Seven years after high school, Archie has just been retired from the Army and is now back in Riverdale with a quest. The town's a mess, so of course he's going to do his best to fix it, as a way to honor his dad.
"[His father] loved Riverdale and wanted to fight for Riverdale. So I think in that way, Archie's sort of picking picking up that thread from his father," Aguirre-Sacasa says. "Archie, even when he left to join the Army, said, 'I'm going to join the Army, I'm gonna learn how to be a man of honor and be a better person, a better leader, and then I'm going to come and apply what I've learned to Riverdale, so I think that's where his crusade starts. We love the fact that Archie's dad was a construction worker and that Archie is going to literally rebuild the town that his father helped build."
Toni's the pregnant Serpent Queen and she does not want to tell you who the father of her baby is, but she does want to get back together with her ex-girlfriend Cheryl.
"We're really excited about Toni this season," Aguirre-Sacasa said. "One of the reasons we broke up all of the couples at the end of their high school days in [season five, episode three], is because it's just easier to write stories to people who aren't necessarily in couples. And when Vanessa called me and told me she was pregnant, immediately my thought was, 'Let's write it in.' She wanted that as well. Because what what is a clearer sign that you're no longer a teenager, but you're an adult than having a child? That's such a rite of passage that it felt like, oh, if anything, that'll help the time jump even more."
While Toni's been leading the Serpents and getting knocked up, Cheryl has hidden herself away at Thornhill under the assumption that she's destined to live her life alone and cursed. Toni has visited her a few times, but her attempts to get back together haven't been reciprocated. Aguirre-Sacasa is not spilling anything when it comes to the two of them.
"I think you have to stay tuned, though there are efforts from both Toni's side and Cheryl's side to reconnect," he said. "That develops in the ensuing episodes for sure."
Aguirre-Sacasa says that one of the "biggest challenges" facing the writers was making it make sense for the newly adult characters to find a reason to go home and stay home in a way that feels believable.
"That was sort of the first big story we had to tell. In my mind, you'll see that all of their particular lives, they feel unfulfilled and they are, they are missing what they have in Riverdale," he explains. "So I think there are very practical reasons why they're there and I think there are emotional reasons for why they're there."
It's been seven years since Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead have seen each other, and it's gonna be awkward to start hanging out again.
"They're estranged, and we're playing their estrangement," Aguirre-Sacasa says. "We're playing that awkwardness. They're not as intimately involved in each other's lives. It means that weirdly Betty's doing more stuff with Kevin [Casey Cott] than Jughead. It means that Veronica and Archie aren't joined at the hip fighting against Hiram. Jughead's a little more of an island.
Hermione (Marisol Nichols) is now literally a Real Housewife and it might be our favorite development of all. Who are her castmates?? We must know.