Riverdale: Things Take a Dark Turn in “In a Jugular Vein” Preview

The final season of Riverdale may see the familiar characters of The CW series in the 1950s, but it’s far from an idyllic setting and from the looks of it, things are about to get even more twisted. The CW has released a preview for “Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Two: Tales in a Jugular Vein”, the fifth episode of Riverdale’s seventh and final season. The episode, which is set to air on Wednesday, April 26th looks like it will have a combination of sex and death in what Veronica declares to be “grotesque” in the preview, which you can check out for yourself below.

The official synopsis for the episode suggests that Principal Featherhead will be a significant antagonist this episode as well, taking issue with comic books and their influence. You can also check out the episode synopsis below.

CORRUPTING THE YOUTH OF AMERICA — Principal Featherhead (guest star William MacDonald) takes aim at the negative influence comic books have over kids, just as Jughead (Cole Sprouse) is tasked by Pep Comics to write four tales for a new issue.  KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Cole Sprouse and Madelaine Petsch also star.  Jeff Woolnough directed the episode written by Greg Murray.

Is Principal Featherhead the villain of Riverdale’s final season?

While Principal Featherhead is definitely an antagonist, he’s not exactly the overall villain of the season. Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa previously told ComicBook.com that society itself is a major villain — but Featherhead and the school’s child psychologist are certainly symbolic of that.

“Usually, when we talk about the season, when we’re planning the season, we usually have a big bad or a villain that all of the kids are at some point or other engaging with and fighting against. And in season six, it was Percival Pickens who was an intergalactic time-traveling sorcerer. But when we were talking about this season, we really felt like the villain or what they were fighting against society was the 1950s,” he said. “And that the conflict that all of our characters to some extent or other were caught up in was, how do we live honest, authentic lives that are individualistic and that allows us to be exactly who we want to be in a society that represses that and that demands conformity and that punishes anyone who falls outside of the carefully constructed mores of the 1950s, the institutions of the ’50s celebrated, which is to say via traditional American family, traditional American gender roles, traditional … a social order that has since been exploded and broken down and rebuilt time and time again since that time? So, it felt like the villain, if there was one, were the 1950s. And by the way, we have characters that symbolize that… but the big conflict was with society at large and them sort of bristling against that.”

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW. “Tales in a Jugular Vein” debuts April 26th.