‘Riverdale’ Season 7 Episode 1 Review - A Good Start to the Final Season

The title of the first episode of Riverdale Season 7 is Don’t Worry Darling. It started by telling the audience that the year is 1955 and the melting of the comet messed with the timelines. All the characters are taken from 67 years in the past and only Jughead knew the reality. It has been two days since Bailey’s comet hit the town of Riverdale. Betty and Kevin are dating and Julian (Cheryl's brother) is alive.

Tabitha, Tony, and Walker went to witness Emmett Till’s trial which was a shameful event. Emmet was a 14-year-old boy who was beaten, tortured, and disfigured after he whistled at a white woman. After killing him, his body was dumped in the river. There’s news of another boy, James Dean. He died in a car crash at the time Bailey’s comet hit Riverdale. Archie’s mom took his car keys from him after his father died in the Korean War, she’s afraid to lose him too. 

The series has picked up some important events from history like the Korean war which began on June 25, 1950, and ended in 1955. Also, Emmett Till, when you Google him, you can read his whole story as to how he became an icon of the civil rights movement. James Dean died on September 30, 1955, in a car accident, and he became the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his role in East of Eden. Picking up historically important events of 1955 and including them in the plot of the series was a great initiative by the writers to make the people remind of historically important and world-changing events.

Jughead hasn’t tried telling his friends about the reality as no one remembers it and he couldn’t find a suitable opportunity to do it. Betty is the editor of The Blue and Gold newspaper that the Riverdale High School prints. In Season 6 we saw that they graduated, but as the timelines are messed up, they’re back to being in high school. Veronica comes to Riverdale and pretends to be a Hollywood actress when in reality she has been exiled by her parents. She was present at the time of James's accident, and to prevent any Police inquiries, she was sent by her parents there.

Jughead learns that Bailey’s comet is going to pass over again in two years which raises his hopes to go back into the correct timeline. He wonders if the time capsules they put in the ground would still be present, and to his utter surprise, they were present in the same place even though it was 1955 now. He takes them to others, but they think that Jughead has gone crazy and is making up things in his mind. It would be hard for him to explain to others what had happened.

Angel Tabitha pays a visit to Jughead and erases his memory as she thinks that it would be the best way to lead his life. She tells him that stopping Bailey’s comet didn't work. This event, in turn, led to an extinction-level event and thus, at that time she used her powers to send them back all to some other timeline which is 1955. At the same time, she tells him that she is trying to untangle the timelines, but till then, everyone needs to get comfortable there. 

The background music at the time Angel Tabitha and Jughead kiss is good with all the lights shifting, it forms a memorable scene. In the final moments of the first episode, we see that Jughead rushes after the kiss so that he can remember things, but before he could write, his memories faded away. This 42 minutes episode is a hell of a ride. 

In my opinion, the Riverdale series is excellent in the art of storytelling. The amount of plot their one episode contains is astonishing. How the first episode of the final season picked up with its predecessor, explaining everything in precise detail is awesome. Initially, Riverdale used to be just a teen drama, however, the way it has shifted its gears so smoothly is awe-inspiring. 

Betty’s character was the one who used to rule the show, but now, Jughead is the mastermind of the series. He’s the most intelligent character who has proved to be useful in so many instances. Veronica as usual is the diva with Archie fantasizing about her. After seeing how Archie was totally in love with Betty till the last episode of the sixth season, it somehow feels that Veronica and Archie are endgames and the makers are trying to rectify their mistakes. Toni and Cheryl haven’t come close yet. Jughead is still in love with Tabitha, the guarding angel of Riverdale.

The main cast of the Riverdale series: Jughead, Betty, Tabitha, Archie, Veronica, Cheryl, and Tony seem like the ones who have the responsibility to save the town again and again. First, it was Hiram Lodge, then Percival, and now we have to fight against timelines to bring the town back to its timeline. 

The series is now set in 1955, and the issue of violence against Black people has been highlighted by using the example of Emmett Till. The first episode mainly tells what went wrong with Bailey’s comet, how they landed in 1955, and the raising of the issue of the importance of Black lives.

Final Score: [7.5/10]