Do Aki, Audrey, and Max get together in Gossip Girl (2021) season 1?

Gossip Girl (2021) played into many a teen drama trope that left viewers gasping, enraged, frustrated, or swooning throughout its first season run.

We’re talking love triangles, backstabbing friends, terrible parents, and they even threw in an inappropriate student-teacher relationship (a trope that needs to burn in hellfire).

But one unexpected dynamic they explored in season one is that of the growing connection between Aki, Audrey, and Max. A+A would never have had the addition of M in the freshman show’s predecessor.

The OG Gossip Girl scandalized its market audience and their parents as much as its TV-14 rating could allow. However, threesomes were alluded to and talked about, not shown, in any real detail, and certainly not discussed as anything but a sexual flight of fancy.

The concept of throuples or triads wouldn’t have necessarily been out of place in the original series, but they wouldn’t have been given any meaningful space to develop or be explored either.

Gossip Girl (2021) turned what could have been simply a midseason finale bit of steam and potential love triangle fall out into a storyline about loving two people at once.

Max is the group’s hedonist. He spends most of the season enjoying drugs, drinks, and people. He’s fiercely loyal to his loved ones and often doles out advice drolly. Romantic love wasn’t on his radar until sleeping with his best friends, Aki and Audrey, turned into wanting to be in a relationship with the both of them.

However, his fear over being the odd person out if the three were to become a triad isn’t unfounded. Aki and Audrey have been together for years. They’re so cemented as a couple that the idea of them not being together seems unfathomable to everyone around them.

As such, when the two finally realize that they want to pursue Max romantically together, he doesn’t immediately jump at the idea despite his longing to be with the couple.

Do Aki, Audrey, and Max become a triad in Gossip Girl (2021) season 1?

After some trials and errors, Aki and Audrey do manage to convince Max to give a relationship with them a chance. They ease his fear by telling him that if their triad doesn’t work out then the break-up will be for all three of them. It won’t just be the two parting ways with him, they plan to part ways with each other.

It’s quite the grand gesture with potentially devastating consequences considering the time, energy, and love Aki and Audrey have put into their relationship with each other. But Audrey did admit that her relationship with Aki no longer works without Max included, and Aki felt the same. Their love for one another has grown to encompass their love for Max.

While they originally told him that experimenting with adding a third to their relationship only made them realize all they needed was each other, that turned out not to be true. Aki and Audrey didn’t want a third person to sleep with, what they wanted was Max as their boyfriend.

Gossip Girl (2021) season 1 ends with the three of them in a relationship. Max did warn Aki and Audrey that he’s never been in a relationship and doesn’t know how he’ll be in one. However, he wants this just as much as they do, and he wants to figure out how their triad works together.

Season 2 is likely to expand on what it means for three people to be in a relationship and how that works for them both privately and publicly.

Gossip Girl (2021) season 1 is available to stream now on HBO Max.