| “ | Aki: Together. A triad. Audrey: Which is not...it's not a throuple, okay? It's a real relationship. It's based on the fact that all three sides of a triangle are equal. What that means is that...well, if being together like that doesn't work for all three of us, then it doesn't work for any of us. We break up. You and us and... Honestly, all or nothing. Aki: If you're in, we're in. But if not, no worries. It's not an ultimatum. But we just don't work without you. Audrey: And we don't want to. That's what's fun. |
” |
— Aki and Audrey propose the triad to Max
| ||
The relationship between Audrey Hope, Aki Menzies, and Max Wolfe.
The trio were originally childhood friends, having grown up on the Upper East Side together alongside Julien, Monet, Luna, and Obie. Aki and Audrey formed a relationship early-on, but maintained a close friendship with Max. Max, however, had a romantic interest in both Aki and Audrey.
Max's advances on both was met with resistance due to Aki being closeted and Audrey not wanting to accept her desires out of fear of hurting Aki. After the events of Parentsite the three began an active threesome that later ended in Blackberry Narcissus when Audrey and Aki decided they no longer needed Max. After much discussion, the trios relationship began in Gossip Gone, Girl.
After Max was deeply hurt by the duo for keeping secrets and the trio argued. The night of their dramatic breakup, he got drunk and slept with Heidi Bergmann. Max called for a pause, which meant all three were meant to stop seeing each other. Audrey and Aki betrayed their pause and slept together without Max. He was heartbroken when he realized they wanted to keep seeing each other even though he was ending the relationship, which fueled his belief they were never serious about their rules. He admitted to loving them both deeply and wanted it to work, but was too hurt to look past this. He ceased communication with Audrey and Aki, even asking Gideon not to tell them where he was going for the summer.
Overview[]
The trio were originally childhood friends, having grown up on the Upper East Side. Aki and Audrey formed a relationship early-on, but maintained a close friendship with Max. Max, however, had a romantic interest in both Aki and Audrey. His advances on both was met with resistance due to Aki being closeted and Audrey not wanting to accept her desires out of fear of hurting Aki. In "Just Another Girl on the MTA", the trio were reunited in their junior year at Constance Billard St. Jude's School, and things began to shift. Aki and Audrey had crippling relationship issues - both in and out of the bedroom. With Aki beginning to realize his bisexuality and Audrey being drawn to Max, both of them eventually succumbed and had affairs with Max.
Though the affairs nearly broke Aki and Audrey apart, they reconciled. It took a while for them to realize that Max was the missing link in the bedroom, and the trio begin to have an active threesome. When Audrey and Aki decided they no longer needed a third, they cut Max out of the relationship altogether, unaware that he had formed a genuine bond with them that bordered on love. To protect himself, Max cut the duo out of his life and went a bender, while Aki and Audrey quickly realized they did need a third in their sex life. Despite their many attempts to bring in a third, nothing was quite the right fit. They both felt as though they were missing something, and realized unanimously, that it went beyond sex and into a relationship aspect - with Max. Together, they worked to win back Max's trust and make him feel safe in the relationship. They initially offered an open relationship where they each dated Max, though that idea was rejected. They finally realized that in order to create a safe, open, reliable environment with equal stakes, they had to create what they donned a "triad". All three would be in a romantic relationship and date one another. If one side of the triangle was unhappy in the relationship, they would all break up. Max accepted this offer and they began their "triad".
Television Series[]
Season 1[]
In "Just Another Girl on the MTA",
Season 2[]
Trivia[]
- They're the first canon polyamorous relationship in both iterations of Gossip Girl.
- As Max mentioned in Gossip Gone, Girl , he has never been in a real relationship, therefore Aki and Audrey become respectively his first boyfriend and girlfriend at the end of the episode.
- Joshua Safran spoke about the triads breakup in the series finale, and how he always viewed the three of them as being endgame. Them breaking up was his biggest regret in the finale, and the one thing he wished he would have changed had he known for sure the series wasn't returning for a season three.