After seven seasons, The CW's wild, unpredictable teen drama series came to an end on Wednesday.
Over the course of seven seasons, Riverdale has told a lot of wild stories involving time travel, multiple universes, supernatural forces and more generally surreal weirdness than one might expect from a teen drama on The CW.
However, when the long-running series came to a close on Wednesday, the show wrapped everything up with a somber, emotionally powerful and surprisingly heartfelt story in which essentially everyone died. Or, more accurately, everyone was already dead when the finale began.
The show kicked off in the present day with an 86-year-old Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) sitting at home, where she reads in the newspaper that Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) had died at the age of 84.
Soon, however, she gets a visit from Angel Jughead, who magically transports her back in time to the 1950s, to Betty's last day of senior year in high school, which she originally missed because she was sick at the time.
Strolling around her old high school, Angel Jughead gives Betty the chance to get closure with all of her old friends, and details the sometimes wonderful, sometimes tragic lives of everyone she'd been friends with back in the day.
Through the use of Jughead's omnipotent divine narration, fans got to find out the life stories of all the characters they'd followed throughout the series, and the emotionally charged finale came to a close with Betty's peaceful death. In the end, as an angel, a youthful Betty meets with all her friends in the afterlife -- which just so happens to be a classic-looking Pop's Diner in all it's glory.
In celebration of Riverdale's series finale, ET is looking back at recent interviews with the cast, regarding the show coming to a close and how they feel about wrapping up the wild storylines. [Note: All of these interviews were conducted before the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike].
"It has a bittersweet feeling to it," Reinhart told ET at the Women in Film Honors Gala in October. "I think I'm kind of just trying to approach this season with not taking anything for granted, really trying to be present, trying to enjoy my co-stars. So, it's different for me at least."
As for whether she's taking anything from the show's set, Reinhart said that the experience and the memories are enough.
"I don't want to hoard anything," Reinhart insisted. "I have literally, the episodes, the hundred-plus episodes that I've done, I don't need anything physical. I'm taking the experience with me."
Meanwhile, Camila Mendes, who starred as Veronica Lodge on the series, predicted that she'd be "so emotional" when Riverdale wrapped its final season.
"I've grown up with these people. I spent my entire 20s with them, so we've really been through so much together," Mendes told ET at the premiere of her film, Do Revenge, last September.
As for what she'd want to do after her long-running series came to an end, Mendes shared, "I don't know. I just wanna keep an open mind and I just wanna see what it looks like to have some more free time in my life and what I wanna do with that free time. I feel like I just wanna go into it with an open mind."
Madelaine Petsch also reflected on her time on Riverdale while speaking with ET last August, and explained how much she'd learned from being a part of the show.
"I've learned with Riverdale that we really lean into what the least expected route is. That's kind of what it's always been. So I've gotten more comfortable with just going with the flow on the show because I really don't know if I'm going to be on wires in the middle of the night [or] fighting a comet the next day," Petsch said.
"I enjoy it. I love stunts and I love doing work like that, so to me, to have another one under my belt was fun. You just go along with the flow on that show and if you lean into it and you find the fun of it, then it's all gravy and fun," she added.
She also expressed similar sentiments to Mendes, explaining, "With the end of that chapter coming to the beginning of my near future, I'm just mostly looking forward to what I have to do next and also going to miss my best friends."
Shortly after the news was announced that Riverdale's final season would be its last, ET spoke with KJ Apa -- who played Archie Andrews -- about the news.
"I feel sad, you know, it's going to be really hard to say goodbye to Archie, to Riverdale, to the sets, to our crew," he noted. "We've created so many memories on this show, for both ourselves and for the fans, so it's going to be hard."
That being said, Apa added, "I think it's perfect -- all great things have to come to an end. I feel good about it."
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