It turns out that Riverdale's resident Nancy Drew, Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) was totally right about her not-so-bonkers Black Hood theory. Yes, Betty's sketchy dad Hal Cooper (Lochlyn Munro) is, indeed, the Black Hood, as he confirmed via a crazy villain monologue. But did that put Riverdale's serial killer saga to rest? With just one episode left of season 2, it seems that this CW series has yet another Black Hood-related story to tell.
First, some background on this whole Black Hood thing. During the Christmas episode "Silent Night, Deadly Night," it was revealed that creepy janitor Svenson (Cameron McDonald) was the man behind the mask. The reason? Svenson's family was, apparently, the victims of a murderer known as the Riverdale Reaper, and Svenson felt immense guilt from pointing to the wrong man as the culprit for the crime.
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Now, we know the truth. Svenson was working with Hal, but it was really Betty's dear ole' dad who was pulling his strings the entire time.
It all ties back to the Riverdale Reaper, whom we learned about in "Tales From the Dark Side." You know how Betty has that darkness inside her she is constantly talking about? Well, it could all stem from the fact that the Riverdale Reaper was actually Papi Cooper. Before the Conway killings, Papi Cooper murdered his brother, Grandpa Blossom, before assuming the Cooper family name. But Mr. Conway knew Cooper's secret, and blackmailed him... which was when Papi C went full-on reaper and murdered the entire Conway family.
Hal was just a kid at the time, but his mother (who sounds like a true nightmare) forced him to convince a young Svenson not to reveal the truth about who killed the Conways. The Conways were sinners, Hal's mother told him, and Hal needed to do everything possible to protect their own family.
So, yeah, Hal is the worst... but he's also not the only Black Hood. Following Hal's huge villain reveal, Betty asked him about the man who shot at the crowd during the debate — the one attempted killing that Hal could not take credit for. Later, Archie (K.J. Apa) and Fred (Luke Perry) are attacked in their home, and Fred is shot... but Hal was giving his sinner speech at that very moment. So how could that work?
The answer is simple: As some fans have already suspected, there is a second Black Hood. That person shot Fred for the second time this season, and fired into the crowd during the debate. The question is now, of course, if this Black Hood is working with Hal, or if he has his own agenda. Could the second Black Hood be a copycat killer who just wants to see Fred suffer?
We'll have to wait until the season 2 finale to find out — but hey, at least that Hal Cooper fan theory was proven true, right?