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Following the show’s seven-year time jump, Riverdale Season 5 has thrown several curveballs at fans — from the breaking up of the Archieverse’s Core Four to new mysteries for the characters to pursue. The CW series walks a fine line between past and future in its fifth season, letting go of previous dynamics between characters but striving to maintain its usual charm into their adulthood. And the latest Riverdale episode, “Chapter Ninety-Three: Dance of Death,” bids farewell to one of the show’s original characters: Polly Cooper (Tiera Skovbye).

[Spoiler warning: This article contains spoilers for Riverdale Season 5 Episode 17.]

What happens to Polly Cooper in ‘Riverdale’ Season 5?

Tiera Skovbye, who plays Polly Cooper from 'Riverdale' Season 1 to season 5. She's wearing a red tank with flowers on the straps and a golden necklace. Her hair is back, but two curls are down in front of her face.
‘Riverdale’ star Tiera Skovbye | Noel Vasquez/Getty Images

Riverdale Season 5 Episode 17, “Chapter Ninety-Three: Dance of Death,” sees Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Jughead (Cole Sprouse) teaming up to figure out what happened to Squeaky (Skyler Radzion) after she left town — and how it relates to the disappearance of Betty’s sister and one of Jughead’s students.

Their investigation leads them down quite the rabbit hole, prompting the discovery that a subset of the Blossom family took to the woods and began calling themselves Starkweathers. They reside just off the Lonely Highway, where many of the missing characters disappeared. It’s also close to where Jughead’s student remembers being kept.

As it turns out, Old Man Dreyfuss (John Prowse) is one of the Starkweathers and involved in the kidnappings. Unfortunately, Squeaky’s abduction turned deadly — and so, apparently, did Polly’s. When Betty asks Dreyfuss what happened to her sister, he draws her a map. She and Alice (Mädchen Amick) follow it back to the junkyard, where tragedy awaits them.

The final moments of Riverdale‘s “Dance of Death” show Betty and her mother following Dreyfuss’ map to the trunk of a parked car, where they presumably find Polly’s body. Although the episode doesn’t show it — or verbally confirm that she’s dead — Betty and Alice immediately start crying and hugging one another.

Because of that, it’s probably safe to say Polly met the same fate as poor Squeaky. It’s a sad turn of events for the characters on Riverdale — but ones fans saw coming.

Fans predicted Polly Cooper’s fate

Polly Cooper shows up and disappears every so often during Riverdale, and her character has seen more tragedy than anything else. From the show’s first season, Betty’s sister finds herself wrapped up in conspiracies and murder mysteries. Obviously, that continues straight through Riverdale Season 5.

When Polly was abducted, some fans hoped she’d get the chance to reunite with her sister and reconcile with her family. However, just as many predicted a tragic ending for the character. Executive Producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s words to TVLine only strengthened their case:

“I think it’s in the next episode [episode 5] that you’ll see that mystery is really entwined with the possibly tragic fate of one of our major characters that we’ve known since Season 1.”

Beneath the article, commenters guessed Aguirre-Sacasa was talking about Polly. The sentiment cropped up in other spaces online as well, probably because it made sense storywise. With the latest revelation, it looks like fans were right to be concerned about Betty’s sister.

Could ‘Riverdale’ Season 5 kill off more characters?

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‘Riverdale’ Fans Find Season 5’s Time Jump ‘Depressing’

Despite reaching a climax with its latest tragedy, Riverdale Season 5 still has two episodes left to wrap up its new storylines. Many of the CW show’s main characters had close calls with death this season, including Archie (KJ Apa) during “Dance of Death.”

Things seem to be looking up for Archie and Veronica (Camila Mendes) when the episode comes to a close. However, if there’s one thing fans can expect from Riverdale, it’s a good plot twist. The couple pissed off Hiram (Mark Consuelos) yet again during “Dance of Death.” Could his vendetta turn fatal for them — or even backfire and end in tragedy for him?

With the CW show officially getting another season, a new tragedy would help set up future episodes. Betty and Jughead may have closed this particular case. But it wouldn’t be Riverdale if another mystery didn’t take its place.

New episodes of Riverdale air on The CW on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.

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