SPOILERS AHEAD!

On Monday, Oct. 18 season 5 of the hit Netflix TV show, Riverdale, was released for the public to watch. Riverdale is about a group of high school students solving mysteries and murders that occur in their sleepy little town. This season is different from the ones before because, after the third episode, it skips seven years into the future after all the teens graduated college. Archie ends up calling all his old friends back to Riverdale so they can help save the town before it erupts. 

Back in Riverdale after almost a decade, the core four, Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead become teachers at Riverdale High School because they are short of staff. Betty teaches shop class, Archie teaches RROTC, Jughead teaches English, and Veronica takes over the economic class. 

The main character, Archie Andrews, joined the military after high school and was sent into war. He returns to Riverdale because his Commander instructed him to run the RROTC class at Riverdale High School. Throughout the season viewers watch how Archie lets go of the guilt he carries because of his soldiers dying in battle, which he felt was his fault.   

Betty Cooper, now FBI agent, spends her time in Riverdale searching for her missing sister who disappeared days after Betty returns home. At the beginning of the season, Betty and Archie try becoming a couple, but it just doesn’t feel right to them because they are better as friends. 

Jughead Jones has had his ups and downs since graduating from Riverdale High. He became a famous writer from his book called The Outsiders. However, Jughead now has a severe case of writer’s block and has fallen into heavy debt. As the season goes on, he tries to write a new novel for his publisher but ends up getting fired because he did not meet the deadline.

The last main character, Veronica Lodge, had a big character change in the seven years. She is now married to a wealthy man named Chadwick Gekko and living in New York with a successful career as a stockbroker. Toward the middle of the season, Veronica opens her jewelry store, Pearls and Posh, to try and help rebuild the town.

This season was different from the other ones because it had multiple mysteries happening at the same time. In this season there were two serial killers and aliens, which lead the group to fall back into their old habits of teaming up to get to the bottom of the issue. 

The new season introduced a handful of new relationships between the characters that viewers have not seen or have been waiting for since the first season. For example, Betty and Archie sparked a relationship together at the beginning of the season but called it off to just stay friends. Also, Toni is pregnant this season and raises the baby with fellow South Side Serpent, Fang, which is the beginning of their relationship together. In addition, Veronica divorces her husband Chad in the middle of the season because he was destroying her business and even attempted to kill her. 

Season 5 has some similarities to the previous ones but since it takes place in the future, it will stand out from the rest. Viewers get to see character development and how the friend group went down different paths in life but eventually found their way back to one another.

If I could change one thing in this season it would be how the characters burst into song at random parts in the episode. As I was watching it just seems so out of the ordinary when a person started singing. Throughout the season, there were many musical moments and I think they should have only put half that number into the show. 

All in all, the season was very entertaining and keep viewers at the edge of their seats the entire time. Especially at the end with the biggest cliffhanger out of all the seasons. Fans are just going to have to be patient for the sixth season of Riverdale.