You see, given enough time, society always curdles, rots, corrupts. I want a land that I rule as I see fit. Where my enemies are at my mercy. I want a land controlled by the dark arts, free from the laws that stifle the rest of this country. The Sovereign State of Percival. That's what I want Riverdale to be. A wild, untamed land where I control it all, every last bit. Even the dead.Percival to Alice.
Percival Pickens is the main antagonist of Season 6 and the overarching antagonist of Season 7 of the CW series Riverdale. He is a powerful sorcerer who came from a parallel universe called "Rivervale", but came to Riverdale seeking to rule it.
He was portrayed by Christopher O'Shea.
Biography
Origins
Percival Pickens was born in Sweetwater Village, a small town in Rivervale around the 1500s. He grew up studying magic and became a magical sorcerer. He was eventually arrested by Asher Andrews, Blessing Cooper and James Jones, the founding fathers of Sweetwater Village for trying to summon the devil and placed in the Stockade of Legarius. However, he broke free and sold his soul to the devil for immortality, but he cheated the devil by keeping his soul anyway. He spent the 448 years escaping from both the devil and the founding fathers, swearing revenge on them one day.
Arrival to Riverdale
In the modern day, in a prime universe called Riverdale, Hiram Lodge planted a bomb under Archie's bed causing Riverdale to collide with Rivervale. As a result, Percival was accidentally teleported to Riverdale and decided to rule this new universe. He pretended to be a descendant of Riverdale's founding father, General August Pickens.
When the town town council decided to build houses in Sketch Alley, Percival mind-controlled the citizens to evacuate and also mind-controlled one of them into attacking Kevin Keller with a hammer, resulting in Kevin being hospitalized. He also mind-controlled a random man into hanging himself on the day of the Babylonium's grand opening.
_targeting Toni
Percival manipulated the town council into voting Toni Topaz out and electing him in her place. He then takes over the council and appoints himself as sheriff. He lures the Southside Serpents into a trap by kidnapping Toni's infant son, Anthony Topaz, and mind-controlling Twyla Twist, the new leader of the Ghoulies, into challenging Toni. When Toni gathers the Serpents for a war with the Ghoulies, Percival has the police ambush them, but is forced to arrest them instead of killing them when Toni broadcasts the ambush live. He then returns Anthony under the guise of rescuing him from the Ghoulies and kills the Ghoulies (except for Twyla) by mind-controlling them into committing suicide.
Beating Archie
When Archie became invulnerable and started showing off his new powers, Percival challenges Archie to a boxing match after mind-controlling Archie's original opponent, K.O Kelly, into getting hit by a car. Before the match, Percival mind-controls Betty into telling him about Archie's weakness to palladium and hides it under his boxing glove, allowing him to beat Archie and win. He then dissolves the town council and appoint himself mayor. His first order of business was hiring workers to demolish Pop's Chocklit Shoppe so he can build a "ghost train", a train that gives him ultimate power over the dead.
He then opens a store called the Curiosity Shop where he forces the alumni of Riverdale High to return overdue library books. He then uses the book to cast a spell that makes the owners have vision of their greatest demons, like Betty having a vision of her father and Archie having a vision of his old music teacher, Geraldine Grundy. He also tricks Reggie into sending Veronica a Glamergé egg with spiders inside it, causing Veronica to become venomous upon touching the spiders. He sends an assassin to kill Tabitha Tate, the new owner of Pop's, but Tabitha escapes by unlocking her chronokinetic powers. After seeing Percival in various timelines, Tabitha realizes he's not human and rallies her superpowered friends to stop Percival. Archie eventually turns Percival's workers against him and destroys the railroad where the ghost train will be built, stopping Percival from building it and saving Pop's.
Unleashing the Plagues
When Percival learns that Jughead Jones is also telepathic, he breaks into Jughead's mind and leaves the door open torturing Jughead with endlessly hearing everyone's thoughts with no power to stop it. Cheryl tries to kill Percival by casting a spell that transfers her pyrokinetic abilities to burn him alive; however, Percival saves himself by casting a counter spell that redirects Cheryl's onto her grandmother, Rose Blossom (although Cheryl was able to stop it before it kills her). He demands that Betty hands over baby Anthony to him, threatening to unleash plagues around town (from weather control to death of the firstborns) if she refuses. The gang traps Percival in the Stockade of Legarius in an effort to stop him, but Percival summons locusts to eat the wood freeing him. As threatened, Percival unleashes the plagues killing all the firstborns in Riverdale including Rose, Archie, Toni, Fangs, Jughead, and Betty's nephew Dagwood. Cheryl eventually resurrects Percival's victims when she unlocked her Phoenix powers as well her brother Jason and Betty's sister Polly.
Final Battle
Percival declares war on Riverdale. He has Betty's mother Alice, Sheriff Keller, and Archie's uncle Frank beheaded for their betrayal, and keeps their heads so Cheryl can't resurrect them. He also casts another spell to brainwash Reggie, Jason, Veronica's grandmother, and the stitched back body of Betty's former boss to kill Archie, Cheryl, Veronica and Betty, respectively. The spell eventually wears off with Cheryl being forced to kill Jason again. Tabitha ages Anthony to an 18-year-old adult so that he can take on Percival, but Percival traps Anthony and the other Serpents inside the Babylonium. Later, Betty eventually finds the heads and has Dr. Curdle Jr. reattach them, allowing Cheryl to resurrect Alice, Sheriff Keller, and Frank.
Percival decides to face Jughead head-on, giving him 2 hours. When the time for the battle started, Percival goes to fight Jughead at Pop's, but is attacked by Archie, Veronica, Betty, Cheryl and Reggie outside. Percival overpowers them by redirecting their own powers against them, poisoning Veronica, blinding Betty, freezing Cheryl, and transforming Archie and Reggie into statues. He confronts Jughead at Pop's where they have a psychic duel, each going into the other's mind. Percival once again breaks into Jughead's mind and starts destroying his memories. such as his first kiss with Tabitha. However, Jughead then reveals that he tricked Percival through a portal back to Rivervale and the duel was actually a ruse to distract Percival so the Rivervale versions of his friends can stab his physical body with the Daggers of Megiddo. Percival wakes back in his own body, greatly weakened and unable to move or use his powers. Tabitha takes Percival back in time to when he first sold his soul to the devil, allowing the devil to finally claim Percival's soul.
Legacy
Before being dragged to Hell, Percival casts two spells in a final act of revenge against the town: one that redirects Bailey's Comet to crash onto Riverdale, and another that created an invisible barrier around Riverdale preventing the town from evacuating, so they all die when the comet hits. Tabitha eventually saves the town by sending everyone back in time to an alternate 1955 reality, creating a divergence in the timeline so the comet crisis never happened. However, her victory came at a terrible cost: her friends all became teenagers again and nobody remembers their lives in the present day. And to make it worse, Tabitha can't send everyone back to 2023 since the timeline is now stable, leaving them trapped in the past forever. Thus, even with his revenge foiled, Percival still managed to ruin the gang's lives forever.
Navigation
 verse Villains
| ||
|
Archie & Riverdale Sabrina the Teenage Witch & Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Katy Keene See Also | ||