Fangs Fogarty, the leader of the Southside Serpents in Li’l Archie comics, made his first appearance in tonight’s episode of Riverdale, titled “The Town That Dreaded Sundown.”
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You can get your first look at the character, played by actor Drew Ray Tanner, above.
In the comics, Fangs Fogarty is the leader of the Serpents and Archie’s principal antagonist/bully. In some ways, he is a Li’l Archie foil for Reggie Mantle, a leather jacket-wearing bully from the Archie Comics who on TV is instead one of Archie’s football teammates and a member of his “Red Circle” group of teen vigilantes.
Tonight’s episode sees Fogarty going after Archie Andrews as a rite of initiation into the Serpents after Archie’s Red Circle video goes viral and he is seen as a spoiled, rich “north sider” lashing out against a perceived Southside threat in the form of the Black Hood.
Fogarty’s girlfriend in the comics is Penny Peabody, with whom he has a relationship not unlike the one betwen Moose and Midge in the comics (it’s fairly simplistic, but he’ll knock the head of anyone who he thinks is competition for her).
On Riverdale, Penny is about twenty years older than Fogarty, and acts as a lawyer and advisor to the Serpents. She was spotted earlier this season, helping Jughead formulate a strategy to get FP out of jail.
There is no indication yet whether Penny might have ties to Fogarty, although she would seem more likely to be his mother than a girlfriend given the age difference. In that case, one might wonder whether she is in a relationship with Fogarty’s dad, and whether that character could be a truer interpretation of the Fangs fans expected as the head of the gang.
Riverdale airs on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
