🕵️‍♀️ Who is the Black Hood on Riverdale? 🕵️‍♂️ Here Are Our Wildest Theories

Written by Tia

Who is A—I mean the Black Hood—on this season of Pretty Little Liars—I mean Riverdale? It's the question everyone's asking. With each episode in season 2, the Black Hood stalks the town of Riverdale, tortures Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart), and attempts the occasional murder—with a very low success rate of one confirmed kill out of seven attempts. (Note: It is possible, however, that in the most recent episode—season 2, episode 6—the Black Hood commits his second successful kill, but that has yet to be confirmed.)

The big question surrounding the Black Hood right now is his identity, which remains unknown, but which Betty is on the case to discover, in order to bring him to justice. You've all heard the typical theories—that the Black Hood is Hal Cooper (Lochlyn Munro), Hiram Lodge (Mark Consuelos), Sheriff Keller (Martin Cummins), or Betty's long lost brother Chic Cooper (Hart Denton)—and maybe some of the more "out there" ones—that it's actually Penelope Blossom (Nathalie Boltt), Tall Boy (Scott McNeil), Kevin Keller (Casey Cott), or even Betty herself—but the cast continues to insist that they haven't seen anyone pin down the right person yet.

So here I am, ready to pin. Here are some of my (more daring) theories of who the Black Hood is, given that most of the more obvious ones are already taken:

Fred has a face you can trust... or... does he?

Fred Andrews

This was my OG "wild theory," and the one that opened the floodgates: Maybe Fred Andrews (Luke Perry) used being shot first as a way to cover his tracks. Who would ever suspect the first victim of attack as secretly the perpetrator? Fred has plenty of reason to want to clean up the town—to keep his son safe, for one—and maybe there's more to his "innocent" act other than... actual innocence.

For one, the only two people the Black Hood has actually killed are Geraldine Grundy (Sarah Habel) (a sexual predator who preyed on Fred's son, Archie) and a sinister drug dealer called the Sugar Man (Robert Baker). The rest of his (considerably more innocent) victims all survived. But the worst one and the one Fred has a personal connection with (honestly, probably the second worst one) happened to be the two who were killed. If that doesn't convince you, well... Let's just get to my better theory. How about that?

Ethel Muggs (Shannon Purser) and her mother in the hospital after her dad's suicide attempt

Manfred Muggs

Is Ethel Muggs' dad still hospitalized? I have my doubts. We've never seen the man before, but he had an important role last season—he was involved in Hiram Lodge's shady business and it led him to attempt suicide (in season 1, episode 9, "Chapter Nine: La Grande Illusion"). If anyone has a vendetta against this town and its shadiness, it's Manfred. And who knows if he came out of the hospital ready for vengeance, or even brain damaged from his suicide attempt (it could explain some of the strange, almost holy ramblings of the Black Hood).

This might be my strongest of these wilder theories, since we haven't seen Manfred much and don't know quite what he's capable of, but we do know he could have motive. If he's the Black Hood, remember Tia on Quill & Slate called it first. Hell yeah. Next.

He totally didn't get fired. He had to take care of his mother.

Smithers

Oh, Mark Consuelos... You never should've fired Smithers. Perhaps, after Smithers (Tom McBeath) was let go, he found a new strength within himself—one that thirsted for blood. Just look at the man! No one seemingly nice with cheekbones like that is actually good. If something dark resided within Smithers, I wouldn't be surprised—his name almost spells "smite her." But who will he smite next? (Probably me for this theory.)

What do you guys think? Who has yet to be suspected of being the Black Hood? Who are we missing? Who is hiding in plain sight? Help!


You can watch the second season of Riverdale on the CW's website, and the first season on Netflix.