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What Happens when we Die?

None of us know what happens after we die. Perhaps you only know once you go to the other side. And the ones that have, have no means of letting us know. The body decomposes eventually, if buried or turned into ashes, but what happens to your soul? It his perhaps one of the biggest questions in life, ironically. There are many theories, sure, reincarnation, heaven, hell, just wander less soul wandering, and many, many stories of hauntings. Many of these are backed up by stories. Recently, watching the last episode of Riverdale put this question back in my mind.

Riverdale is about the historic Archie Comics. I read a lot of Archie Comics as a child in the early 2000s; I knew the characters by heart. So when I heard about the Riverdale series, I was kind of curious but had not watched the series just yet. I started this September, just when the series had ended in August 2023, after 7 seasons.

The first season was pretty gripping and intriguing, a fresh story with the ever so popular characters. There were many twists and turns that kept you on edge; a rather different take on the light comic characters, but pretty interesting, nevertheless. It was the second season when the series began to turn a little boring, stretched even, more than necessary. The first season was 13 episodes while the second was 24, so you can imagine. The series took a completely different turn in the second season, and it just began to lose the charm it had in the first season, at least for me. I wanted to know if it was only me losing patience with this series and how things were turning out, whether it was only me pre-judging, so I looked it up online. It turns out many other people also found the series not as interesting or good especially after the 2nd or 3rd seasons. And season 5 and 6 even had supernatural twists. I decided I would stop right there and save my time. Still I wanted to see how they had ended the series.

The last episode of Riverdale is completely different from what one would expect. While many fans wanted to see if Archie and Betty would be endgame, the series completely sweeps you off your feet just to show that Betty ends up with neither Archie, nor Jughead and does not get married at all, although it is implied that she was still in love with him. And the four were actually in a quadruple relationship during their 50’s era in season 7. Again, I am so glad I stopped watching after season 2. The last episode of Riverdale jumps to 67 years in the future where 86 year old Betty is taken back to Riverdale by her granddaughter, to see the town she grew up in one more time after all her friends have passed away.

Before the actual drive with her granddaughter to Riverdale, Betty is visited by the angel of young Jughead where she gets to relive the yearbook day of her senior year once more as she never got to go due to an illness. It’s an emotional episode. But what got me thinking the most was how Jughead explained in the climax that Betty after she embraced death, got to go to her favorite hangout with her friends : The Pop’s Chocklit Shoppe, how all her friends and loved ones were waiting for her and welcomed her and got her her favorite milkshake and that was the way they were to be left.

Now, again, none of us know what happens, for sure, but wouldn’t that be a wonderful afterlife? Having all of your friends and your loved ones waiting for you at your favorite place? Calling you in, asking you to join them.  Just the thought is warming and maybe, just maybe, that doesn’t make the idea of death so scary after all.

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