Admittedly low on most people’s list of questions about the current global pandemic is: What will this mean for Riverdale, the CW’s Archie comics–inspired show about horny, murder-solving teens who are constantly swapping spit? Could Riverdale possibly survive a season where no one kisses? I doubt it. Fortunately, we don’t have to imagine what that would look like, because thanks to KJ Apa, who plays Archie on the show, we’ve gotten a glimpse at the production’s stringent safety procedures around kissing. (It’s mouthwash.)
On Wednesday, Apa posted a video to Instagram of him and co-star Camila Mendes vigorously sloshing around mouthwash, explaining, “our new normal is washing our mouths before every take of a make-out scene…”
Whether mouthwash actually helps prevent the spread of coronavirus remains up for debate. “There seems to be little downside to frequent gargling,” Neal Naito, a former director of public health for the U.S. Navy, wrote in a March New York Times piece. “Whether gargling will actually fight off colds or flu, however, let alone the more serious coronavirus that is currently circulating, remains indeterminate as the current evidence base is limited.”
If nothing else, at least the Riverdale cast gets to enjoy each other’s fresh breath when they French onscreen. And when the show returns in January 2021, we don’t have to ever be confronted with what a non-horny Riverdale would be like.