Riverdale – Chapter Fifty-Eight: In Memoriam

By starrymag | October 16, 2019

By: Courtney Groom

 

 

After the Gargoyle King, after the Black hood and after The Farm vanquished, things are finally back to normal in Riverdale. As normal as Riverdale gets anyway. Hiram Lodge (Mark Consuelos) is in prison and Archie (KJ Apa) and his friends are planning how to spend their last summer together before leaving for college.

 

The residents of Riverdale are planning on bringing back their annual 4th of July parade, which has been postponed over the last few years as the holiday comes around when Jason Blossom (Trevor Stines) was murdered. The town is ready to move on, but Jason’s sister Cheryl (Madeleine Petsch) is not. After digging up his grave last season, Cheryl is in possession of her dead brother and does not want Riverdale to forget him.

 

Archie, Jughead (Cole Sprouse), Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Veronica (Camila Mendes) are all sat at their usual booth at Pop’s planning a camping trip when Archie receives a call from his dad’s number. As Archie collapses to the ground, it’s clear something has happened.

 

Back at Archie’s house FP (Skeet Ulrich) breaks the tragic news to Archie and his mom, Mary (Molly Ringwald). Fred was traveling upstate and pulled over to help the driver of a stalled car when he was killed in a hit-and-run. All crying, Archie focuses on the fact that he has to catch the person who is responsible for his father’s death, but FP assures him they will.

 

Archie and his friends, including Reggie (Ross Butler) and Kevin (Casey Cott), gather in his garden to share memories of the times they shared with Fred growing up. Betty shares a heart filled memory of Fred being her “dad for the day” when her own father let her down in high school partaking in the annual father daughter sack race.

 

A funeral director appears at Archie’s house to discuss the arrangements. He explains that Fred’s body will not be able to be transported from Cherry Creek, the nearest village from his death, until after the holidays.

 

That evening Archie has a nightmare where his dead Grandpa Artie (Paul Jarrett) and all his friends and family are waiting for him around the kitchen table saying, “You were supposed to get him,” as they stare at him. Archie jumps out of bed with Veronica by his side asking him what is wrong. He knows he needs to bring Fred home and Veronica agrees to help.

 

The Core Four of Archie, Veronica, Jughead and Betty assemble in a late-night road trip with a car from Reggie’s used car lot to bring Fred home where he belongs. Veronica speaks to the funeral director over the phone to inform them of their visit. As they arrive Mary was able to convince the directors to release Fred to Archie, but while the body is preparing for transit they give Archie the keys to Fred’s truck and a map with the location of where the accident occurred. The truck is still parked at the side of the road.

 

Archie stands next to the truck, looking inside the vehicle for any clues that could indicate who could have caused this when a woman appears (Shannen Doherty) with a bouquet of flowers. She asks if he is Archie and he confronts her, believing she was the cause of the accident. However, she explains that she’s the driver Fred has helped with a blown tire before he got hit and that Fred talked non-stop about Archie the entire time. Archie learns that the car was heading towards the woman when Fred pushed her out of the way, saving her life but risking his own. “He saved my life,” she tells Archie before asking if he would like to join her in a prayer. The five of them hold hands at the side of the road as she recites the Lord’s prayer.

 

Meanwhile, back in Riverdale, Cheryl is paying her condolences to Mary. She breaks down in tears and asks for her permission to do something special for when they return Fred to his home.

 

Before Fred is ready to come home, Archie asks if he can see the body to make sure that it is his father. As the funeral director enters the room, he turns to greet Archie. Instead, Betty and Veronica are standing there and explain Archie is too scared but ask if they can look instead. Holding hands, they step forward as the casket is lifted and tears role down their face.

 

Archie later receives a phone call from FP, telling him they found the person responsible for the hit and run. The driver has turned himself in but then made bail. Enraged, Archie turns up at the drivers’ house and slams him into the wall shouting why did he do what he did. However, the tone of this violent encounter changes dramatically when a distraught kid shouts from another room, “It wasn’t him!” He confesses it was him that killed Fred as he took the car without permission and without a license and his father took the blame. Archie quickly realizes that Fred would have done the same for Archie and he leaves without saying anything.

 

FP meets Archie at the town border and offers him a police escort into Riverdale to honor Fred’s return. As the car pulls into the town the streets are filled with “Welcome Home Fred” and “We Love You Fred” signs and fourth of July balloons, something Cheryl had organised realizing it is better to celebrate than grieve what we lose.

 

Fred’s funeral is held on what we can assume is the next day. Josie McCoy (Ashleigh Murray) returns to sing at the memorial. Archie gives a painfully poignant speech about Fred’s importance in his life and his role as the very bedrock of Riverdale. Each resident says goodbye to Fred placing a single rose on his coffin.

 

Betty takes some time to visit her own dad’s gravestone, which is littered with anti-Black Hood graffiti and trash. Despite Betty’s pain over Hal (Lochlyn Munro), she cleans the space off. Hal may have been a serial killer, but he was also her dad and his death is still something Betty is still grieving.

 

The premiere ends with a recreation of a memory Archie shared earlier on in the show, setting off fourth of July fireworks to celebrate his father’s life in his backyard. Talking to Veronica he makes it clear that he needs to live up to his father’s legacy every day saying, “Imagine if everyone was even half as good as my dad was.”

 

We then see Archie going into his dad’s garage thinking about Fred; the way he insulated the garage so Archie could play his music in there and the time they spent fixing up the jalopy. As Archie runs is hands over the walls and over the jalopy, flashbacks of Fred are shown with Archie finally breaking down as the news has finally sunk in.