On Wednesday, Riverdale finally revealed the identity of the Black Hood — and people were, well, confused.
The season 2 Christmas episode "Silent Night, Deadly Night" did unmask janitor Mr. Svenson (Cameron McDonald), but with Sheriff Keller (Martin Cummins) shooting Svenson dead before he could explain the truth about the Black Hood, it's hard not to question if we got the real answer to this particularly mystery.
Now, one fan on Twitter is convinced that Riverdale is about to pull a second Black Hood twist on its audience — because Svenson wasn't the real culprit.
Per Glamour, Twitter user @iiClockworkii has an idea about Svenson's connection to the Black Hood that makes all of the sense. They wrote:
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"There’s no way Svenson is the real Black Hood. My theory is, the REAL Black Hood wanted Svenson to die the same way his sin was made — by killing the wrong man. Also, this is only the mid season finale, it’s only halfway over. There’s no way."
#Riverdale
— Sam-ta Clause (@iiClockworkii) December 15, 2017
***SPOILERS***
There’s no way Svenson is the real Black Hood. My theory is, the REAL Black Hood wanted Svenson to die the same way his sin was made — by killing the wrong man. Also, this is only the mid season finale, it’s only halfway over. There’s no way.
Frankly, I would be thrilled if Riverdale revealed that Svenson was framed for the Black Hood's crimes. There's nothing more frustrating than a mystery that ends with its audience saying "Oh" rather than "Oh my God!!!!"
Svenson may have been in the background of a few key Riverdale episodes (who else was convinced he was Josie's stalker?) but it doesn't totally explain how he knew all the intimate details of Betty's life. It also doesn't explain why Archie looked into his eyes and was convinced Svenson was an innocent man.
Still, while I'm crossing my fingers that the "Svenson was the fake-out" theory is legit, a recent TVLine interview with showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa seemingly suggests that Svenson was, in fact, the real deal.
"I think the Black Hood saga, as we’ve been playing it, is over," the Riverdale showrunner told TVLine in a post-mortem interview.
Aguirre-Sacasa also told TVLine that the reason some fans may be disappointed in the Svenson reveal may have to do with the time crunch they were on to introduce the janitor.
"[The writers] were like, 'We’ll introduce him,' and then we pushed him to the next episode, and then the next episode, and then it was like, 'Guys, we’ve gotta introduce him, or it’s not going to work,'" he told the outlet.
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To me, that sounds like Svenson was really the Black Hood, and that it was logistics that stopped the character from really "wowing" the audience in the final moment.
Of course, just because we know the real identity of the Black Hood doesn't mean that we should automatically assume the entire storyline is over. Who was the innocent man killed thanks to Svenson's orders? Is the real Riverdale Reaper out there?
Nothing is as it seems on Riverdale, even if, yeah, the janitor really did do it.