Jughead (Cole Sprouse) narrates the opening of this episode of Riverdale, saying that a war has been brewing between Percival (Chris O’Shea) and Archie (KJ Apa), but isn’t the real war on Riverdale really Percival vs. Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook)?
Jughead also describes it as the workers vs those who exploit their work and boy howdy is Percival exploiting his crew. He’s charging them for their tools, even their coffee, taking them all out of the pay that he’s cut from what he initially agreed to. Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) calls him out on it, but Percival basically tells him to accept it or kick rocks.
Tabitha says that unions literally unite people, and to me, that shows that this is Percival vs Tabitha, not Percival vs. Archie. She’s the truly inspiring one of the two.
Veronica (Camila Mendes) meets with Agent Blake and Betty (Lili Reinhart). Agent Blake claims to have known of Hiram when she was in ATF. Agent Blake also claims Veronica’s bloodwork shows her to be one of the healthiest people she ever met. Veronica’s body is producing poison, but also cleaning herself from it. She’s a walking dialysis machine.
Moose is impressed by Kevin’s (Casey Cott) new digs until he finds out it’s paid for by Percival. He’s also not excited by Kevin pursuing custody of baby Anthony.
Alice has a surprise for Betty. Charles, her murderous half-brother is back in Riverdale and staying at the house. Also. he’s very sick. Like, on his deathbed ill.
Tabitha and Archie show up with free coffee for Uncle Frank’s crew and invite them to an an open mic night at Pop’s new location.
Jughead isn’t the only one who has access to Reggie comics. Percival digs through Reggie’s mind and comes across the pages Jughead ripped out. Percival confirms Reggie’s suspicion from last week’s Riverdale. Reggie wants to learn magic. Percival takes out a Reggie ventriloquist dummy. It will be a distraction to let Percival into Jughead’s mind. Surrrrrrre…
Union night is a slow success. Fangs and Carlos complain that Percival is giving them longer hours, less pay, no overtime. Archie wants them to unionize, but they’re not sure. They can’t afford to lose their jobs. Riverdale isn’t exactly a great job market these days.
Betty asks Charles about Chic. They didn’t get married. After the prison escape, they were put in separate wings. Betty asks Charles if he’s afraid of death and what comes after, but he says he’s made his peace and his illness is his punishment.
Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) and Heather research the work the Pickins and Blossoms did together. Apparently, centuries ago, a Pickins stole the Maleficarum, an arcane text, from the Blossoms. Heather teaches Cheryl how to be unseeable for their break-in of Pickins’ store. Veronica stops by Thornhill wanting Wormwood. Cheryl gets her some just to get her to leave.
Percival wants Archie to join his team. He’s trying to buy Archie off, but it doesn’t work at all.
Toni (Vanessa Morgan) and Fangs meet with an attorney. Fangs bristles at any suggestion the attorney makes. When Toni says they’re transitioning from a biker gang to a political action group, the attorney says they should do it fast.
At Forsythe the Fantastic’s next show, Reggie’s dummy throws off Jughead with some heckling. Percival uses this distraction to attempt to enter Jughead’s mind, but finds it locked and guarded. Percival says he needs a totem of Jughead’s to break into his mind. Reggie suggests his beanie, which is currently buried in a time capsule. Percival tells Reggie to get him that beanie.
Archie hosts another union meeting. He gives an inspiring speech and people are more amped for the union.
Betty continues to interview Charles. He tells her about the time as a kid that he caught a possum in a trap and tortured and killed it. He theorizes that if he had set that possum free, his shadow self would have stayed dormant.
Kevin and Fangs throw down at work over their custody battle.
Cheryl goes invisible, and doesn’t even need an invisibility cloak, though it does make everything else blurry for the TV viewer. While Cheryl snoops around the shop, Heather distracts Pickins. Cheryl is sloppy and causes a noise that alerts Pickins, but manages to go invisible again when he comes to investigate. Cheryl manages to steal back the book though!
Veronica theorizes that she might be able to leech poison out of wormwood by holding it. Not sure how she can do this at enough volume to produce absinthe though.
From Archie’s window, Betty sees Alice about to smother Charles. Betty rushes over and stops her. Alice is angry. She feels she’s giving Charles a mercy killing, but Betty tells her she’ll regret it. I’m honestly not sure who is more effed up in the head, Alice or Kevin.
Toni balls out Fangs for getting into a fight with Kevin, but all Fangs can hear is his own ego and storms off.
Reggie procured a bunch of Jughead’s favorite personal effects for Percival, like his Serpents jacket and his beanie.
Cheryl found some letters from the Riverdale miners’ strike in 1949 that she shares with Archie.
Percival dresses like Jughead and invades his mind during his next show. That seems like enough to get through Jughead’s psychic defenses. It messes with Jughead’s powers. He’s hearing everyone. He can’t shut anyone out. Jughead freaks out. He rushes from the stage. Jughead heads to Pop’s, but it’s a deluge of thoughts there, and he runs back out.
Britta is babysitting Baby Anthony. She reveals to Toni that Kevin stopped by to play with Baby Anthony, claiming he does that every Saturday. Toni rushes over to Kevin’s apartment and slaps him around in front of Fangs until he gives back the pacifier. She then threatens to throw Kevin off the building if he comes by their house again. Toni, don’t make threats like that in front of witnesses!
At Betty’s behest, Veronica agrees to act a filter for Charles’s blood. They hook him up to Veronica like a human dialysis machine.
Tabitha and Archie host another workers’ meeting at Pop’s. Workers are getting injured on the job, without a care from Percival. Tabitha shares the words from 1949 that Percival’s great grandfather wrote. He basically says unions suck and they need to break the workers. Hearing this galvanizes the workers.
Cheryl admits to Heather that her obvious ruse about building a library was just to get Heather to hang out more. Heather doesn’t mind.
After slapping Kevin around, Toni is seeing things Fangs’s way. She doesn’t want to disband the Serpents anymore. Instead, she wants to induct Baby Anthony into the Serpents. Fangs is excited enough to agree to marry Toni.
Percival tells Kevin that Fangs is Baby Anthony’s biological father. He also says that Baby Anthony is Riverdale’s greatest hope, Riverdale future. That’s a problem for Percival, because he wants to be Riverdale’s future.
The dialysis seemingly worked. Charles feels a lot better the next day. Betty claims to have saved Charles for their mom. Charles has an idea for Betty on how to trp TBK.
Archie stands up to Percival, Frank and Kevin. He’s there to announce their crew is on strike. Percival says Archie hasn’t seen any real fighting yet, but that he will, before walking away.
Veronica and Betty toast saving Charles over shots of absinthe. Betty wants to book the casino for a fan convention. Comic con? No…for fans of serial killers.
Tabitha comes home to find a note from Jughead. He’s heading into seclusion until he can lock out everyone’s voices from his head. Where? Dilton’s bunker, of course. But it’s not secluded enough. Jughead is still hearing voices, but talking of Rivervale. He also hears the tak tak tacking of typewriter keys. Is Rivervale Jughead also in this bunker??
