time in her green car.
• Bait-and-Switch: In 1.04, Kevin gets confronted by Joaquin (a member of the Southside Serpents, which he tried to shush earlier) who mockingly tells him he’s not so tough without Veronica. In their next scene Joaquin has Kevin pinned against a fence, giving the impression he’s throttling him. Then the camera pans out, revealing they’re really making out.
• Bait-and-Switch Lesbians:
  • Veronica and Betty's kiss in the pilot.
  • Rare Male Example with the heavily promoted Joaquin/Archie kiss in 3x05. Many fans got their hopes up for an actual romance between the two and/or an "Archie comes out as bisexual" storyline, only to have the kiss turn out to be blatant Queerbaiting and of virtually no importance to the plot.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The three main girls after the time skip in Season 5: Cheryl (Beauty), Veronica (Brains) and Betty (Brawn). It's evident with their respective profession. Cheryl is an artist (an aesthetic-based profession) being in addition a former high school Alpha Bitch , Veronica is a Brainy Brunette businesswoman and Betty is a FBI agent in-training.
• Bedlam House: The Sisters of Quiet Mercy group home is something between a Victorian asylum and an Orphanage of Fear, where teenagers are just as easily committed for mental issues, unplanned pregnancies or "willfulness" as actual problem behavior, and the facility still runs gay conversion therapy regimens. Polly and Cheryl's stays are both clearly shown as being traumatic.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension:
  • Jughead and Veronica seem to be going down this road as of season 2.
  • Archie and Veronica in season 1.
  • Betty and Chuck in season 1 too.
  • Toni and Cheryl until 2x14.
  • FP and Alice.
  • Reggie with both Josie and Veronica.
• Betty and Veronica:
  • Given that they're versions of the Trope Namers, Betty and Veronica naturally play this every which way, for multiple triads. For Archie, Betty is of course the Betty, while Veronica is his Veronica; Betty is the friendly and safe Girl Next Door, while Veronica is the more dangerous seductress.
  • And for a Betty and Veronica Switch — considering the whole Dark Betty shebang and the fact that this version of Veronica is a loving and devoted girlfriend and much nicer person than her comics counterpart, many have argued that Betty is the true Veronica here and Veronica is more of a Betty.
  • This seems to have been the case for Archie and Veronica's parents, with Veronica's mother Hermione Lodge as either the Archie who picked Veronica (the wealthy Hiram) over Betty (Fred) or as the Veronica who dumped Fred (Archie) so he ended up with Archie's mother Mary (the Betty).
  • There's also Betty (Archie), Jughead (Betty) and Archie (Veronica). Interestingly, Jughead definitely has some Veronica traits (lone wolf, always dressed in black, criminal alcoholic father, broken family, a bit of a temper), while Archie has the classic Betty trait of having grown up with Betty and being her best friend since they were children.
  • For Jughead, Betty is his Betty and Toni is his Veronica. Similar to the Betty/Archie/Jughead triangle, there is also a case to be made that Betty is the Veronica and Toni is the Betty because, well, Dark Betty; Betty is also a rather high-maintenance girlfriend at times, can be self-centred and manipulative, and has previously done things to hurt Jughead like lying to him or breaking up with him via Archie. Toni, on the other hand, is very down-to-earth and has been kind, caring and understanding towards Jughead.
  • Alice seems to have been the Archie to Hal's Betty and FP's Veronica in high school. The triangle is revisited in season 2, but Hal is now the Veronica and FP is the Betty.
  • In Season 3, for Veronica, Archie is Veronica and Reggie is Betty . Despite Archie is a Lovable Jock and Reggie a Jerk Jock, Reggie was here for her while Archie left Veronica and broke up with her despite all her involvement to free him of jail (and Hiram).
  • FP is the Archie to Alice's Betty and Gladys's Veronica.
  • After Season 5 time skip, Veronica is caught between Archie's Betty her Old Flame ex-boyfriend and Chad's Veronica, her controlling and possesive husband. Stunningly, this one mirrors with her mother's own love triangle as Archie's is Fred's son and Chad is a Hiram wannabe.
• Big Bad:
  • Season 1: The central mystery of the season is uncovering who murdered Jason Blossom. It turns out to be Clifford Blossom, his father. Clifford also counts as a Non-Action Big Bad. As the depth of his villainy is revealed post-mortem, he remains an antagonistic force, but plots in the background for much of the season, never physically confronting the heroes and only directly committing violence when he murders Jason.
  • Season 2:
    • The Black Hood, an Ax-Crazy Serial Killer and a Knight Templar who sets off on a violent quest to purge Riverdale of all its "sinners". Partway through the season, he is seemingly revealed to be Joseph Svenson, the school janitor, although Archie doesn't believe that he and Betty caught the right man. Near the end of the season, Svenson turns out to be a Decoy Antagonist as the true identity of the Black Hood is revealed to be Hal Cooper.
    • Hiram Lodge, a wealthy and corrupt businessman whose ultimate goal is to have complete control over Riverdale, and who uses any means necessary to achieve it. His actions also stir up conflict in the relationships of other characters, as well as fuelling the ongoing rivalry between the North Side and South Side citizens.
    • The season finale gives us a Big Bad Ensemble of Hiram Lodge, Malachi, Penny Peabody, Penelope Blossom, Claudius Blossom, and Sheriff Manetta, all of whom are conspiring together.
  • The Farm for Season 3, and the Evernevers in particular.
  • Stonewall Prep for Season 4.
  • Hiram returns to this in full force in Season 5, having all but destroyed the town in order to build a suburb for the wealthy called SoDale.
  • The demonic Percival Pickens in Season 6.
• Big Eater:
  • Still a part of Jughead's character, but it isn't played to the unrealistic extents that his comic counterpart is known for, nor is it given as much attention. Instead, we often see him with remnants of previously devoured food, or ordering food.
  • In the second season episode where Jughead goes on a hunger strike, Archie mentions his love of food. Later, F.P. brings a bag of burgers to where he's chained himself to the old school, and promises Jughead that he won't say he cheated.
• Big Fancy House:
  • Thornhill, the Blossoms' mansion on the outskirts of town that later gets burned down by Cheryl. It is so big it has its own cemetery.
  • Thistlehouse, the Blossoms' new home, still counts as this.
    Jughead: This is downsizing?
  • The Lodges' apartment at The Pembrooke is pretty fancy, especially considering that they're no longer wealthy.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family:
  • Throughout the whole of the first season, it is gradually revealed to the viewer that, with their exceedingly clannish and isolationist behavior, the Blossoms are this.
  • Furthermore, over this course of the season, it becomes clear that the Coopers are this as well. Not only do Hal and Alice Cooper send their oldest daughter away to a convalescent home once she becomes pregnant by Jason Blossom, but it's eventually revealed that Hal attempted to talk her into getting an abortion as well.
  • And, if that weren't enough, it's revealed towards the end of the first season that the latter may have been done in-part due to both families sharing a common bloodline. Yeesh.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • In 1.07, Veronica shops from a website called "Glamazon", and her "American Excess" card is reported stolen by her mom.
  • In 1.08, Veronica mentions having been invited to a "Vanity Flair" party one year.
  • In 2.01, Veronica eats baked goods from "Bean and Beluga" and she has Smithers bought a new wallet for Archie's father at "Barnaby's".
  • In 2.09, Hermione Lodge thinks she spotted Hiram with a "Spiffany's" bag and wonders if it contains a "Glamergé" egg, while Veronica borrows her mother's "American Excess" credit card.
  • Throughout the series, characters mention and stay at “The Five Seasons” hotel
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Of the girls, Betty (Blonde), Veronica (Brunette), and Cheryl (Redhead). In the main trio, Archie has the redhead spot.
  • In addition the Riverdale moms: Alice Cooper the Blonde, Hermione Lodge the Brunette and Penelope Blossom/Mary Andrews the Redhead.
  • And the quatuor : Betty is the Blonde, Jughead and Veronica are the Brunettes and Archie is the Redhead.
• Blood Is Squicker in Water: In 1.13, the blood from Archie's bleeding fists as he punches the ice to rescue Cheryl from her suicide attempt rather gruesomely mixes with the water when he finally breaks through.
• Book Ends: Jason Blossom was one of the first characters that appeared in the pilot episode of Riverdale, with his death kickstarting the show's plot. In the final episode, he's there to greet Betty at the Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe in The Sweet Hereafter in the final scene.
• Briefcase Full of Money: During the pilot Hermione Lodge receives a large bag full of cash that presumably comes from her disgraced husband.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • After defending her father being set up, Veronica is rocked to discover he really is a crook who is still pulling off a scheme to devalue Riverdale from prison. Even worse, she finds her mother not only knows but is helping him.
  • Cheryl thought her twin brother Jason was a saint only to discover how he used girls to "gain scores" with the football team.
• Calling the Old Man Out: A very pissed-off Cheryl does this in 1.12 when it's revealed what Clifford has done.
  • Damn near every conversation Veronica and Hiram Lodge features this trope.
• Canon Foreigner: Joaquin, the Southside Serpent who makes out with Kevin in 1.04 is a character wholly original to the show.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Most of the male characters consist of very attractive guys. Examples include Archie, Jughead, Kevin, Reggie, Chuck, Joaquin, Nick, Moose. You could also add the older males such as Fred, FP Jones, Hiram, Sheriff Keller, and Hal.
• Catapult Nightmare: Cheryl has one at the start of 1.05.
• Celebrity Paradox:
  • Cheryl Blossom makes a reference to Mad Men. Mädchen Amick, who plays Mrs. Cooper, was on Mad Men.
  • Cheryl also calls Archie and his friends "Sad Breakfast Club", Molly Ringwald, who starred in The Breakfast Club appears as Archie's mother in the second half of the season.
  • Cheryl also mentions that she used to watch Wizards of Waverly Place, which had a Crossover with The Suite Life on Deck starring Cole Sprouse.
• The Chessmaster: Hiram Lodge is the most obvious example. Penelope Blossom in the season 3 finale.
• Childhood Friend Romance:
  • Played with, Archie and Betty do love each other, and have outright admitted it to each other, but according to Archie, nothing can happen between them, because he believes he will never be good enough for her. This may be changing as of the end of season 2, if the longing gaze between the two of them from their respective bedroom windows, after having been dumped by Veronica and Jughead, is a sign of anything.
  • Jughead and Betty have this dynamic as well, as confirmed by Cole Sprouse.
• Christianity is Catholic: The only denomination that appears on the show is Catholicism. The Coopers sent Polly to an institution ran by nuns and Hermione goes as far as praying in actual Latin.
• Color-Coded Characters: Betty is always dressed in baby blue or pink, while Veronica is in black or purple, to match their love triangle personas. Cheryl tends to be red but it's less consistent.
  • Best exemplified during 1.12, where for the homecoming dance Veronica is wearing a sparkling black dress with a fur shawl, Betty is wearing a satin baby blue dress, and Cheryl is wearing a backless red gown.
  • Even seen in their makeup. Cheryl is always wearing striking red lipstick, Veronica is often wearing berry toned lipstick, and Betty is usually wearing soft pink lip-gloss.
  • Cheryl is also strongly associated with the colour white, and as mentioned before Veronica wears a lot of black. To a lesser degree, whenever Betty wears a neutral colour, it is usually grey.
• Comic-Book Time: Despite being based on a comic where this is very much the case, the show actually manages to invert it come Season 5, where the characters all jump ahead seven years...but the show itself remains set in the real-world present. See Writers Cannot Do Math for more.
• Confession Triggers Consummation: Subverted. Betty and Jughead become an Official Couple after loads of Ship Tease in the sixth episode of the first season. The two remain together despite the stressful situations they find themselves in, from their family issues to investigating the murder of Jason Blossom. It takes until the season one finale for them to finally say the words "I love you" to one another—it's heavily implied that had the Serpents not showed up on the doorstep there and then, they would have had sex.
• Contrived Coincidence: Pretty lucky for Not-Chic that Alice happened to have had an illegitimate son with FP, proving a convenient excuse for why Chic doesn't have Hal's "Blossom Blood" in him, huh?
• Corporate Conspiracy: Hiram Lodge, after getting out of jail for White-Collar Crime, orchestrates one of these to rebuild his reputation in Riverdale and ensure his family's wealth for years to come. His SoDale project consists of greatly devaluing the already impoverished Southside to acquire the land cheaply, so that he can build a Private Profit Prison within Riverdale. And that's only the tip of the iceberg for his ambitions...
• Corruption of a Minor: Chic seems to be starting this with Betty at the end of "The Wrestler".
• Creepy Good:
  • Jughead is this to some extent. The actors have a tendency to give him somewhat ominous descriptions only to say afterwards that he's attempting to solve the mystery. He's a "troubled, bullied, loner" which makes him seem suspicious to a few.
  • Betty singing Happy Birthday to Jughead. The lighting throws her face into very creepy shadows but the singing is so beautiful you actively make an effort to look past it.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • The first season starts with Cheryl's twin brother Jason (who she has twincest implications with) turn up dead and the entire season is about solving his murder. In the pilot alone, it has Archie sleeping with his teacher only to blackmail her, Archie being Mistaken for Murderer, references to the "rainbow party" urban legends, and Reggie getting underaged drunk. Most of the characters are much more miserable and depressed as well.
  • Season 2 takes this even further. There is more violence and tragedy, with less levity to balance it out, and more of an emphasis on psychological horror. The new villain, the Black Hood, is a vicious Serial Killer who is more openly sadistic and Ax-Crazy than anyone before.
• Deadpan Snarker: Jughead, Veronica, Reggie and Cheryl both fit this trope, with Cheryl especially having a propensity for saying things that are either mildly insulting or inappropriate—in one episode she quickly tells Fred Andrews he looks "dilf-y", and then shortly after says she can't be in his house long because its so small her claustrophobia will act up.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • The show starts with Jason Blossom dying, apparently by accident. The plot kicks in at the end of pilot when his body is discovered with a bullet in his skull.
  • The real Miss Grundy has been dead for years by the time the show starts.
  • And, as of 1.12, Clifford Blossom as well.
• Death Glare: Betty delivers a hell of one to Cheryl after the latter accuses Betty's sister of murdering Jason.
  Betty: Cheryl, get the hell out of my house before I kill you.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Some characters break their archetypes as the story progreses:
  • Archie is this to the Ideal Hero archetype. At first considered as the Riverdale golden boy (especially after Jason's death) by many other characters (his father Fred sees him as his sucessor in Andrews Construction , his best friend Betty idealizes him and Reggie is jealous of him due to his talent in football and Chick Magnet status), Archie's flaws become more apparent after he engages in an affair with his music teacher, and he becomes easily manipulated by adults who have their own interests, all part and parcel of becoming Darker and Edgier. Sure he still has a kind and heroic nature but he's much more complex now.
  • Betty with the Girl Next Door trope. She's the neighboor of Archie as his childhood female friend and obvious Love Interest. In addition she's pretty, smart, an excellent student and considered as the perfect girl. But as the show continues, Betty shows some mental issues and a darker side of herself. Romantically speaking, she's became a downplayed love interest to Archie as the Unlucky Childhood Friend and then being romantically involved with Jughead. She is more morally grey and impulsive as well than a basic example of the trope.
  • Cheryl is this with the Rich Bitch archetype. She's the Alpha Bitch of Riverdale High and a member of the wealthy Blossom family. Sure she's snobbish, arrogant and mean but it's somewhat a Freudian Excuse due to her family background, especially her mom's abuse towards her. Her twin bond with Jason is the main indication of her humanity deeper personality, though she invariably defaults to Rich Bitch mode.
• Denser and Wackier: The first season is a relatively mundane murder mystery teen drama with nothing in the way of any fantastical elements. The second season sees the debut of a Serial Killer as an Arc Villain, Jughead becoming the leader of a biker gang, and Archie starting a gang of vigilantes called the Red Circle, while Season Three gets even more off the rails with the introduction of elements like multiple cults, legitimate supernatural elements, an organ harvesting ring, and so on. Over time, the show's genre has slid from teen drama into a kind of neo-noir grab bag with horror and fantasy elements; by Season Six, it could best be described as an almost dreamlike fantasy series, akin to Passions or Dark Shadows.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • Clifford Blossom seemingly hangs himself after the cops learn he killed his son. However, in the season 2 opener, the dialogue from Cheryl when she's blackmailing her mother implies there's more than meets the eye - it's later confirmed in season 3 that Penelope poisoned him and strung him up.
  • In the season 1 finale, Cheryl attempts suicide after her mother basically tells her she might as well kill herself before the family curse claims her life.
  • Various people fallen under the sway of the Gargoyle King are goaded into committing suicide by cyanide, including Dilton Doiley.
  • Going along with the first point, various men that were near Penelope wind up committing suicide one way or another - it's actually revealed that she poisoned them and faked their suicides, including Clifford's.
• Establishing Character Moment: The end of 1.01 serves as this for Archie, at least in some manner. He's packed his schedule full with football, music, and apprenticing at his dad's company, all three things that normally would be full time and a potential serious future. Clearly, as we already knew given his famous love interest debacle, Archie couldn't make a decision if his life depended on it.
• Jugheads mentor Brad Raybury is obviously based on Ray Bradbury.
• Everyone Is a Suspect: Almost. There are only three people who couldn't have murdered Jason; Hermione, Veronica, and Archie. Hermione and Veronica because they weren't in town yet, and Archie because if just hearing a gunshot which, as it turns out, had nothing to do with Jason's murder gave the poor kid that much guilt, there's no way he could survive being a murderer. Lampshaded.
  Betty: So, are you a suspect now?
  Kevin: My dad says we all are.
  Veronica: Not me, girl! I don't know these people.

F to J

• Fanservice: Basically, there's a lot of it throughout the series (well, it is a show on the CW).
  • The first ten minutes of the pilot include Archie's abs and Betty's cleavage. Not to mention a cheerleader aspect with Betty, Veronica, and Cheryl all being in the River Vixens (the Riverdale High cheer squad). And if Betty and Veronica in cheerleader uniforms isn't enough for you, how about Betty and Veronica in cheerleader uniforms making out?
  • Special mention of Betty and Veronica in lingerie and swimsuit respectively in 1.03.
  • Reggie's shirtless scene in 1.05.
  • In 1.07, we're treated to Jughead without a shirt. He's very toned.
  • Cheryl is fond of reminding the viewers that She's Got Legs. Even if it's snowing.
  • 2.02 gives us Cheryl in some very revealing red lingerie.
  • 2.07 shows Sheriff Keller working out shirtless.
    Veronica: Archie Andrews, watch your back.
  • 2.08 gives a Lingerie Scene to both Betty and Veronica. Entertainment Weekly sums in Betty's below:
    (Betty) doesn’t just sing. Oh no. She starts TAKING OFF HER CLOTHES. And then before you know it, she’s doing a pole dance in lingerie to a room filled with her boyfriend, her mother, her boyfriend’s father, and about 50 other strangers, many of whom are ADULTS. Reminder: Betty is a teen! Also, of all the critiques in the world: “Mad World” is a terrible striptease song.
• Fantastic Drug: "Jingle Jangle" is a notorious party drug which is commonly packaged and consumed similar to pixie sticks. What it actually does to a user or how it is manufactured is left extremely vague.
• Fauxlosophical Narration: A number of episodes feature Jughead's pretentious voiceover.
• Feuding Families: The Blossoms and the Coopers have been blood enemies for over 3 generations, ever since Cheryl's great grandfather murdered Betty's great grandfather and stole his cut of the maple syrup business. Not only that but it's eventually revealed that the two great-grandfathers were brothers, as well.
• Flirty Step Siblings: Inverted by Betty and Jughead, who were already dating when their parents got together. Bizarrely, this trope is also Zig-Zagged because FP and Alice were a couple in high school and had a child together, so their relationship pre-dates that of their kids even though they broke up a long time before Betty and Jughead got together.
• Foreshadowing: In the opening to the second episode, the Blossoms examine Jason's corpse in the morgue. Cheryl collapses into her tearful mother's arms. Clifford doesn't react at all.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: The Rivervale episodes. While not entirely out of character for the show's usual horrific fare, the relationship and plot changes are almost entirely out of left field and have barely anything to do with the show up until this point.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Archie (phlegmatic), Betty (sanguine), Veronica (choleric), and Jughead (melancholic).
• Freudian Trio: Veronica could be considered the Superego to Betty's Ego and Cheryl's Id.
• "Friends" Rent Control: Hermione and Veronica move into a pretty fancy apartment in Riverdale despite their primary source of income being jailed, and Hermione initially only getting work as a waitress. Veronica is still seen with an Unlimited Wardrobe, which we can assume were things she owned before Hiram was jailed.
• The Game Plays You: Gryphons & Gargoyles (aka. G&G), a blatant expy of Dungeons & Dragons. It's addictive nature is reinforced by encouraging drug use. There is also an apparent conspiracy, possibly more than one, influencing the game from behind the scenes and driving players to commit crimes. For example, Hiram Lodge inserted a number of quest cards into the game instructing players to "Kill the Red Paladin", who is actually Archie Andrews. This leads to murder attempts on Archie, exactly as Hiram intended.
• Gay Best Friend: Kevin Keller is this to both Betty and Veronica.
  Veronica: You're gay! Can we be best friends?
• Gay Cruising: In season two, Kevin Keller looks for sex out in the woods at night, despite the Black Hood killer being out and about. When Betty confronts him on this, he tells her he's the only openly out gay teen at Riverdale and this would be the only way he can seek any type of affection. However, his cruising continues until he's an adult and in a committed (but open) relationship; he meets up with guys in the woods and at truck stops. He's forced to examine his behavior after getting bashed in a sauna after he accidentally hits on a straight guy.
• Generation Xerox:
  • Fred walks in to the alumni inclusive Homecoming with A Lady on Each Arm, both beautiful, but one rich and the other modest. No, his son definitely didn't inherit these Betty and Veronica issues.
  • Both Veronica and her mom had a past of being mean girls in high school.
  • Taken to the extreme in the episode "The Midnight Club", where the younger cast plays their characters' parents in what’s pretty much a Whole Episode Flashback (i.e. Cole Sprouce as FP, KJ Apa as Fred, etc).
• Genre Roulette: Riverdale can switch easily between genres within a single episode (partly due having an Ensemble Cast with multiple, simultaneous plotlines). It can be a Teen Drama Coming of Age Story, a Amateur Sleuth Detective Drama, a Criminal Procedural, Horror and even occasionally a Musical. All while being a neo-noir.
• Genre Shift: Season 2 marks a subtle but noticeable shift from the Film Noir style of the first season to an almost Slasher Movie feel. Season 3, which coincided with Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, makes the horror vibes more overt in the side of the story that Betty and Jughead deal with, but the plot deals with things that seem supernatural and reveals that The Farm that was mentioned previously is a cult. Season 6 completely shifts the series to a Sci-Fi/Superhero-type show complete with the characters gaining superpowers and alternate timelines.
• God Is Good: Is at least implied in episode 11.06, when Tabitha is send back in time at critical points to save Riverdale from Percival Pickens, and she is assisted by one of God's top angels, the archangel Raphael. And apparently, she, Jughead, Betty, Cheryl and Archie are all chosen by Him to battle the forces of evil in Riverdale.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Not only did Polly not have an abortion, but her father pushing her to have one is treated as such a monstrous thing to do that Alice immediately kicks him out when she finds out. The show very awkwardly avoids actually saying the word abortion, using words like "appointment" instead.
• Graduate from the Story: Season 4 had the characters going off to college, then the show was retooled with a Time Skip in Season 5 that had them all as post-college adults.
• Grand Finale: The series ends somewhat bittersweetly; the cast is still stuck in the 1950s and cannot return to their previous lives, and they go their separate ways after graduation. But Riverdale is saved from being destroyed, and various characters live happy, fulfilling lives and/or make their mark on the world:
  • Archie moves to Modesto, California and becomes a construction worker while working on his poetry. He falls in love with a woman there, gets married and has a family, and dies after living a long life. He's buried in Riverdale, right next to his father.
  • Jughead founded a satirical magazine Jughead's Madhouse, in the vein of MAD magazine; he never marries, but he lived until he was 84 years old, and is well remembered for Jughead's Madhouse.
  • Veronica moves back to Los Angeles to work in Hollywood and eventually works her way up to be Oscar-winning movie producer and studio head of Silver Shield Studios, and dies after living a long, prosperous life and is buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
  • Cheryl and Toni stayed together and also moved to California, Cheryl becoming a famous artist and Toni continuing her activism. They even have a son named Dale, named after Riverdale.
  • Reggie plays basketball for Kansas State, then makes the NBA and plays for the Lakers. After he suffered a knee injury, he retired and moved back to Riverdale, where he marries and had two sons, and coaches the high school's baskteball team. After he dies, he's buried in Duck Creek and his sons run the car dealership in Riverdale.
  • Fangs was able to Midge out of the Sisters of Quiet Mercy, and later married her and meets his daughter. He becomes a rock and roll star, but unfortunately dies young when he is killed in a bus accident. His music was still very successful, and Midge and his daughter were well compensated from the royalites from his singles.
  • Kevin and Clay move to Harlem, New York for university, and they continue their relationship. Kevin later opens an off-Broadway theater company and Clay becomes a college professor. Kevin dies at 82 and Clay dies several weeks afterward.
  • Other endings include Archie's mother Mary settling down with a woman, Alice divorcing Hal and becoming a flight attendant and marries again after saving an airplane from crashing, Polly gives birth to her twins and retires her burlesque act, Julian Blossom gets killed in action during The Vietnam War, Pop Tate dies during senior year and is memorialized by the town, Principal Weatherbee and Ms. Thorton marry, Nana Blossom is reincarnated several times, and Tom Keller and Frank Andrews get murdered by a hustler they pick up who turns out to be Chic, of all people.
  • And finally, Betty continued to write, and founded a feminist magazine She Says, never marries and adopts a child, and later has a granddaughter. She is taken through Riverdale one more time by her granddaughter before she passes away in the backseat. Her younger self then joins Archie, Jughead, Veronica, and the rest of her friends in the Sweet Hereafter, where they stay young forever, a nod to the comic book Riverdale is based on as the Archie characters are eternal high schoolers.
• Gratuitous French : Upper-class girls Cheryl and Veronica like to pepper their speech with French words and locutions.
• Heel–Face Turn: Around 1.07, Alice Cooper begins to become a more positive character, once she decides to fully embrace her daughter, throw out her husband (for pressuring Polly to get an abortion—which he also made Alice do when they were younger) and soon is trying to investigate Jason's death for more than just professional reasons.
• Held Gaze: Characters who have romantic interest in one another tend to maintain eye contact for a bit longer than usual. Usually doubles as Ship Tease, though there are platonic occurrences, too.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: When Archie gets into boxing in season three, neither he nor his opponents ever wear headgear, even when they're only sparring.
• Hereditary Homosexuality:
  • Moose Mason is bisexual and his RROTC leader father actually attempts to scare him straight in an episode. It is later revealed that Moose's father is gay and did go through conversion therapy.
  • The penultimate episode of the entire series reveals the gay Kevin Keller's father, Tom Keller, is also gay (or bisexual) as Kevin Keller walks in on him post-coitus with Archie's uncle Frank getting out of the shower. But this may just be a Frank Keller that never was supposed to exist due to the timeline shenanigans that were happening.
• Hereditary Twinhood: Cheryl is the Angsty Surviving Twin to Jason. In hindsight, Cheryl and Jason being twins is a hint that twins run in their family.
  • Their father Clifford is revealed to have a long-lost twin brother in season 2.
  • Jason himself fathers fraternal twins with Polly—Juniper and Dagwood. Cheryl attributes this to twins running in the Blossom genes, even though this would be dependent on the mother's genes, not Jason's.
• Honorable Marriage Proposal: In season 1, it's revealed that Jason Blossom impregnated Polly Cooper. When he found out, he planned to elope with her, but was murdered before he could.
• Ice Queen: Veronica was this along with a Rich Bitch. She changed after realizing what her wealth and status turned her into, but can still break out the icy glare and voice when she has to. She even says in 1.01 that her "specialty is ice."
• Iconic Item: Like in the comics, Jughead's hat and Veronica's pearls and Birkin bag. Veronica destroys the pearl necklace her father gave her after finally coming to terms with the person he really is, but doesn't stop wearing pearls.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode takes its name from classic noir/neo-noir and drama/thriller films such as River's Edge, Touch of Evil, Body Double and The Last Picture Show. They're styled as chapters "Chapter 1: River's Edge." Exception: "Chapter 11: To Riverdale and Back Again"—which is named after the 1990 Made-for-TV Movie with the gang as adults.
• Idiot Ball:
  • Did Veronica really think she could fool her career capo of a dad with phony accounting?
  • The whole season 1 could have been halted on its tracks if either family simply told Jason and Polly that they can't be a couple because they are cousins.
• Illegal Gambling Den: Being deeply in debt to her father, Gladys Jones and the bank in season three, Veronica Lodge temporarily opens one at her club La Bonne Nuit, hoping to make enough to pay off her debts. Unfortunately her acquaintance Elio (the son of New York Mob Boss) keeps cleaning up forcing her into even more debt, until Hiram takes her aside to reveal Elio's cheating in an attempt to make the Lodges look weak. Together they conspired to beat Elio in one really big game, thus winning her money back.
• In Name Only: Downplayed compared to most cases. The Archie Comics are almost obnoxiously wholesome and cheerful. This live action adaptation...is Darker and Edgier instead but centered around a redheaded teenager named Archie Andrews (so that's similar). However, there are several non-canon one-off series set in the Archie universe (one of which was written by the show's lead writer) that are much closer in tone, particularly the horror parts of Seasons 2 and 3.
• Incest Subtext:
  • Between Cheryl and Jason. The pilot starts with them getting into a boat together and acting more like a romantic couple than siblings. Not to mention she refers to him as her soulmate at his memorial. With the season three reveal of Penelope being adopted and groomed by the Blossoms to be Clifford's bride, this could be an intentional move by the Blossom family. This series also comes from the creator of Afterlife with Archie, where the incest was also strongly implied.
  • Between Hiram and Veronica, e.g. his adversarial relationship with Archie and her near-constant use of the word "daddy". Her therapist even says outright that the two of them are obsessed with each other and uses words like primal and sexual to describe their relationship.
  • Hal and Betty's relationship takes a similar turn after the revelation that he's the Black Hood, since as the Black Hood he was especially fixated on her. Their dynamic in season 3 is intentionally evocative of Hannibal and Clarice from Silence of the Lambs, including some of the sexual subtext.
  • Betty's long lost brother Chic gives off a lot of weird, creepy vibes towards her. Doesn't help that he stood over her bed watching her while she slept and later introduced her to the world of webcam modeling. Later subverted when it's revealed he's not actually her brother.
• Informed Attribute: Characters often remark upon Jughead's tendency to eat a lot, an element of his characterisation from the source material. However, in the show we see Jughead eat more or less as much and as often as any other character.
• Informed Small Town: While Riverdale is established in the first season to take place in a small town, it has over the course of seasons two and three become a Wretched Hive, and its size seems to vary depending on the episode.
• It Runs in the Family: Certain traits are very recurring in some Riverdale families.
  • The Lodge women have a tendency to be vicious bitches when young, but eventually grow out of it.
  • The Coopers all tend to have deeply repressed anger issues that blow up unexpectedly. A trait they may share with their cousins the Blossoms.
  • Red hair is one of the distinguishing traits of the main branch of the Blossom family, to a greater degree than simple genetics could account for. Given what is shown of Penelope's history, and her own behavior towards Archie in season one, there is a strong implication that the Blossom's practice Arranged Marriage specifically to preserve this trait. Conformed in Season 3 with Penelope’s backstory: she was adopted by the Blossoms as a child from the Sisters of Quiet Mercy to be Clifford’s future bride. She was chosen for her red hair.
  • Twins also run in the Blossoms: Cheryl and Jason, Dagwood and Juniper, Clifford and Claudius.
  • Violent insanity seems to run in the Blossom/Cooper bloodline. To wit:
    • On the Blossom branch, both Clifford and Claudius are greedy sociopaths. One is a murderer (Clifford) while the other is an attempted murderer (Claudius).
    • On the Cooper branch, no less than three generations of Cooper men have been cold-blooded murders, while Betty regularly struggles with what is heavily implied to be an un-diagnosed mental illness, which Chapter 35 implies Polly also has.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • As obnoxious and insufferable as Alice Cooper can be, it's hard to argue with her wanting to put a stop to Miss Grundy's actions regarding teenage boys.
  • Though in one scene she swings from calling Miss Grundy a child predator to victim blaming Archie to outright dismissing the idea that he is a victim. She cares far more about humiliating Archie and trying to convince Betty that this makes him a bad person and she should stop being his friend than anything Grundy was doing. She also seems not to mind the idea of Grundy continuing her actions as long as it's not in Riverdale, so what exactly was her point?

K to O

• Keeping Secrets Sucks: Archie carries around the fact that he heard a gunshot go off at Sweet Water July 4, but can't speak about it due to being with Miss Grundy.
• Killed Off for Real: Miss Grundy, Midge Klump, Clifford and Claudius Blossom, Tall Boy, Fred Andrews and Hiram Lodge.
• Kissing Cousins: Jason and Polly, not that they knew.
• Kryptonite Factor: When Archie became Nigh-Invulnerable in Season 6, he finds out he loses his powers when he's around palladium and asks Betty to keep it away from him. This, of course, is used against him by the season's Big Bad. He later overcomes this weakness when Cheryl forged his skin to be impervious to palladium, but in the process he gains a new weakness: the daggers of Migido.
• A Lady on Each Arm:
  • Archie's grand entrance at the dance in 1.01. Betty on one arm, Veronica on the other.
  • This is how Fred attends the Homecoming dance, with his estranged wife Mary on one arm and old flame Hermione on the other.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: From the first to fifth season, the show was generally consistent with being a genre mixture of murder mysteries, soap opera, teen romance/drama, and a Coming of Age Story for Archie and his friends. And most supernatural elements during that time were eventually revealed to be a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax of some kind. However, by the sixth season, things really get changed up because supernatural elements and magic become very real for the town, Archie and many of his close friends get superpowers, and parallel worlds like Rivervale are dealt with for the first time.
• Legion of Doom: Season 2 ends with Hiram forming one, consisting of himself, Penelope and Claudius Blossom, Sheriff Mineta, Penny Peabody, and Malachi.
• Let the Past Burn: In "The Sweet Hereafter", Cheryl intentionally burns down her own mansion because she sees it as the only way for her remaining family to start over.
• Locked Out of the Loop: The entire high school aged generation of Riverdale is completely ignorant of the Cooper-Blossom Feud, even though it has been going on for the better part of 75 years and Hermione compares it to the Hatfields & the McCoys.
• Love Dodecahedron:
  • Both Betty and Veronica are pining for Archie, and he's attracted to both of them as well. But Archie is also pining for Miss Grundy, whom he's had sex with. Then Archie strikes up a relationship with Pussycats member Valerie after Grundy is run out of town. Around the same time Betty and Jughead also begin a relationship, which seems to make Archie jealous and has him seem to reevaluate his feelings towards Betty.
  • Cheryl, the classic Third-Option Love Interest, is entirely removed from the dodecahedron here. Until "La Grande Illusion" that is, when she makes a move on Archie. He rejects her, though.
• Marry Them All: So how does the show resolve the long-standing shipping war that included Betty/Jughead, Veronica/Archie, Betty/Archie, Betty/Veronica? The finale reveals that all four of them decide to be in a quad relationship. Betty dated both Jughead and Archie, and Veronica did the same and then sometimes Veronica and Betty would hook up. Also apparently Jughead and Archie were dating as well, though it wasn't shown. The quad doesn't last, the group still end up going their separate ways after graduating high school.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
  • In "The Outsiders", Rose Blossom predicts through a Romani ritual that Polly is carrying twins, which in very next episode is confirmed by doctors to be true. However, it's also implied that twins are quite common in the Blossom linage, and since Polly is also a Blossom it could be a genetic factor (since Jason, being male, doesn't impact the chances of twins, even though he is one, it would have to be through Polly.)
  • "Tales from the Darkside" is the first episode to establish that there is something off about Greendale, without outright confirming it is supernatural. To wit:
    • Penny implies there's something of a When the Clock Strikes Twelve situation about the town.
    • After Jughead drives off with Farmer McGinty, a blood covered deer walks out of the woods, crosses the road, stops, and turns to look creepily at Archie.
    • The crate Archie and Jughead drive to Greendale. The boys and Farmer McGinty are both convinced that it contains drugs, but it is secured by chains and the writing on the side points to it originating in Lovecraft Country.
  • Also in "Tales from the Darkside", Farmer McGinty seems to believe that the Riverdale Reaper and the Black Hood are one and the same, despite being active decades apart from one another.
• Menacing Mask: The Snuff Film actors in The Auteur's videos wear plastic masks depicting the comic versions of the characters.
• Misplaced Retribution: The main reason Hal Cooper hated Jason Blossom, even before his falling out with Polly, was something that Jason's great grandfather did. Granted, that something was murdering Hal's grandfather and stealing his fortune, but Jason still had nothing whatsoever to do with it. Of course, that may be also be because Hal is technically a Blossom as well.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Smithers seems to have this for Hiram and Hermione. He never speaks ill of them, even to Veronica, who he treats with deference and love. It helps that the family treats him in particular well, even if they're not so to others.
• Mythology Gag:
  • On the school tour, Betty says it was built in 1941, the year the Archie comic series started.
  • The "Welcome to Riverdale" sign describes it as "The Town with PEP!" Archie first appeared in Pep Comics #22.
  • The comic book store shown in "The River's Edge" is named MLJ Comics, the original name of Archie's publishing company.
  • Josie and the Pussycats perform "Sugar, Sugar", the 1969 Archies single that reached #1 on the Billboards top 100.
  • Kevin refers to Veronica's behavior as her being possessed by Madam Satan, a character from Pep Comics and, more recently, the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
  • Referring to a converation that happened when they were children, Archie says Betty referred to him as "Little Archie", which was a comic about Archie's childhood from 1956 to 1983.
  • Mayor McCoy mentions that the Taste of Riverdale is a lead up to Riverdale's 75th Anniversary. Archie Comics was approaching its 75th anniversary.
  • "In A Lonely Place" opens with Jughead having a dream in which he, Betty, Veronica, and Archie are dressed like their classic comic book counterparts.
  • In "The Lost Weekend", Veronica wishes Jughead a happy birthday in Spanish, saying "feliz cumpleaños, Torombolo." Torombolo translates roughly to "pot-belly" or "chubby", which was Jughead's name in the Spanish translations of the comics.
  • The mysterious killer Black Hood is named after the MLJ superhero.
  • The name of Archie's vigilante group, the Red Circle, is a reference to the label Archie Comics has used since the 1970s for their superhero characters.
  • Archie using "Wilbur Wilkins" on his fake I.D. references the earlier character, a proto-Archie who was eclipsed in popularity and retooled decades later as Bingo Wilkin.
  • The drug Jingle Jangle is named after the 1969 Archies song "Jingle Jangle".
  • Jughead sometimes nicknames Archie "Pureheart the Powerful" for his heroic tendencies. The comic Archie's Super Teens had the cast become superheroes, and Pureheart the Powerful was Archie's superhero name.
• The Mothman: In Season 5, Jughead interviews a man about mysterious aliens he dubs "mothmen" who kidnapped his friends for alien experiments decades ago.
• The Narrator: Jughead acts as the narrator, reading aloud the book he wrote concerning Jason's murder.
• Never Found the Body: Played with in the pilot. Jason's body was never found after he reportedly drowned in an accident, instantly putting everyone on guard for him to not really be dead. Then at the end of the pilot Kevin finds his very dead body... with a bullet hole in the forehead.
• No Bisexuals: Averted with most of the characters (Moose, Toni, etc.). The case with Cheryl Blossom. A lesbian who is still obsessed with her dead twin brother Jason and harbors a Yandere hostility against anybody who didn't like Jason.
• Non-Residential Residence: Jughead briefly lives in the projection booth of a drive-in theater.
• Odd Friendship: Quite a few among the main cast:
  • Archie, the football player and musician, has this with Jughead, the intellectual loner. Despite their differences, they're essentially brothers in all but name. This is partially due to their fathers' respective friendship since their own teenage years.
  • Betty and Veronica hit it off quite well and quickly become sisterly, despite Betty being a middle-class and small town girl, and Veronica being a rich socialite from New York.
  • Jughead and Veronica initially don't interact, but eventually become close due to their (and Betty's) shared interest in solving the murder of Jason Blossom. Compounding this friendship is the fact that Jughead is dating Veronica's best friend, and Veronica is dating Jughead's best friend.
• Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome:
  • Varchie breaks up right at the prom, when Archie confesses to Veronica he kissed Betty during Heddwig. Seven years later, Archie is returning from an unknown war, while Veronica is married to a man named Chadwick, who’s Hiram 2.0.
  • Bughead: Unlike the couple above, Betty and Jughead didn't have a moment of breaking up. They didn't have the courage to discuss what led to the kiss and how they could save their relationship, which led in time to them distancing from each other and moving on with other people as adults.
  • Choni doesn't do better either. Cheryl choses to break up with Toni because she doesn't want the later to chose between her and her family, but promises they will rekindle their relationship in the future, once Cheryl repairs all the damage her family did. The problem is, when Toni returned back in Riverdale after 7 years, Cheryl still doesn't want to be with her for some obscure reasons, even if there is nothing technically staying in their way.
    Kevin: RIP, Choni!
• Old Flame: Riverdale loves to do this with the older generation. ''The Midnight Club'' shows how the present day couples Fred/Hermione, FP/Alice, and Tom/Sierra all had romantic history in high school.
• Older Than They Look: Investigating the farm, Betty looks into the record for Edgar's daughter, Evelyn, who pushes kids to join up. Betty soon uncovers that Evelyn is actually almost 30 and has been repeating her junior year at various high schools for a decade as part of the scam. Also, she's not Edgar's daughter but his wife.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Kevin seems to have a propensity for this.

P to W

• Parental Abandonment: Mary Andrews left her husband and son behind to "follow her dreams". Jughead's mom took his little sister and left as well because she couldn't deal with her husband's drinking and unemployment
• Parental Savings Splurge: Betty's mother Alice decides to give all of Betty's college money to the Farm cult she has joined. Despite trying to stop her by getting legal documents, Betty fails to get the money back.
• The Perfectionist: Alice Cooper is one and puts exceedingly high expectations on Betty as a result. At one point, the overburdened Betty mentions that she hates the word perfect, no doubt just that reason.
• Personality Powers: After the Season 5 explosion in the Andrews house, Archie, Betty, Jughead and Cheryl show gaining powers that reflect their characteristic traits. Later, they are joined by Tabitha and Veronica.
  • Archie as the resident Big Guy of the show, becomes invulnerable and super strong, gaining density and weight in addition.
  • Betty, who is very intuitive, deductive and street-smart, and who struggled most of her life with her own inner demons and killer genes (fearing she is an evil person pretending to be good), gains the ability to see danger and people's true intentions through Aura Vision.
  • Played With in the case of Jughead; he develops mind-reading abilities which can be explained by his Character Narrator role with his voice-overs.
  • Cheryl, who was always an intense person (with some pyromaniac tendencies) and a Wild Card, develops pyrokinesis, though in her case it's (at least partly) due to her ancestor Abigael's taking residence within her body. She doubles also as the resident Dark Magical Girl, which goes in hand with a Gothic Nightmare Fetishist like her.
  • Tabitha becomes Riverdale's guardian angel, gaining the power to travel through and control time. Being a former CEO, she is a naturally meticulous person and skilled at problem-solving. The fact that she was chosen to be a guardian angel goes in hand with her role as The Reliable One and dedication to activism.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Jason's.
• Popular Is Dumb: Averted—while Cheryl's brains aren't her most obvious asset, she is not only something of a schemer, but also has a 4.0 GPA. Same thing with Veronica who was quite popular in New York, and also has a good head on her shoulders.
• Preppy Name: Many characters have some really pretentious names which often reflects their families' high status in Riverdale society, especially when it comes to the female characters.
  • Elizabeth "Betty" Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Antoinette "Toni" Topaz , Cheryl Marjorie Blossom have downright royal themed names commonly found in European nobility, but not so much among commoners.
  • There are Veronica's parents, Hiram and Hermione Lodge and Cheryl's: Clifford and Penelope Blossom.
  • Even Archie, despite being the most relatable character; his name is actually Archibald "Archie" Andrews, with Archibald being a common name in the Scottish nobility, contrasting the very mundane-sounding names of his parents, Mary and Fred Andrews.
  • Reginald "Reggie" Mantle. As if he needs a bigger head.
  • But the one who takes the cake is mister Forsythe Pendleton Jones the III, also known as Jughead.
• Pretentious Latin Motto: The gates of Thornhill read Radices currere abyssi ("Roots run deep").
  • Which is Canis Latinicus, for that matter ^note a correct translation would be : alte descendent radices
• Prisoner's Last Meal: Metaphorically referenced in the Musical Episode "Chapter 51: Big Fun." During Toni's song, "Dead Girl Walking", she sings about wanting to spend her last 30 hours to live "getting freaky" with a love interest whom she compares to her "last meal on death row."
• Private Profit Prison: Late into the second season, this is revealed to be the purpose of Hiram Lodge's mysterious SoDale project, for which he greatly devalued the already impoverished Southside to acquire the land cheap. He admits to Archie the profits it will create will ensure his family's fortunes for generations, and sells it to the people by claiming it will restore law and ensure greater safety following the Black Hood murder spree. However, it turns out to only be the tip of the iceberg of his ambitions.
• Product Placement: CoverGirl is a sponsor of the show, so some episodes show characters putting on their makeup with the camera focused on the product name.
  • Starting in Season 3, there are frequent, incredibly-obvious plugs for the dating app Bumble. Combined with the rampant use of Bland-Name Product for pretty much everything else., it's nearly absurd.
• Promoted to Love Interest: In the comics, Jughead and Betty are usually just good friends, with Jughead usually encouraging Archie to choose Betty over Veronica. Here, Betty and Jughead have a romance together, and share a kiss in 1.06. It's the first time they're together in any adaptation.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: Betty and Veronica have shades of this being close friends but having several romantic gestures like their kiss in the show's first episode (which is actually the first kiss seen in the show without flashbacks included).
• Public Secret Message: On the first season score album, the first letter of every track spells out "Riverdale is an ordinary town".
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  Veronica: [to Chuck] Take. This^note (the faked Sticky Maple picture of her). The Hell. Down.
• Race Lift: Quite a few examples.
  • Most notably, Archie is being played by K.J. Apa, a New Zealander actor of Samoan descent. Not really a race lift, since though K.J. Apa is a quarter Samoan, Archie is presented on the show as a white character with two white parents.
  • Veronica is portrayed by Camila Mendes, a Latina actress of Brazilian ancestry.
  • Veronica's mother Hermione is played by Marisol Nichols, who is of mixed ancestry (Romanian-Hungarian-Mexican), and her father Hiram is played by Mark Consuelos, who has Italian and Mexican heritage.
  • Josie and Melody of Josie and the Pussycats are portrayed by Ashleigh Murray and Asha Bromfield, black actresses.
  • Reggie is portrayed by Ross Butler in the first season, who is half Indonesian. Charles Melton, also of Asian descent, plays him in the second season.
  • Dilton is portrayed in the pilot by Daniel Yang, who's Chinese. Afterwards he is played by Major Curda, who is half-Korean and half-white.
  • Pop Tate is portrayed by Alvin Sanders, who is black.
  • Mr. Weatherbee is portrayed by black actor Peter Bryant.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: As Vanessa Morgan was pregnant during the filming of Season 5 the writers decided to write her pregnancy into the show.
  • The reason why Fred Andrews died in season four was the death of his actor Luke Perry
• Reference Overdosed: Especially in Season 1 every other word spoken by Veronica and Jughead.
• Reckless Gun Usage: For all her horror about discovering Betty hiding the gun belonging the fake Ms. Grundy, Alice seems to not have given any thought about waving said gun at her daughter's face with her finger on the trigger.
• Required Spinoff Crossover: Despite being cancelled, there quite a few Katy Keene references in the show's fifth season as Riverdale caught up to the timeline Keene takes place in. KO Kelly appeared in a boxing match with Archie, Bernardo (Jorge's ex-boyfriend) appeared to help Archie re-establish the fire department, and Lucy Hale as Katy Keene herself made a voice-only cameo in one episode.
• Retro Universe: Zig-zagged. On one hand, there's old fashioned diners, drive-in movie theaters that would later be closed down, and vintage cars. On the other hand there's social media, night clubs, and modern pop culture references. The costumes and subcultures are a little bit of an Anachronism Stew as well: Archie is an all-American fifties cool athlete Ordinary High-School Student stereotype, the Serpents are referred to as (and affect the general style of) "greasers", and Jughead's wardrobe choices resemble 2000s era emo kids. Archie's service in the military is maybe the apex of this — the show suggests that he did a tour of duty in the Middle East, but eventually reveals that "the war" everyone is talking about was WWI trench warfare, complete with a "no man's land"; even stranger, a comment made by Smithers about his time in the Army implies that there have been multiple trench wars in the last half-century.
• Riches to Rags: The Lodges in season 1 (and they seem to regain their wealth in season 2, due to Hiram being released from prison) and The Blossoms in season 2, due to Clifford Blossom's suicide and their mansion being burned down, forcing Penelope to become a courtesan to earn money.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Reggie and Moose crack jokes about Archie "tapping a cougar" during his construction job, not knowing about his relationship with Ms. Grundy.
• The Rival: Josie and The Pussycats are this to The Archies, after Josie turns down Archie's request to have them read his songs.
• Rule of Symbolism: Acording to Mark Consuelos, all the octopus-themed items Hiram has, are the family theme and are meant to represent that Hiram has tentacles everywhere.
• Saved by Canon: Jughead is narrating the events of the series at some point in the future, so until that time passes, he's gonna be safe from all the goings on in Riverdale.
• The Scapegoat: A variation. The entire town starts to blame the Serpents for the growing drug problem rather than Clifford Blossom. The people of Riverdale know the truth, they just refuse to acknowledge otherwise.
• Second-Act Breakup: All three main romantic relationships are broken by the end of Season 4 and after the timeskip, everyone is seeing different people. RIP Bughead, Varchie and Choni!
• Serial Killer: The entire premise is about serial killers, given that the show is Darker and Edgier. The most prominent example is the Black Hood, an Ax-Crazy Knight Templar who terrorized the titular town trying to "cleanse it of its sinners".
• Series Continuity Error: FP's mugshot in season 1 stated his birthday to be January 20, 1970 (which is an Actor Allusion, as his actor, Skeet Ulrich, was born on that same day). Then in the season 3 episode "American Dreams," FP's 50th birthday is the central focus...in an episode established by later developments to take place in 2019.
  • There the 7 years time-skip happening in season 5. Everybody graduated from highschool in 2021 since there is a banner with “Congratulations Class of 2021.” And with the 7 years timeskip, they should be in 2027-2028 by the time they return as adults in Riverdale again, right? No! According to adult Veronica, 7 years passed between 2021 and 2021. Even Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa admitted that it was in fact a mistake.
• The Series Has Left Reality: Not that Riverdale was completely grounded as it always had a campy tone, but the earlier seasons still took place in the real world, with some Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane elements. By the sixth season the show has featured Time Travel, parallel universes, superpowers and supernatural entities just to name a few.
• Serious Business: Maple Syrup. The town was founded on the industry, and Betty's great-grandfather was killed by Cheryl's so that the latter could take over the business. It's so connected to the town's culture that even their sexual euphemisms involve maple. It's later revealed that Clifford was actually in the drug business and that the Maple Syrup industry was nothing but a front.
• Shame Accusation: Moose asks Kevin if he's ashamed of him early on in their relationship.
• Ship Tease: A fairly common occurrence.
  • The Official Couples of Archie/Veronica and Jughead/Betty have largely been very stable since the first season, but the show still likes to pretend there's a chance of the script being flipped, with Archie/Betty and Jughead/Veronica getting the occasional shippy moment and these usually being very played up.
  • Fred/Hermione was teased in season 1 (but abandoned when Hiram entered the series), and FP/Alice was also hinted at for a while before they got together in the show.
  • Archie/Betty. Possibly canon as of Chapter 21. Officially canon in Chapter 22 as they shared a mutual kiss along with lingering romantic feelings between the two.
  • FP/Alice, they are strongly implied to have had a past relationship and still have Unresolved Sexual Tension.
  • Toni/Jughead was teased heavily for several episodes until they finally kissed in 2.05, now it's being teased again as of 2.08.
  • Cheryl/Josie, albeit mostly one-sided.
  • Betty/Veronica in the early episodes, though this turned out to be nothing more than Bait-and-Switch Lesbians.
  • Fangs/Kevin. It initially seemed as if Fangs might be flirting with Kevin, but it turns out he was actually involved with Midge. Then they did get together, but it was because of being brainwashed by The Farm. By the end of season 4 they're a legitimate couple, however.
  • Cheryl/Toni had some before it starts becoming an official relationship.
  • Archie/Jughead gets some in 3.07, when Jughead’s mother mistakenly believes Jughead and Archie are dating, and states that she has “always known” there was something between them.
• Shout-Out:
  • Near the end of 1.03, Cheryl says "Hashtag Justice for Ethel." This is a shoutout to the hashtag #JusticeForBarb which emerged on social media after the release of Stranger Things in response to Barb's death on that show. Barb and Ethel are both played by Shannon Purser.
  • In 1.03, Veronica declares she's going "Full Dark, No Stars" against Chuck, which is the name of a Stephen King story collection.
  • Jughead shows up at Betty's place in 1.06 via a ladder to her window, straight out of Clarissa Explains It All.
  • All the episode titles are lifted more or less directly from other works, such as classic (encompassing highbrow, lowbrow and in between) films (River's Edge, Touch of Evil, Body Double, The Last Picture Show, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! In a Lonely Place, The Grand Illusion) and some seminal literature (Heart of Darkness, The Outsiders).
  • Mary Kay Letourneau (and Mrs. Robinson) are both referenced in relation to Faux-Grundy sleeping with Archie.
  • At the end of 1.12, Joaquin gets on a bus headed to a city called "San Junipero".
  • In 1.13: "To Archie Andrews, who saved the cheerleader and saved the town." After Archie rescues River Vixen Cheryl.
  • Fans of the classic rock musician Alice Cooper may have been amused to hear Betty's mom's name dramatically announced upon her appearance.
  • In 2.03, Veronica tells her father she wants to be in "the room where it happens" and influence his decision-making, a song title from Hamilton.
  • Cheryl's sleepover with Toni, Betty, Veronica, and Josie in season two contains of scene of the girls attired in silk robes and brushing each others' hair, conga-line style, that pays homage to the music video for New Rules by Dua Lipa.
  • In 2.21 Veronica accuses Hermione of trying to turn Riverdale into Gotham City.
  • A number of visual and narrative references are made throughout seasons 3-5 to Silence of the Lambs, particularly with regards to Betty and her relationship with her father, the Black Hood killer.
  • In 3.3 when asked for the password to enter the Speakeasy under Pop’s, after a moment's hesitation since they didn’t know there was one, Kevin guesses “Stonewall”, which Reggie declares to be good enough.
  • In 4.2, Jughead meets a character at Stonewall Prep named Bret Weston Wallis.
  • In season 5 after the timeskip, we see Toni perform the song "After Dark" while wearing a feathered headdress and surrounded by dancers carrying snakes, an homage to the iconic scene from From Dusk Till Dawn.
• Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: The show initially tried to go this direction with Betty and Archie's dynamic in season one, but backtracked once Bughead took off and has barely revisited it since.
• Sliding Scale of Parent-Shaming in Fiction: Pretty much every named parent on this show (with the exceptions of Fred and Mary Andrews, Sheriff Keller, and maybe Hermione Lodge ) occupies a place on this scale, with the least monstrous sitting firmly on Type I while the Coopers and Blossoms alternate between Type III and Type IV. Alice Cooper moves more towards a Type II at the end of the season when everything is revealed, meanwhile... if there was a Type V, the Blossoms would be right up there.
• Social Circle Filler: For the first part of season 1, Cheryl is accompanied by her Girl Posse henchwomen of Ginger and Tina. She dismisses them in the second half and they are not seen again.
  • The unnamed quarterback from the football team in episode 5 shows up again in episode 8 to help Archie work his dad's construction. No one introduces him, acknowledges him or indeed talks to him again after this episode.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: 1.05 reveals that Polly Cooper and Jason Blossom were this at one point, even becoming engaged with Jason's grandmother's blessing.
• Stereotype Flip: The show seems to be trying for this, with Reggie, a jock who bullies Archie, being played by mixed-Asian actors.
• Sudden Downer Ending: Season 1 ends with this. The mystery is solved, the couples seem happy together, but Cheryl snaps and burns down the Blossoms' residence, and Fred gets shot in the middle of a robbery at Pop's. Bring on season 2.
• Supernatural Hotspot Town: Riverdale's interpretation of the titular town from Archie Comics turns into this in later seasons; while the first few seasons have a thriller storyline, the plots of later seasons involve cults, parallel universes, and Archie and his friends getting superpowers.
• Surprise Incest: A downplayed and then played straight example, it is revealed that the Cooper family used to be a part of the Blossom family, and that Jason and Polly's great-grandfathers were brothers. This makes them third cousins.^note Third cousins share less than 1% of their genes (0.78% exactly) and can legally marry everywhere. The Blossoms don't think it's really a big deal; the Coopers still find it very squicky. Hal considered this to be a secret worthy of committing a crime over. Polly herself looks freaked out over the fact that her unborn child is a product of incest.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • 1.03 has Josie point out that as progressive a town as Riverdale is, it's still a small town in middle America and therefore her and her mother got a lot of hate during her campaign for mayor due to them being black women.
  • The absolutely ancient Miss Grundy is kept the same age as in the comics... and is promptly revealed to have died several years prior.
  • Related to the above, once she starts actually looking, it takes Betty roughly a day to figure out that "Miss Grundy's" entire past is a fraud and openly talks of how amazed she is that "Grundy" was even hired with no one finding this out.
  • The existence of a drive-in theater in the modern time? Veronica even points out how no one would come there anymore because of streaming sites like Netflix. The drive-in is later closed down.
  • Jughead goes to the mayor to press her about keeping the drive-in open, citing his past and how much it means to him. While respecting his feelings, the mayor points out that there's no reason to keep open a business that no one else in town is interested in attending.
  • Sure, F.P. Jones is exonerated in the killing of Jason Blossom, but, as the sheriff points out to Jughead, he still tampered with evidence, cleaned up a murder scene, and hid Jason's corpse. Regardless of his ultimate intent, that still carries the potential of heavy jail time.
  • While it was kind of Alice and Betty to take Chic into their home, that doesn't mean Chic isn't going to have years of resentment, emotional baggage, and other highly dysfunctional traits due to being given up for adoption and living as an orphan without a family for all these years that could cause serious problems for the Cooper family, like when Hal decided to move out again due to Chic's presence and a drug dealer ended up dying in the Cooper household, partly due to his connections with Chic in the first place.
  • After seven years apart, Archie and Veronica try to reunite. However, they quickly realize that they are in different places in their lives and want different things. So, they break up for good and get with Betty and Reggie, respectively.
• Sweeps Week Lesbian Kiss: While it wasn't necessarily sweeps week, Betty and Veronica kiss in the series premiere, for pretty much no reason but to draw in viewers. This was even Lampshaded immediately after it happened:
  Cheryl: Check your sell-by date, ladies. Faux-lesbian kissing hasn't been taboo since 1994.
• Teacher/Student Romance: It is not portrayed positively.
  • Archie and Miss Grundy have at least had sex, but refrained from seeing each other afterward until school started again. Their relationship becomes strained when Archie wants to go to the police to confess about a gunshot they heard while on a date, while Miss Grundy prevents him from doing so because she's afraid of getting caught.
  • The series 2 premiere confirms that Grundy is a serial offender of this as she is seeing kissing Ben, another teenage music student of hers.
• Ten Minutes in the Closet: Archie and Veronica are forced to spend seven minutes in a closet. Initially, it's awkward and they just ask each other questions, but they end up kissing.
• Threesome Subtext: Veronica and Betty are both explicitly into Archie, Archie's explicitly into them both, Betty and Veronica have a lot of Ambiguously Bi moments with one another... yeah, a threesome would solve a lot of problems. In the pilot alone, the three of them attend a dance together "as friends," complete with Archie walking in with A Lady On Each Arm.
  Jughead: To someone on the outside peering in, it would've looked like there were four people in that booth. But I was there. And I can tell you, really, there were only three. A blonde girl, a raven-haired girl, and the luckiest red-headed boy in the universe.
• Time Skip: Season 5 has a seven years time skip, and everyone returns to Riverdale as adults in their mid-twenties.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: The penultimate episode of the series reveals Angel Tabitha was able to repair the timeline to prevent the end of the world, but in doing so, she had to bring the entire cast to the 1950s to save them and can't bring them to the present day. She was least able to save the group's memories of seasons 1-6. Despite the fact the original Riverdale timeline is gone, the time bubble/alternate universe she created in the finale of season 6 where she and Jughead are together and grow old and have children still exists and is protected from the time-traveling shenanigans.
• Town Girls: While all three female leads are very feminine in their own, they still have their particularities. Betty is the Butch for being an FBI agent and a Wrench Wench, Cheryl is the Neither for being a fanservice-y Nightmare Fetishist Lovable Alpha Bitch with archery skills, while Veronica is The Femme for being a Nice Girl lacking the Cute and Psycho tendencies of the other two, and is mostly interested in doing business, dancing and singing.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Jughead's narration implies Riverdale is this. As the show goes on, this becomes fairly clear, with all sorts of family feuds and crime and the like bubbling under the surface.
  • Moreover, it becomes increasingly clear throughout the series that Riverdale is rotten to the core, with all kinds of tragedies and crime happening, starting when the land was colonized.
• Troubled Teen: All of the main cast to an extent; Jughead, Betty, and Cheryl stand out due to their familial issues and mental health stress.
• True Companions:
  • Jughead certainly demonstrates this towards Archie within the first few episodes. Betty and Veronica also have shades of this given how important they have been (or will be) in his life.
  • Speaking of those two, Betty and Veronica have it towards one another. Word of Godinvoked states quite clearly these two will be best friends even while both being in love with the same guy.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Betty's speech at the Jubilee in "The Sweet Hereafter", although well-intentioned, is ultimately what inspires the Black Hood to go on a rampage to purge Riverdale of all its "sinners", thus kick-starting much of the conflict of Season 2. It's entirely possible that someone with such murderous intentions and who could be inspired to do it so easily might have become a Serial Killer regardless, but Betty's speech was nonetheless the main catalyst for his killing spree when it happened.
• We Used to Be Friends: Archie and Jughead have had a bad falling out. But it appears they patched things up at the end of 1.02.
• Wham Episode: 1.12, which reveals Jason's murderer: it's Clifford Blossom and also reveals that Jason and Polly are actually third-cousins, because their great-grandfathers are actually brothers, making them incestuous. May double as Values Dissonance because most people wouldn't consider third cousins closely related enough for it to be incest.
• Wham Line: Cheryl in 1.12: "Daddy, you did a bad thing and now everyone knows."
• Wham Shot:
  • In 1.07, the episode ends by revealing that Forsythe (Jughead’s father) has Jason's jacket in his cupboard.
  • In 1.12, Clifford Blossom shooting his own son. Another one at the end of the episode: Clifford Blossom having hung himself in the family barn, with a barrel of maple syrup broken open beneath him...and filled with drugs.
  • The Season 1 finale has Jughead take a Southside Serpent jacket, Fred getting shot, and Cheryl burning down Thornhill Manor.
  • Towards the end of 2.07, Betty and Veronica see Sheriff Keller meeting Mayor McCoy romantically at a motel.
  • At the very end of 3:01, Betty is searching the house for Polly and her mother when she finds them around a bonfire on the patio, holding the twins aloft over the flames. They drop them... and the babies float upwards, unharmed.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The location of Riverdale within the US is never specified. The comics clearly indicate it to be somewhere in the Northeast or Midwest, with its original creators influenced by their respective hometowns in Massachusetts and Kansas. In the TV show, however, conflicting clues are given:
  • The flora and fauna of the area point to it being somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. (It was filmed in Vancouver.)
  • In 1.05, it is revealed that the town was founded on the maple syrup industry, placing it somewhere in the Northeast or the upper Midwest, likely northern New England, upstate New York, Ontario, or Atlantic Canada (though not Quebec, given the lack of apparent French influence in the town).
  • In 1.07, the police are also briefly referred to as "Dudley Do-Right", referring to a Canadian "mountie" stereotype.
  • In 1.08, it is close to Montreal, putting it, again, in Northeastern North America.
  • In 1.12, a bus is seen with Mamaroneck as its destination, a town located in Westchester County, just north of New York City.
  • In 2.02, Jughead claims that the town is just "a straight shot up Sweetwater River" from the Canadian border, which rules out Canada and Michigan (the latter separated from Canada by the Great Lakes) and would put the town in the far northern reaches of New England or upstate New York.
  • In 3.01, Jughead states "Past that treeline, there's a road that goes through the mountains to Quebec", narrowing the town's location to the states of New York, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
  • It's stated in the pilot that Josie and the Pussycats won the Rockland County Battle of the Bands, although it's possible that Riverdale is not in Rockland County and Josie just traveled there for the competition.
  • In 5.12, it's confirmed that Riverdale is in Rockland County, New York. However, 5.11 shows Jughead walking by a highway sign placing him 86 miles away from New York City, while even the farthest point in Rockland County is only about 50 miles outside the city.
• Wretched Hive: The Southside was always seen as this. With the return of Hiram Lodge it has pretty much become the case with the entire town. Between organized crime, a subverted local government, multiple gangs, serial killers, cults and just general weirdness, Riverdale is a shockingly dark place.
  • Hiram deliberately turns the town into this and Soiled City on a Hill in Season 5. He severely defunds and dissolves everything from the fire and police departments to Riverdale High (causing Toni and Cheryl to have it declared a private school to save it from him.), and encourages crime and poverty to force people to leave and has Reggie harass those who don’t leave. His overall goal is to raze the town and turn it into a rich community called SoDale with Stonewall Prep as its high school.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: The timeline has always been inconsistent, but it gets truly impossible after post-timeskip Veronica states the current year to be 2021 in the season 5 episode "Purgatory":
  • In season one, FP's mug stated his birthday to be January 20, 1970 (which is also that of his actor, Skeet Ulrich), then in season three (aired in 2019), he announced he was celebrating his fiftieth birthday. This would either retcon the previous seasons as having taken place earlier than they did, imply FP's mug shot was counterfeit, or indicate that season three took place in 2020.
  • Early on in season one, Mike Posner's song "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" is heard at a party. Assuming the episode took place in the present day at the time it aired in 2017, this would've been fine... but the song was released in 2015, which does not equal seven years when subtracted from 2021.
  • Jughead was also stated to be born in 2001. He would be twenty years old in 2021, but he’s clearly closer to 23-24 here.
  • In Season 3’s Musical Episode, they did Heathers: The Musical. The musical first debuted in LA in 2014 (which would be the year their senior year would be taking place according to the skip, but they did it during their junior year) but the high school version the show uses was not created and approved until 2018.
  • Hal was killed in 2019, which would be during the time skip instead of a major plot point. Made all the more egregious by the fact that his tombstone seen in the fourth season premiere explicitly stated him to have died in 2019 and his birthdate to have been February 12, 1970 ^note Which is an Actor Allusion, as his actor, Lochlyn Munro, was born on that same day in 1966.
  • Perhaps most egregiously, Fred Andrews' tombstone also lists his year of death as 2019, and is shown in detail just a few episodes before the time skip.
  • Veronica is accepted to Harvard's Class of 2024 pre-time skip, and Cheryl refers to the Riverdale High Class of 1945 graduating 75 years prior, which would put the main characters' high school graduation date in 2020.
  • In season 1, Jughead's library checkout slip very clearly shows the year as 2016, which is contradicted within the same season by him turning 16 despite having been born in 2001. It would also put the high school graduation in 2019, not 2020.
• Wrong Side of the Tracks: The Northside of Riverdale is where the upper and class and rich live, and the Southside is the poor, filled with drugs and dangerous side of the city, full of violent gangs like the Serpents and the Ghoulies. Notable characters from the Southside are Alice Cooper, FP Jones and Toni Topaz.

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