It’s only a matter of time before one classic Archie comics trope comes to Riverdale.

If you’re a fan of the Archie comics, you know that the love triangle involving Archie, Veronica and Betty (sometimes becoming a love square with Reggie) is essential to the series. Even if you’re not a fan, you’ve probably noticed that a significant chunk of the Archie comics covers depict some representative illustration of Archie being torn between the two women.

Before Riverdale began, fans assumed that the same trope would be central to show. Since Riverdale is an adaptation of the Archie comics, albeit a loose one, it just kind of made sense. However, in an interesting turn of events, the cast and creator got out ahead of that immediately, saying that they had no plans to pit Veronica and Betty against each other in a love triangle with Archie.

So far, they’ve pretty much kept to their word. Even though essentially every girl/woman who’s graced the frames of Riverdale has been hot for Archie in one way or another, they’ve somehow refrained from putting him into a love triangle scenario.

They have come close a couple times. One of the times that they’ve edged nearest to the trope was at the beginning of the series, when Veronica and Archie were subject to Cheryl’s seven minutes of wrath while Betty had longstanding feelings for Archie. Betty was, understandably, hurt for a few episodes, though she salvaged her friendship with both Archie and Veronica amazingly quickly.

The other time that Riverdale fans thought they could see the legendary love triangle on the horizon was when Archie and Betty kissed in the heat of their Black Hood blitz. Varchie and Bughead were both temporarily off when it happened, but in most circumstances, that kind of thing would warrant some serious high school warfare. On Riverdale, however, all it took was a hot tub kiss between Veronica and Jughead to smooth things over.

Yes, Riverdale has done a good job (almost too good, in fact) of steering clear of any love triangles so far, but can they keep it up forever? Almost definitely not.

There are two reasons why I think that. The first, is that at this point, there have simply been too many relationships and hook ups on Riverdale for there not to be a catastrophic intersection at some point.

The second reason is, although it’s really easy to forget some times, these kids are in high school! Hormones are raging, everybody is desperate to be accepted. It’s actually kind of unrealistic for there to not be a love triangle. Unrequited love and wanting what you can’t have is a fairly inevitable part of growing up. On top of that, not everybody nobody can just shrug it off when their best friend kisses the person they love.

Ironically, it probably actually won’t be the classic love triangle between Archie, Betty, and Veronica that we see on Riverdale. Something like that would just cause too much turmoil between the lead four characters of the show. They’d have a difficult time recovering from that kind of shake up.

However, there are plenty of other sets of lovers that are on a collision course. The best candidates right now are probably Archie, Veronica and Reggie, with a dash of Josie to make things interesting. Reggie’s been really hurt by Veronica, and now that things are over between them it looks like Veronica is going to be spending a lot of time with Archie again.

Archie and Josie are cute and happy right now, but we know that Josie will be starring in the Katy Keene spinoff, so it’s pretty obvious that they’re destined to fail, sooner or later. Alternatively, Josie has Sweet Pea to consider, as well! He’s made his intentions with her pretty clear.

I could definitely see a version of Riverdale where Archie and Reggie are vying for Veronica’s affections. That love triangle is almost as integral to the comics as the Archie, Betty, Veronica dynamic. Archie and Reggie offer very different things to Veronica, so I could see her struggling to figure out what she really needs, whether she ends up choosing either of them or not.

Then there’s Cheryl and Toni, another Riverdale power couple. They’re strong after the Heathers episode, but Cheryl is getting in deeper with the Farm and she’s also proven herself to be volatile in the past. Either Peaches or someone at the Farm could take advantage of any future cracks within Choni and weasel their way in.

Speaking of the Farm, what about Alice, FP, Gladys and Edgar? How great would it be if the parents, who act way more like kids than the actual teenagers on Riverdale, were the ones to get themselves into a love triangle?

There are just too many feelings flying around Riverdale for a love triangle to not evolve at some point. Despite what the cast and creator have said, I just don’t see any way they can avoid it.

When it inevitably does come to pass, we just hope they stick true to their initial word and not seriously pit people against each other. Especially not Betty and Veronica!