The season four finale of "Riverdale" aired on The CW on Wednesday and ended with an intriguing cliffhanger.
The current season of the hit drama was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic shutting down production and episode 19, titled "Chapter Seventy-Six: Killing Mr. Honey," gave fans a glimpse of what they can expect when the show eventually returns for its fifth season.
Here's where all the major characters ended up on season four of "Riverdale."
FOLLOW US: Insider Entertainment is on Facebook
Season four reintroduced the romantic feelings that Archie and Betty (Lili Reinhart), childhood friends and next-door neighbors, have for each other.
During the first season, Betty admitted to Archie that she had a crush on him, but they decided to stay friends. Instead, Archie fell in love with Veronica (Camila Mendes) while Betty formed a relationship with Jughead (Cole Sprouse).
The current season rehashed those old feelings when Archie and Betty pretended to be a couple as part of the Core Four's plan to convince everyone in town that Jughead died. They even kissed to make the charade seem more believable.
But during episode 17, Archie and Betty cheated on their partners by kissing for real in his garage.
On episode 18, they both admitted that they couldn't stop thinking about each other, but felt guilty for cheating. Rather than tell Veronica and Jughead the truth, Archie and Betty agreed to put an end to whatever their relationship was turning into.
Then, Archie told his mom that he was ready to leave Riverdale and get a fresh start at the naval academy, which is the direction she tried to push him during seasons three and four.
After Betty and Archie's secret kiss, Betty found herself revisiting old diary entries in which she gushed about being in love with him as a child. Determined to focus on her relationship with Jughead, Betty burned almost all her diaries on episode 18, saving just one after her mom urged her not to erase all her childhood memories.
On the finale, Betty and Jughead returned to their sleuthing ways together and helped Charles dissect the mysterious tapes that a voyeur has been sending around.
The tapes initially only showed hours of footage of the exteriors of people's houses, but escalated to reenacting some deaths and near-deaths in Riverdale, like Jughead's incident in the woods, Midge being murdered during the "Carrie" musical, and Clifford Blossom killing Jason Blossom.
The season four finale was split between real-life events and those of Jughead's latest work of fiction for the University of Iowa. Ever since Jughead's rough time at Stonewall Prep and faking his own death, he's been struggling to catch up at Riverdale High and do all the work required to graduate on time with his friends.
The University of Iowa has one of the best writing programs in the country, but would only consider accepting Jughead for the fall semester if he submitted additional material showing off his skills. So naturally, he turned to the real-life murders and drama in Riverdale as inspiration for his story, titled "Killing Mr. Honey."
The story was inspired by a hypothetical plan Betty suggested during the finale to get rid of Mr. Honey (Kerr Smith), the principal who has seemingly been out to punish all the students since he took over the position from Mr. Weatherbee.
As Jughead rapidly typed up his new story during the finale, he shared the progress with Betty to get her feedback. His story was originally written with characters that had the same names as the Riverdale locals, but he promised to change it before sending it to the university. It centered on the students executing a prank that turned horribly wrong and resulted in Mr. Honey being killed.
Near the end of the finale, Jughead rushed to rewrite the conclusion of his fictional story after he saw a recommendation letter that Mr. Honey wrote to the university on behalf of Jughead. So perhaps the principal wasn't exactly the villain everyone thought he was.
Jughead also came to the realization that the town's darkness was getting to him, and he was turning into someone who enjoyed the suffering of others.
Jughead revised his story so that the characters had a moral compass and saved Mr. Honey from dying.
At the very end of the episode, Jughead watched a new videotape and recognized the exterior as the cabin owned by the Lodges. It's also where Hermione shot and killed Sheriff Minetta after their affair.
Upon reaching the cabin, Jughead and Betty found another VHS tape waiting for them, this time showing people wearing masks made to look like him and his friends. Then, the masked people circled a man made to look like Mr. Honey and stabbed him to death.
During season four, Veronica constantly found herself competing with her father's brand. She worked with Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) to create a maple rum called Maple Claw.
Things were going well until their booming business interfered with the sale of Molloy Moonshine, another popular brand.
The Molloys threatened to make the girls pay, and Hiram got involved during episode 18. His plan to beat up the competitor backfired though, and Hiram was unable to properly defend himself against one of the Molloys due to his neuromuscular disorder that was revealed earlier in the season.
After that, Cheryl told Veronica that she no longer wanted to be her alcohol partner. So Veronica turned to Hiram to ask for money to buy Cheryl out of the business.
Throughout the season, he's found ways to punish the students for their rebellious behavior. He banned a bunch of students from prom for various reasons, refused to let Archie walk with his friends at graduation (assuming he passes all his exams and somehow makes it), tried to sensor the variety show, and trashed Reggie's car as an act of revenge.
On the finale, he really got under Betty's skin when he told her that he wouldn't be publishing the yearbook that she pulled all-nighters for so she could complete it. That's what prompted her to suggest killing Mr. Honey or simply finding a way to get him out of Riverdale.
Betty also did some digging into Mr. Honey's past and learned that he's canceled prom at every school he's presided over.
After Cheryl announced that prom was happening, Honey filmed a creepy video inside the hallways of the school and tried to pass it off as the work of the mysterious voyeur.
If the voyeur was on the loose and able to get inside Riverdale High, that would be a valid reason for Mr. Honey to cancel the prom. But his plan failed after Betty rewatched the tape and caught Mr. Honey's reflection, proving he was the one who made the tape to facilitate his goal.
The principal claimed he was only trying to prepare the kids for life after high school and everything he's done was to help them. Later, Mr. Honey packed up his things and left the school, revealing that he took a higher-paying job as the headmaster at Stonewall Prep, their rival.
Ms. Bell, the receptionist at Riverdale High, also informed the students that Mr. Honey actually did a lot of good at the school. He arranged for six low-income students to go to school on full scholarships and got the school's average GPA up. Plus, no students died while he was the principal.
Cheryl, the student body president, got prom back on and celebrated the victory at Pop's with everyone. Cheryl promised a senior prom they'll "never forget," which could be foreshadowing what's to come on season five.
"Riverdale" showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa already confirmed that the next season will begin with the prom episode, which the cast was filming prior to production being halted.
During episode 18, Kevin and Fangs Fogarty (Drew Tanner) spoke about their futures.
Fangs told him that he got accepted into the University of Pittsburgh, which isn't too far away from Kevin's school. They said that they'd be interested in dating somewhere that wasn't Riverdale, and Fangs said they should pursue that and see what happens.
The trick involved supergluing Mr. Honey to his chair and his telephone, with the help of Archie and Kevin.
The delight was short-lived though, because Mr. Honey threatened to cancel prom if the pranksters didn't come forward.
Last time viewers saw Toni, she joined forces with Kevin, Fangs, and Reggie to create their own tickle business (making and selling non-sexual videos of people tickling each other).
After Mr. Honey saw videos of the cheerleaders (Vixens) and members of the football team (Bulldogs) tickling each other online, he told them they to shut down their site, since the students were all wearing Riverdale High attire and the videos would tarnish the school's reputation.
"Riverdale" writer Ted Sullivan previously tweeted that a "heavy" Toni episode is in the works, which will now be postponed to season five.
Led by Alice Smith (Mädchen Amick), the parents and guardians confronted Mr. Honey and told them that he'd pay the price if he canceled the prom.
Mary Andrews (Molly Ringwald), a lawyer, reminded Mr. Honey of a case that took place in Greendale (a clever nod to another Archieverse show, Netflix's "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina") that resulted in a principal getting sued.
Hiram Lodge (Mark Consuelos) also reminded Mr. Honey that he's still mayor and could look into stripping the principal's position. Plus, Alice could spin an intriguing story for RIVW news about what Mr. Honey's been doing.
