Riverdale, like many shows, will be ending this season prematurely after production was shut down due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. The final episode that completed filming, Season 4 Episode 19, airs Wednesday and will serve as the Season 4 finale. It’s special not only because it is the (new) finale, but it was also directed by one of Riverdale‘s own — Madchen Amick.
After directing a few music videos and award-winning shorts, Amick makes her television directorial debut with “Killing Mr. Honey” — an episode that plays out several revenge fantasies for the core four and their friends when dealing with the principal they blame for ruining their senior year. Apparently, Mr. Honey (Kerr Smith) is really in for it in the upcoming episode.
“Poor Principal honey got the worst of [it], but Kerr Smith, the actor, was so great and he really enjoyed doing everything,” Amick told TV Guide. “He loved it. So he made it very easy to torture him.”
Of course, directing her first episode of TV came with unprecedented challenges for Amick, who was about to start her last day of editing the episode when production shut down.
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“That definitely was a challenge because that’s your last day polishing little things up, and I would have loved to have been in the room with the editor to just tweak all that little stuff but we handled it,” she explained. “We got it done.”
Though the season will end early with a few more loose ends than anticipated, Amick did promise that Episode 19 will still be a big cliffhanger to keep fans excited for Season 5. Even though it’s not ideal to have had to cut production short, Amick says the episode works as a finale without having to change the DNA of what she and the cast and crew shot in Vancouver before the global pandemic.
“I definitely feel very honored that we’re going to sort of wrap up and end on this episode. Unfortunately, it’s for the reason that it is — that’s very unfortunate. I think what’s nice is that the episode didn’t have to change too much,” she said. “It just coincidentally ended up serving as a really good cliffhanger for the season. So, I’m glad we were able to keep the episode intact from what we went into it planning to do.”
The Riverdale Season 4 finale airs Wednesday at 8/7c on The CW.
Madchen Amick, Riverdale