Riverdale Season 7: Are Betty and Veronica endgame?
The CWRiverdale Season 7 has plenty of couples getting together, but now this roster may include Betty and Veronica, AKA Beronica.
Riverdale, the drama-mystery series that brought Archie Comics characters to life in various wacky ways, continues to make a name for itself in pop culture. We enjoyed this season, and you can read our review of the first three episodes here.
This season – which is the show’s last – takes us back to the 1950s, but when it comes to teenage sexuality, there are no traditional 50s values here. There’s tons of hooking up, fighting against slut shaming, and plenty of people getting in relationships, regardless of gender or race.
For a while, it seems like Veronica and Betty were only a pipe dream for fans, but now Beronica could be a real thing. Let’s get into it, but first: Warning! Riverdale spoilers up ahead!
Betty & Veronica’s history on Riverdale
Betty and Veronica had been shipped from the series’ beginning back in 2017, and not just because fans wanted more LGBTQ+ representation.
See, the series begins with Veronica arriving in Riverdale, having just moved there. Betty, who’s lived there all her life, and has developed a big crush on her best friend and next door neighbor Archie, is the one to show the new girl around.
The pair end up trying out for cheerleading together, with Veronica’s outgoing attitude helping Betty gain the confidence to do so. And of course, this leads to their iconic kiss as part of their try-out routine.
Now, this kiss has been accused of queerbaiting, since no real relationship comes of it, and it was primarily used in promo for the show. However, this didn’t stop the ship from becoming popular.
Of course, there’s also the pair’s history in the comics, which is described by a Beronica shipper for Comics Alliance: “Betty and Veronica have long been portrayed as competitors going after the same guy, our beloved but boring Archie Andrews, but I can’t help but think their interest in Archie stems less from him being a cool dude (arguable) and more from him just being an eligible bachelor.
“Betty sees Archie as the kind of guy that she should be in love with. He’s sweet, he’s handsome, he’s athletic – but he’s also uninterested in her. Archie is safe to have a crush on, precisely because he’ll never return that interest. For someone maybe struggling with her sexuality, afraid to come out to her controlling parents, Archie is a risk-free crush.
Archie Comics“Veronica, on the other hand, sees Archie as a conquest. He’s a boy to be taken and used. Their relationship is never very sexual; he’s often more an errand boy than he is a lover to Veronica. In the 1974 story ‘Ladies Man’ from Laugh Digest #1, Betty asks Veronica what she sees in Archie, and Veronica responds ‘You!’ Her interest in Archie is more about competition than anything. Competition, and staying close to Betty.
“Riverdale [the show] gives us peek at this kind of intensity from Ronnie. When Veronica kisses Archie in the closet at Cheryl’s party, she goes overboard in her attempt to apologize to Betty: flying in cupcakes from New York, buying her flowers (yellow, which she says are for friendship, but which can also mean the promise of a new beginning), scheduling hers and hers mani-pedis.”
As explained, there are a multitude of little moments between the two girls that could suggest they have feelings for one another, although again this was often used as a racy form of promo, even all the way into Season 7.
And adding in the fact that they’re a sapphic pairing, that only makes things more uncertain. Meaning that the writers may be afraid to leave them in a relationship, or that if they do get together, it might not be until the very end of the show. Take Korra and Asami’s relationship in The Legend of Korra, where a sapphic pairing was set up in the literal final five minutes of the entire series. This is a tactic seen rather often; writers will add in an LGBTQ+ pairing right at the finale, where it no longer matters if homophobic viewers drop out of watching.
Then again, this wouldn’t make as much sense when considering Cheryl and Toni, who have been together for a large portion of the series. Beronica could have been dragged out simply to keep the shipping wars between the leads interesting enough to keep audiences riveted. Since “Who will Archie pick?” is a major question of the series, the writers likely wont give any answer until the very end, even if that answer is “neither of them, because they’re now together!”
But what does this mean for the endgame of Riverdale? Now that we’re in the seventh and final season of Riverdale, it seems like any relationship could be endgame. From Archie and Betty, to Veronica and Reggie, to even Veronica and Jughead. But what of Beronica?
Are Betty and Veronica endgame?
As of the show’s final episode, Veronica and Betty are endgame – but only temporarily. It’s complicated, so let us explain.
The pair of course shared another kiss in Season 7, and this one actually has some substance beyond fanservice. Said episode, titled “Archie the Musical,” shows how Archie, the guy Beronica has been fighting over, simply can’t decide who he wants to be with – he’s messed them around for pretty much the entire show. Thus, he backs off, leaving the two girls to talk about what to do going forward. This happens just after they have their own song, which explores their inner feelings, and results in them both kissing.
They then talk about their kiss, with Veronica pondering, “All this time, we’ve been thinking, when are we going to climb on Archibald, when in fact-” and Betty interrupting to say “Maybe there are other, more emotionally complex mountains to climb.” Then Archie bursts in to say he won’t date either of them for a while…leaving them perhaps to date each other?
And in the show’s finale, these hopes are validated, kind of. See, in the final episode, through Betty’s eyes, the character’s fates are revealed, along with their relationship status. And as you’ll see in the clip below, our main four characters all end up in a romantic quad together. Meaning, yes, that’s right, Vughead, Bughead, Barchie and Beronica are all endgame.
However, once high school ended, the whole group went their separate ways and dated different people, meaning that Beronica may have been endgame in Riverdale, but not in the rest of the world. However, they do all get reunited in the afterlife in the show’s final scene, so perhaps they are fully endgame after all.
This finale has been met with some pushback regarding polyamory representation, and the fact that Archie and Jughead (Jarchie?) don’t really get together like the rest of the group does.
However, Beronica fans can at least get excited that their ship did eventually become endgame.
Check out the rest of our Riverdale coverage here.