| “ | A war has been brewing in Riverdale between Percival Pickens and Archie Andrews. A conflict between good and evil, or in this incarnation, between those who work and those who exploit workers. | ” |
— Jughead
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"Chapter One Hundred and Eleven: Blue Collar" is the sixteenth episode of the sixth season of Riverdale and the one hundredth and eleventh episode of the series overall.[1] It premiered on May 29, 2022.
Synopsis[]
KNOW THY ENEMY - After learning that Percival is exploiting his new work crew, Archie and Tabitha devise a plan to help protect the workers and get them out from under Percival's control. Meanwhile, Jughead finds himself with a target on his back after Percival catches wind of a scheme he and Veronica hatched against Reggie. Finally, Betty receives some unexpected news about a dark moment from her past, and Toni and Fangs find themselves at a crossroads.[2]
Plot[]
Percival tells his crew about the fee
Construction is nearly underway for the new railroad as Percival and Frank rally the crew to discuss how he is charging them a rental fee for the tools and equipment being supplied. This will be taken from their pay, which is already substantially less than what they initially agreed on, Fangs points out.
Cheryl and Tabitha tell Archie about the ghost train
Archie meets with Cheryl and Tabitha to gain a better understanding of the ghost train that Percival is building to gain dominion over the souls of the living and dead. Tabitha wonders if Archie can convince Percival's crew to quit, but they're desperate and will take whatever they can get, even if they're being exploited and abused. Percival's anti-union and already breaking all the promises he made when he employed them. Fortunately, Archie believes that if he can do some agitating and remind the crew that Percival's values are opposite of their own, he might be able to get them to unionize and cease work on the railroad. With the Blossoms and Pickens having a long working history, Archie is hoping Cheryl can find some damning evidence against Percival. Tabitha then reveals that she's learned that Percival is making his crew pay for their own coffee, suggesting that she and Archie head down in one of the old Pop's trucks to the work site and hand out a few free cups of coffee and suggest they start hanging out at the diner.
Betty introduces Veronica to Drake
Betty brings Veronica to the field office to meet Agent Drake, who questions Veronica about her poisoning powers. When she asks if anything traumatic happened before their emergence, Veronica mentions her father, who Drake is familiar with. She used to be an ATF agent and was part of the team tracking his rum and Jingle Jangle operations before she got reassigned to busting illegal absinthe rings. Watered down, regulated absinthe is fine, but there's an underground market that caters to purists, those that don't mind that real absinthe is poisonous. Wormwood, one of its main ingredients, provides its signature flavor and color, but it's toxic. According to Veronica's blood work, she's perfectly healthy. While her body may produce poison, it's filtering out toxins at a fast rate. Her entire body is essentially a bio-dialysis machine.
Charles is sick
Betty gets a call from her mom and rushes home with her gun drawn to find Charles sleeping in her bed and hooked up to a respirator.
Moose inquires about Kevin's luxury suite at the Five Seasons and asks how he could afford it. Kevin reveals that Percival is helping and that it was time for him to get out of his dad's house. He also needed to establish a permanent residency to get custody of Baby Anthony.
Alice explains that Charles is dying
Alice explains that Charles is dying, but the doctors aren't quite sure what's killing him; they think it's some kind of sepsis or leukemia, and with the infirmary full, they sent him home. Whatever awful things he did, Alice wants Betty to call a truce with her brother and spend what little time they have together.
Archie and Tabitha hand out free coffee to Percival's crew
As planned, Archie and Tabitha hand out free coffee to Percival's crew. However, it's not long before they're confronted by Kevin and Frank, who warn them that what they're doing is against company policy. In addition to the coffee, Tabitha reveals that they're selling 25 cent burgers from their new location, the same price as they were back in 1949, which is also when the union first came to Riverdale, Archie adds.
Percival in Reggie's mind
Percival takes a look inside Reggie's mind and discovers a page missing from one of the comics, confirming to Reggie that Jughead did in fact steal a memory. Percival has clearly underestimated Jughead. Reggie then recalls Percival promising to teach him magic and would like for him to fulfill his agreement. And so, Percival gifts Reggie with a totem, a ventriloquist doll fashioned in his likeness. Tomorrow, during Jughead's act, Reggie will distract Jughead by throwing his voice. Meanwhile, Percival will sneak into his mind and open the flood gates, so to speak. Not enough to kill him, but enough to leave him incapacitated.
Archie talks to Fangs and Carlos about the job
Archie joins Fangs and Carlos at the diner after hearing that Percival changed the terms of their contracts. They're now working longer hours with lower pay and no over time. Archie informs them of their right to unionize, but Carlos doesn't think Percival will go for it. Archie reminds Carlos that both he and his father used to be union men and the union can protect them. There's no harm in at least trying, he tells Fangs and Carlos.
Veronica and Agent Drake begin a new endeavor
Veronica calls Agent Drake over to the Pembrooke to discuss a potential new endeavor, absinthe. Veronica is seeking to distill a version of absinthe that contains wormwood but isn't deadly when ingested in large quantities. This would be a new lucrative market, one in which Drake would like to get in on.
Betty asks Charles if he's afraid of death
Betty sits at Charles side and asks him about Chic. They never got married, and Charles hasn't seen him since the prison escape. They put him and Chic in separate wings when they were taken back to Shankshaw Prison. Betty asks Charles if he's afraid of death and what comes after. Charles claims to have made his peace. He's done terrible things and believes that his illness is his punishment.
Heather tells Cheryl about Malleus Maleficarum
Cheryl has put her witch training on hold to search for damaging proof against the Pickens. It's not long before Heather comes across a letter that makes mention of the Malleus Maleficarum, one of the most powerful arcane texts in existence. According to the letter, a feud between the Blossoms and Pickens broke out because a Pickens ancestor stole the Malleus Maleficarum from a Blossom ancestor. Assuming Percival is indeed an evil sorcerer in possession of the Maleficarum, they must get it back. Heather recalls Cheryl mentioning that his shop is a treasure trove of arcane artifacts. Also, retrieving the text provides them with the perfect opportunity for Heather to teach Cheryl a new spell, particularly becoming "unseeable," which Cheryl is only familiar with through Harry Potter and the Wizards of Waverly Place. However, Heather explains that to turn unseeable, all she needs to be able to do is hold her breath and keep a level head as she bends the spectrum of visible light around herself. Cheryl then gets an unexpected visit from Veronica, who needs a book on distilling absinthe, as well as any wormwood Cheryl may have in her Green house.
Percival confronts Archie for talking to his crew and makes him a proposition. He proposes that Archie join his team, claiming that someone like Archie could keep him honest while earning money. However, Archie turns down Percival's offer, telling him that Riverdale isn't the place for whatever he's actually building.
Toni and Fangs speak with the lawyer
Both Toni and Fangs have been Serpents their entire lives, they explain to their lawyer for Baby Anthony's upcoming custody trial. Unfortunately, according to their files, they both have many arrests. But they're mostly misdemeanors from their adolescence. Kevin's lawyer is going to try to expose them as unfit parents and is also asking for a paternity test for Baby Anthony, which Toni declines. The lawyer then asks if they've given any thought to retiring the Serpents, but Fangs refuses to even entertain the idea, while Toni claims they're rebranding to a political activist group. After the lawyer leaves, Toni and Fangs further discuss the trial and Toni's proposal for marriage, which she believes offers stability and union, but Fangs remains uncertain.
Jughead's door
Jughead and Veronica continue to put on shows at the Babylonium, and that's when Percival and Reggie enact their plan, with Reggie distracting Jughead by heckling him, which allows Percival to creep into his mind. However, he is met with a locked door with a handwritten sign telling Percival to keep out. When he realizes that he can go no further into Jughead's mind, Percival retreats.
Percival and Reggie devise a plan
Percival admits that breaking into Jughead's mind won't be as easy as he hoped. He needs to pry his way in with a talisman, an object of Jughead's that's an essential part of his being, like his beanie, which Reggie reveals that Jughead wore all throughout childhood. He buried it in a time capsule, which Reggie knows the exact location of. Along with the beanie, Percival will need other objects of Jughead's, so when he slips back in Jughead's mind, he won't be seen as a hostile entity.
Percival's crew retreat to Archie at Pop's after Percival refused to allow them to unionize. Archie claims that Percival only views them as tools for his disposal. Riverdale is at a crossroads, Archie remarks, and what they decide to do now will determine the future of their families.
Charles recalls killing a possum
Betty asks if Charles could tell from his childhood that there was something different about him. Charles recalls finding a possum in a trap in the attic of the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. He tortured and killed it, comparing his act to when Betty killed Caramel, but she claims that Caramel was a mercy kill. Charles thinks about the possum often. If he could go back in time, he would set it free and hopefully, his shadow self might remain dormant.
Fangs becomes enraged and attacks Kevin on the worksite after overhearing him talking about Baby Anthony and referring to himself as Anthony's father. Fangs accuses Kevin of walking out on him and being a coward.
Cheryl and Heather at the Curiosity Shop
Cheryl and Heather arrive outside of the Curiosity Shop, where she reminds Cheryl to hold her breath and think of the spell she was given. And so, Cheryl does just that, becoming unseeable and walking into the shop behind Heather, who distracts Percival at the counter whilst Cheryl sneaks into the back. Unfortunately, she knocks a book on the ground, and Percival decides to investigate. However, when he enters the back room, Cheryl is unseeable and the only evidence of her trespass is a book on the floor, which Percival picks up and places on a book stand, unaware that Cheryl stands a few feet away with the Malleus Maleficarum in hand.
After doing a bit of reading into absinthe and wormwood, Veronica comes to the conclusion that she may be able to leach the poison out of the wormwood given that she's a human dialysis and her body is metabolizing the poison she's producing.
Betty confides in Archie
Betty confides in Archie how her conversation with Charles is like looking into a mirror, recalling how Drake was telling her about this theory that moral corruption leads to bodily corruption. Betty suspects that Charles' evil may be what's poisoning him. She had the same darkness, but the only difference is that she never succumbed to it. Betty then notices her mother from Archie's window trying to suffocate Charles with a pillow. Betty rushes over and pulls Alice off if her brother and out of the room.
Toni scolds Fangs for picking a fight with Kevin right before the custody hearing. If Fangs had even landed a single punch, the case would've been ruined. Toni reminds Fangs that Baby Anthony is what matters most and that he should consider that the next time he decides to let his ego send him into a rampage.
Alice was giving Charles a mercy kill
Alice explains that Charles is in pain and that he asked her to put him out of his misery. Betty understands that this may seem like the right thing to do, but she promises her mother that she will live to regret it. Whatever they do, it won't be a mercy kill, as there's been enough murder in the house already.
Cheryl and Heather return to Thornhill with the Malleus Maleficarum to resume their research. Before long, Heather comes across a collection of letters that might require further scrutiny.
Reggie has delivered Percival a photo of Jughead with Jellybean, a copy of his book, The Outcast, his beanie, and his Serpent jacket.
Moose asks Kevin about Anthony
Kevin and Moose discuss Baby Anthony over dinner. None of them know who Anthony's biological father is. They wanted it that way so that neither Kevin nor Fangs would feel like less of a father than the other. Moose is simply wondering if the reason Kevin is so hell-bent on ruining his friendships to get custody is because he's afraid he's not Anthony's father.
Archie gets a call from Percival, who is hoping Archie has reconsidered his offer. When Archie declines once more, Percival informs him of the accident on site. Someone lost a foot. Archie's agitation is distracting the crew, Percival claims. He advises Archie to back off unless he wants more workers to suffer the same fate.
Betty has been thinking and believes that she knows of a way to help Charles.
Cheryl is still doing research on Percival's ghost train, but she did come up some pretty damning missives between her great-uncle Brayden Blossom and Percival's great-grandfather, Paxton Pickens, that might further Archie's cause.
Percival breaks into Jughead's mind
As Jughead and Veronica begin their mentalist act, Reggie calls Percival to alert him that Jughead is vulnerable. And so, with a Riverdale Choice newspaper in hand and while wearing Jughead's old beanie and Serpent jacket, Percival recites a spell and enters Jughead's mind. This time around, the door is unlocked, allowing Percival to open the door and ajar the door with a newspaper, flooding Jughead with the thoughts of everyone in the room, making him unable to read a single person's mind and forcing him to flee.
Jughead is overwhelmed
Veronica heads into the back to check in on Jughead, who reveals that it felt like he was hit by a tidal wave. He can suddenly hear everyone's thoughts and can't shut them out. Veronica proposes they cancel the rest of their shows for the night so that Jughead can rest.
Britta is looking for Baby Anthony's pacifier when Toni returns and thanks her for babysitting. Toni thinks nothing of it until Britta mentions that Kevin came by and played with Baby Anthony, realizing that Kevin must've stolen the pacifier.
Jughead heads to pop's, but he's continues to be overwhelmed with the thoughts of those around him and decides to leave abruptly.
Betty asks Veronica to save Charles
Betty seeks out Veronica and Agent Drake's help in curing Charles. Drake explains that they intend to perform an experimental medical procedure on him to possibly save his life. Betty further explains that they're going to hook him up to Veronica to perform a blood dialysis, as detoxification is one of her special skills. They're hoping that her body can purify Charles' blood, but Betty asks if he even wants them to true. Admittedly, Charles is terrified of dying and where he might end up for all his sins. So if there's even a slither of a chance, he wants them to try.
Toni threatens Kevin
Toni kicks in Kevin's door at the Five Seasons, demanding that he hand over Baby Anthony's pacifier. Armed with a pair of brass knuckles, she punches Kevin repeatedly in the face as Moose watches helplessly. She suspects that he was going to test his DNA to see if he's Anthony's father, but Toni tells Kevin that he'll never be Anthony's father. After finding the pacifier in Kevin's jacket pocket, Toni warns him to stay away, or else she'll throw him off the balcony.
Jughead has retreated to his and Tabitha's apartment, but he can't seem to get away from the voices, as they fill his head to the point where he feels as if it's about to explode.
Tabitha reads the letter
Archie and Tabitha heard about what happened to Sal and extend their condolences, also offering to help with medical expenses. They also asked if Percival had called to check in yet, which he hadn't. Archie informs Fangs, Carlos, and the rest of the crew that Percival is a bad guy and that the railroad is not a good job, but he decides to allow the Pickens to speak for themselves, as Tabitha reads the words of Percival's great-grandfather after he learned that the miners had voted to strike in 1949. The letter consists of Percival's ancestor referring to the miners as less than men and how they needed to know their place. Archie explains that Percival is a tyrant who fears them uniting. So, it's up to them to decide what they want to do now.
Cheryl confesses to Heather that the library was merely a ruse to get her to spend more time with Cheryl, who offers Heather the opportunity to leave whilst she can, but Heather insists on sticking around.
Fangs and Toni agree to marry
Fangs returns home to find Toni icing her hand and her Serpent jacket on the back of her chair. He suspects she got into a fight, which Toni confirms she did. Furthermore, she's had a change of heart and has decided that the Serpents won't be rebranding, as denying who they are is a sign of weakness and they need to be strong, especially when Kevin and his team will sink to any level to disrupt their family. Which is why Toni thinks the time has come for them to induct Baby Anthony into the Serpents. And as his father, Toni thinks Fangs should choose Anthony's Serpent name. In regards to the proposal, Fangs agrees to marry Toni and kisses her.
Percival claims that Anthony is the future
Kevin apologizes to Percival for messing up the plan, as Toni ambushed him and took the pacifier before he could get it to the lab. Percival isn't concerned and even informs Kevin that Fangs is Baby Anthony's biological father. However, Percival is more concerned with what the baby represents, that being Riverdale's spirit and greatest hope. Baby Anthony is the future, which is a problem, as Percival is also the future, and there can only be one.
Charles is recovering
It would seem as though Charles is recovering and asks Betty to thank Veronica for him. Betty confesses that when she first heard of Charles' illness, she wasn't sure if she wanted to save him or if he even deserved it, but she did it for their mother. More importantly, she's not ready to give up on herself. Betty realizes that she no longer needs to fixate on the past and should focus on what she's doing in the present and future. She's not entirely sure of what that entails, but she imagines it involves catching TBK, which Charles believes he can help with.
Archie tells Percival that his crew is on strike
Archie calls Percival to Sketch Alley, though he is joined by Kevin, Frank, and Moose. Archie explains that Percival's crew took a unanimous vote last night and came to the decision to go on strike. Before leaving, Percival warns Archie that he hasn't seen any real fighting yet, but he will.
Betty asks Veronica to hold a convention
Betty thanks Veronica for her help with Charles. She felt a bit flu-ey afterwards, but she quickly recovered. As for Betty, who has been enduring a bit of an emotional roller coaster, she feels good about stopping her mom from killing Charles and also saving him. Betty then asks to book Veronica's casino for a serial killer convention.
Jughead in he bunker
Tabitha returns home to find a note on the table from Jughead. The letter reads that Jughead fled to the old bunker after becoming too overwhelmed by the thoughts of those around him. He's hoping that the voices will calm down in the bunker, allowing him to close the door in his mind, but there, Jughead begins to hear echoes from Rivervale.
Cast[]
Starring[]
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Guest Starring[]
Co-Starring[]
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Soundtrack[]
- Imagine Dragons - Bones
- Scene: Toni takes back Baby Anthony's pacifier from Kevin.
- Omido, Silent Child - Me & My Demons
- Scene: Percival reveals that Kevin is not Anthony's father and that Anthony is the future of Riverdale.
- Sharon Van Etten - Femme Fatale
- Scene: Archie informs Percival that his crew is on strike.
Trivia[]
- The episode title refers to blue collar workers and manual labor, in relation to Archie pushing Percival's crew to unionize.
- On a promotional poster at Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe, director Tara Dafoe and assistant director Julia Torres are featured as two rival female boxers for an upcoming match at the El Royale.[3]
- Heather and Cheryl's clip is called "Demonomicon Scene". In "Chapter One: October Country", Sabrina Spellman uses a spell from the Demonomicon spell book to summon a familiar.
Gallery[]
Promotional Images[]
Screencaps[]
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