Why 'Riverdale' Needs to Definitively Kill Off [SPOILER]

After a spooky trip to an alternate universe with a town aptly titled “Rivervale,” Riverdale returned to the town with pep to follow the aftermath of the bomb explosion at the Andrews’ home. While Archie (KJ Apa), Betty (Lili Reinhart), and Jughead (Cole Sprouse) were caught in the explosion’s destructive path, creating changes in their respective lives, the others within Riverdale’s borders are on new paths, too, after the five-episode event that kicked off Season 6. This is particularly true for Veronica (Camila Mendes), whose life has now suddenly taken a dark turn. In Season 6, Episode 6, learning that her father, Hiram (Mark Consuelos), had planted the bomb at Archie’s house — before his banishment from Riverdale — came as an unpleasant last surprise to Veronica from her father. Thankfully, nobody died (thanks to some supernatural work in Rivervale), but Veronica reached her breaking point, finally having enough of her father’s relentless plots and schemes to take down her and her friends.

So, after a chat with her sister, Hermosa (Mishel Prada), Veronica gathered enough information to put a two-million-dollar bounty on her father’s death, hiring a hitman to carry out the nefarious deed. Then, an unexpected trip to the hospital with Reggie (Charles Melton) to visit Reggie’s father after his heart attack shocks Veronica back into reality, sending her panicking back home to call off the hit. Only, she reached out too late, as the hitman confirmed he had finished the job and sent Veronica a photo of her father’s corpse, leaving her ridden with guilt and Hermosa placing a target on her back for what she’s done.

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Of course, this is all under the assumption that Hiram is actually dead. There’s plenty of doubt and just enough room for the Riverdale team to potentially pull one of their favorite tricks in a future episode to reveal Hiram didn’t die. Only Veronica saw the photo of Hiram, but not before pointing out how quickly his death had happened after she placed the bounty on him. Her surprise emphasizes how unrealistic it is that he’s dead, and the fact that viewers didn’t see the photo of Hiram’s body also makes it unbelievable. Leaving this much doubt when killing off a character like Hiram Lodge is a mistake, especially with the ramifications of Veronica having her own father murdered that have been teased to follow.

Frankly, Hiram needs to actually be dead. He’s spent the better part of the last four seasons tormenting Archie and Veronica (and everyone else in town). Having his death done in this way is utterly brutal for Veronica, but it always truly seemed like their back-and-forth would never properly end if it wasn’t done in such a high-stakes manner. It makes it even more deliciously dramatic that Veronica changed her mind and wanted to call it off prior, but was too late. It’s a beautifully devastating end to their rivalry and, when it comes down to it, it feels right. It feels like this was always how their story was destined to end because Hiram knew exactly how to get under Veronica’s skin and manipulate her and/or force her hand, as he did countless times.

Hiram's time on Riverdale should have ended much sooner than the end of Season 5. Hiram leaving Riverdale didn’t really make sense, at least not in the same way his death does. Since he first appeared in the series, Hiram has shown himself to be a formidable villain that is not easily taken down, as he’s always thinking eight steps ahead. As newcomer Twyla Twist — leader of the Ghoulies — revealed to Toni (Vanessa Morgan) and Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) in Episode 6, Hiram may have left Riverdale but he was still paying the Ghoulies to do his bidding, like leaving the bomb in Archie’s house. While alive, Hiram would never truly be gone from Riverdale, so Veronica’s move (although regrettable) was the right call to make. Plus, Hiram has done so many terrible things, this death sentence doesn’t call Veronica’s character into question either, as she’s sort of skirted the morally gray area for several seasons now as she became more wrapped up in Hiram’s mischief.

Leaving Hiram’s death rather open-ended, compared to most of the deaths on Riverdale, potentially comes at the expense of the story to be told from here on out. Veronica’s racked with guilt and has her sister gunning for her, which is going to force Veronica to do some more things she’s not proud of and reckon with what she’s done. It’s hard to get invested in the aftermath of Veronica’s actions when it seems, at any second, the decision could be reversed and it will be revealed that Hiram paid off the hitman that Veronica hired to fake his death and make his daughter realize how much she would have missed him if he were gone and face the guilt of ever making that call.

With the way Hiram’s death has been set up, it seems like the ultimate game for Hiram to manipulate Veronica once again and force her hand to make her stop fighting him as she’d done at every turn before. Veronica may have hated him, but she loved him, too… deep down, at least. That is what we repeatedly saw as Veronica could never manage to take down her father despite many attempts to do so. This ending is rather horrible, but it needs to stick. His death has to be solidified. If not, what happens from here on out isn’t really going to matter if he can show up and blow it all to pieces, more than likely rendering the stories unfolding from his supposed death pointless.

Veronica now has a chance to move on and become more than her father’s daughter, something she’s been struggling with for far too long now. She has a chance to grow from this, finally free of her father and everything he has cost her over the years. She doesn’t have to constantly spar with him and try to earn her seat in the Lodge family by besting him in his dirty dealings. She can finally be the person that she’s always wanted to be, the person she came to Riverdale trying to be in the beginning, the person that was lost at times along the way because of her father’s impact on her life. And, Veronica’s relationship with her mother, Hermione (Marisol Nichols), is the relationship Veronica needs, which has fallen to the wayside because of Hiram in recent years and can now, once again, get more airtime.

Hiram has been nothing but a stain on the show, an unbeatable villain that consistently warred against teenagers, like when he got Archie locked away in jail. Every character is better off without Hiram around, but Veronica is especially. She’s been held back by Hiram for too long. Hiram is gone, and it really should stay that way. If anything, Riverdale should go more in-depth about his death and show how everything went down. Hiram was the primary villain for far too long for his death to be so unfulfilling, vague, and anticlimactic.

Riverdale Season 6 continues Sundays on The CW.