🚨Spoilers ahead!🚨
Riverdale returned last night with a musical episode, and it was wild as usual. A Hedwig-themed episode? A Kevin Keller plot? Sign me up!
Something pretty important happened last night, and we need to talk about it: Betty and Archie finally kissed. Not a Black Hood–prompted kiss. Not a fake dating kiss. A REAL KISS.
Here's a recap of what happened: Archie got into an argument with Veronica, and Betty got into an equally heated argument with Jughead. Both couples sang a very angsty performance of "Exquisite Corpse," complete with everyone knocking over furniture and Cole Sprouse yelling.
Afterward, Betty heads to Archie's garage for band rehearsal and they wind up venting to each other about their relationship troubles. Betty suggests they rehearse anyway, just the two of them, and Archie agrees.
They're in the middle of singing "Origin of Love" together when it's clear something has changed between them. They lock eyes and we suddenly see flashbacks to early Barchie scenes...
And then...THEY KISS!!!
Soon afterward, Veronica and Jughead both come bearing apologies. It's obvious Betty and Archie feel guilty, but it's also clear the feelings aren't going away anytime soon.
Toward the end of the episode, Betty and Archie gaze at each other from their bedroom windows and fantasize about slow dancing together. We get another beautiful Barchie montage, this time with flashbacks to their dance in the pilot episode, while they sing "Wicked Little Town."
Naturally, Twitter is freaking the hell out:
can you believe #Barchie outsold every varchie and bughead scene in 15 SECONDS #Riverdale
THEY JUST BE SCREAMING ENDGAME MATERIAL #riverdale
about the slow dancing scene. this, in my opinion (it’s truly a fact but some people refuse to accept it) is one of, if not the MOST romantic scene riverdale has ever done. the choreography, the song, the flashbacks, the hand and face touches. riverdale has never gone this hard —
Every Barchie after that episode of Riverdale: #BarchieRising
THEY INVENTED THE ENTIRE CONCEPT OF BEING IN LOVE #riverdale
Of course, not everyone was happy about Betty and Archie's kiss. Some viewers felt it was doing a disservice to Betty and Archie's characters to have them cheat on their significant others. And some others just simply prefer Bughead and Varchie over Barchie. Lili Reinhart, who plays Betty, tweeted this in response to the criticism:
Some food for thought- You don’t have to agree or support Betty’s choices, but she’s a young girl. And she’s figuring herself out, just like everyone else in the world. And sometimes people do bad things. #riverdale
While I certainly don't condone cheating, I personally am VERY excited to see Barchie finally happen. Their romance was an iconic aspect of the comics, and a lot of us have been rooting for them since the very first episode.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens!
