The CW’s Riverdale is one of the most shocking shows on TV. From the constant murder, to plotlines featuring everything from cults to gang wars, it’s barely recognizable from the Archie Comics source material it’s ostensibly based on. But the most jaw-dropping part of Riverdale isn’t that Archie (KJ Apa) has sex, or a character called The Gargoyle King. It’s that for the past three seasons, the series’ main strength has been keeping its core couples steady.

Part of the DNA of the teen soap is constant break-ups and mixing couples around. It’s what keeps the plots fresh, and the viewers tuning in. You might set up that a couple is “endgame,” but without those bumps in the road, the show would be over far too quickly.

Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) was always meant to be with Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) on Gossip Girl, but a surprise pairing with former mean girl Blair (Leighton Meester) freshened up both character’s arcs. Dawson (James Van Der Beek) may have started in love with Joey (Katie Holmes), but her pairing with Pacey (Joshua Jackson) was the absolute bee’s knees. Even the parents on shows mix things around, and the safest of couples hit rough spots, finding their relationships tested.

Except on Riverdale, and it’s one of the freshest, most exciting things about the show. You could (successfully) argue that with all the murder investigations and cults they don’t have a lot of time for romantic drama. But then, you don’t know teens. If Archie can find time for a quickie in the middle of fighting in an unground boxing club run by a juvenile detention center while trying to exonerate himself for a murder he didn’t commit, anything is possible.

There are three couples in particular who would have broken up on any other show. But Riverdale instead decided to see how they would work staying together, something that has led to even more growth for the characters, and a lesson other dramas might want to take note of.

The first (and easily most popular) couple of the show is Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Jughead (Cole Sprouse), a.k.a. Bughead. Considering the show started with Betty pining after Archie as she does in the comics, fans of the books would have been excused from thinking a sudden romance with Juggie — who is asexual in the books — was a stopgap. It wasn’t, and it’s not. Though they have broken up twice over the course of the series, they inevitably come back together. Credit to Sprouse and Reinhart’s real life chemistry (they’ve been dating for the past few years, and #Sprousehart might even be more popular with fans than #Bughead), as well as the writers’ understanding that this is a couple that needs and respects each other intellectually, as well as physically.

The second is Veronica (Camilla Mendes) and Archie, who have basically been together since the series first episode — though there’s hints things may be on the rocks as soon as this week’s hour, “Manhunter.” Where Bughead represents the brain, Varchie is all heart and passion, often relating better physically and settling fights with sex rather than words. Mind you, there was that whole thing with Archie having sex with his teacher, and they did break up for an episode after the Ginger Stallion said I love you. But in teen years a relationship lasting for a season and a half is essentially marriage.

And the third steady relationship, though they’re extremely new, is Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) and Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan), a.k.a. Choni. The pairing between the two late in Season 2 made fans lose their minds (in a good way), and quickly rocketed them to one of the most popular couples on TV. Credit fan favorite performances, and the passion of a LGBTQ+ fanbase hungry for content. A number of important moments in the life of the couple may (or may not) have happened off-screen, which has led to some frustration with viewers (#ChoniDeservesBetter). Still, there’s something to be said for not showing the same tropes over and over, and instead just letting a couple exist happily together. Choni hasn’t had any of the romantic calamities inherent in other TV couples: they haven’t broken up after one of them said “I love you,” or to “protect” the other one… They just are.

I’ll say it again… Every couple on Riverdale is treated uniquely. The show is far from real life: it’s a mix between the idealized version of Americana and some sort of teen slasher movie, with a billion different other things thrown in for good measure. But what Riverdale gets right that so many other shows get wrong is that every couple is different, and every relationship has different arcs and valleys.

It probably helps that these characters are so iconic, and have been whittled down to their differences over decades, an advantage that most other teen soaps don’t have. But at the same time, Bughead is not Varchie is not Choni.

Bughead is characterized by two equals who are comfortable with each other. Some fans were frustrated slash concerned when Jughead spiraled out of control last episode (“The Great Escape”), and Betty headed off to save Archie from jail instead of helping him out. An alternate way of looking at that is that Betty trusts Jughead. They’ve been through so much, she knows that even if he strays from the path of sanity, they’ll be there for each other. She might be wrong, mind you, but at least she believes he knows what he’s doing, and he believes the same. It’s a relationship most adults would be envious of, or at least should strive for.

Varchie is a relationship of passion, and a lot of that comes from Archie. Not that Veronica isn’t, but she’s the rudder that keeps the Varchie ‘ship headed in the right direction. Archie is focused solely on whatever is in front of him: whether that’s Veronica; or starting a shirtless boy gang; or a milkshake. He’s the proverbial dog chasing cars, if Veronica was a car, turned around and told him what to do now that he’s got her. That’s probably more than enough vehicle metaphors for one paragraph, but that passionate, fiery relationship is again something that the best of couples can only hope for.

Choni has a bit of both things: fire courtesy Cheryl; steadiness via Toni. And that’s unique in the landscape of TV’s many LGBTQ+ relationships… They’re not characterized by hatred towards their pairing (though part of that kicked off them coming together), or have to fight for what’s theirs (again, past the initial point they got together). After that initial coming out arc, they were accepted. They are Choni, everyone knows it, and everyone loves it. Should they get big relationship moments and actual arcs? Surely. But there’s something special about a couple like this just being part of the tapestry of the show, as well.

I’d be remiss not to mention the parents of Riverdale, particularly because they emphasize the point of this whole thing nicely. A group of former teen and slightly older than teen stars, most of them did their time in the soap opera trenches. And their romantic entanglements — old relationships that were ignored, only to rear their heads decades later — have fueled most of the drama of the show. In that, showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and company have neatly flipped the paradigm of the teen soap. While the parents are usually the voices of reason, steering their children in the right direction; on Riverdale it’s the other way around.

Look, there’s every chance these couples will break up again, or round about Season 4 things will start mixing around. But every episode I watch, expecting a breakup, and it never happens. Those relationships — and the show — are stronger for it.

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

Where to stream Riverdale