Does Archie die in Riverdale?
By Sabrina Reed
Update – Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021: Contains spoilers for Riverdale season 5 “Chapter Ninety-Three: Dance of Death”
It should come as no surprise to Riverdale fans that Archie managed to escape death again but considering the spectre of demise dogs this man’s steps, it’s no wonder the question still stays on viewers minds. How did he manage to live to fight another day this time?
Well, in “Chapter Ninety-Three: Dance of Death,” Archie has not one but two attempts on his life. The first involves Veronica’s ex-husband Chad who, after being manipulated into the decision by Hiram Lodge, goes after Archie with a gun. As Chad is prone to do, he fudges the plan and his attempt at murdering Archie goes awry.
For his part, our redheaded hero throws a trash can lid at Chad’s face like he’s Captain America, adding insult to injury where Chad is concerned.
Furious that his plan to be rid of Archie is foiled, Hiram decides to blow up Cheryl’s palladium mines with the miners still inside. The majority of the crew make it out but Archie and Eric are trapped. In retaliation, Veronica knocks her father out, ties him to a chair, and makes it very clear to him that if Archie dies then he dies.
With Eric bleeding out and Archie losing steam as he tries to dig a path to safety, it seems like all hope is lost. Despite the effort the crew and Veronica are making to unearth the two men, it’s painstaking work and even results in a wound for V who’s sent home by Cheryl to recover and prepare for when Archie comes home to her.
Meanwhile, in the mine, Archie has nearly given up. They’re running out of oxygen and he’s tired. His strength is renewed, however, when the spirit of Bingo appears with words of encouragement. With the help of his ghostly unit, Archie once again begins moving the rubble to clear a path.
Outside the mines, Cheryl calls up the elements and Gaia to help Archie and it works! Though she hasn’t been described as such, it very much looks like she’s a witch. So our hopes for a Chilling Adventures of Sabrina crossover continue to rise.
Safely out of the mines, Archie reunites with Veronica for a soothing bubble bath. Whether or not he’s aware that she killed Chad in self-defense is unclear. But Hiram does know as V told him when she cut him loose and declared that she was no longer scared of him.
Something tells us that’s going to come back to bite her especially since Smithers is the only witness to the altercation and he didn’t see what happened because the lights were out. All he saw when he turned them on was Veronica standing over her dead ex-husband’s body as she pointed a gun at Chad.
With only two episodes left in the season, there’s no telling where Riverdale will go next as we wind down toward the season finale, but we’re sure it’ll be quite the ride!
Below is the original copy of this article published Monday, September 20, 2021
Archie Andrews is Riverdale‘s jack-of-all trades. Often reckless but with his heart in the right place, even if his actions border on criminal if not worthy of a lawsuit, the redhead has been in more than one life threatening scrape.
As a teenager, Archie was prone to getting into risky tangos with Riverdale’s criminal underbelly. That sounds strange for a town described as having pep but The CW‘s version of this iconic setting has always had darkness seeping into it.
Archie is no different. He once led a gang of teen vigilantes called the Red Circle to “protect” the north side of Riverdale from what he thought was a threat from the south side via the Black Hood. Instead of helping the situation, he managed to terrorize a community that had already been put through the wringer by disenfranchisement and a lack of resources.
Since then Archie has grown as a character, but he still has a tendency to leap into danger without all of the facts and a clear direction on how to do things beyond wanting to be of service to the people of Riverdale.
Season 5 of the series has seen him do that by shouldering the burden of pulling an entire unincorporated town back from the brink of complete ruination. Add that on top of the stress from his PTSD due to his time in The War and loss of all but one of his unit, and Archie hasn’t been in a good place.
He’s run a drug dealing den out of his childhood home, rounded up escaped inmates even fighting off some of them with a machete in the halls of Riverdale, and beat a dog fighter for his crimes against innocent animals. Archie the vigilante puts himself in harm’s way all the time, so it has some fans of the show wondering whether his luck will be running out soon.
Are Archie’s days numbered on Riverdale?
Spoilers ahead of Riverdale season 5, episode 16 and 17
Episode 16, “Chapter Ninety-Two: Band of Brothers,” saw Archie seemingly getting onto a more even footing with the success of his mission to stop General Taylor from retiring with honors.
The soldiers that had been haunting him still remained by his side but instead of being bloodied and showing the cost of war, they were in civilian clothes joining the sergeant in his toast to them.
Hope looked to be on the horizon, and perhaps it still will be, but in episode 17 “Chapter Ninety-Three: Dance of Death” Archie’s life will once again be on the line. However, this time it’s not his fault. Our redheaded hero will be put in danger due to the continued feud between Veronica and her father, Hiram Lodge.
In “Band of Brothers,” Veronica stole Hiram’s palladium in a power move her dad didn’t see coming. In retaliation, he’s set to blow up Cheryl Blossom’s mines where Archie and his makeshift mining crew have been digging for the metal since “Chapter Ninety: The Night Gallery.”
Hiram’s actions causes a cave-in trapping Archie and a fellow miner. What Hiram likely doesn’t know is that those mines are filled with carbon monoxide that Cheryl had set-up a system to filter out. A cave-in makes that impossible, so if he thought blowing up those mines would simply be a scare tactic, he’s now turned it into a possible homicide.
The last time the miners were in the cave, they began hallucinating and some even attacked each other as the gas messed with their minds and poisoned them. Given the circumstances, this very much is a situation that could prove fatal but should fans be worried about Archie?
At this point in Riverdale, no. Besides the fact that Archie is a main character and essentially the lead of this ensemble cast, KJ Apa told the LA Times that he’d signed a contract that’ll see him playing the role of Archie Andrews at least through season 7 of the show if it continues to be renewed.
Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa also teased the potential romantic pairings in season 6 with the following quote:
"Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, Jughead and Tabitha… all of them are very deep into it with love interests."
So Archie isn’t going anywhere anytime soon even if the cave in makes his life difficult in one way or another. Stay tuned to Hidden Remote for more Riverdale news and coverage!
New episodes of Riverdale season 5 air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. Season 6 is set to premiere on Tuesday, Nov. 16 after The Flash.