Let's Go Over All The Black Hood Suspects After The Latest 'Riverdale' Bombshell

If you thought that the musical episode of Riverdale was going to just be some lighthearted song and dance numbers, then you clearly do not know this show. The latest episode saw the broody teens of Riverdale High belting their hearts out to numbers from the fittingly gruesome musical Carrie: The Musical. Except the big finale turned out more realistic than anyone expected, when another character was murdered on the stage. With the Black Hood's return, everyone is a suspect again, but some more than others. Let's talk out seven of the major Riverdale Black Hood theories that the musical episode left us with.

Spoiler alert: This post will spoil a pivotal moment from Riverdale Season 2 Episode 18 "A Night To Remember." Most of Riverdale's musical episode was business as usual, except with some melodies and jazz hands thrown in, but the last few minutes completely changed the game. At the end of the episode, we see that Midge has been brutally stabbed to death, with a note from the Black Hood scrawled next to her body in her blood warning the town that he is back from the dead.

Although Mr. Svenson was supposedly revealed to be the Black Hood back in the midseason finale, I don't think any Riverdale fans were actually buying that, so viewers have been awaiting this return for quite a while.

But even more important than the reveal of Midge's particularly macabre death were the moments leading up to it backstage right before the musical was about to begin. Obviously, the Black Hood was somewhere in that auditorium, and we saw a ton of suspicious stuff going on backstage in a short span of time — some seeming to confirm already popular Black Hood theories, and some actually bringing up totally new theories about how the masked killer could be.

To get it all straight, let's go over all the major Black Hood theories we have after the Midge murder:

1. Chic Cooper

Without a doubt, the creepiest character on Riverdale. Even before Chic appeared on the show — when he was just Betty's mysterious long-lost brother — he was a major Black Hood suspect, and now that he's in town his shady antics have made him even more of a suspect. We know the Black Hood has a close connection to Betty, and Chic is clearly planning something creepy that has to do with the Cooper family.

The musical episode made Chic look even more like a Black Hood suspect, thanks to a very subtle but very unsettling split-second scene at the end of the episode. Once Midge's dead body is unveiled onstage, everyone in the audience starts screaming and running around... except Chic! He is creepily sitting still in his chair as if nothing had happened. Hmmm, did he know Midge was going to be murdered?

2. Hal Cooper

The other really popular fan theory is that Hal Cooper is the Black Hood, and the musical episode may have added some weight to that. After all, we see him present at the musical after reconnecting with Alice. Fans have also pointed out that the Black Hood notes prior to show night demanded that Cheryl be replaced as Carrie, and when that recasting didn't happen, it was Penelope Blossom who stepped in and forbade Cheryl from taking the role. Since Hal and Penelope are seeing each other, it's possible that Hal was behind the notes, and then got Penelope to do what he wanted when they didn't work.

3. Sheriff Keller

The theory that Sheriff Keller is the Black Hood has been around this whole season as well, even though he did seem to debunk it a while back by showing Betty his police log, which detailed his alibis during each Black Hood attack.

But, it sure did look suspicious when Sheriff Keller popped up backstage right before the musical was about to start. What was he doing back there?

4. Ethel Muggs

The most obvious suspect that the musical episode gave us was definitely Ethel Muggs. Some fans have suspected Ethel of being the Black Hood for a while now, noting that she seemed to have a dark side while witnessing Betty nearly kill Chuck Clayton in Season 1 and the fact that her family was royally screwed over by the Lodges, but the new episode made Ethel suspect number one.

Right before the musical began, Jughead found cut up magazines in her trash can that matched the letters the Black Hood had been sending. Ethel said it was for her vision board, but like... obviously nobody is buying that. The popular theory with Ethel is that her dad is actually the one we saw under that black hood, and she is working with him to get revenge on the town. It definitely looks like that could be a possibility now!

5. Moose Mason

Now here's one that came totally out of left field after the musical episode. After all, Moose was nearly killed by the Black Hood earlier this season, how could he be a suspect? Well, the theory is that there are multiple Black Hoods, and the attack on Moose could have happened to throw off the scent.

Anyway, the real reason Moose looks so suspicious now is because of how he behaved right before the musical began. When Jughead said hello to Moose backstage, he was visibly angry and shoved Jughead out of the way — he also seemed like he might have been in a hurry to get somewhere. Something is definitely going on with Moose.

6. Fangs Fogarty

Here's the other new suspect that arose after the musical episode. Before we saw Moose angrily walking out from backstage, Jughead catches Fangs with Midge in her dressing room, doing... something. Fangs says he was doing some last-minute line run-throughs with Midge, but that is obviously not what was happening. It's unclear what the two were up to, but they were visibly startled when Jughead found them together.

This makes Fangs look very suspicious: He was the last person that we see speaking with Midge before her death, and they are definitely hiding something. Although the show has been heavily hinting that Fangs is gay, it's possible that he is actually bisexual and was hooking up with Midge — that may also explain why Moose was so angry shortly afterwards, if he perhaps caught them in the act. Another possibility is that Fangs knew about Moose's secret hookups with Kevin, and he was spilling the secret to Midge. Whatever was happening, it definitely makes Fangs look like he knows a lot more than he is letting on.

7. Claudius Blossom

And finally, the last major theory involves someone who we didn't see in attendance at Carrie: The Musical, but that doesn't mean that he couldn't still have been behind the murder. A lot of fans are super suspicious of Cheryl's newly introduced uncle Claudius Blossom. I mean, we already know that he and Penelope are out to destroy Nana Rose and Cheryl, but it's possible that their ambitions are secretly much larger than just taking over Thornhill.

There's a pretty convincing theory Cliff Blossom actually never died in Season 1, and that Claudius is actually Cliff in disguise. If that were the case, then Clifford could have been running around in a black hood exacting his vengeance on Riverdale all this time.

The musical episode adds some weight to this theory because the Black Hood was so adamant about having Cheryl replaced as the lead role in Carrie: The Musical. Why would the Black Hood care so much about the casting in a high school musical? Well, if it really is Cliff, maybe he had set a plan to have the person playing Carrie killed a while back as the Black Hood's triumphant return, but his plan backfired when his daughter took the part. To save Cheryl and keep his plan going, Cliff could have sent those threatening notes, and then finally sent Penelope to forbid Cheryl from taking the part.