Why Did Riverdale Un-Kill This Character?

Never forget the Riverdale riots. On Wednesday's season 2 finale of Riverdale, "Brave New World," our beloved characters dealt with the aftermath of the skirmish between the Serpents, Ghoulies, and Bulldogs, which left Riverdale burning. (Much to Hiram Lodge's twisted delight, of course.) While it was touch and go for Jughead (Cole Sprouse), who sacrificed himself to the Ghoulies to save the Serpents, it was revealed in the finale that the writer would live to see another day... and, apparently, so would another surprising Riverdale character. Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) is, apparently, alive and well.

I actually really like Fangs, so I'm glad to hear that he could, at least theoretically, come back for the show's third season. (Unless he ends up in San Junipero with Joaquin, which is also a worthy option.) But I'm scratching my head at why Riverdale decided to kill him off in the penultimate episode, only to inform the audience a mere few minutes into the finale that, JK, Fangs didn't succumb to the injuries of a gun shot wound, after all.

Guess you really do need to see a body on these shows, huh?

Here's how it all went down. In the first few minutes of the Riverdale finale, we see Betty (Lili Reinhart), Veronica (Camila Mendes), and Archie (K.J. Apa) standing over Jughead's grave. Except, obviously, this is just a dream: Jughead is bruised and broken, but definitely amongst the living in a hospital bed. That's when F.P. (Skeet Ulrich) tells his son that Fangs is alive, too — his "death" was just a ploy to get the Serpents to go to war with the Ghoulies.

Cool. Makes sense. Except that the Ghoulies didn't have anything to do with "killing" Fangs. In fact, they weren't even blamed for his death. First, it was Reggie (Charles Melton) who was holding a gun when Fangs was shot, and actually did want to shoot him before Archie intervened, who was blamed. Then it was the Black Hood, whom the Riverdale Register declared the killer. Lastly, it was the person who really shot Fangs, Mrs. Klump (Robyn Ross) whom everyone learned was the true assailant.

So... why kill Fangs, and then un-kill Fangs? I'm not sure. Maybe the bloodshed was just too much for Riverdale to justify. Or, maybe, unlike his stabbed-to-death lover Midge (Emilija Baranac), the show wanted to give Fangs a less tragic ending.