♪ One, two, three o'clock Four o'clock, rock ♪
♪ Five, six, seven o'clock Eight o'clock, rock ♪
♪ Nine, ten, eleven o'clock Twelve o'clock, rock ♪
♪ We're gonna rock around the clock tonight ♪
♪ Put your glad rags on And join me, hon ♪
♪ We'll have some fun When the clock strikes one ♪
♪ We're gonna rock Around the clock tonight ♪
♪ We're gonna rock, rock, rock Till broad daylight ♪
♪ We're gonna rock, gonna rock Around the clock tonight ♪
♪ When the clock strikes two Three and four ♪
The year is 1955.
Number one on the Billboard charts is "Rock Around The Clock,"
an earworm if I've ever heard one.
Now, some random fun facts.
In 1955, a hamburger with a side of fries
set you back 30 cents.
A comic book, a dime. A pulp novel, a quarter.
It's been two days since Bailey's Comet almost decimated us,
and we were somehow zapped back to the 1950s.
I'm not sure how that happened exactly.
I'm not sure if we're merely in the past,
or in the past of an alternate universe.
But things are different here in Riverdale.
For starters, I live in an abandoned train car with Hot Dog,
which actually tracks.
And at Riverdale High, we're all juniors again.
Betty and Kevin aren't merely friends,
they're dating.
Cheryl's twin brother is alive, but he's not Jason.
He's Julian.
No sign of a Reggie yet.
But Archie exists, and he's still pretty much a teen Charles Atlas.
None of them remember our lives
from before we became teenagers again,
and I haven't tried to remind them yet.
I've been waiting to reconnect with the one person
who might be able to shed light on our predicament,
because she was both chronokinetic
and the town's guardian angel, my girlfriend, Tabitha Tate.
Bus from Mississippi's pulling in.
Wonder if it was as bad down there
as they're saying on the radio.
I already knew what Pop would soon find out.
It was much, much worse.
Tabitha, Toni and some of Riverdale High's other students of color
were in Mississippi for the trial
of the two men who murdered Black teenager Emmett Till,
for supposedly whistling at a white woman.
The jury deliberated for all of 67 minutes
and then acquitted the killers.
It was one of the single most shameful
and appalling events of this or any era.
Uh, Tabitha?
Uh, they
announced the verdict on... on the radio.
It made me sick in my stomach.
- If you need anything... - That's what we're trying to figure out now,
what our next move should be... but I appreciate the offer.
It's Jughead, right?
Uh, yeah. Yes.
I'll let you know.
It's overwhelming.
Heartbreaking.
Whichever genius said that the '50s
were the greatest decade of all time
should seriously have their head examined.
Archie? Can I speak to you for a minute?
What's wrong, Mom?
They printed more pictures from James Dean's car accident.
Oh, I can't even show them to you.
You shouldn't look at that stuff, Mom,
- it upsets you. - No, what upsets me
- is the idea of you on the road being reckless. - Oh.
And that's why I...
I'm going to need your keys, Archie.
You're not going to drive that hot rod anymore.
Mom. Whoa! Now, Mom, I'm a safe driver.
It's not a hot rod.
It's barely a cut above a jalopy...
It's got fire painted on its doors.
- Mom. - Keys. Now.
♪ Well, that's All right, Mama ♪
♪ That's all right for you ♪
♪ That's all right, mama Just anyway you do ♪
♪ That's all right That's all right ♪
♪ That's all right now, Mama Anyway you do ♪
♪ Well, Mama she done told me ♪
♪ Papa done told me too ♪
♪ Son, that gal Your foolin' with ♪
♪ She ain't no good for you ♪
♪ But that's all right That's all right ♪
What do you think, Betty?
Toni, your writing is remarkable.
This is the most important piece of reporting that I've read in my two years
as editor-in-chief at the Blue and Gold.
But we've tried covering Emmett Till before.
Both times Principal Featherhead has vetoed the stories.
Betty, I heard Mamie Till give the most incredible, inspiring speech
after the verdict was delivered.
And I got a chance to interview people
that knew Emmett personally,
his friends, his neighbors.
And I made them a promise I would help tell his story.
I agree wholeheartedly.
I'll make an appointment for us with Featherhead.
This is a squirrel mill.
A mill is a hot rod or souped-up jalopy which was once just a car.
Well, it should happen to all...
Mrs. Thornton, I'm sorry to interrupt your class,
but I did want to personally introduce a new student to our Riverdale High family.
She's just moved here from sunny Los Angeles.
Damn.
Even in 1955, Veronica Lodge knew
how to make an entrance.
Enchante, I'm sure.
Thank you, Principal Featherhead.
Now, before you ask,
yes, I am that Veronica Lodge,
the daughter of Hiram and Hermione Lodge,
the married stars of America's number-one rated television program, Oh Mija!
For the foreseeable future,
I will be staying with my auntie and uncle
at the Pembrooke in downtown Riverdale.
Why? Well,
you may have heard about MGM's upcoming film adaptation of Our Town.
Though I can't confirm that the lead role of innocent ingenue Emily Webb
has already been cast
with a certain raven-haired starlet, namely moi,
I did feel it was an opportune time
to take a sabbatical from Hollywood
and get a feel for small-town life.
But please, I beg of you treat me as one of your own,
not as a scion of Tinseltown royalty.
Thank you.
Mind if I join you?
- Actually... - Yeah, sure.
I believe I caught on your names
in Mrs. Thornton's class.
Archie. Betty.
Kevin. Julian.
Hmm.
Remind me, what's yours again?
- Cheryl. - That's right, Cheryl.
So, what are we dishing about?
- Clue me in. - James Dean's untimely passing, of course.
I am the president of his fan club here at Riverdale High.
Your parents' show is hilarious.
We tune in every week.
You and everyone else,
if Mr. Nielsen is to be believed.
Where in Los Angeles did you live?
Bel Air.
In a ghastly old mansion Vincent Price used to own.
Is that close to where James Dean lived?
Wait, you didn't know James Dean, did you?
Kevin, don't be so provincial.
James Dean was a movie star.
He was friends with Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson.
Actually, Jimmy and I were quite friendly.
We went skinny-dipping in the pool at the Chateau Marmaduke.
- You went skinny-dipping? - With James Dean?
Once or was it a regular thing?
I suppose next you'll be saying you and Jimmy dated.
No, but he did enjoy playing both sides of the net.
Girls and boys.
Wait. Hang on! Are you suggesting that James Dean was...
What? I mean, he seemed like
such a regular guy. Like a cowboy, almost.
How dare you besmirch his memory like that?
Don't you be so provincial.
I don't know why I'm so surprised to hear such filthy lies
coming out of the mouth of some wild child
who grew up surrounded by perverts
going to sex parties and orgies!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have lost my appetite.
What about Sal Mineo?
Remember, the astronomy club is meeting after school today.
We will be bringing something ideas to fundraise
so we can purchase new telescope
before Bailey's Comet arrives.
B-Bailey's Comet is coming again?
Guys!
When?
Oh, not for two years, Mr. Jones.
But it's an extremely expensive telescope,
and this will be the only opportunity
we'll have to see the comet in our lifetime.
We mustn't miss it.
Hey, Veronica, can I walk you home?
Walk?
Do I look like the kind of girl who walks home?
Ready, Ronnie?
Thanks for the offer, Archie,
but as you can see, I've already secured an escort home.
Um, excuse me.
And how do you expect me to get home, dear brother?
You got two feet, don't you?
Use them or lose them.
I'm sorry.
Miss Topaz, Miss Cooper,
but I gave your article to Dr. Werthers for review,
and we both agree,
it's not suitable for publication.
Toni's reporting is, it's thorough, insightful, balanced.
Be that as it may, as a child psychologist,
it's my expert opinion that the details of the Emmett Till case
are far too violent and disturbing
for young, impressionable minds.
People, your students, need to understand
the gravity of what happens so it doesn't happen again...
here.
These sorts of things don't happen in Riverdale.
And may I remind you that we were
one of the first high schools in the country to integrate.
- Isn't that enough? - Hardly.
We don't have any Black teachers.
We don't study or learn about Black authors.
Change doesn't happen overnight, Miss Topaz.
Your article's very well-written.
Surely you can find some satisfaction in that.
Mom, Dad, you haven't said anything.
Did you read the article my friend Toni wrote?
Yes, we did, honey.
And?
And it was very well-written.
- Extremely well-written. - Mm-hmm.
So you'll read it on the air, Dad?
Jeez, hon, we only get 15 minutes of airtime a night.
Do we really need to spend one minute on a story that...
well, has nothing to do with us?
Dad, everyone watches your nightly broadcast.
Imagine the impact it would have
if you, the face of RIVW, talked about Emmett Till.
Elizabeth, it's not that simple, honey.
I mean, you know very well that we have to run
every single one of our stories
past our sponsors for approval.
And I'm sorry, this is just not in their bailiwick.
Your sponsors, you're talking about
The Blossoms, Blossom Maple Syrup.
But if we lose their support,
RIVW won't be able to expand its programming.
Hmm. You won't be able to give yourself a raise, you mean.
Betty. Darling, why is this so important to you?
Because what happened to Emmett Till was a complete injustice.
A crime emblematic of everything
that's wrong with this country.
And nobody except my friend Toni
and her friends seem to care about it.
You know, this might sound crazy, Jug.
The first time that I saw her,
I felt like I was hit by a thunderbolt or something.
Shazam!
But how is a guy like me going to get anywhere
with a girl like Veronica Lodge if I'm riding a damn bicycle?
That's why I'm sneaking this baby out tonight.
I admit, while Archie poured his heart out to me,
I was racking my brains.
If Bailey's Comet was what sent us all to the past,
Bailey's Comet might be able to send us back to the future.
But I needed help.
But with my friends unaware of their former lives,
how can I make them remember?
It would take some kind of tangible proof to jolt them awake, but what?
Jug, have you seen my dad's hammer? I need to smack this dent out.
Your dad's hammer?
Did everyone bring an item?
Putting in a guitar pick and a hammer from my dad's toolbox.
It was a long shot.
But could that time capsule we buried
graduation weekend, possibly have survived
whatever cosmic event sent us back to 1955?
The items in that capsule might trigger their memories.
Do you have a shovel that I could borrow?
Thank God!
Well, well, well.
Color me curious.
The all-American boy is secretly a hot-rodder.
I was hoping I could maybe give you a ride home today.
Consider it a date.
Archie. Veronica.
I'm holding an emergency meeting in the music room. Hurry!
Who is that person again?
What is all this junk, Jughead?
These headlines are like Dr. Seuss.
Just take a moment. Look at what you're holding.
Do you remember anything? Do you... Do you feel anything?
I mean, I like the jacket, but I've never seen this before in my life.
I've been to a lot of movie sets,
so I know a good prop when I see one, and these are okay.
- They're not props. - Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
I don't get it. An "inch" of what?
When did you even get a chance
to bury my dad's hammer in a cooler?
I didn't. You did.
We all buried something of emotional significance
in that time capsule 67 years ago.
- But in the future. - The future?
Yeah. Yes.
This is gonna sound nuts, okay?
Just hear me out.
Thanks to a cataclysmic event,
all of us, we were all sent back in time...
to maybe an alternate parallel universe.
And we need to get back to our future.
Our present. I... I was hoping that by showing
you guys these objects, it would help jog your memory.
Okay. What's your object? What did you bury?
It was a yarn beanie.
But for whatever reason, it wasn't in the time capsule.
Oh.
All right. I'll play along.
Yeah. Okay.
In the future, who's more famous?
Me or Elizabeth Taylor?
Never mind her. She just got here.
Bird's-eye view. What's the future like?
Um...
Where do I start? Uh...
Okay.
We don't use regular phones anymore.
We use something called smartphones,
which we can carry around everywhere with us.
And, ironically, we don't even call people on them.
We just send texts, which are like messages
and listen to music on Spotify
and, oh, the Internet.
The Internet is like, um,
having an entire encyclopedia at your fingertips.
Well, maybe tell us about us.
What were we like in the future?
Okay. Archie joins the Army and fought in a war.
Betty, you were in the FBI
and you were hunting down serial killers,
which I guess is a term that doesn't exist yet.
Veronica, you owned a casino.
But before that, a speakeasy,
which Toni bought and turned into a biker bar.
Kevin, you directed, uh, some musicals,
and were in an organ-harvesting cult.
Huh! Oh!
Okay. What about me?
Uh, you were possessed by your ancestor and... and became a witch.
Oh.
If that's what we were doing in the future,
why would we want to go back? We sound miserable.
Yeah, and how would that even happen?
Okay, I... I have an idea.
Now, it's a crazy one, but it might work.
So, short of waiting for Bailey's Comet to return,
the other way that we could break through the space-time barrier
is by getting Archie and Betty
to make out on top of Archie's bed,
and then we blow up a bomb underneath them.
All right, Jug. That's enough, man.
- Let's go for a walk. - You're not going to beat me up, are you?
Because you're really violent in the future.
What? No, we're gonna talk.
- Come on. - Just... Just look at that.
- You don't understand! - No, Jug, you don't understand.
We are not from the future.
Jughead, it's 1955.
And things are hard enough to figure out
without your crazy stories
about time traveling
and other universes. And setting off bombs?
I mean, for Pete's sake, Jughead. If you're not careful,
people might start thinking you belong in the loony bin with the other nutjobs.
You think I'm crazy?
No, I, uh...
I just, I think you have an overactive imagination, is all.
And look, you should keep writing
your comic books and your stories
instead of trying to convince us
that we're trapped in some kind of
science-fiction picture show.
Jug, life's good.
It's not perfect, but... but what is?
Well, just trust me on this one, will you, bud, please?
Yeah.
- Yeah, no... - Yeah?
Attaboy.
I feel like all I'm doing lately
is apologizing to you, Toni.
But... my parents say they wouldn't be able
to get your story past The Blossoms,
and they sponsor the nightly news, so...
Well, I'm not surprised.
When Emmett was murdered, nobody wanted to talk about it
and nobody wanted to hear about it.
It took Mrs. Till publishing her son's funeral pictures
for people to finally wake up.
I don't think I know about that.
Before Emmett was buried,
his mother asked for an open casket
so people could see what was done to her son.
How he'd been beaten, tortured and disfigured.
Toni, do you have copies of those pictures?
At home.
From when they were in a newsletter.
Are you sure you want to see them?
Why on God's earth are you two in such sullen, sulking moods?
It's not like you're poor.
Julian's mad because that fake stuck-up Veronica Lodge
- ditched him for a date with Archie Andrews. - Mm.
Cheryl's mad because suddenly she's not the most beautiful,
most interesting girl at Riverdale High anymore.
As if she ever was.
Anyway, these inane movie magazines came in the mail for you.
Perhaps they'll cheer you up.
♪ Well, I saw my baby walking ♪
♪ With another man today... ♪
- They're good, right? - Delicious.
Honestly, I think these onion rings might be
better than the ones at the Brown Derby.
Wow. What's the Brown Derby?
It's a chain of restaurants that Gloria Swanson's husband started in Los Angeles.
Who's Gloria Swanson?
You know what? Let's skip it.
Enough Hollywood talk. I want to hear about you.
Tell me everything there is to know about Archie Andrews.
The hot-rodder next door. What do you do for fun?
Well, I work on my car.
I like sports.
Um... I come here to Pop's.
And I hang out at Sweetwater River.
Yeah.
To skinny dip, I hope.
Mostly to fish.
My dad and I used to go there together.
You used to?
Yeah, he's not around anymore.
He served in the Korean War and he didn't make it back.
-Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean... -No, it's okay.
It's okay. You didn't know.
Anyway, it's just me and my mom now.
And she works part-time at the dress shop downtown.
Oh. Well, I will have to pay her a visit.
I'll make sure she gives you a discount.
What about girls?
I mean, as handsome as you are,
I assume you're beating them off with a stick.
Uh...
Well, I'm probably digging myself into a hole here, but, uh...
You know, I've never had a serious girlfriend before.
Really?
Why's that?
I don't know. Maybe I just haven't met the right girl yet.
Until now.
J'accuse!
Excuse me?
Cheryl, what is your problem?
She is my problem, Archie.
Veronica Lodge is nothing but a liar and a fraud.
And I'm going to make sure the entire world knows it.
You're not starring in Our Town.
Natalie Wood is. It says so right there.
You've been lying to us ever since you got here.
Which makes me wonder, why are you actually in Riverdale?
Was it really your choice or
did your parents banish you because they were fed up
with their lying liar of a spoiled brat daughter?
Hey, it's... It's okay.
That's just... It's sort of what Cheryl's like.
But don't worry, no one takes her seriously.
In this case, she's right, though.
I haven't been entirely honest with you guys.
The truth is, my parents did banish me.
Why would they do that?
Because I am a problem,
and when problems interfere with their lives,
they make them go away.
In a way, it feels like they've been
making me go away since I was born.
Ignoring me and sidelining me
since they... started that damn show of theirs.
So I began acting out
like some spoiled little rich girl to get their attention.
And the straw that finally broke the camel's back
and made my parents ship me across the country was...
the accident.
With James Dean? You were in the car?
No, I was part of a convoy of some other good-time girls.
We were going to cheer Jimmy on at a race in Salinas.
Anyway, to keep my name out of the papers,
my parents spirited me away
and put me on a private plane to Riverdale.
To live with your aunt and uncle.
They don't exist, Archie.
This is my parent's place.
I can't... believe they would do that.
I mean, exile you to live alone.
Like a fairy tale princess, I guess.
The show is their real baby, Archie. Not me.
Archie.
Mom.
- What are you doing up? - Waiting for you.
I went into the garage to get a screwdriver,
and I saw that you'd taken your car out.
- Mom, I can explain. - You're grounded, Archie.
Because I took my car out without your permission?
Why is that all of a sudden a criminal offense?
The pictures of James Dean's car crash.
I can't lose you... like I lost your father.
And I can't get a call in the middle of the night
telling me that you wrapped your car around some telephone pole.
Come on, Mom. You won't.
You won't.
And I promise I won't speed.
I won't go drag racing.
In fact, I'll ask Betty to un-soup my car
so that it doesn't go faster than... than...
- Twenty-five miles an hour. - Fifteen.
Twenty.
- Deal. - Deal.
- Twenty. Sounds great. - Yeah. Okay.
Oh Mija! Starring Hiram Lodge, Hermione Lodge
and Tillie Temple as Little Ronnie.
Bitch.
Hello?
Veronica? Veronica, can you hear me?
Mom?
Yes. Yes, I can. How are you?
- Where are you? - Listen, darling, I only have a minute.
But, um, what's this I'm hearing about a boy at the apartment?
You know we didn't send you to Riverdale to get into more trouble, Veronica.
Mom, please. It was nothing.
He's just a friend from school.
Good, good. That's music to my ears.
Mom, have you decided on Thanksgiving yet?
-I can fly back. -Oh, honey, I'm sorry. I have to go.
Your Uncle Orson just arrived. But please, mija, fly right,
no boys, and we'll see about the holidays.
Talk soon. Kisses.
Thank you for letting me borrow the newsletter, Toni.
I had no idea.
The pictures make it so much more real, don't they?
Can you imagine the strength and courage
it took Mrs. Till to let them be published?
I truly can't.
But it did help me decide that
I'm going to publish your article in the next edition of The Blue and Gold.
Consequences be damned.
I may have a different idea.
Nobody wanted to see these pictures
and Featherhead and The Blossoms
don't want anybody to read my article, fine.
But what about a poem about Emmett Till
read during the morning announcements?
- But Cheryl does the morning announcements. - Exactly. Look,
I don't know her well, but she's going to make up for her parents' cowardice.
You want to help me with an ambush?
Hey, Jughead.
Tabitha. Hi.
You remember that offer you made me before
to help out in any way that you can?
Oh, yeah. Yes, uh, of course.
Well, the NAACP asked Emmett Till's mother to travel around the country
to speak about what happened to her son,
and my folks are joining the tour to pitch in.
I've decided that I want to go with them.
After I help Toni with a little something.
Wow. That's incredible.
- They're going to let you drop out of school? - No.
But I got special permission from Featherhead.
I'll have my books with me,
but I would love to have a friend help me
stay on top of everything.
Okay. Yeah, I'll do it.
Thank you.
I so appreciate it.
- I'll be in touch, okay? - Awesome.
I mean, um, swell.
Hey, Cheryl.
Can we talk to you for a second?
What can I do for you... Toni, is it? And Betty.
Your family controls our RIVW, which means they control
what Riverdale watches,
and Principal Featherhead
decides what I can and cannot publish in the Blue and Gold.
The powers that be have silenced my article
on Emmett Till's murder trial, but you can fix this.
During the morning announcements.
As junior class president, I can't read an article
that Principal Featherhead has already rejected.
Not an article. Something else.
He'd pull the plug. He's done it before.
We'll take care of Featherhead.
All you have to do is let us borrow your soapbox for a few minutes.
What would I be reading?
Good morning, Miss Bell.
Are you ready for the morning announcements?
Apparently, one of your classmates, Tabatha Tate,
has passed out on the football field.
Principal Featherhead is tending to her now.
I'm to bring both him and her some smelling salts.
Ugh, you don't say.
You know how to use a microphone, don't you?
Indeed, I do.
Don't worry, Miss Bell. All will be well.
Toodles.
Good morning, Riverdaleans.
In lieu of our usual morning announcements, I, Cheryl Blossom,
will be turning over my microphone
to one of our classmates, Toni Topaz.
Please give her your undivided attention.
Some of you may have heard what's happening in Mississippi right now.
How a 14-year-old boy, Emmett Till,
was murdered for maybe whistling at a white woman
and how his killers were just acquitted.
I wrote an article about the trial,
and nobody wants you to read it because it is "too upsetting."
So, instead, I'm going to read you a poem that the great American writer
Langston Hughes wrote about Emmett Till.
It's titled Mississippi-1955.
And I hope you hear his words and reflect on them
and talk to each other about them.
"Oh, what sorrow! Oh, what pity!
Oh, what pain!
That tears and blood Should mix like rain
And terror come again To Mississippi.
Come again?
Where has terror been?
On vacation? Up North?
In some other section Of the nation,
Lying low, unpublicized?
Masked-with only Jaundiced eyes
Showing through the mask?
Oh, what sorrow, Pity, pain,
That tears and blood Should mix like rain
In Mississippi!
And terror, fetid hot,
Yet clammy cold remain."
I don't think any of the students at Riverdale High
had ever heard a poem like that.
Hopefully, it was worth whatever blowback the girls were certain to get.
The lies, the insubordination, the trickery.
I did feel sick.
Then I felt better.
Surely you aren't saying that we can't read poems
during the morning announcements.
A poem written by one of our greatest living authors.
All poems read during morning announcements must be approved by me.
This is the first I've heard of any such rule,
but I assure you, moving forward,
all poems will be submitted for your approval.
Cross my heart and hope to die.
I'm not sure what you ladies think you've accomplished.
But something had been accomplished.
Given recent events, it might be fruitful for us to discuss
the poem Langston Hughes wrote about Emmett Till.
How did it make you feel?
Angry.
Upset.
Hopeless.
Was he really just 14 years old?
He was.
He was younger than all of us in this room.
Taken out of his home in the middle of the night,
beaten, tortured.
His body thrown into the river.
That's just wrong.
Miss Topaz, Miss Tate, Mr. Walker,
I understand that you were in Mississippi for the trial.
If you're comfortable sharing your experience,
I believe it would be valuable for the rest of us
to hear about what you saw.
Miss Topaz.
Would you like to start?
Fitfully, but also necessarily,
a conversation that might not have happened for decades
began at Riverdale High that afternoon.
♪ Please ♪
♪ Don't leave me ♪
♪ Don't leave me all... ♪
Hey, doll face.
What do you say?
You want a ride to Pop's, Ronnie?
Hmm.
I see two paths before me.
Light and dark, fast and slow,
shallow and earnest.
But today...
I believe I'll walk home, fellas.
♪ 'Cause you know Know... ♪
Had it finally happened?
Had I lost my mind?
Maybe 1955 wasn't the dream. Maybe... Maybe the future,
maybe that was the dream,
and I finally woke up.
Hi, stranger.
Mind if I join you?
Yeah.
I thought... I thought you were leaving.
I'm not the Tabitha from 1955.
She's with her parents heading to Memphis.
- I'm... - Riverdale's guardian angel.
The Tabitha who remembers and loves you.
Oh, my God!
You need to use your chronokinesis
and get us the hell out of 1955.
Archie is trying to get me committed to The Sisters of Quiet Mercy.
God, it's so... I'm so happy to see you.
I am happy to see you too.
But I can't take us home.
Not yet.
Why? Well, why not?
Our last-minute gambit to stop Bailey's Comet
from destroying Riverdale didn't work.
So the comet hit?
And it triggered an extinction level event.
Are... Are we all dead?
Is that... Is that what this is?
- The sweet hereafter? - No, we are alive.
In the past, I had a plan B.
At the moment of impact, I used what was left of my life-force
to send everyone back to the past
to a point far enough back that might give us the necessary runway
to make it back to the present, a present in which
Riverdale isn't destroyed. By Bailey's Comet.
Is that even possible?
Hopefully.
But if it is, I have to do it alone.
By exploring and untangling the various timelines
that became knotted and entwined when the comet struck.
Well, what about the rest of us?
You all have to make a go of it here in the '50s
by doing what you can to ensure,
to paraphrase one of my heroes,
that the moral arc of this universe bends towards justice.
That way, when I finally do untangle the various timelines,
we can make it back to a Riverdale that
isn't on the verge of moral and societal collapse.
But fair warning.
Given the near infinite number of timelines and universes,
it could take a while, so you better get comfortable.
Oh.
I mean, how... How can I?
I remember everything about our old lives?
You asking questions, creating ripples...
that's what drew me here.
Jughead.
You remembering is an anomaly,
a dangerous one that I'm here to fix
by making you forget.
Otherwise, your knowledge could drive you insane,
or it could drive you to do something that further corrupts this timeline.
Will I... I'll forget everything?
Yes.
You'd be just like everyone else, able to live in the present.
In the moment.
I don't... I mean, I don't want to forget about you or about us.
I know.
But you have to.
It's for the best.
In those first few seconds after Angel Tabitha disappeared,
I could feel the effects of her kiss taking hold.
But for the moment, I still remembered.
I needed to write down everything, our stories,
our lives, before it was too late.
But then, like mist evaporating in the sun,
it was all gone.
I had only managed to get down three words.
Bend. Towards. Justice.
Meaning what, exactly?
And that wasn't even the weirdest thing.
That would be the sudden, inexplicable appearance
of something I've never seen before.