Who is The Black Hood on Riverdale? Here are 5 Possible Suspects

There's a killer on the loose in Riverdale, the setting of the CW's dark adaptation of the Archie Comics, now in its second season. He's called the Black Hood, a reference to the vigilante superhero comic book of the same name published by Archie Comics. So far, he has shot Fred Andrews (Luke Perry), murdered Ms. Grundy (Sarah Habel) with a cello bow, and shot at Midge and Moose (Emilija Baranac and Cody Kearsley), all while wearing his executioner's hood-style hood, which is how he got his name. His letter to the Coopers in the third episode of the season reveals he is targeting victims that he sees as criminals or hypocrites and the fourth episode revealed he got the idea from Betty's (Lili Reinhart) speech from the end of last season, where she pleaded that "Riverdale must do better." It's looking like figuring out the Black Hood's identity will be the big mystery of season two, so I have put together a list of possible suspects.

Note: The Black Hood is described physically as a middle-aged white man with green eyes, but I'm suspecting that the man in the actual hood is working for someone else, someone pulling the strings, which is why not all of the people on the list are middle-aged white men with green eyes.

Alice and/or Hal Cooper (Madchen Amick and Lochlyn Munro)

The Black Hood sent Betty a code that only she could crack based on a book she read as a child, so I'm thinking he must be someone close to Betty. His intial letter was conveinently sent to the Coopers, and no one else is nearly as concerned about drugs and sex destroying Riverdale as Alice Cooper. A possible motive could be to frame the South Side Serpents, so Mayor McCoy would finally do something about the South Side, which Alice blames for corrupting the entire town.

Chic Cooper (Hart Denton)

Betty's long-lost brother hasn't even appeared yet on the series and has only been mentioned briefly, but an actor has been cast in the role and he is confirmed to appear sometime in the second season. We don't know much about him, except that Alice got pregnant with him as a teenager and gave him away, but it's possible he's killing as part of a misguided attempt to reconnect with the Coopers.

Hiram Lodge (Mark Consuelos)

Hiram Lodge is defintely a bad dude. Recently released from jail for white collar crime, Hiram is more than capable of hiring someone to kill a bunch of people. What his motive could be, is a little trickier. In the fourth episode of season two, Hermione and Hiram discuss how Fred Andrew "is a problem" when Fred says Riverdale needs to come together in reponse to Alice's attempt to blame the South Side. What the heck does that mean? Mr. and Mrs. Lodge are up to something. Perhaps they are letting crime run all over Riverdale to devalue its property so they can buy it up cheap, like they did with Pop's diner. 

Someone From the South Side

A lot of the characters (mainly Alice Cooper) have been quick to blame the Serpents for the Black Hood, making me think that's a little too obvious of a solution. But then again, the writers have been obvious in the past, so I wouldn't put anything past them. Perhaps The Black Hood is one of the Serpents who, tired of always getting blamed for everything, is looking to expose the sinners of the North Side. Maybe it's that Serpent lawyer Penny Peabody that Jughead's dad warned him to stay away from? Or maybe it's Toni Topaz, Jughead's new friend at South Side High that is a self-described "true crime junkie"?

Cliff Blossom (Barclay Hope)

I know that Cliff Blossom died last season, but Riverdale is a teen soap, meaning all deaths should come with an asterisk. It's possible that Cheryl's dad is alive and angry about the fact that he was seemingly the only person in Riverdale forced to pay for his crimes. Or maybe Cliff had a secret twin brother? We know that twins run in the Blossom family. I do think, whoever the Black Hood is, the solution will have something to do with the murder mystery from last season, or else it would be super weird how the show just completely moved on from that story.

Who do you think the Black Hood is? Will we have to wait until the end of the season to find out the answer? Share your theories in the comments below!