Riverdale – Chapter One Hundred and Five: Folk Heroes

By: Jennifer Vintzileos

Percival Pickens (Chris O’Shea) continues to entrench himself further into Riverdale, starting with appealing to Veronica (Camila Mendes) by offering her a year’s worth of rent to for leasing one of the Champagne Suites in Babylonium. While Veronica seems reluctant to do anything positive for Percival as he has come after the casino, the promise of cash up front lures her in to accept his offer. In addition to the rent Percival has also stepped down as deputy and decided to open a curiosity shop in Riverdale, as well as offer his crooning abilities to Babylonium to help generate interest.

By the next town meeting Percival’s new status on the town council brings him front and center to appeal to the town for a revitalization of Pickens Park and restoring the statue of his ancestor, General Pickens. In Percival showing his hand, Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook) immediately shoots down the idea and Archie (K.J. Apa) joins her in reminding the citizens that General Pickens was responsible for the slaughtering of the Uktena Tribe in Riverdale, a fact that would tarnish any reminders of General Pickens having a new statue. Immediately realizing that he would not find support yet, Percival also uncovers a new potential sign for Riverdale…one that blatantly omits Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe. When Tabitha confronts him after the meeting Percival starts to stir the pot by mentioning a potential rivalry in business with Veronica over another Riverdale sign that would either promote Babylonium or Pop’s.

After the meeting Archie convenes with Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Jughead (Cole Sprouse) at his house to try and figure out what can be done about Percival’s influence over the town. While Jughead first tries to bring forth an idea he read from a parapsychology book, he then suggests the idea of Archie becoming a folk hero to the town and appealing to the residents in that light. This would possibly place the spotlight on Archie rather than Percival and have the residents revere Archie as the true hero of Riverdale. Quickly coming up with an idea to get the Guinness Book of World Records on board and a potential match with KO Kelly (Zane Holtz), the group gets to work.

With a plan in place, Archie and Jughead interrupt the next town hall meeting to announce that the El Royale is no longer available for the town meetings and instead will reopen as a private business. Percival immediately tries to deter and shoot down the idea, but Jughead begins to inform the townspeople that the Guinness Book of World Records will be coming to Riverdale and if Archie completes all the tasks placed before him El Royale will be run by the world’s toughest man. This new information leaves Percival perplexed…and ready to retaliate however he can.

With Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) finally reclaiming control of her body, Britta (Kyra Leroux) is officially leaving Thornhill as her parents have finally come to accept her. Later that night, while reading in her bedroom, Cheryl starts to feel very warm and then lights herself and the book she is reading on fire. As she is screaming she then wakes up in her bed…as the fire was just a dream. The next morning Nana Rose (Barbara Wallace) notices that Cheryl’s temperature is higher than normal, only believing that it may be rest that Cheryl needs. And to oversee Cheryl’s recovery, Nana hires a night nurse named Darius (Austin Miklautsch). While Darius takes care of Cheryl and she seems to recover, the next morning Cheryl finds only the remains of Darius’s shoes in her room as he has spontaneously combusted. Cheryl enlists the help of Betty to find out what happened and Betty takes the remains of Darius to Dr. Curdle Jr. (Nikolai Witschl) for further inspection. Dr. Curdle Jr. determines that Darius died of spontaneous human combustion, which has Betty reaching out to a department in the FBI for help.

While Veronica and Tabitha both present their new billboards for consideration of the town, Alice (Mädchen Amick), Frank (Ryan Robbins) and Percival decide to go with Babylonium for the new town sign…effectively cutting Pop’s out of the equation. While the council tries to placate Tabitha that Pop’s will always be a legacy of Riverdale, Tabitha is ready to go head to head and prove that Pop’s is not only part of Riverdale’s past and present….but also its future. Later at the Whyte Wyrm we see Toni (Vanessa Morgan) and Tabitha are going over how their businesses are starting to decline and decide to head to Babylonium to find out why. When they get to the casino dressed to the nines they find that diner food and spiked milkshakes are being passed around. But that’s not all as it appears Percival is the entertainment for Babylonium. Tabitha and Toni are ready to fight back with their own plan to drive business back.

Hurt by Veronica’s choice to work with Percival and deciding to team up, Tabitha and Toni begin to revitalize their own business to try and take away from Babylonium’s customer base. Tabitha immediately begins to brainstorm getting a liquor license to put drinks through the Wyrm while the Wyrm will put in some slot machines and a table. And to provide entertainment, Toni immediately suggests resurrecting the antiquated Serpent Dance and bringing it into a more Cirque du Soleil style show.

Archie’s road to Guinness World Records is a treat for the town of Riverdale to watch, especially as he endures many tests to get there. From weight challenges to frigid ones, the town continues to cheer Archie on as he tackles each challenge with minimal effort. Meanwhile, Percival watches as Archie claims the record. Angered by the turn of events, Percival starts to plot and determine how to dethrone the heart of Riverdale. Later in Archie’s office, Archie and Jughead reminisce about Fred and Jughead lets Archie know that the transformation into folk hero is not yet complete. While Archie does not want to fight KO in fear of hurting him, Jughead reminds him that he does not need to beat KO and only needs to stay up until the bell rings.

During Percival’s stay in the Champagne Suite, he decides to pay a visit to Veronica and suggest a potential business partnership. Reluctant to come aboard with the idea, Veronica then reminds Percival about her partnership with Reggie (Charles Melton) and how she is not looking to work with anyone else. Utilizing his ability to persuade, Percival convinces Veronica to head over to Mantle Motors and check on Reggie…which does not bode well. Finding out that Reggie has borrowed slot machines and was looking for his own side hustle to make some money, Veronica cuts Reggie not only out of their partnership but also their bed. While upset about the loss of his business and relationship, Reggie manages to start moving forward and decides to try to plot taking over Veronica’s business instead.

But Percival is not done with working his magic, especially when he heads over to El Royale and tries to convince Archie to hurt himself. However, Archie’s abilities break the blade that he was told to put in his arm and Percival is perplexed as to how that is possible. Fortunately for Archie, focusing on the picture of Fred that he has at El Royale manages to break the hold that Percival has and ruin his opportunity. Archie later tells Jughead how Percival got in his head and how his focusing on Fred helped, but that they need a more permanent solution to end Percival’s hold. Unfortunately for Archie, Percival does succeed in causing more chaos as he persuades KO Kelly to walk into traffic and remove him from the upcoming fight. Instead, Percival offers to fight and the stakes are over the fate of Riverdale vs. the statue of General Pickens. Archie agrees to the fight with Percival, wanting to see him fall.

Back at Babylonium, a frustrated Percival decides to play his next hand and tells Veronica about the happenings at Pop’s and the Whyte Wyrm. Donning a blonde wig, Veronica comes with Percival and they watch as both Tabitha and Toni have captured their audience back. Veronica vows to come up with something as Babylonium is now losing the business, but there may be bigger problems as Pop (Alvin Sanders) does not like the clientele coming through and Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) would prefer to see Toni not resort to the old Wyrm ways while in a custody battle for Baby Anthony. However, Tabitha comes up with a way for her, Veronica, and Toni to work together and generate revenue. With Babylonium loaning two slot machines to the Whyte Wyrm and Pop’s opening a booth at the casino, all three women come together…much to Percival’s chagrin.

With Cheryl’s condition only worsening and Betty trying everything to help her, a tip from Agent Drake (Sophia Tatum) suggests that Darius did not die from spontaneous combustion but rather a case of pyrokinesis. Betty realizes that Cheryl’s rising temperature may mean she has the ability to control fire and instead encourages Cheryl to use her ability to cool down. As Cheryl’s temperature starts rising again, Betty gives Cheryl a pep talk and places a picture of Penelope (Nathalie Boltt) into the fireplace for Cheryl to use as target practice. While at first reluctant, Cheryl manages to successfully light Penelope’s picture on fire…and then promptly faints. Later in her room, Cheryl successfully uses her new power to light candles and start reading her book…Firestarter by Stephen King.

At the fight with Percival, Archie manages to keep focusing on Fred and keeping Percival out of his mind…but Percival can hurt Archie somehow. Knowing that he must win at all costs, Archie continues to fight despite getting pummeled by Percival while his friends look on worriedly. Unfortunately, Archie loses the fight and is knocked out by Percival. Later, it is revealed that Percival learned of Archie’s weakness by controlling Alice to lead her to Betty and then using his mind-control on Betty to learn about the palladium. Placing the palladium in his gloves left Archie vulnerable. Now with the General Pickens statue going up instead of leaving Riverdale, Percival is ready to move onto the next phase of his plan. Next up: getting rid of Tabitha Tate.