‘Riverdale’: Is Jughead the Real Black Hood?

While Riverdale‘s midseason finale revealed Riverdale High janitor Joseph Svenson to be the Black Hood, life is never that easy for the characters on The CW‘s hit show. Even though Svenson is dead, the mystery seemingly solved, even one of the show’s stars thinks the real killer is still out there.

Over the course of the second season thus far, we have diligently tried to solve the mystery of who is the Black Hood, examining possible suspects, speculating who might really be the face behind the Black Hood’s reign of terror. While we’ve come up with some solid reasons why specific characters — particularly Betty’s dad, Hal Cooper — could be the hood, there is one person we have yet to consider:

Jughead Jones.

That’s right, Jughead Jones, Archie’s best friend, one half of Bughead, our helpful narrator, could be the Black Hood. While, admittedly, Jughead turning out to be behind the terror gripping Riverdale this season would be a massive, mind-blowing twist that would change the trajectory of the show going forward, there are still some solid reasons why Jughead makes a prime candidate. Not only does he have the right eye color to be the Black Hood, there are other reasons worth considering.

First, as we’ve noted previously, the Black Hood early in his reign of terror appeared to be specifically targeting Archie. While Archie and Jughead are friends now, if you recall when Riverdale first debuted last year, the pair had a very strained relationship, having grown apart since they were kids. However, even though the pair have resumed being friends, things haven’t exactly been smooth between them. There are still obvious tensions between them — particularly when it comes to Jughead’s involvement with the Southside Serpents. We also know that Archie’s dad, Fred, founded Andrews Construction alongside Jughead’s dad, F.P., but that Fred kicked him out of the business. While Fred had valid reasons to do so, that action had negative ramifications for Jughead’s family. It’s not impossible that he’s held a grudge and the Black Hood going after people connected to Archie is one way to settle the score.

But it’s not just Archie that the Black Hood goes after. He goes after Betty, too, involving her in the terror. Why would Jughead, if he were the Black Hood, do that? An obvious possibility is that he’s twisting Betty around simply to get some additional revenge on Archie, but a more devious thing to consider is that involving Betty is a test. Jughead, being Betty’s boyfriend, knows her better than almost anyone else. He would likely know about her dark side and might be using the Black Hood as a way to not only see how deep into that darkness she is willing to go, but also put her into a position where she will be just as dark as he is. If she’s willing to go far enough, it could ensure that she’d stick by him upon discovering his identity. Now that we’ve seen Betty is clearly willing to involve herself into Jughead’s gang life, it’s not impossible to think that she might be willing to follow him into even darker things. And yes, breaking up with him at the Black Hood’s demand does fit into that if he was trying to see how well she follows orders.

The murder of the Sugarman also somewhat lends to the idea that Jughead could be the Black Hood. Drugs, specifically Jingle Jangle, and the dealing of them is something that that Jughead desperately wants to keep the Southside Serpents out of. If Jughead is the Black Hood, that would give him another reason to want to ensure the Sugarman is dead — especially once it’s revealed that he’s a teacher at Southside High.

Whoever the Black Hood really is, be it Hal Cooper, Jughead, or even Sheriff Keller, there is one thing we know for sure. There is more to the story than we’ve seen so far and whoever is truly beneath the mask is going to shake Riverdale to the core.

Riverdale returns on Wednesday, January 17th at 8/7c on The CW.