‘Riverdale’ Closed The Door On Betty And Archie’s Relationship — For Now

If you thought the ongoing global pandemic was bad*, you should have gotten a look at the Riverdale fandom over the past few weeks. Fans of the hit CW series have been losing their minds over the pairing of Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) and Archie Andrews (KJ Apa), a.k.a. #Barchie, something that had been teased as the show started; but mostly moved to the sidelines to make way for the popular couplings of Betty and Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse), a.k.a. Bughead, and Archie and Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes), a.k.a. #Varchie. After years of anticipation, Barchie finally kissed, for real, in last week’s “Wicked Little Town” and it’s been the equivalent of burning down a house with the entire fandom inside.

(*Don’t worry, I’m aware the global pandemic is far worse, I’m just being hyperbolic for effect.)

Except, as things turned out in this week’s episode, “Lynchian,” despite a long history for the pair the door is closed on Barchie and Bughead and Varchie are back. At least, for now.

Spoilers for Riverdale Season 4, Episode 18, “Chapter Seventy-Five: Lynchian” past this point.

In the episode, Jughead delved further into the “Who Is The Voyeur?” mystery that’s propelled the second half of the season, discovering a second recreation of a seminal Riverdale event, Jason Blossom’s (Trevor Stines) murder, on a VHS tape found in the appropriate to the episode’s David Lynch inspired “Lynchian” named video store, Blue Velvet (ran by a guy named David, no less). Meanwhile, Reggie (Charles Melton) and Toni (Vanessa Morgan) joined forces with Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) and Kevin’s (Casey Cott) tickle tape operation, only to be shut down by Principal Honey (Kerr Smith) and barred from prom.

But the main event was clearly Betty and Archie. After the illicit kiss in Archie’s garage last week, would the couple come clean with their significant others? Would they pursue the relationship further? What was going to happen next???

“Lynchian” opted to go a different route, flashing back to a childhood friendship between Betty and Archie, thanks to some adorable stand-in actors. We first meet Young Betty (Hannah Bos) and Young Archie (Brock Brown) as Betty reads from her diary, showing quick shots of the first time she saw her neighbor Archie — and immediately fell in love. Then it’s to a moment previously mentioned, but never seen, when Little Archie (weirdly described in Little Betty’s diary as “Little Archie,” though they’re the same size and age) proposed marriage to Betty; she told him they were too young, and should wait until they were eighteen. And finally, Little Betty and Little Archie lying on the floor listening to records, and holding hands.

In the present, both Large Betty and Large Archie are flashing back to the moment they kissed; the moment and what it meant living rent free in their minds. While Jughead and Veronica are distracted — Veronica, by the way, is finding her Maple Club attacked by a family called The Malloys, because she’s introduced a new low cost alcohol called Maple Claw — Betty and Archie meet in the sex bunker in the woods and lie there, like they did years earlier, holding hands. They defer from saying what it all means, but clearly it’s not that innocent, as a certain sage named Britney might say.

The two continue to think about each other, with Archie composing a song, and offering to help Betty on the yearbook. She knows he wants something else, to which he replies that, “Honestly, I can’t stop thinking about you, Betty. I’ve tried.” Betty insists she can’t talk about this now, but, “I can’t stop thinking about you, either.”

The two agree to meet the next night, to give them time to think — they both still love their respective significant others, but there’s also something between them they can’t ignore. When Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) sees Betty reading her old diary, though, she knows exactly what’s going on. She lays it down for Betty: she hasn’t been in love with Archie for 10 years, she’s been in love with the idea of Archie for 10 years, the fantasy. As the Bughead theme plays in the soundtrack, Cheryl explains that what she has with Jughead, something built in the middle of murder and mayhem, that’s real love. “Dare I say, endgame?” she adds.

Still, Archie and Betty meet — once again — in the bunker, where Archie sings her an original song. We flash back to scenes of the two together throughout previous seasons, and Betty is clearly affected, and feeling herself falling… Which is why she stops Archie from playing. She repeats that she loves Jughead, he says he loves Veronica; but true to form, Archie, who is always focused on the thing in front of him, doesn’t understand what they’re doing there if it’s not gonna lead to bone-town. Still, Betty gets through to him, and they both shut down the blossoming romance.

“So whatever this is, or was, is over,” Betty says.

There’s one more little bit, as Archie plays his song, alone in his room. His mother hears, thinks it’s sweet and hopes that Veronica likes it, which seems to spur him to finally commit to a future path: enlisting in the navy after high school. It’s clear he’s doing it to run away from something; but whether it’s his feelings for Betty, telling Veronica the truth, or his own demons, is unclear for now. As for Betty, she burns her diaries, giving up her own demons for once. But her mother Alice (Mädchen Amick) stops her from burning them all, telling her to hold on to one for safe keeping. There will always be that part of Betty that holds a torch for Archie, even if a scene or two later she’s back on the mystery solving beat with Jughead.

So at the end of the day, Barchie was not meant to be. Betty is back with Jughead, Archie is back with Veronica, and it’s all status quo, other than the whole “cheating on their significant others and not telling them about it” thing. But hey, this is Riverdale: everything could change, again, next season.

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

Where to watch Riverdale