Riverdale – Chapter One Hundred and Eight: Ex-Libris

After Percival’s (Chris O’Shea) secretive ascension to becoming mayor, the aftereffects of the night of fog are still going. For Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Archie (KJ Apa), their potential foray into parenthood ended up being a false alarm. While Betty is relieved, Archie is bummed because he wants to be a great father like his father Fred. Across town, Veronica (Camila Mendes) and Reggie’s (Charles Melton) relationship continues to dissolve as Reggie packs up his belongings and prepares to leave. As Veronica is still a little sore about the demise of their relationship, Reggie takes the opportunity to point out that Veronica is notorious for not wanting to be alone based on her jumping into relationships…calling her by a nickname she received: Black Widow of Wall Street. 

But a bigger gameplan is afoot as while Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook) is out of town in Albany advocating for historic status of Pop’s, Percival enters Jughead (Cole Sprouse) and Tabitha’s apartment with a mission. As Percival is closing the Riverdale Public Library, he is looking to collect overdue library books and take collateral until they are found. Starting with Jughead, he takes his grandfather’s Baxter Brothers book with personal inscription until “The Metamorphosis” is returned.  

Going down the list, Percival’s reign over books continues as Archie’s guitar is taken in exchange for Songwriting From The Heart, a book that brings up memories of Miss Grundy (Sarah Habel). For Veronica it comes down to returning “Kiss of the Spider Woman” for Hiram’s portrait, despite her insistence that she will pay the late fees instead of returning the book. Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) must return “Flowers In The Attic” when Percival decides to take the trunk with Jason’s (Trevor Stines) body. Unfortunately for Betty, Alice (Mädchen Amick) provides Percival with Betty’s diary that was not burned until she returns “Small Engine Repairs.” When Percival asks Reggie for his workbook on dyslexia, Reggie can return his copy immediately leaving Percival with trying to determine how Reggie will repay him. Later with Kevin (Casey Cott), Percival reminds him that he also has an overdue copy of “Lord of the Flies” to return.  

Realizing that Percival is back up to another step in his plan, Jughead, Betty, Archie, Veronica, and Cheryl come together to try and determine why Percival has taken such an interest in getting their old unreturned library books. Cheryl’s history in dabbling with sorcery has her questioning whether Percival is planning on using magic for a larger reason, something that she is spot on with as Percival later performs a ritual to get inside the minds of the Core Four and Cheryl.  

Archie 

As Archie gets ready to address his ROTC class, one of his cadets (Jason Sakaki) has procured a copy of an old yearbook showcasing Archie and his music. Later that day while walking the halls of Riverdale High, Archie’s torment comes in the form hearing a cello playing. While investigating, Archie sees a corpse-like version of Miss Grundy playing the cello, which reminds him of his shady past with his former music teacher. Archie takes it upon himself to try and free his friends of their torment by breaking into Percival’s shop, only to be greeted by a cello with a note. Later, Archie ends up destroying the cello in an effort to confront his demons from the past and move on from the trauma of Grundy’s grooming. When Betty returns home later wearing similar heart-shaped shades like Grundy wore in Season One, Archie confides about his trauma that he endured with Grundy.  

Reggie 

By returning the library book to Percival, Reggie starts to feel his dyslexia go into hyperdrive while playing cards with the wiseguys. Realizing he needs his book back, Reggie goes to plead with Percival for the book but instead is persuaded to toy with Veronica by gifting her a Glamergé egg. Even after his gift goes awry, Reggie confronts Percival once again and decides that he wants to work with him and learn all his secrets. This pleases Percival as he now adds another name to his list of allies. 

Betty 

As Betty is currently awaiting information from a survivor of the Trash Bag Killer, she is immediately caught up by the smell of bleach and swears that she sees her father Hal (Lochlyn Munro) as the janitor. Knowing that she needs to get her diary back, Betty visits Percival’s shop but is told she can only read her diary in store until she produces her lost library book. Later on, Betty shares with Archie how her diary has one entry she wrote at twelve years old where upon heading to the garage to impress her father with knowledge from “Small Engine Repairs,” she smelled bleach and saw Hal trying to clean out the back of his car. Remembering that moment and one following, Betty understands that her father was trying to hide his serial killer tendencies and this aids her search of the Trash Bag Killer by placing focus on the fact that he may be a family man like her father. 

Veronica 

In her office at Babylonium, Veronica starts to see spiders. Later when Reggie sends her the Glamergé egg, she opens the gift and spiders pour out of the egg…only to find it is a hallucination. Not wanting to be alone, Veronica calls Heraldo (Ricardo Hoyos) to keep her company and give her an ear to listen…and much more. After spending the night together, Veronica wakes up to find Heraldo dead in her bed and believes that the spiders from the egg had something to do with it. Calling up Reggie, Veronica rips into him about Heraldo’s death only for Reggie to assure Veronica he had no knowledge of the spiders. 

Kevin 

Moose (Cody Kearsley) helps Kevin by returning Lord of the Flies to him. While Moose starts to talk about the character Ralph and his attraction to him, Kevin opens to Moose about feeling like Piggy in his childhood. Moose assures Kevin he is much more a Ralph now, a sentiment that Percival also shares with Kevin when he returns the book. Percival’s persuasion continues to lure Kevin into his web, kissing him to seal the deal.  

Cheryl 

Alone at night, Cheryl hears the sound of a child giggling in her bedroom. Heading up the stairs, Cheryl sees a figure under a sheet on her bed, only to find roses under the sheet. When Cheryl brings the group back together for a meeting, she advises all of them that Percival is using the collateral he received from everyone as a means of tormenting. In order to end the tormenting, they would need to find the books and return them immediately, then burn the items Percival had initially taken from them.  

Jughead 

While Jughead began his search of trying to locate his book, his skin starts to crack and bleed, much like the character in “The Metamorphosis.” Remembering that he gave his book to Doc, Jughead heads to Sketch Alley to see if there’s any way to get in touch with him. Running into a man in a wheelchair named Hank (Troy Skog), Jughead finds out that all the residents of Sketch Alley were persuaded to start walking and head West until they reached the coast. Hank was not persuaded to leave due to being confined to a wheelchair. Jughead asks Hank to talk to Doc and later finds out that Doc had sold the book to a bookstore called Barney’s Book Barn in Allentown, Pennsylvania. With the new information, Jughead sets out to Barney’s Book Barn and is able to locate everyone’s overdue library books. 

With all the books returned to Percival, the group is able to have the collateral returned to them. Deciding that she would rather not have Hiram’s picture back, Veronica is fine leaving her collateral with Percival. Later at Thornhill, Cheryl prepares to burn the items in her fireplace but Jughead refuses to burn his inscribed Baxter Brothers book. It is the only item he has left of his grandfather and will take his chances with keeping it. With no other objections, Cheryl burns the remaining items. The next day Veronica receives a phone call from Dr. Curdle Jr. (Nikolai Witschl) regarding Heraldo’s cause of death. While his death was caused from black widow venom, the more disconcerting part is that the venom entered his body through his lips. Veronica realizes that she may have been the cause of Heraldo’s death and a new power has emerged.