It’s hard to find a show without some kind of familial, romantic or purely sexual pairing. Not that we’re complaining because a lot of our favorite shows are built on strong relationships. But mixed in with all those (fairly) normal ties are the ones that will cause even the most hardened ones among us to do a double take.
A good number of those have led to some juicy storylines, and more than a few have been inserted merely for the shock value they provide, it’s almost like a competition to see which writers can shock the audience the most.
We rummaged through the shenanigans a lot of these weirdly entangled couples, families and friends have been up to and chose our 19 worst transgressors!
Cheryl and Jason Blossom (Riverdale)
From the coordinated outfits to the constant handholding while staring intently into each other’s eyes while standing creepily close, everything about the dynamic between these two sets off a bunch of alarms in one’s head. Not to forget that one time Cheryl made the similarly red-haired Archie wear Jason’s jacket to dinner before making out wth him later that night.
Beck, Joe and Peach (YOU)
The dynamic between these three is straight out of a deranged fantasy novel — which it is. Joe is a full-blown psychopath with a side offering of homicidal inclinations. Peach is a needy control freak and part-time stalker whose attraction to her best friend puts her in Joe’s crosshairs. And for some reason, at the center of all this is Beck, a woman who somehow manages to be incredibly self-absorbed and a doormat at the same time. Put together, these three are simply too toxic, dysfuntional amd destructive.
Jamie and Cersei Lannister (Game Of Thrones)
This show is definitely not lacking in icky storylines, but one that has continued to up the up the ante everytime people think they’ve seen it all is the relationship between these fraternal twins of the Lannister clan. After all, Bran chancing upon them up in that tower lit the fuse that sent life-changing ripples across the whole of Westeros. There is also that time they had rape sex right next to the corpse of their inbred son. Yeah, it’ll take some doing for us to unsee that whole scene.
Hakeem and Anika (Empire)
You could almost hear the entire Empire fanbase let out a collective sigh of relief when Anika died. Among her many, many unsavory deeds was her hooking up with her stepson (repeatedly) and getting pregnant with his child. It’s even worse that the stepson who knocked her up was Hakeem, who has got to be the most immature character in history.
Hector And Marisol (Ray Donovan)
They made a point to let us know that these had a tortured upbringing, but that is little comfort when you’re made to watch Hector having sweaty sex with his half-sister.
Klaus and Caroline (The Vampire Diaries)
We get that finding romantic options in your age bracket is hard when you’re a thousand-year-old werewolf-vampire hybrid, but surely Klaus could’ve done much better than a high school teenager. We’re secretly glad he committed mutual suicide with his brother if only so he can’t keep his promise to be her last love, however long that it takes.
Aria and Ezra (Pretty Little Liars)
One of the earliest bits of evidence that this show was set on a different planet populated by beings that just happen to look like humans because that is the only way to explain how Ezra managed to avoid being charged with a felony after news got out that he was romantically involved with his student.
Clara and Ramona (The Bastard Executioner)
Working as prostitutes in a Welsh town, these two identical twin sisters don’t mind engaging in a true “seeing double” threesome with their clients. And no, that isn’t made possible by camera tricks, those are real-life identical twins making out passionately on screen, NAKED!
Norman & Norma Bates (Bates Motel)
The poster family for how not to raise your son and how much motherly love is too much. They do pretty much everything together, even cover up murders.
Ellen & Cavil (Battlestar Galactica)
Ellen built Cavil in the likeness of her dead father which technically made him her son who. Cavil, however, coerces her into sleeping with him in exchange for her husband’s safety, though at the time she had no memory of her former life. Cavil, on the other hand, knew exactly who she was, but was more than happy to jump into those sexual encounters.
Clary and Jace (Shadowhunters)
A lot of people’s favorite couple, but it’s hard to shake the ick factor this pairing was smeared with when Valentine convinced everyone Jace was Clary’s half-brother. They went from almost sleeping with each other, to familial love then back to sleeping with each other when the truth came out that Jace wasn’t Jonathan. Just, NO!
Bill and Portia (True Blood)
In defense of these two, they had no idea they were related until Bill met Portia’s grandmother who turned out to be Bill’s great-great-great granddaughter. Bill does the honorable thing and tries to cut off all romantic ties between them but Portia is having none of that. She goes back to chasing Bill until he glamours her into screaming and running away in terror everytime she sees him.
Kol And Davina (The Originals)
Kol had ulterior motives when he weaseled his way into Davina’s good graces before eventually falling in love and dropping the Kaleb alias. Again, it’s easy to forget Kol has lived almost as long as Klaus has even if his growth has been somewhat stunted by the constant daggering. Still, Davina was still a teenager when they got together which is just creepy.
Jason and Kerry (Wayward Pines)
This one is a bit complicated as it involves a bit of baby snatching and time travel but let’s just say Oedipus has nothing on this couple. All those twists culminate in a time-traveling baby falling in love and dating his mother who incidentally was also put in hibernation for two thousand years. He finds out, and they have a fight during which she accidentally empties a round in his chest and the doctor deliberately lets him flatline on the table.
James and Zilpha (Taboo)
With the benefit of hindsight, it’s embarrassing that it came as a shock that James was sexually involved with his sister. It literally is in the show’s title, even if they didn’t go into specifics.
Kyle and Alicia Spencer (American Horror Story: Coven)
If you think whatever it is Norman Bates had going with his Mother was bad, then you definitely need to meet the Spencers. Not only did Alicia force her son into an incestuous relationship at a young age, but she also tried to pick up where she left off when he was miraculously revived as Franken-Kyle. Good thing he had his wits about him as he finally did what he should’ve done a while ago — bludgeon her to death.
The Julii Family (Rome)
Atia is moral dissonance made flesh. After pimping her daughter out to pretty much all the powerful men in Rome, she nearly lost her mind when Octavia took the initiative and seduced her younger brother Octavian in a bid to coerce information out of him. The thing is, Octavian’s intellect far belittles his age and he knew what she was trying to do from the get-go. But his sociopathic side won out and he had sex with his sister anyways just to see what would happen.
Tut and Ankhesenamun (Tut)
Inbreeding was the norm for Egyptian royalty back in the day, a fact this short-lived series was faithful to. But then again, this show will leave you feeling like you need to take a shower in the aftermath of watching these two siblings’ trysts in the royal chamber, and a little guilty that you’re secretly rooting for them to work their problems out and live out the rest of their lives as the obscenely attractive couple that they are.
Archie and Ms. Grundy (Riverdale)
Archie is a collection of terrible life choices rolled into a neat little ginger-haired package. But in situations like these, most of the blame has to be laid at the feet of the adult who, in this case, is Ms. Grundy.
