There’s no doubt about it: Riverdale really ramps up the drama in their mid-season finales.
Last year, there was that whole thing with Svenson revealed as being the Black Hood (although, OK, it was later revealed Hal Cooper was the actual Black Hood).
This year, among all the drama, they took a step towards solving this season’s big mystery: Who – or what – is the Gargoyle King?
Warning: The rest of this story contains spoilers for the Riverdale mid season finale, Outbreak.
Only continue if you don’t mind being spoiled (or if you’ve watched it already).
The episode seemingly pointed towards the Gargoyle King being a fizzle rock-induced hallucination, mostly spearheaded by Hiram Lodge and his new gang, the Gargoyles.
And, following a mass seizure at Riverdale High, the entire town was put under a quarantine – with Jughead and F.P. stranded outside the city limits, and Archie trying to make it across the Canadian border to escape Hiram.
While Veronica’s dad has suggested something “practically biblical” is going to be happening in the town, showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has revealed just how bad things may get when Riverdale returns in 2019.
Speaking to EW, he revealed more details about what the town will be like under quarantine; a time jump when the series returns and the new relationships coming (sorry, Varchie fans).
He said:
“I always talk about the show as being a show not about one character but about a community and a community that makes up the town.
“So, we’re always thinking of what can happen to a town? Last year we built to a riot.
“This year, we thought, ‘What’s another thing that would be town-wide that would affect all of our characters?’
“And we landed on the idea of a quarantine and building to that for a midseason finale so that when we would come back from that it would be a very changed Riverdale.”
Emphasising that it is going to be “definitely a changed Riverdale” when the series returns, he added that there is going to be a time jump when the show picks up in January.
Aguirre-Sacasa said:
“It’s been pretty breakneck pacing up through [episode] 8 and we’re doing a little bit of a time jump between the midseason finale and our premiere.
“It’s definitely a changed Riverdale. It’s almost like a town under occupation. It’s very totalitarian. It’s very lawless. And there are a lot of people who are really scared.
“It’s about our forces of good kind of coming together to face the various threats.
“That said, it’s a little bit of a slower burn when we get back. We do some more character stories. We do some more relationship stories.
“We’re even doing an episode that’s focused on the kids taking the SAT because, quarantine or not quarantine, junior year continues and the kids have to take the SATs!”
He added that there are also “a couple of new romances on the horizon” when season three picks back up – and it’s not good news for Varchie fans (at least for now).
While admitting that there is a relationship brewing between Reggie and Veronica, Aguirre-Sacasa did hint things aren’t totally over between Archie and Veronica.
He continued:
“I will say though, in my mind, though Archie and Veronica had that tearful goodbye at the payphone, that was all circumstantial. Neither of them wanted to break up with the other.
“The question is: When those circumstances change, are they together or broken up? I would say to the Varchie fans, it ain’t over till the fat lady sings!”
