If you got a creepy more-than-siblings vibe between Jason (Trevor Stines) and Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) from the Riverdale pilot, you're not alone. The "twincest" jokes quickly became popular on Twitter among the CW show's fans — and now, Petsch herself is addressing the rumor.
In a Facebook Live interview with Entertainment Tonight, Petsch suggested that the "twincest" jokes have gotten out of hand.
"We [in the Riverdale cast] thought [the term twincest] was funny in the beginning, but now actually people genuinely believe it," Petsch told ET. "We never were incestuous, and it's honestly like a joke that we played around with on set that probably was taken a little bit too far."
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The scenes of the twins holding hands by the river are likely to blame for the discussion, but in reality, the Blossoms were just close because of their twin bond. Plus, Jason really was in love with Polly (Tiera Skovbye) — the pair were planning to get married.
"My way of explaining it is just that Cheryl doesn’t feel love from her parents. Her parents have never really ever given her any kind of coddling," Petsch told ET. "Jason had to take care of her and he took her under his wing so she got this like sense of a dad, brother, mom all in one human and he was the one person who unconditionally loved her."
Still, Riverdale executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa also told ET that he was inspired by a book about twincest in his portrayal of the onscreen twins. "It's interesting, because growing up, one of the books I loved was obviously Flowers in the Attic," Aguirre-Sacasa said to ET. "That's how I always thought of the Blossoms."
But Petsch, for her part, has been denying the twincest rumors for months now. In February, she told TV Line that Cheryl is "not in love with [Jason] in an intimate and sexual way."