Riverdale season 4 premiere will be a tribute to Luke Perry

The Riverdale season 4 premiere episode, “Chapter Fifty Eight: In Memoriam,” will address the loss of Luke Perry and the absence of his character, Fred Andrews.

The Riverdale season 4 premiere will finally address the loss of Luke Perry and is “probably the most important episode of #Riverdale we’ll do this year, if not ever,” according to show developer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s tweet, which we have shared below.

Perry passed away in April after suffering a stroke at 52 years old. The last scene he shot was in episode 19 of season 3, “Chapter Fifty-Four: Fear the Reaper,” where his character Fred Andrews was trying to comfort a distraught Archie (KJ Apa) who blamed himself for Randy Ronson’s death in the boxing match.

Check out Aguirre-Sacasa’s tweet below!

The final scene was bittersweet, and although it was short, it showed us Fred’s unwavering support that’s been there since the beginning.

We still don’t know how the showrunners will address Perry’s absence, but based on a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, Aguirre-Sacasa mentions Fred’s death.

"I’ve read online that they’re like, ‘Ooh, Riverdale‘s not dealing with this. Is Fred going to just be on a business trip?’ So Tim, I would be so grateful if you make it clear that we are 100% going to deal with Fred’s death. We didn’t want to rush into that at the end of the season and give it short shrift or not make that story as great and emotional as it needs to be to honor both the character and the actor. I think that’s going to be a big part of Archie’s journey next season, honestly."

Losing Fred will definitely affect Archie and will probably be the main part of his storyline next season. With everything Archie has already been through, this will be the most difficult part of his journey.

We know Molly Ringwald (Mary Andrews) stepped in with Perry’s absence, but will we continue to see Archie’s mom in season 4? Is she going to stay in Riverdale?

In season 3’s finale, [SPOILER] we saw Archie, Betty and Veronica standing around a fire with Archie covered in blood, holding onto Jughead’s beanie in a flash forward.

Fred has always been Archie’s moral compass and voice of reason. With his absence, maybe Archie slowly goes dark and somehow pulls Betty and Veronica with him. I don’t think they would kill off Jughead and that scene is meant to mislead us.

But maybe for some reason, Jughead or the Serpents are the cause of Fred’s death (it would most likely be unintentional) and Archie blames him, leading to what we see in the season’s last scene.

Perry and Fred will be missed and his absence on the show has already been felt. I’m looking forward to watching this tribute episode, which will serve as a proper goodbye to the actor and character.

Riverdale season 4 premieres on The CW on Oct. 9, 2019. The new season will be added to Netflix US next year.