The Pretty Poisons From 'Riverdale' Are Actually A Lot Like The Vixens, But With An Edge

It's been a few weeks since Riverdale was on the air, so here's where we left off. After Toni (Vanessa Morgan) and Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) were kicked out of the Southside Serpents in "Bizarrodale," they formed a new Riverdale gang called The Pretty Poisons. Unlike the Serpents, the Poisons aren't in the Archie comics the show is based on, so we don't know much about them yet. They do, however, join a host of cliques in the town, including the Vixens, the Midnight Club, the Ghoulies, and the Gargoyle Gang. This show sure loves its little groups!

As a quick recap, Jughead (Cole Sprouse) ousted Cheryl and Toni from the Serpents after they burglarized people's homes for fun. As a legacy member who sees the Serpents as her true family, Toni was devastated, and Cheryl felt horrible about the role she'd played in getting them kicked out. In order to cheer Toni up, Cheryl recruited some tough-looking girls to join a new gang. "You said you were missing having the Serpents as a family, so I found some other girls who were looking for support, or community, or just good old-fashioned fisticuffs," she explained to Toni. "And I thought maybe we could start a new family."

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Vanessa Morgan described the Pretty Poisons as "strong girls who needed that support system and that family." She went on to say that "Toni's excited about having something that she's in charge of for once." The Riverdale star also gave fans a glimpse of the new Pretty Poisons jackets, which feature a pink skull and crossbones inside a lipstick mark. As Cheryl describes in Episode 12, they're "Pretty by day, poison by night."

And as showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa hinted in the below tweet, the Pretty Poisons are going to make their official debut in Wednesday's episode, "Requiem for a Welterweight." The promo features a quick glimpse of Cheryl teaching her new recruits archery, and if we know anything about Blossom, it's that she never misses. With her as their teacher, the Poisons will be just as unstoppable in no time.

And although the Pretty Poisons may not be in the comic books, the Archie Comics Twitter account pointed out that the gang's get-up quite closely resembles the Vixens. Indeed, Cheryl and Toni's new family is certainly fond of the Rosie the Riveter aesthetic: victory rolls, hair bandanas, red lipstick, and of course, leather is a must. In that sense, the Poisons are a marriage of the Serpents' tough attitude paired with the Vixens' ethos of championing women.

That said, it doesn't seem like the fans are that into it — there's an entire Reddit thread entitled "Pretty Poisons gang is truly an abomination." But perhaps they'll change their tune once they see what the Riverdale writers have in store. And whatever ends up happening with the Pretty Poisons in the remainder of Season 3, the Serpents had better watch their backs, because Toni and Cheryl aren't ones to back down.