Is Archie Andrew the folk hero Riverdale needs?
You know it, Jughead knows it, and turns out, Percival Pickens also knows it.
On Riverdale Season 6 Episode 10, Percival continued his attempt at building a “new world” in Riverdale by turning the town’s people against each other, mind-controlling others, and squaring up with Archie for a fight he had to cheat to win.
It’s becoming clearer and clearer that Percival is some kind of evil entity. There are a lot of callbacks to his ancestors, so my guess is that he’s some kind of descendant from the devil. And hopefully, the time-traveling episode with Tabitha Tate, Percival’s biggest foe in town now, will provide us some answers as to his ancestor, General Pickens, who was described as a “homicidal maniac” who slaughtered a tribe and remains an “offensive reminder of the town’s dark history.”
I swear, you could almost convince me they were talking about Hiram Lodge!
Percival is trying to stir up trouble in any way that he can, but he seems surprised that Riverdale is stronger than he ever thought.
He was able to manipulate Veronica into becoming a direct competitor for Toni and Tabitha’s businesses, the Whyte Worm and Pop’s, and they were forced to fight fire with fire, which resulted the revival of the “Serpent Dance” complete with strippers and alcohol being served at a family-friendly diner.
However, they all quickly realized that competing with each other was just doing more harm than good.
When Pop Tate and Fangs both took up issue with Toni and Tabitha’s solutions to getting a piece of the pie, they called a truce and joined forces. The three-way partnership is much more lucrative in the long run anyway as it elevates all of Riverdale’s businesses.
Of course, this wasn’t what Percival wanted, and as we saw, he’s a pretty sore loser.
In fact, Percival is pretty pathetic when you think about it as the only way he can get ahead is by making people do things via mind control and through cheating, as he did in his boxing match against Archie.
Jughead is the key to fighting Percival: he found a way to help the trio fight his mind control and he realized that the town needed some hope from hometown hero Archie.
So, they put Archie’s strength and invincibility of full display as a “Man of Iron,” which only piqued Percival’s interest.
When he tried to mind control Archie and realized that he had a way to keep him out of his mind, Percival became desperate.
I will say, I love how the series continues to find creative ways to keep Fred Andrews’ memory alive. In this case, he was the anchor that allowed Archie to block out Percival’s manipulation.
Unfortunately, the emotional anchor solution only worked when they were prepared for a fight and not when they were caught off guard.
Archie was sure that he would win a boxing match against Percival, but he was basically pulverized in the ring and it was very clear that Percival figured out that Archie’s weakness was palladium.
Percival snuck into Betty’s house at night while she was sleeping and ambushed her into telling him how to defeat Archie.
Then, in front of the whole town, he beat the man who was deemed unbeatable by putting palladium in his gloves to ensure that each hit actually hurt him.
It was unfair, but why would expect anything less from a devious con-artist?
He realizes that Jughead, Archie, and Betty have what it takes to fight back, so he went to extremes to extinguish their abilities.
And now, he’s setting his sights on poor Tabitha, who may just be the actual hero Riverdale needs. Archie is the “golden boy” who has been put on a pedestal and presented as the hero throughout decades and through many mediums, including the comics. While he may be heroic, he wasn’t the one to stand a chance against the darkness creeping in and trying to take hold of the town.
But Tabitha — she’s a force of nature.
She’s smart, she’s clever, she inspires, she’s the all-American girl next door that you’d never expect to put up such a fight, and yet, she is ready to come after Percival with everything she has because he’s threatened her business, her family, and her friends. She has deep roots in Riverdale as well, and she knows that the past is doomed to repeat itself if she doesn’t act.
It’s infuriating that Tabitha, Toni, and the rest of them won’t talk to Archie, Jughead, and Betty about the Percival problem as it’s been proven that there is strength in numbers.
If they all teamed up, they could likely defeat him, or at the very least, figure out what it is that he actually wants. I know Tabitha has it in her to accomplish this on her own, but it would just be so much easier if everyone put up a united front and exchanged the information they had.
But if Tabitha doesn’t have what it takes to defeat Percival, I think it will eventually boil down to Cheryl, who has been sidelined in her own world for most of the season. Her story is also rooted in her ancestral history specifically when it comes to her new powers of pyrokinesis.
After burning up to temperatures of over 300 degrees, Betty helped Cheryl discover that she has the ability to create and control fire with her mind.
But it’s unclear where Cheryl’s powers are stemming from as she wasn’t involved in the explosion. And thus, it’s possible that the explosion isn’t responsible for everyone’s superpowers to begin with.
Either way, Cheryl is the next in line to gain an ability that will likely help defeat Percival as save Riverdale’s soul — whatever’s left of it, at least.
Having Betty help Cheryl was sweet considering they are cousins, but it almost felt like a wasted opportunity. It’s unlikely the FBI would have any insight into pyrokinesis, but this would be something that Sabrina from Greendale could’ve assisted with. Maybe she will still stop on by to help Cheryl navigate her new powers? Though, it seems the firecracker has quite the handle on it already.
It was nice seeing K.O. Kelly pop on by to Riverdale, but it’s a bummer that his visit was shortlived and that he fell victim to Percival. It’s almost irresponsible that Jughead and Archie would bring him out and not warn him about Percival or give him the tools to fight back.
Why wouldn’t they think that he might possibly come after him?
Riverdale — “Chapter One Hundred and Five: Folk Heroes” — Image Number: RVD610a_0554r — Pictured (L – R): Cole Sprouse as Jughead Jones and KJ Apa as Archie Andrews — Photo: Jack Rowand/The CW — © 2022 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
I’m digging the focus on Jughead and Archie’s friendship again. They seemingly drifted from each other for many seasons, but despite Archie dating Betty, Jughead’s ex, the two are closer than ever.
I’m still fondly on team “this isn’t real, this is a parallel universe,” but regardless, I’m rooting for the team to take down Percival once and for all before he can cause anymore damage.
And as I said, I think it’s going to take a village. I’m glad that Veronica wasn’t phased by Percival, and I’m surprised he didn’t try to use his powers on her, and I think going back to the beginning and the basics to learn more about Percival’s ancestors will help us understand what he’s after in the present-day.
Other Musings
- Is Abigail not the reason for the fiery powers? Is it not part of the curse? Why did Brittania leave all of a sudden?
- Any day Archie shows off his chiseled abs is a good and blessed day.
- Toni and Tabitha are my favorite new duo.
What did you think of the episode? Share your thoughts in the comments below!