Nothing scandalous going on here.
During the Dec. 7 episode of Riverdale, rebranded as Rivervale for the five-episode special event, Madelaine Petsch and Lili Reinhart shared a special kiss while playing 1950s residents of the Archieverse town. While Petsch was portraying Poppy Blossom, an ancestor of her character, Cheryl Blossom, she clarified to E! News that Reinhart’s new character in the flashback scene, named Bitsy, wasn’t related to Betty Cooper at all.
“I definitely want to set the record straight,” she exclusively shared. “In this lineage, we are not cousins…Fans seemed very concerned that it’s two cousins kissing. It is not that. She plays a different character completely, she plays a Smith.”
For those who need a Riverdale refresher, Betty and Cheryl are indeed related, as their respective great-grandfathers were brothers. So where does Poppy Blossom fall in the family tree? According to Petsch, “That was way before that ever happened.”
We can’t blame the fans for assuming it was a kissing cousins scenario, since Riverdale has already danced around the incest line in prior episodes. We’re, of course, referring to Polly Cooper and Jason Blossom, who were unknowingly third cousins when they got together.