Riverdale: Not Returning Memories Suggests A Meaningless Ending

Memories help a person grow. They encourage friendships and remind people why they make one choice instead of the other. So, when Riverdale wiped away everyone’s memories in a plot-twisting bid to start over in the 1950s, it opened a land of opportunity for a show that had an unfortunate habit of recycling the same romances or pairing off the same characters and a fresh start allowed the darkness that had surrounded everyone for years to shed.

At first, it could have come across as a gift. A fresh start to see first love and teenage mistakes. A window into how things could have been, or an alternate look at relationships that never were. It all seemed fun and innocent at first, as the early episodes teased the potential that this would all be temporary, and at some point, eventually, everyone would return to normal.

Unfortunately, with only a few episodes left in the season and news stating that the main characters are not leaving the 1950s, this picture is starting to look further and further away, which leaves one terrifying question. Even if they never return home, will everyone still regain memories of their lives before the 1950s?

As it stands, no one remembers the friendships they made or how they had been bonded through so much hardship and trauma. No one remembers the heartbreak. While there was plenty of it, the heartache was also responsible for bonding these people in such a way that even seven years apart could still lead them all back together.

But not remembering the heartbreak also means having no memories of the good times. Friendships forged in fire and sleepovers. Overcoming obstacles and adversity when no one thought possible. Surviving near-death experiences and standing up for and protecting their town as a unit.

If no one remembers their lives before, does that mean Percival Pickens won in the end?

Tabitha’s off-screen journey of fixing the timelines had her leave one crucial message with Jughead before she left. The last thing Jughead wrote down before his memory reset itself was to Bend Toward Justice. This was supposedly meant to show that Tabitha needed everyone to show they were capable of creating a better life than what Riverdale had eventually become in their time.

But, ever since Jughead’s memory was wiped, Tabitha’s final mission for him had been wiped with it. Jughead had initially questioned the return of Bailey’s Comet and how he theorized it had the potential to bring them home. However, that entire plot line has been scrapped, and the rest of season seven could not feel more separated from the final season’s premiere.

No one has their memories, so the 1950s versions of the characters on the screen are not the developed people the audience had been watching for the past six seasons.

Riverdale’s final season could have kept the characters in the 1950s but allowed them to question things about their lives that do not add up right, having them question things before eventually realizing the truth.

Instead, everyone has remained blissfully ignorant, and the lack of memories leading toward the series finale could render the entire series meaningless. What is the point of the show’s finale if it only concludes things for the 1950s versions of the characters? They are not the people who led most of the show.

Not allowing the characters to remember the truth about their past makes everything leading up to season seven irrelevant, and that is not fair to the characters or the viewers, who have followed these journeys since the beginning.

What was the point of starting this adventure in season one if it ends with a comet blast that erases everything leading up to it?

Although Riverdale has tended to live by a code of doing whatever it wants on a whim, playing fast and loose with a series finale is dangerous territory. The characters and their journeys deserve a solid story ending. The viewers deserve a meaningful conclusion to the rollercoaster ride they have been on. How does any of that happen if the 1950s counterparts never regain their memories or are at least offered the ability to trigger a memory from the life they had once lived?

Riverdale needs to return everyone’s memories by the conclusion of the series finale or risk the potential of being a massive let-down. For as crazy and bizarre as Riverdale could be, the show has more than proven that it deserves a real ending, and doing anything else would be a disservice to the characters, audience, and show itself.