Riverdale Queer Watch season 5 episode 9: We need to talk about Kevin

Welcome to Riverdale Queer Watch, where we look out for the LGBTQ+ folks on The CW’s Riverdale each week. Whether it’s a snuff film or prom night, we’re watching.

This week’s episode of Riverdale followed up on the tumultuous events of Cheryl’s very weird key party last week.

After Kevin and Fangs’ sudden break-up, and a resulting fight with Toni, Cheryl saw to setting things right with the once engaged couple in a pseudo therapy session, but it wasn’t so simple.

With much to discuss after Riverdale‘s latest, let’s dive right in.

Shame and fear

As I discussed last week, the show has long portrayed Kevin as little more than a Stereotypical Gay, obsessed with the need to cruise the woods for as long as we’ve known him without any exploration as to why.

This week, after five seasons, we finally got more depth and insight into Kevin’s sexuality and behavior. After a failed faux-counseling session with Cheryl, during which Fangs called Kevin out for seemingly being ashamed of being gay, Kevin went to the El Royale steam room and came onto a stranger.

While this would be a risky move for any gay man in any small town, the stranger seemed to be flirting back at first, until he turned on Kevin and beat him up, an unfortunately common occurrence for young queer people in small towns lacking safe LGBTQ+ spaces.

But it was also the first time we’d seen outright violent consequences for Kevin’s behavior, leading him to confess to his dad that he did in fact feel ashamed of himself due to his absentee military mother’s homophobia.

An issue of queer discourse

If you’re a queer about town with a Twitter account, you’ve likely been privy to many annoying conversations over the past year about what queer stories should be told and by whom.

A lot of LGBTQ+ people and writers want to move past any sort of stories depicting queer suffering, coming out, trauma, etc., because for so long, that’s all that’s been told. It’s a fair argument.

I attended a queer writers’ workshop last fall in which one of the faculty said, “What if being queer were the best thing ever?” We certainly deserve more stories centered on this concept.

On the other hand, for many, many, many LGBTQ+ youth and adults, that simply isn’t reality. Marriage equality didn’t end queer oppression overnight.

I don’t know how to feel about Kevin’s storyline this season. It doesn’t feel inauthentic. It fact, it hits very close to home in the ways that many queer people handle their trauma.

Would I prefer to see Kevin’s queerness centered in a happier storyline? Like Riverdale actually following through on his and Fangs’ relationship? Sure, but on the same token, I at least appreciate that the show is finally exploring Kevin’s identity after all this time.

Ultimately, regardless of which route the Riverdale writers had decided to take, perhaps it’s too little too late.

What did you think about Kevin’s big confession this episode? Tell us in the comments below!