Riverdale Season 6 Episode 21 Review: Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen: The Stand

The gang triumphantly beats Percival on Riverdale Season 6 Episode 21, “Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen: The Stand,” but it still feels like an hour struggling to fill time, leading to a somewhat anticlimactic end to the show’s strongest villain. 

While the battle to save the town is not over, the victory against Percival results in an hour with too much time spent talking. 

Sometimes I wonder if Riverdale would benefit from shorter seasons, and Season 6 is a perfect example of why. 

After spending so many episodes building to an epic, heartbreaking battle against Percival, the battle itself is, while smartly done, fairly tame. And because of this, I think the season needs fewer episodes to tighten the story. 

A large majority of the episode focuses on the characters talking about what to do instead of taking action and using their powers to fight back. While Tabitha and Jughead use their powers to win the battle, it could have been more of a group effort. 

This season rebuilds the relationships in this friend group, which were broken when the gang returns in Season 5. So the arc with Percival, while meandering at points, works because it successfully reunites the group.

Numerous episodes focusing on the preparation for war allow the group to interact in meaningful ways and lean on each other as disaster strikes, but the final battle itself needs more action to feel satisfactory. 

If the episode where this terrifying battle takes place is going to be mostly dialogue, then at least allow the characters to have conversations beyond strategy.

However, it feels like these emotional conversations will come next week, since they aren’t out of danger yet. 

The aspects of “Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen: The Stand” that focus more on action feel out of place and unnecessary, specifically the attacks on Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Cheryl. 

The main issue with these scenes is that they don’t have enough impact to matter this late in the overall storyline. Plus, all of the characters come out alive in the end. 

If anything, Cheryl’s attack is the only one that impacts the plot because it forces her to kill Jason, undoing the unbalance she set off by resurrecting him. 

Her grief is short-lived, also calling into question the necessity of his return at all because it mostly reads as a way to fill time. 

While “Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen: The Stand” struggles to grasp our attention for the full hour, it makes smart use of the alternate universe. 

I assume that, at some point, Jughead and Tabitha will revisit this to sever the ties between the two universes, but for now the storyline works well. 

Jughead’s trip to Rivervale cleverly utilizes the world that Riverdale spends the start of this season in, reminding us about the different set of rules in that universe. 

I have no idea if this solution came to the writers out of pure convenience or if it was planned early on in writing the season, but either way, I think it solves the Percival problem without undermining his strength too much. 

The storyline equally allows Tabitha to take center stage, proving the usefulness of her powers beyond knowing the future. 

It always felt random to label her as the town’s “Guardian Angel,” but Tabitha has the brains and the strength to save everyone, establishing her as the perfect hero for Riverdale. 

While “Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen: The Stand” resourcefully ties the story back to Rivervale to save the day, the episode feels stuck trying to fill time until the very end. 

Percival’s defeat works well for the larger story, but it feels anticlimactic that his final battle is so brief, and that the real villain is set to arrive so soon after. 

Stray Thoughts

• Cheronica rising! I’ve been waiting for six seasons. 
• A round of applause for Chris O’Shea. He plays a wickedly charming villain. 
• Is Baby Anthony’s childhood gone forever? That’s a bit sad, but also a very Riverdale move. 
• Bingo licking Archie back to health is the funniest part of this episode.  

What did you think of this episode of Riverdale? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Riverdale airs Sundays at 8/7c on The CW. 

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