Here’s How Fred Andrews Dies on the Season Four Premiere of "Riverdale"
Warning: Riverdale season four premiere spoilers ahead!
After months of waiting, Riverdale is finally back for its fourth season, meaning your favorite four are back together. But, before we can get back into storylines filled with murders, long lost siblings, and sex, the writers of the hit show took an episode to pay tribute to Luke Perry, who passed away earlier this year after suffering from a stroke.
"In Memoriam" is a stand-alone episode, which addresses Luke's character, Fred Andrews' departure from the show. In one hour, his death is explained and we see the characters (and actors) deal with having to say goodbye to their friend.
So, how did the Riverdale writers handle Fred's death? They take a trait that he is known for—his good nature—and they turn it into his demise. Fred Andrews dies after he pulls over to help a woman change her tire. While he's working on the car, he gets struck by another car speeding down the road. A hit-and-run.
Later, when Archie goes to pick up Fred's truck from the side of the road, he runs into the woman who Fred was helping when he got killed, a character played by Shannen Doherty, Luke's real life friend. She informs Archie that she was in the speeding car's path, frozen, and Fred pushed her out of the way, saving her life in his last moments.
When Archie goes to confront the man who hit his father, the story continues to unfold. Archie finds that it wasn't this man, who turned himself into the police, who is guilty, but his son, who took out the car without his father's permission, and who doesn't even have a license. The father was simply taking the fall for his son. The plot point plays as a parallel to Fred's relationship with Archie, because he would probably have done the same thing, taken the fall for his son, because he was such a caring father.
The episode is heartbreaking, and the perfect goodbye to a character (and actor) who stole our hearts. After seven months of waiting to see how Riverdale would handle the tragic news, I can finally say the wait was worth it.
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