The first season finale of Riverdale left the fandom SHOOK when Archie's dad Fred Andrews was shot in Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe. Was he going to survive? Who would do this to nice-guy Fred? Well, we do know that Fred is alive and well, but the man who shot him is still on the loose. With a black hood and piercing green eyes, we're all left wondering who he is.
Oh, and did we mention this wasn't a one-off thing? He's a straight-up serial killer. An angel of death the Man in the Black Hood is being called. See after attempting to end Fred's life, he ended up killing Archie's former music teacher Miss. Grundy who was now living and dating another one of her students (Eww) over in Greendale, and he shot two Riverdale High students, Moose and Midge, who were minding their own business kissing in a car at Lovers' Lane. Like what is this guy's motives? Does he have specific targets in mind? Fred and Miss. Grundy are both very clearly connected to Archie, but these other victims weren't directly related to our fave redhead.
Well, we do have a bit more info, since he sent Alice Cooper a letter to publish in the town's newspaper where he takes credit for these senseless acts of violence, saying he wants to expose Riverdale for being not that innocent of a place after all. He went after Fred, an "adulterer," because Mr. Andrews was dating Veronica's mom Hermione while she's still married to her husband and is still with him; he went after Grundy since she had a relationship with Archie and a teacher/student romance is something that shouldn't ever happen, and he went after Moose and Midge to prove the teenagers in this town are always making terrible choices. He has this weird mission in mind and tbh sir, why is this any of your business what anyone else is doing with their life but sure fine, make excuses for yourself.
And we know now it's not Archie who he's going after exactly, but this was all inspired by Betty. The Black Hood sent Betty a letter saying he was inspired by a speech she gave at a town hall meeting last season to start this purge of sorts and now poor Betty is shook thinking she's the reason this all began. It's not your fault, girl. As Jughead reminded Betty, she's just a high school student, not the FBI, and she can't help what a madman decides to do with his time. He now has gone on to start calling her and is basically making her turn against everyone she cares about in her life. He prompts her to end her relationship with Jughead and, if she does all he says, he claims that he will stay away from her sister and her loved ones. HE IS NUTS TO SAY THE LEAST.
Naturally, we're all patiently waiting for all the drama to unfold this season to uncover who this crazed killer is and we finally have an answer. That's right, Black Hood has been unmasked. See, Archie and Betty went to the spot that the supposed Riverdale Reaper was buried alive once Joseph Conway aka Mr. Svenson, the school's janitor, identified him. The Reaper killed all of Joseph's family, and he was the only survivor. Except he actually ended up identifying the wrong person and an innocent man was killed. So Mr. Svenson might've been filled with guilt, perhaps? Which led him to be the Black Hood. Once he is forcing Betty to bury Archie alive, she hits him with the shovel but he runs away as Betty is helping Archie out of the coffin. They chase after him until Sheriff Keller shoots Black Hood, killing him. The Sheriff pulls off the ski mask and it's none other than Mr. Svenson! So now we know his identity, but Betty can't seem to part with her own Black Hood mask, so it seems like this story isn't over quite yet. And now, Archie himself made it clear he doesn't think Svenson was the actual Black Hood, so this mystery lives on since he's taking it upon himself yet again to find out the truth.
Of course, before we found out who the first Black Hood was, we just had to speculate as to who it could've been, based on the fact that we know it's a male and he has green eyes. And he told Betty his face one she would recognize, which was all true. But since this saga doesn't seem to be fully dunzo, we're taking a look back at the list of suspects that could still be the real Black Hood:
Betty's long-lost brother, Chic
As we found out last season, Alice and Hal have an older son who was supposedly adopted right after Alice gave birth, although we learned the poor kid never actually was adopted. We know now his name is Charles Smith and Chic is his nickname and he clearly has a darkness in him. He has a job we're unsure about just that he calls it "fantasy fulfillment" and when Betty brings him to the Cooper family's house to spend the night after she saves him as he was getting attacked by a man, Chic does something SUPER odd: he goes into Betty's room as she's sleeping and stars at her. Legit stands over her bed and is creepy AF. This is obviously leading us to think since the killer said Betty was his inspiration and he seems to be obsessed with her in a way, could it be her brother? Is this his way of coming into the Cooper fam's life? He does have green eyes too…
But Hart Denton, the actor bringing this mysterious new character to life explaiend to TV Guide, Chic might not be a bad guy after all and might prove himself to not be the top Black Hood suspect we're thinking he might be. Or so he's leading us to believe.
"You have to give Chic some time. Watch and see how he is in different situations. It will be pretty easy to see whether he should be or not," Hart said.
Miss. Grundy's ex-husband
Miss. Grundy revealed that her real name is Jennifer Gibson and she changed it and started a new life because she had an abusive ex-husband. Perhaps it was him who came after her, since she was in a relationship with Archie and as we saw another young guy, so maybe he killed her in a fit of jealousy and went after Archie's dad as revenge too. Well, while that could still come back around, the Sheriff made it clear to Archie that her ex had an alibi and wasn't in town when this murder took place. Plus, now we know he's obsessed with Betty and she has no connection to Gruny's ex, so he seems to be an unlikely choice.
Hal Cooper, Betty's Dad
Everyone seems to think Betty's dad could be the one going around town killing everyone, simply because he seems to physically fit the part. It's unclear what Hal's motive would be and why he would want to torture, but he was a total sketch fest in season one and had plenty of bursts of anger and Cooper fam secrets he had hidden for years, so a solid option. Plus, Riverdale is a town where Clifford Blossom killed his own son Jason, so you never know. But it would break our hearts and Betty's to know her dad tried to kill her best friend Archie's dad, and the person who is supposed to take care of Betty is treating her so terribly so we'll just have to wait and see.
Sheriff Keller
Once again, this just comes down to the fact that Kevin's dad looks the most like the man in the hood from what we've seen of his face. You don't want to think the man who's supposed to be protecting the town of Riverdale and all the people in it is out here taking lives! Hey, anything is possible in this twisted town tbh.
The Lodges
Obviously, they're not the ones in the hood doing these violent acts, but they could be the masterminds behind it all, having someone else do the dirty work for them. Veronica doesn't trust her parents in the slightest and flat-out accuses them of trying to kill Fred, which Hiram and Hermione both denied Hiram is fresh out of prison and Fred and Hermione had a brief fling so it could be a possibility they're just trying to take over Riverdale together as some sort of scary power couple. Could V be right about her parents after all? Time will tell. We have 22 episodes to get through this season so stay tuned…
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