Ever since it was announced that Sabrina Spellman was making her Riverdale debut in the show's Season 6 event series, fans have eagerly awaited the arrival of the witchy teen. What they may not have realized is that they were getting a few other witches for the price of one — including Cheryl's ancestor, Abigail Blossom. However, as revealed in Riverdale's "The Witching Hour(s)," it seems we may have met Abigail quite a while ago — because Abigail, as it turns out, is just Cheryl.
At least in Rivervale, anyway. It's not clear yet how much of Rivervale will overlap with real world of Riverdale, but for now, it seems that the Rivervale version of Cheryl is likely not the exact same Cheryl who coined herself the HBIC of the River Vixens.
"The Witching Hour(s)" begins with Cheryl telling Nana Blossom a story of two different Blossom women (both played Cheryl's by Madelaine Petsch) as they await the arrival of Sabrina, who will help the women perform a spell. The first woman, Abigail, is a schoolteacher from the 1800s, who falls in love with a witch named Tomisina (played by Vanessa Morgan, who portrays Toni on Riverdale). When a man named Fen Fogarty arrives, claiming Abigail owes him her hand in marriage, Abigail agrees out of obligation to her deceased brother — only to she discover the man she's betrothed to is both an evil warlock and a serial killer. On the night of their wedding, she slays him with an axe, and ultimately kills him — but not before he murders poor Tomisina and curses Abigail to be unloved and alone forever. Abigail ends up living out her days in Thornhill, all alone.
The second woman is Poppyseed Blossom, a '50s woman who is seemingly a descendent of Abigail, and ancestor of Cheryl's. Poppyseed hosts salons for the other women in town, and supplies them with herbal remedies for their problems. (And the occasional copy of the Kama Sutra.) Eventually, the husbands of these women grow angry at Poppyseed for stepping on their manhood, and throw her in prison for communism. While she manages to leave her prison cell after she assists her friend in child birth, she's also sent to Thornhill to live out her days under house arrest.
It would make sense why Cheryl is sharing this history with Nana Blossom, given that, in Rivervale, Cheryl is a witch with a capitol W who would want to remind Nana of their magical family legacy. However, it's only revealed after Sabrina's arrival the real reason why Cheryl is sharing these stories. Cheryl is actually Abigail — who is also Poppyseed. Abigail became immortal after Fen cursed her. Sabrina is now teaming up with Cheryl to transfer Abigail's soul into a dying Nana Blossom's body, so that Abigail may finally find peace with Tomisina.
So, just in case you didn't get that: By the end of this Rivervale tale, Nana Blossom is in Cheryl/Abigail/Poppyseed's body, and Cheryl/Abigail/Poppyseed is more or less dead.
Interestingly, while Cheryl's body is still in the Rivervale universe, this episode marks the fourth "death" of a major character: In addition to Cheryl's passing on, Archie was sacrificed to the maiden of maple syrup, Toni became La Llorona, and Reggie was dragged to hell by Lucifer himself. Exactly what this means, and if it will be relevant to the rest of Season 6 outside of this event series, is still unclear — however, it does suggest that anything is possible in the town of Rivervale, from spirit transference to immortality.
One other thing that may be important to note? It seems that Abigail's story in the Rivervale universe doesn't quite line up with the one we heard in the original Riverdale timeline. In that version of things, Abigail was forced out of her home and burned at the stake for being a witch, leading Cheryl to accidentally curse the town at the end of Season 5 with Abigail's final words of vengeance. In this version, it seems Abigail was simply confined to Thornhill to live out her days alone.
Is it possible we just didn't see her being burned at the stake, and then drag her body back to Thornhill while the other townspeople were none the wiser? Totally. However, it may also mean that there's a few major tweaks to the Rivervale timeline that separates it from the town we've seen for the last five seasons.
Given that Abigail's curse kicked off the supernatural element introduced in Riverdale, this might not be the last we see of this witch. Could she be the whole reason Rivervale exists in the first place — or is she just another fun story to add to this ultimately inconsequential event series canon? We'll have to wait until the final episode of Rivervale drops to find out for sure.