Riverdale Should Have Devoted More Time To Build Up Its Quad Plot Twist

Riverdale beating the odds and expectations by delivering a quad relationship between Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead was certainly an unexpected change of pace, even by Riverdale’s standards. But, the series finale, “Goodbye, Riverdale,” did not offer enough time to explain the ins and outs of what went into the relationship.

In a quick description, Betty tells Reggie what was going on between the four of them, starting with double dates and ending with how each of them remembered what it was like to be with the other, which resulted in the four of them being together as a quad.

It certainly avoids the classic love triangle trope and prevents Archie from having to make the traditional choice between Betty and Veronica. But, sadly, there is not quite enough to work off of to ground this relationship.

How did they conclude to enter a relationship like this? Did they discuss boundaries? Betty does not reveal anything about the personal discussions any of them may have had about these relationships.

For relationships such as Jughead and Veronica, Betty and Archie, and Veronica and Betty, the series can rely on the final season to back things up.

Veronica and Jughead had tried their hand at dating twice in season seven, showing their connection grew from sharing a love for the same movies. Archie and Betty portray romantic interest in each other during season seven. It also did not hurt that they spent season six together as a couple, which ended in their engagement. As for Betty and Veronica, they also had a few episodes in the seventh season showing their potential mutual romantic interest.

But, the other relationships do not have enough background to justify how they fell back into things.

Betty and Jughead had not been a couple since they graduated from high school the first time. Their friendship had eventually unraveled, leaving them tethered by mutual friends and an environment rather than a strong connection between the duo.

Jughead and Betty spent almost no time together in season seven either and given how things had ended up so badly between them as young adults, Betty’s explanation that she and Jughead remembered what it was like to be together before would have been better backed up had season seven invested in their relationship, even as being just friends.

Meanwhile, although Riverdale hyped back up the love triangle at the beginning of the season for Veronica and Archie, things implode between them in season seven fairly quickly. They do not share an emotional connection, and their story is dropped before it can truly begin.

In the original timeline, Archie and Veronica’s romance came to an end when they realized their views for the future were different. Although their circumstances of ending up in the 1950s is a drastically different approach to their future than they originally anticipated, and Veronica had not quite fully gotten over Archie at the end of season six, it was not clear what drew Archie back to Veronica.

Riverdale does not even bother showing a romantic or sexual connection between Jughead and Archie. The show skips it entirely, leaving it up in the air if they had something more between them in the quad relationship as well.

While Riverdale certainly made an outside-the-box decision to allow the four main characters to be in a quad instead of choosing individual couples, the final season did not offer enough build-up between every combination of characters or let the audience in on the eventual decision to be a quad to allow the decision to feel organic.