Riverdale Season 5 Review: Excluding Betty, You Hardly See Change In Any Characters

Disclaimer: The fifth season of Riverdale has been on a halt on a temporary basis due to the coronavirus pandemic last year. The second part of these episodes will release later in July this year. 

Riverdale is based on the characters of Archie comics who find themselves in a town that is always haunted by murders. Even in the middle of murders, encounters, most of us expect to get our destined Barchie moments (Betty and Archie), that would naturally lead to the separation of Bughead (Betty and Jughead). It happened in the most sophisticated manner. Perhaps Betty, Archie, Jughead and Veronica should be awarded as the most decent teenagers, who hardly get aggressive, and remain considerate even while getting betrayed by their partners. Perhaps honesty is the best policy when you speak the truth at the right time, right place, the right moment and most importantly in the right manner. 

Hiram Lodge returns as the dark villain

There was nothing much left in Riverdale ever since the four characters parted ways. Seven years later when Archie returns to Riverdale he learns that Hiram Lodge has basically sucked the soul of the town and the people have deserted the place when the town turned into a den for criminals. A determined Archie, who returned to his town after the war, felt the need to revive the spirit of the town. He started by dialling all his friends, and expectedly even in the middle of their busy lives they were available at darling Archie's beck-and-call. 

There had been a phase when most of us feared Hiram Lodge. But at present, he seems like a man who was hardly able to get a grip of himself. At first, he plans a revenge move to hit Archie when he learns that he broke his darling daughter Veronica's heart, but refuses to help her same darling daughter when she begs for his help to get a divorce. The series has not ended yet, but there was a time when Archie feared Hiram. He knew how to keep him behind the bars. At present, Hiram Lodge seems like the man who only wants to destroy Riverdale to make Archie Andrew upset, and on some level, the entire act appears quite immature. 

Betty grows up while the rest remain the same 

What had been particularly noticeable about the fifth season of Riverdale is Betty's emotional independence. She has a huge crush on the boy next door Archie however, she learns to keep her physical needs and emotional needs separate. She comes face to face with her ex-boyfriend Jughead, solves cases with him, however, she fails to develop the same kind of genuine feelings she had before when she had been a teenager. 

Betty develops a more mature bond with her constantly anxious mother. In the first season, the mother dominated her to be a good girl, but by the time the fifth season arrived, Betty has become a fiercely independent agent of the FBI. 

You hardly notice that with Archie and Veronica. They remain the same old High School hot couple, even though Veronica had married Chadwick and started a new life in New York (again), and Archie had been at the war for seven years. The separation of the two people, in two widely different places hardly seemed to reflect in their encounters. 

Cheryl goes back to her old, selfish self of season one, however, each time she appears in front of Toni, she encounters an emotional force that bars her from being the mean Blossom. 

Trash bag killer and the alien 

Riverdale always ends up in logic and does not cater to superstitions. While the mystery behind the identity of the trash bag killer developed an interest in us, the alien aspect had been quite unbelievable. The writers of the show have avoided the inclusion of supernatural, superstitious elements, but as of yet, it does not manage to convince us. We can only hope that Riverdale develops a logical connection and an interesting element is formed.