Riverdale has been a bit of a weird place since they have made the six-year time jump at the beginning of the fifth season. After five seasons where there was a Scooby-Doo style explanation for everything, the town of Riverdale, or rather Rivervale, has succumbed to what seems like every supernatural tale under the sun.
The first three episodes of season six have seen the freaking devil come to town, Vanessa Morgan’s Toni take the place of the demon La Llorona, and Archie get murdered by a cult containing members of the town. We literally saw the main character's heart get completely ripped out of his body! However, what everyone has been waiting for in this upcoming “Rivervale” story arc is the return of Kiernan Shipka’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Finally, after weeks of waiting, next week's episode will see Sabrina come to Riverdale for the first time. Ahead of that episode, The CW has released new images teasing the time-bending next tale.
The batch of images, eight in total, comes from “Chapter Ninety-Nine: The Witching Hour(s)” and sees Shipka interacting with Madelaine Petsch’s Cheryl Blossom, with who she has a preexisting friendship. The other images tease a second storyline of the episode that takes place in the past and will presumably showcase the “Blossom’s Curse” we have only heard about in past seasons. Like in a couple of episodes throughout the series, certain cast members like Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Mädchen Amick, and Casey Cott will be playing ancestors to their respected characters. How Sabrina plays into this storyline remains to be seen, but it appears that Cheryl needs her help. It will also be interesting to see if this is a different version of Sabrina than the one seen in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina since she is officially dead in that continuity.
Shipka recently talked to ComicBook.com about her upcoming return and she said, "It was really interesting for me slipping back into her shoes because I hadn't been her in two years." She finished by saying, "I was surprised at just how quickly she just took over again. It was like riding a bike and you never know about that kind of thing. I'd never played someone and then not, and then gone back and did it again. So that was a new thing for me. I didn't know how that was going to work, and I was just like, 'Oh, this fits like a glove.' And it was very fun."
This season has been a complicated one, to say the least, and in typical Riverdale fashion, you never know what is around the next crazy corner. Sabrina’s arrival to Riverdale has been teased by series creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa even before the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina premiered in 2018. Ever since that show’s abrupt cancellation in 2020, the dreams of that fabled crossover seemed bleak, but after many years of speculation, Sabrina is finally coming to Riverdale. Hopefully, this means that there are more crossovers or even a new series featuring Shipka in the future. Maybe she can even resurrect Archie because Riverdale is not the same without him and, if you know the comics, it would be a waste if KJ Apa and Shipka do not share a scene together.
Whatever the case may be, Sabrina finally comes to Riverdale on December 7 at 9/8c on The CW, and hopefully, by the end of this upcoming episode, we can have a clearer picture of what this frankly confusing series, on the brink of its 100th episode, will be like going forward. You can view the new images and read the full plot synopsis for the upcoming witch-filled episode down below.
"SABRINA SPELLMAN (GUEST STAR KIERNAN SHIPKA) COMES TO RIVERVALE – As Bailey's Comet passes over Rivervale, Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) and Nana Rose (guest star Barbara Wallace) revisit the tragic stories of the Blossom women through the years. Meanwhile, the once-in-a-lifetime celestial event prompts Cheryl to summon a familiar face to Rivervale – Sabrina Spellman (guest star Kiernan Shipka). Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Madelaine Petsch, Mädchen Amick, Casey Cott, Vanessa Morgan, Charles Melton, Erinn Westbrook and Drew Ray Tanner also star. James DeWille directed the episode written by Arabella Anderson."