This list was originally published on May 24, 2019. It has been updated to include additional episodes. Right now, students are donning their caps and gowns and graduating from high schools all over the country.
It’s a pretty stressful time but an exciting one — it signals not only their major achievement of managing to get through the hell that is high school, but the start of a new chapter in their lives. To that end, it’s a pretty common device in TV shows. It’s the culmination of all the events to that point and a way to show our characters’ growth — and their panic over what could possibly be next.
Teen shows in particular build toward that big day, which will either signal the end of the show entirely or the dawn of a new (and almost always inferior) college-set era. Graduation episodes involve big stakes, high-emotion speeches, and new beginnings — so grab your tissues and settle in for some drama (probably), some death (possibly!), and some diplomas (certainly). Never one to go by the book , Riverdale places its high-school graduation not as the season finale but as the .
.. third episode of the fifth season.
Of course, it had to be then, to accommodate the mid-season seven-year time jump . While it’s hard to believe these crazy kids got any schoolwork done at all between the murders and whatever, they’re graduating (well, most of them; sorry, Archie) and heading out into the big, wide world. There’s plenty of drama: Cheryl opts to skip college, Bet.
