quad goals?

‘Riverdale’s’ queer relationship twist was nearly “too hot for TV”—but it left some viewers cold

By · Updated on January 26, 2024
Image Credit: ‘Riverdale,’ The CW

Last week, teen drama Riverdale ended its seven-season, 137-episode run in the most Riverdale way possible: With the reveal that it’s four main characters—Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead—spent their Senior Year in a polyamorous relationship, a.k.a. a “quad.”

Aside from being the most ridiculous and horny grace note for this ridiculous and horny series to end on, it also gave the show’s writers an easy out. Since Riverdale began, fans have been pulling for their favorite couples to end up together—so if they all end up together, then everyone‘s happy, right? Not quite.

Since airing, reactions to the finale have been as all over place as… well, an episode of Riverdale!

Many lambasted the quad reveal as a cheap thrill, while others were delighted the campy show managed to gag us one last time. And some were just miffed they didn’t let Archie and Jughead hook up, too (a move the show’s producer said would’ve been “too hot for TV”).

But no one’s more upset about the four-way love-fest than the very people the show was trying to represent: the polyamory community.

Over the weekend, TMZ reported that polyamorists were p*ssed about the way Riverdale handled the whole thing. That comes direct from Brett Chamberlin, the Executive Director of OPEN, a.k.a. the Organization for Polyamory and Ethical Non-Monogomy. (As far as acronym names go, that once’s pretty brilliant, we’ve gotta say!)

Now, if you’ve never heard of OPEN, that’s okay; they’re pretty new. The nonprofit group was formed in 2022, dedicating itself to “normalizing and empowering non-monogamous individuals, relationships, and communities.”

So, one of their first public orders of business was to call out Riverdale for not doing polyamory justice. While Chamberlin says it may be “tempting to celebrate every portrayal of non-monogamy in popular media,” OPEN wants to make sure its only uplifting media that depicts polyamory responsibly.

And apparently that Archie-Betty-Veronica-Jughead quad was not it.

Chamberlin continues: “It’s frustrating that Riverdale used its characters’ non-monogamous relationship as a ‘shocking twist’ rather than engaging with an authentic portrayal of non-monogamy as simply being part of people’s identities.”

Fair enough! The quad’s airtime amounted to little more than a montage, and it doesn’t appear to have had a lasting impact on any of the characters who—as we find out through the episode-length epilogue—all end up going their separate ways and in (seemingly) monogamous relationships.

“We didn’t see or hear anything about why these characters practice non-monogamy,” the director of OPEN adds, “what it means for them, the substance of their relationship agreements and communication practices, or any of the other underlying motivations and work that makes relationships of any type function.”

Related:

From tickle fetishes to shirtless daddies, here are 10 times ‘Riverdale’ got super gay

Ahead of its season finale, let’s celebrate ‘Riverdale,’ a show that’s always been by and for the gays.

While the poly “representation” on Riverdale does, indeed, leave something to be desired, we just have one question for Chamberlin and the good people of OPEN: Have you ever seen an episode of Riverdale before?

This was a show with time travel, super-powered teens, dolls haunted by the spirits of siblings eaten in the womb, cults that harvested organs, and multiple masked serial killers in one town. Riverdale‘s simply never been a show that played by the rules of reality, or could be considered “accurate” or “authentic,” so we’re not sure why anyone would expect it to start doing that in its finale episode.

At any rate, the quad and the pushback it’s received by polaymorists and more has continued to inspire some pretty funny reactions online. Here are just a few more of our favorites:

Related:

Love, uncoupled: 5 great films—and one TV series—about unconventional queer romances

This Valentine’s Day, look beyond the couple with this list of quote-unquote “nontraditional” queer love stories.

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