'Riverdale' Season 6 Episode 1 Review: Teen drama off to spooky and convoluted start

'Riverdale' Season 6 is absorbing, and there are ample twists and turns that make the opener worth the watch
UPDATED NOV 17, 2021
KJ Apa as Archie in 'Riverdale' (The CW)
KJ Apa as Archie in 'Riverdale' (The CW)

It isn't 'Riverdale' if it wasn't weird. And to make things weird, the town as we know it is now 'Rivervale' where the unimaginable just happened — Jughead moving in with Tabitha Tate, Betty getting pregnant with Archie's baby, Veronica and Reggie as the new power couple, and all of that while Chery Blossom is getting the town into some good ol' fashioned voodoo sh*t. There are ample twists and turns that make the season opener worth the watch, but the actual question would be the reason behind the crossover event in the first place?

Last we saw, Hiram Lodge played one last trick. He blew up Betty and Archie's room, with them in it, and now we see Jughead introducing the town of Rivervale. Odds are that one of the lead characters is likely to meet their maker this season and it might be a toss-up between Archie and Betty. While trawling through social media to see the reactions for the episode, there were some mind-boggling theories doing the rounds. One of them was about the duo in a coma and having a wretched dream.

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Some felt this was a near-death experience that Archie had. And for some, well, they got enough raunchy Barchie content. There's no doubt that the remainder of the four episodes gets back to explaining the aftermath of the season 5 ending, but for now, the writers of 'Riverdale' intend to blend some supernatural and that shows the teen drama in a new light. After fending off criminals regularly, the series is now wandering into the unknown and that's an experiment that may pay dividends as the show has moved away from the usual storylines.

Madelaine Petsch's Cheryl is pretty much the key antagonist in Season 6, or at least for now, and the actor menaces in her own way. Not for a moment did the audience think she was capable of stabbing Archie and pulling his heart out to cleanse the sins of the folk of Rivervale. So, it's dark alright. Killing off a major character in the first episode surely raises a few eyebrows. For those unaware, this was a way to give KJ Apa his paternity break and that may have been one of the reasons behind killing the character off in the first place.

'Riverdale' is off to an absorbing start, no doubt. The cast seems to have upped the ante when it comes to playing their parts and that makes the episode a rather intriguing affair. The only hope would be for the show to continue in the same vein and not get carried away.

'Riverdale' Season 6 Episode 1 airs on Tuesdays at 9 pm ET on The CW.

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