WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 5, Episode 3 of Riverdale, "Chapter Seventy-Nine: Graduation," which aired Wednesday, Feb. 3 on The CW.
As the end of Riverdale's fourth season neared, Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Cheryl and the rest of the gang were getting ready for their upcoming graduation. But as everyone contemplated their futures in college, things weren't so certain for Archie. Indeed, given everything that had happened to him during his senior year, Archie was failing his classes and having to repeat 12th grade appeared to be a strong likelihood.
Now, with the series' latest episode, "Chapter Seventy-Nine: Graduation," Archie officially gets the bad news: he will not be graduating. But instead of repeating his senior year, Archie charts a new path for himself by enlisting in the army -- a direction that seems to be directly inspired by the Archie 1941 series from Archie Comics.
Archie 1941 was a five-issue limited series from the creative team of Brian Augustyn, Mark Waid, Kelly Fitzpatrick, Peter Krause and Jack Morelli published in 2018. The comic reimagined the mythology of Archie Comics in the 1940s, as the small town of Riverdale and its residents prepared for the storm that was World War II. The series began with Archie and his friends graduating and, shortly after this, he joined the army to take part in the fight.
While Riverdale doesn't take place in the '40s, "Chapter Seventy-Nine: Graduation" carries certain overtones that call back to that era. Indeed, at the start of the episode, the students dig up an old time capsule that includes a picture of four young men who were heading to war just after their own graduation. It's this photograph that partly inspires Archie to sign up at a recruitment booth set up at his school's entrance.
What's more, as Archie heads off to the army in a bus, Jughead, Betty and Veronica catch up to him in his jalopy, to tell him goodbye one last time. The jalopy has appeared on the series before and its return here appears to be yet another distinct callback to a bygone era. The episode shares a lot in common with the comic book, even if they are separated by decades. On the television series, Archie may not sign up to fight in World War II, but his decision is still a considerably heavy one as he knows full well there is a war going on -- a war he will likely take part in, sooner or later.
Riverdale stars K.J. Apa as Archie Andrews, Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper, Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge, Cole Sprouse as Jughead Jones, Madelaine Petsch as Cheryl Blossom, Casey Cott as Kevin Keller, Mark Consuelos as Hiram Lodge, Charles Melton as Reggie Mantle, Vanessa Morgan as Toni Topaz, Mädchen Amick as Alice Cooper and Erinn Westbrook as Tabitha Tate. New episodes of Season 5 air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.