HE FIRST TABLE READ OF
Riverdale season 4 was a somber
affair. “I’d never really experi-
enced the power and the
emotion of a group of people
gathered,” showrunner Roberto
Aguirre-Sacasa reflects of
assembling the cast to read episode 401, which
serves as a tribute to costar Luke Perry, who
died in March after suffering a stroke. “Even
the actors who didn’t have lines in the episode
came to be a part of that. We were all crying. At
a certain point, KJ [Apa] started, then Cami
[Mendes] started, and I started, and we just
didn’t stop. I’m really, really proud of the way
everyone came together in terms of honoring
the memory of Luke and honoring the charac-
ter of [Archie’s dad,] Fred.”
Aguirre-Sacasa has shared with EW an exclu-
sive script excerpt (page 68) from the emotional
hour, the majority of which takes place on the
Fourth of July. “It’s the immediate aftermath of
what happened to Fred, and the story is really
set around Archie [Apa] wrestling with this
huge tragedy and his friends being there for him
and helping him through it,” says the writer-
producer, who doesn’t specify how Fred dies.
“Veronica’s kind of prepared,” Mendes says of
how her character reacts. “She had to step up in
the beginning of season 3 and be this girlfriend
she didn’t know how to be that was very sup-
portive and kind of a rock. She’s older now and
she’s more experienced and she’s ready to help
Archie through this tragic time in his life.”
Perry’s Beverly Hills, 90210 costar Shannen
Doherty also makes a special appearance in
the episode. “Shannen plays the person who
tells us what happened to Fred,” explains
Aguirre-Sacasa. “She was there and she’s an
unexpected source of comfort to Archie. The
scene is so heartbreaking because you really
feel Shannen’s love for Luke.”
Returning
DramaSeason 4OCT— 98 PM ● THE CWT
fall
tv pre
view
2019