Who is the Man in the Black Hood on ‘Riverdale?’

Last season, Riverdale fans had to wonder week in and week out whether one of the characters they were slowly falling in love with might actually have been the killer whose murder of Jason Blossom kicked the events of the season into gear. This season, it’s a different kind of crime, but a similar thing: who is the man in the black hood?

To recap: At the end of season 1, Archie Andrews had to watch his father shot by a masked man who had come to Pop’s Chock’Lit Shoppe early in the morning, apparently to rob the place. Archie had charged at the gunman, placing his body between the trigger and Fred Andrews, but arrived too late to prevent the shooting.

In this week’s episode, there are a lot of questions about the gunman: does he have Fred’s wallet? Does he know where Archie lives? Will he kill again?

…Well, actually, that one we can scratch off the list. Yeah, he will kill again.

But anyway, the biggest question of course is who exactly is under the hood and why he is doing what he’s doing.

All you can tell from the shots we saw in today’s episode is that he has green (very green) eyes and what appears to be salt and pepper eyebrows and a broad face.

(Oh, and obviously it’s a white dude.)

So…who might be the person who pulled the trigger on Riverdale‘s best dad? We have some ideas…!

Grundy’s ex-husband

During the first season, predatory teacher Geraldine Grundy (real name Jennifer Gibson) told Archie that before she moved to Riverdale and changed her name, she had an abusive ex-husband who had beat her nearly to death.

The Grundy storyline ended fairly abruptly, and there was no real closure on whether or not anything she said to Archie was the truth, but many viewers seemed to cling to the idea that she really did have an ex-husband, abusive or not.

The idea of Jennifer Gibson’s husband as a murder suspect came up the first time around: since Grundy had tutored Jason Blossom before his death, and he too was a young redhead, there was some question as to whether she might have had an affair with Jason and thus drawn the ire of Grundy’s ex.

Smithers

Just based on appearance, Smithers — that’s the Lodge Family butler — might be a solid candidate to be the Black Hood.

…and, yes, we’re going to go ahead and call him the Black Hood. Back at the end of last season, showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa indicated that would be his name in season 2.

Anyway, Smithers is a guy with gray hair and green eyes, and of course he works for the amoral and potentially violent Lodge family.

Seems like a good suspect.

Chick Cooper

Could Betty’s long-lost brother be up to something?

We know he’s coming back…but why?

There is obviously not much evidence to actually back this one, but given the fact that there are simply not that many good suspects in Riverdale (due to the killer’s appearance), somebody from out of town seems like a solid guess.

Someone with ties to Clifford Blossom

The Southside Serpents are bad news, but they seem to have some kind of moral code.

…Well, most of them. There are some that go rogue, as we saw this episode, and there are obviously going to be some other groups out there besides just the one biker gang.

Since Fred worked with the Serpents (and with Blossom’s business competitor, Hiram Lodge, albeit indirectly), Jennifer Gibson might have slept with Blossom’s son, and Archie helped to reveal Blossom, leading to his death, all of those could be targets of somebody who wants nothing more than to avenge Clifford Blossom or to punish those perceived to be responsible for his fall from grace.