In case fans forgot, Pretty Little Liars: Summer School was more than happy to remind Us that the show exists in the same universe as Riverdale.
During the Thursday, June 6, episode of Max’s PLL iteration, Greg (Elias Kacavas) attended a Pride celebration at the pool, where he told Faran (Zaria) why it was important for him to come support. (Which came after Greg took part in a homophobic sketch at the local church’s spooky Redemption House event.)
“I’m an ally. My cousin Kevin — who lives in Riverdale — he’s gay,” Greg revealed. “And I would never want to hurt him.”
Riverdale fans realized that Greg’s cousin has to be Kevin Keller, who was played by Casey Cott in all seven seasons of the iconic CW show.
“Riverdale plot holes will always be loved I guess❤️❤️❤️. YOUR COUSIN KEVIN IS DEAD!” a viewer wrote via X while referring to the comet that destroyed the town ahead of the final season.
Meanwhile, another social media user joked, “Kevin keller from riverdale being greg’s cousin is the most unserious thing this show has done 😭.”
Other viewers were surprised to see the confirmation that Riverdale is “canon” in the PLL universe. “Riverdale existing in the PLL universe in the present timeline and Kevin still alive which means they never went to the 50s which means BARCHIE ENDGAME,” wrote a fan rooting for Archie (KJ Apa) and Betty (Lili Reinhart) to end up together despite Riverdale‘s attempts to force them apart in the seventh season.
Max’s Pretty Little Liars previously hinted at a connection to Riverdale when the core friend group went to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. The home — run by nuns — for troubled youths was originally introduced on Riverdale.
As creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has continued to grow his TV universe, he found ways to bring the shows together. In addition to the PLL reboot and Riverdale, Aguirre-Sacasa is also behind shows such as Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Katy Keene.
Aguirre-Sacasa recently spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about his vision for PLL — including the decision to rebrand it from Original Sin to Summer School.
“That was the biggest conversation we had after season 1. Were we going to keep the theme of the Original Sin? One of the reasons we decided to try a different theme and a different subtitle is because we felt like would we ever beat the original sin from season 1?” he explained in May. “We thought, ‘Would it ever be as personal and as primal as [the girls being punished for their mothers’ crimes]?’ So maybe it’s OK to move off of that idea.”
Aguirre-Sacasa said fans can still expect Pretty Little Liars: Summer School to be the perfect slasher series.
“There were a lot of conversations about how much was too much and is this something that our audience would respond to? One of the things people really responded to was the slasher vibes and the slasher villain. So that gave us the permission to really lean into that in season 2,” he continued. “Whatever discussions we would have with our network and our studio executives — who’ve been really supportive — was, ‘Oh, is this leaning too much or do we need this?’ Those conversations were gone and we were really encouraged to lean into that. Bloody Rose is an even more terrifying and profound figure of horror.”
Pretty Little Liars: Summer School is available to stream on Max with new episodes released on Thursdays.
