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Let’s Talk About ‘The Serpent Queen’s Gambit’:
- Percival Pickens has taken it upon himself to conduct a census in Riverdale to see what people are most concerned about.
- Abigail plans a ritual to bring Thomasina’s spirit back into Toni’s body, and poison Archie, Betty and Jughead.
- Reggie’s dad spends a little too much time in Babylonium.
- Kevin is concerned about Baby Anthony’s safety being raised in a ‘gang’ atmosphere.
- Archie, Betty and Jughead are stumped by Percival’s ‘superpower’ since they were the ones affected by the explosion.
- The Ghoolies conduct a drive-by shooting at Pop’s, inflaming tensions in Riverdale.
- The City Council holds an emergency meeting to decide if Toni should remain as a member.
- Baby Anthony is kidnapped.
- Archie, Betty and Jughead attempt to save Cheryl.
With all that’s going on in this week’s Riverdale, it seems as if the veil between the town and Rivervale is growing thinner by the moment. I’m almost inclined to think that Percival Pickens is actually Mr. Cypher in disguise (Chris O’Shea does bear some resemblance to Oliver Rice), which would be an easy way to explain his powers. In that episode, Cypher granted the citizens of Rivervale their heart’s desire and collected their souls in the process. Percival is sort of doing the same thing, seeming to already know what the people of Riverdale want and then giving them the power to make it happen without really having to lift a finger himself. And Toni also has a deja vu moment related directly to the ‘Ghost Stories’ episode of the ‘Rivervale’ event. But there is still the lingering question about Archie, Betty and Jughead’s powers … and how they survived the explosion (and of the three, Cypher did not claim Archie’s soul because he was already ‘dead’). Are they now in their own ‘Multiverse of Madness’ thanks to the explosion?
But the suggestion that Percival is the Devil, as was Lou Cypher, is pretty strong, especially if you’re familiar with the idea that the Devil ‘whispers in your ear’. We’ve seen Percival do just that a few times (the casino patron and Alice come to mind) and he spoke to Jughead from his mind. He preys on fear and the most basest of desires, prompting the people of Riverdale to turn on the less fortunate … and perhaps even convincing the homeless that they’d be better off someplace else. Interestingly, of the members of the city council, he’s got Alice and Frank in the palm of his hand (he brought Polly and Chuck back for her) but not Tabitha, who emerged from the encounter with Cypher unscathed because of her guardian angel. He also did not have Toni because she had sacrificed herself to save Baby Anthony before Cypher arrived in Rivervale. So this is certainly playing out as if it all were connected to Rivervale.
Another major connection comes from Toni. After Percival suggests to the citizens of Riverdale that they are caught in the middle of an ongoing gang war between the Serpents and the Ghoolies, he successfully leads the charge — through Alice, of course — to have Toni removed from the City Council. Archie, Betty and Jughead are shocked that Toni was voted out by a unanimous vote, except for Tabitha, by the city council they actually founded. Outside of Abigail’s attempt to try to resurrect her beloved Thomasina in Toni’s body, Toni is getting attacked from all sides regardless of all the positive things she’s done for Riverdale. She’s even trying to forge a cease fire with Twyla Twyst. Kevin is now concerned about the safety of Baby Anthony — probably because of his chat with Percival when he was in the hospital — and out of the blue one evening he and the Riverdale police department breaks down her apartment door while she and Fangs are having dinner (and part of Abigail’s plans is for her and Thomasina to murder him as well), claiming there are illegal weapons stashed there based on an anonymous tip. Toni is beside herself that Kevin, of all people, would think such a thing but … one of the officers drags a bag of weapons out of another room and they arrest Fangs. He later admits to Toni that he had the weapons because he and the Serpents were going to go to war with the Ghoolies.
After the raid, Toni gets a visit from her friend in CPS inquiring about the safety of Baby Anthony. Toni immediately has a memory flash of this same exact conversation from the ‘Ghost Stories’ episode (and it was even shot from the same camera angles). As in that episode, Baby Anthony is missing but this time the town rallies to help find him … at least outwardly as Jughead reads the minds of those assembled at Pop’s to see if he can find a clue to the baby’s whereabouts but most of them are just questioning Toni’s fitness to be a mother and disgusted by her gang relations. Toni gets a call from Twyla who admits she has Anthony, but the baby is being held by Percival who is obviously controlling Twyla to arrange a rumble between the gangs. If Toni wins, the Ghoolies leave Riverdale but if they win, Riverdale is their turf. Toni agrees but only when she knows Baby Anthony is safe, and when she gets confirmation she and the Serpents meet up at the designated location. But Tabitha overhears Kevin and another officer talking about the ‘turkey shoot’ that’s about to transpire and she calls Tabitha to warn her that the Serpents have been set up. The police arrive and Toni orders the Serpents to lay down their weapons so as not to engage in a fire-fight, and she live streams the ambush making sure Percival knows that she knows this was a set-up arranged by him. Tabitha bails her out of jail, and Kevin brings the baby to her but reveals that he’s filing for custody of his son, which destroys Toni emotionally. She also gets word that all of the Ghoolies, except Twyla, are dead from a gunfight and she assumes it was the police.
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Meanwhile Archie, Betty and Veronica try to speak with Cheryl to see if Percival has gotten to her but she says shs’s not spoken to him (she was taking a buttermilk bath at the time). Unaware they are speaking to Abigail, the three are confused by Cheryl continuing to bring up the history of their ancestors burning Abigail at the stake. After they leave Thorn Hill, Abigail tells Britta that she is going to poison them with some homemade scones. For her plan with Toni, she needs a drop of blood for her ritual so she brings Toni a bouquet of roses, with thorns, and manages to get a drop when Toni pricks herself. She then pays a conciliatory visit to Archie, Betty and Veronica at the high school, offering them each a scone as a peace offering for her previous behavior. Archie and Jughead think she’s just being weird but Betty can suddenly see Cheryl’s glowing red aura, sensing a threat and refusing the scone. She then realizes that she has been to Archie and Jughead as well, but Archie has eaten his scone already. Luckily he’s invincible but Jughead is not so they have to induce vomiting to flush the scone from his system. Puzzled as to Cheryl’s behavior, Jughead visits Thorn Hill again to probe Cheryl’s mind, but Britta answers the door and tells him she’s not available and she can’t say any more. Jughead gets into her head and tells her to tell him what is going on and she mentally communicates Abigail’s plans and that there is only one way to stop her and bring Cheryl back.
The three cook up a plan that has Betty visiting Cheryl, telling her that Archie is dead, burned alive by a Ghoolie. In actuality this was Abigail who tossed a Molotov cocktail at him unaware of his superpower — Archie revealed this fact to his friends — and she admits the tearful Betty into Thorn Hill. It’s not a moment before Betty has chloroformed her cousin and when she awakens she is tied to a stake once again with the descendants of her original killers prepared to set her alight once again. Abigail cries out ‘how many times’ are they going to burn her at the stake and Betty replies, ‘As many times as it takes.’ With Britta and Nana Rose in attendance (with that creepy Jason Blossom doll), the pyre is set on fire and they begin reciting an incantation as Abigail shrieks as she did the first time she was burned at the stake. Suddenly a gust blows out the fire and a startled Nana drops the doll, saying she felt it twitch. Cheryl is back in her body and Abigail is trapped in the doll, taken back to Thorn Hill, and locked in a protective display case (complete now with long red hair) just like the infamous Annabelle doll. Hopefully the actions of Betty, Archie and Jughead to save Cheryl will cease her vendetta against them.
And poor Reggie is finding himself in a bind. His dad is slowly recovering from his medical episode but he’s not feeling on the top of the world as he likes so Veronica sets him up at once of the gaming tables in the casino to have some fun and take his mind off of things. But Veronica is notified that Marty Mantle is on a terrible losing streak, down about $7000 and asking for the casino to front him another $5000. Roni says they don’t really do that and suggests he step away for a little while, but Reggie gets wind that she’s banned Marty from the casino. Roni says she has not banned him, so Marty comes back but loses even bigger this time — the car dealership. When Marty reveals this to his son, he asks if Veronica can talk to her underworld friends to get it back. Reggie has to swallow some pride and ask for the favor, and she says she’ll try but he has to admit his father has a problem. Reggie snaps at her that he was just having some fun and why is she being so hard on him when she put her father’s portrait on the wall after all the terrible things he did to Riverdale and their friends? He tells her he’ll handle it himself, and he goes to the Italian restaurant to talk to the wiseguys and see if they’ll sell the dealership back to him. Well, the value has already tripled because of the operations they’ll be running through the business so Reggie cuts a deal: they’ll need someone experienced with the ins and outs of running a car dealership to keep their operations running smoothly and without drawing attention from the authorities. They accept his offer to keep Marty employed and Reggie tells Roni that he bought the dealership back. She says okay but she seems concerned as to what Reggie actually did. It’s revealed in a flashback that Marty has a terminal illness and he’s unlikely to receive a life saving transplant in time to save his life, so it’s clear that Reggie is now doing what he can to make his dad’s final days as happy as he possibly can.
About those dead Ghoolies, Betty gets a call from Dr. Curdle Jr. with a curious post mortem on the dead bodies — it appears they turned their guns on themselves. There can only be one explanation for that: Percival Pickens.
Riverdale airs Sundays at 8:00 PM.
What did you think of this episode? Let us know in the comments section below.
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