S06.E10: Chapter One Hundred and Five: Folk Heroes

[Bort]

To get the town of Riverdale out from under Percival’s grip, Archie, Jughead and Betty devise a plan to turn Archie into a modern-day folk hero by performing a series of impossible feats. Meanwhile, Percival takes aim at Veronica, Toni and Tabitha, pitting them and their businesses against one another. Finally, after falling ill, Cheryl makes a surprising discovery about herself.

Airdate: 17 April 2022

[thuganomics85]

Okay, so Percival actually could use his powers on Archie, Jughead, and Betty after-all?  I have to believe then that he just is enjoying needling and taunting them, because he could have accomplished almost all of his tasks easily had he just used his persuasion powers on them before they were aware of them (and Jughead finding a way to counter it thanks to reading!)  Same with Tabitha and Veronica.  It feels like he could easily just use it to make them quit being a thorn in his side, but he's now acting like they are major obstacles (especially Tabitha.)  His power seems to be all over the place.

The team attempts to thwart Percival by building up Archie like some kind of classic folk hero that will inspire the town of idiots... err, people to snap out of Percival's spell and throw him out.  But since Percival knows about Archie's kryptonite, he just exploits his weakness to beat him in a boxing match and make himself look even more like a god amongst the town-folks.  Granted, it was obvious that things weren't going to work out with the way everyone was sure Archie was going to in.  Jughead even commissioned a statue of him!  I so hope K.J. Apa took that home with him and put it somewhere so he can show it off to houseguests and be like "That's me!  And it's not the weirdest thing to come out of the Riverdale set!"

At least Percival did take a small L as his plan to pit Veronica and Toni/Tabitha against one another backfired instead.  He really was unsubtle with his not-powered suggestion to fire bomb both Pops and the White Claw.  He really should have known Veronica wouldn't go for that unless she was mentally persuaded too.  But I guess her booting Reggie out because of him will lead to repercussions.

I guess someone realized they haven't had enough skin this season, because we got a whole bunch of shirtless K.J. this time and it looks like it was Vanessa Morgan's turn to do a pole dance in a skintight outfit for random reasons.

Oh, and Cheryl now has fire powers.  Naturally.  Between that and 

Spoiler

Tabitha possibly being able to time travel next week

 I'm guessing everyone's going to become a superhero when this is all said and done.

[ruby24]

Sucks to see Reggie and Veronica break up in such a lame manner.

[Noneofyourbusiness]

10 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

I'm guessing everyone's going to become a superhero when this is all said and done.

Yup. I'm just waiting for Veronica to get her power.

9 hours ago, ruby24 said:

Sucks to see Reggie and Veronica break up in such a lame manner.

Given how bummed Reggie was, I doubt it'll stick.

[rmontro]

14 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

I'm guessing everyone's going to become a superhero when this is all said and done.

Looks that way.  No way this reality is going to stick, unless maybe this is the last season.

[SourK]

My favourite part was the look of disgust and betrayal on Veronica's face as she realized that Toni and Tabitha had cut in on her territory by forcing all of their customers to watch them do a dance. Also, I can't figure out if the dace was bad on purpose, or it that was just an accident, but my head cannon is that Veronica saw this and silently realized what she looked like to other people when she used to gyrate on that very stage.

My second favourite part was when Archie knew that Percival had just discovered that Archie could resist his mind control and that Archie was invulnerable, yet still, when Percival challenged him to a fight, it did not cross his mind that Percival might have a plan for how he would win the fight. I also loved that this whole thing was Jughead's idiotic idea and then he's just hanging onto the ropes going, "Stay down! You're done!" like staking his whole reputation on one fist fight is some random headstrong idea of Archie's.

Also, I love that they just decided that the way to win people over and make friends is to let someone hit you with a sledgehammer.

17 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Okay, so Percival actually could use his powers on Archie, Jughead, and Betty after-all? ... Same with Tabitha and Veronica.  It feels like he could easily just use it to make them quit being a thorn in his side, but he's now acting like they are major obstacles (especially Tabitha.)  His power seems to be all over the place.

This is a good point. In Veronica's case, especially, it's confusing why he didn't even try to use his mind powers on her. Based on the rules of this episode, we would have known, because we would have heard the echo effect.

I don't want to make excuses for this show, but Veronica and Tabitha were also immune to the weird goings-on in Rivervale, for various reasons, and originally everyone made a Whole Big Deal about how Veronica's ancestors weren't in Riverdale when all of the curses got handed out, so maybe they're going somewhere with the parallels between all of these stories. I mean, I'm not seriously expecting this to make sense, but I would love it if it did.

[rmontro]

If the theory is correct that this series is actually a collection of Jugheads stories, I hate to say it, but he's a hack.

[ruby24]

I like how they have to have Betty randomly wearing sunglasses the first three minutes we see her to remind us of her "power" just so that she doesn't have to wear them at all the rest of the episode no matter what the lighting/weather is.

[tennisgurl]

So, hold on. Not to question this shows always impeccable writing, but if Percival's powers do sometimes work on Betty, Jughead, and Archie, why hasn’t he used them to just take them out, instead of just collecting intel? Why isn't he using them on Toni and Tabitha to get them to let him have his way? Why is he instead acting like they're such a threat? In fact, if he's so all powerful, why is he even bothering with any of this? I guess he wants to let Riverdale destroy itself with him leading it down its dark path for his own twisted, super villain amusement, but, honestly, he could have just sat back and eaten popcorn while Riverdale destroyed itself on its own. If Percival never showed up, it would still have enough serial killers, vengeful spirits, and monster cults to keep driving the property value down. Why is he even doing any of this if he's so powerful? 

Speaking of stupid plans, smooth move getting even more people on Percival's side while making Archie look like an idiot, Jughead. You cant just make someone, especially someone alive that everyone sees every day, a folk hero, they become that naturally due to their deeds and significance to a place and people, they don't just decide to become one because of one boxing match and a bunch of athletic challenges. They even make a stupid statue, I am starting to think that Jughead shouldn't be in charge of plans anymore. I hope he kept his receipt from Statues R Us. 

Remember how when they first introduced the whole serpent shake thing, where female members had to do a strip tease, it was seen as one of Betty's low points and Toni spoke against it as a sexist stupid rule? Well, that was before this show had totally become an excuse for the writers to film their own personal jerk off fantasies, so we get Toni and Tabitha doing a really goofy burlesque dance. The best part is Veronica's expression as she realized that someone else was doing questionably sexy dances at her place of work. How dare they, that's Veronica's thing damn it!

So now everyone gets superpowers? Is this going to tie into Abigail's curse, or is this something else? Or just another pocket dimension, but a more boring one than the last one? A boring Jughead story?

Edited April 25, 2022 by tennisgurl

[rmontro]

Maybe someone has said this before, but I just realized Percival is basically Kilgrave from Jessica Jones.

But I get the feeling he has some sort of demonic or devil drive source.

[sweetandsour]

I was kind of surprised they used the actual name of Caesar's Palace - I would've expected them to say something like Deezer's Palace.  (Or Pleaser's Palace ...)  And I know they're song lyrics, but I was also surprised to hear Toni/Tabitha sing the words "American Express" when the show has previously established the alternative name of American Excess.

But that's all I was surprised about this episode.  Not the crazy storylines, not the implausible reactions to everything (and Jug really didn't seem concerned about Archie getting pummeled to bloody bits - he only seemed frustrated their plan didn't work).  Not Veronica being on her own show apart from the other three mains.

Even though I didn't care about him on Katy Keene, it's all relative; given the disarray that Riverdale the show is, KO Kelly was actually the only one I cared about in this episode.

[nilyank]

On 4/20/2022 at 2:26 PM, tennisgurl said:

So, hold on. Not to question this shows always impeccable writing, but if Percival's powers do sometimes work on Betty, Jughead, and Archie, why has he used them to just take them out, instead of just collecting intel? Why isn't he using them on Toni and Tabitha to get them to let him have his way? Why is he instead acting like they're such a threat? In fact, if he's so all powerful, why is he even bothering with any of this? I guess he wants to let Riverdale destroy itself with him leading it down its dark path for his own twisted, super villain amusement, but, honestly, he could have just sat back and eaten popcorn while Riverdale destroyed itself on its own. If Percival never showed up, it would still have enough serial killers, vengeful spirits, and monster cults to keep driving the property value down. Why is he even doing any of this if he's so powerful? 

 

Just replace Percival's name with Hiram's and that was the first four seasons of the show. Hiram was a big time mob boss who who wasted countless energy in his little war to destroy Archie and co.

[Dobian]

Time to weigh in on Percival.  He is a terrible character and an awful villain.  Smug, arrogant, intolerable.  For a villain to be good or great, you have to like them on some level, or at least respect their machinations.  A good villain earns his spoils.  They are written into a plot, usually in the background early on, just doing their thing and making their moves.  Then they emerge as antagonists, having fully ingratiated themselves into the lives of the other characters, and having built their plans and schemes piece by piece.  That isn't the case with Percival.  He lands in Riverdale and in the very first episode is taking over the town.  He is given a win card with his power, and is faced with virtually no resistance.  He's like a video game character that is in God mode.  So it makes him completely uninteresting as a character.  He is a narcissistic, insufferable brat and nothing more.  What makes it worse is that his super power is stolen from Kilgrave in Jessica Jones.  So he is completely unoriginal as well.  Of course, Kilgrave was written with a level of depth that Percival barely scratches the surface of.  And David Tennant is a way better actor.

Edited May 1, 2022 by Dobian