“He saved my life. If he hadn’t done what he did, there’s no way I would be here right now.”
Last night, Riverdale said goodbye to Luke Perry in a touching tribute celebrating the actor’s kindness, generosity, and the lives he touched before his ultimately death.
Perry – who played Fred Andrews on the CW series – passed away in March, five days after suffering a stroke.
He was 52-years-old.
Following his passing, Perry’s Riverdale absence was explained by a business trip he had taken, leaving Archie to be looked after by his mother and Fred’s ex-wife.
The series’ fourth season, which aired in the States last night, revealed that Fred had been killed in a road accident when he stopped to help a person who had been struggling in a nearby town.
When Archie receives the news, he falls to his knees in the diner racked with disbelief and grief.
Later on in the episode, Archie and the rest of the cast take to trip to go and learn about Fred’s death.
When they return to the site of the crash, they meet the woman whose life he saved – played by Shannen Doherty, a good friend of Perry’s.
“We were working on the tire and a car just – it came out of nowhere, speeding,” she says.
“I just froze in its path, and your dad, he pushed me out of the way. He saved my life. If he hadn’t done what he did, there’s no way I would be here right now. I know that.”
The woman later tells Archie that his dad “talked about you the entire time – his son, how he couldn’t believe that a man like him was blessed with such a thoughtful, kind boy.”
The episode, titled In Memoriam, also featured a funeral for Perry’s character and touching tributes from each of the characters.
“My dad was here for every high and every low. He’s the greatest man I’ve ever known. It hurts me that I never got to say goodbye,” says Archie.
“But his spirit and his memory lives on, in this town and in everyone he’s met. Fred Andrews will always be a part of Riverdale. I love you so much, Dad.”
