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.
On August 23, we bid our final farewell to Riverdale, the CW series that dared to make red-headed comic-book icon Archie Andrews really f*cking hot and wound up becoming a (accidental?) camp masterpiece in the process.
Yes, if you haven’t kept up with Riverdale that means you—to paraphrase Archie himself—haven’t known the triumphs and defeats, the epic highs and lows of one of the most absurd teen dramas to ever grace our TV screens.
What started out as a contemporary spin on the archetypes of the classic Archie Comics with a Twin Peaks-ian murder mystery twist has spun out to encompass basically every genre imaginable, musical episodes, superpowers, organ-harvesting cults, apocalypses (yes, plural), and plenty of eye candy for thirsty fans to ogle.
And while Riverdale has gone a long way to queer the Archie-verse, it’s also been knocked for frequently sidelining its LGBTQ+ characters and relationships over the years. Still, you’d be hard-pressed to find a mainstream network TV show with as many different gay relationships and overtly homoerotic moments as this one, and for that we’re forever grateful.
In honor of Riverdale‘s series finale, let’s take a look back at some of its gayest moments from its incredible seven season, 137 episodes run.
Riverdale‘s First Gay Kiss
Despite their 80-plus year history, the Archie Comics didn’t introduce their first gay character, Kevin Keller, until 2010. Thankfully, The CW series didn’t waste any time, making Kevin (played by Casey Cott) a key supporting player from the jump, the reliable gay bestie to Betty, Veronica, and the gang. It was in Riverdale‘s fourth episode that Kevin got his first gay kiss—surprisingly, with bad-boy Serpent gang member Joaquin (Rob Raco)—but there would be many more to come.
Archie’s Abs
Since its debut in 2017, Riverdale‘s not-so-secret weapon has been KJ Apa’s abs, which received prominent placement in early promotional materials for the series and pretty much every single episode thereafter. The role of Archie was the New Zealand-born Apa’s first introduction to wider audiences, and—almost immediately—a star was born as girls and gays thirsted over the muscular actor who frequently showed off his bod on social media as much as he did on the show.
Cruising With Kevin
Cott was just a recurring guest star in the first season, but after the show became a ratings hit and proper cultural phenomenon, an expanded second season allowed him to officially join the main cast with storylines of his own. The first taste of this was the episode “The Watcher in the Woods,” which found a discreet Kevin cruising in the woods (in lieu of hookup apps like “Grind’em”—get it?), and stumbling on a serial killer in the process. American Horror Story and Cruising have nothing on the salacious sexcapades of Kevin Keller!
Choni 4 Life
Season two also introduced us to Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan), a Serpent gang member and Riverdale‘s resident bisexual who initially tempted Jughead (Cole Sprouse). But she soon crossed paths with Queen B*tch Cheryl Blossom and the show was never the same, with “Choni” becoming the show’s most fervent ‘ship. While Choni’s been on and off over the years, the final season brings them back together and navigating a queer relationship in the ’50s (because, yes, the show sent all its characters back in time—don’t ask!)
Hot Daddies Galore
While rising stars like Apa and Charles Melton have gotten a lot of thirsty attention online, we also have to shout out Riverdale for its spot-on hot dad casting, from late, great teen idol Luke Perry to Skeet Ulrich, who famously played a (probably queer) teen in Scream. But the sexy Gen X-er representation didn’t stop there: Eventually we learned that Kevin’s own dad, Sheriff Keller (Canadian actor Martin Cummins), was secretly ripped, taking his shirt off in a memorable episode and making us all drool over this total silver fox.
Singling Out The Singlets
Speaking of memorable episodes, we’ll never forget “The Wrestler,” which saw Archie join the wrestling team in order to impress Hiram (Mark Consuelos), the hard-ass father of his girlfriend Veronica (Camila Mendes). It featured plenty of leering scenes of stuffed singlets, but its standout moment was the climactic and highly homoerotic wrestling match between Archie and Hiram. Amusingly, it was directed by queer indie auteur Gregg Araki, whose films are known for being sexually charge and putting the focus on hot male bodies.
Half-Brother On Fake-Brother Romance
“The Wrestler” also introduced us to a subplot where Betty Cooper’s (Lili Reinhart) long-lost “brother” Chic (Hart Denton) was a cam model. Only, he wasn’t her brother, just a psychopath imposter taking advantage of the Coopers’ kindness. Later on, we meet Betty’s actual brother Charles (Wyatt Nash), only he’s the illegitimate son of her mom and boyfriend Jughead’s father, which makes things very complicated. Oh, and did we mention Charles was a serial killer, too? And that he and Chic were in a relationship all along? Bless this wild show!
Archie Gets Hosed
In its quest to riff on every film genre that’s ever existed, Riverdale eventually sent Archie to jail, taking notes from lurid, exploitation-heavy prison dramas. You better believe every one of his fellow inmates was as jacked as the last, and storylines like the underground fight club found plenty of excuses for the guys to go shirtless. But quite possibly one of the series’ most homoerotic shots ever occurs when a naked Archie is soaked by the big, gushing hose of an overeager prison guard. Come on, Riverdale, you knew what you were doing.
Riverdale Sings!
Like Buffy The Vampire Slayer before it, Riverdale understood a fundamental truth about TV: Musical episodes are everything! A seasonal tradition, the series leaned into the camp factor with its songbook choices, building entire episodes numbers from lesser-revered musical adaptations of popular movies like Carrie, Heathers, and American Psycho. Of course, Kevin (as well as Broadway veteran Casey Cott, who has a great voice) got a special showcase in the gayest musical episode ever, a dragged up tribute to Hedwig And The Angry Inch.
The Tickle Fetish Subplot To End All Subplots
And who could forget? In one of the series’ most bizarre subplots, Kevin stumbles into the world of fetish and begins to make and sell softcore videos of himself getting tickled. But he really starts to turn a profit when he enlists his then-boyfriend Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner), Toni, and Reggie to join in the fun, even starting their own illicit website. That the drama would devise an entire storyline around a specific fetish—seemingly inspired by the competitive men’s tickling doc Tickled—only proves that, no much the show might’ve sidelined its queer characters over the seasons, Riverdale always was a show by and for the gays.
Of course, this is hardly a complete list of all the gay sh*t that went down on Riverdale. If you’ve been tuning in these past seven season and are sad to see it go, share your favorite LGBTQ+ characters, storylines, and homoerotic moments in the comments below.
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