The problems with Riverdale’s depiction of gay characters

Cheryl’s Coming-Out Storyline

Between seasons it was repeatedly hinted at that iconic Queen-B Cheryl Blossom would be getting a female love interest. The rumors were met with immense fan excitement, and surely enough the development occurred roughly half-way through the season when Cheryl began dating Toni Topaz.

Before this occurred, however, the writers chose to lay the groundwork for Cheryl’s homosexuality by having her become disturbingly obsessed with her best friend Josie McCoy. We are not talking about a little bit of jealousy when Josie shows interest in a boy – no, Cheryl sends Josie a threatening note and a bloody pig heart along with it. She then puts the idea in Josie’s head that the boy she recently began liking (Chuck Clayton) was behind the disgusting display, causing Josie to break things off with him. This entire ridiculous subplot takes place during the show’s Halloween episode and is promptly ignored for almost half a season.

Cheryl’s coming-out moment to Toni isn’t even about her character – it is a promotion for Riverdale producer Greg Berlanti’s film Love, Simon (a film that I absolutely love, for the record.) See, Cheryl comes out after watching the (at the time) newly released film about a gay teen. The entire storyline in the episode is basically one long advertisement for that movie.

It’s not exactly the kind of coming-out that a main character in a TV series deserves, but at the time it did at least appear to be the beginning of an exciting new pairing between Cheryl and Toni – passionately referred to by fans as Choni.