'Riverdale' Fans Are Convinced This Southside Serpent Is The Missing Black Hood

Riverdale fans came so close to getting an answer to the mystery that has been plaguing us all season, but at the last second, the show revealed that there is still another Black Hood on the loose whose identity we still don't know. Heading into the big season finale, a lot of fans are resurrecting the popular fan theory that Tall Boy is the Black Hood, which had fallen to the wayside once it started to become very clear that [SPOILER ALERT] Hal Cooper was the man behind the mask. Is it possible that this new Black Hood could be the formidable Southside Serpent after all? Let's break it all down.

Tall Boy was actually one of the very first main suspects as to who the Black Hood might be right after the Season 1 finale aired. Back at the very start of Season 2, all that we had to go on was the physical attributes of the Black Hood: he seemed to be a stocky, middle-aged man with piercing green eyes. That narrowed down the suspects to only a handful of characters, including Hal Cooper, Sheriff Keller, and of course, Tall Boy.

While the Tall Boy theory persisted for some time, it started to fall apart once it was revealed that the Black Hood had a special connection to Betty. How would Tall Boy know that Betty grew up reading a specific Nancy Drew book, and why would he be going on about how she and him were exactly the same? It started to become very obvious that Hal Cooper was the Black Hood, and the penultimate episode of Season 2 revealed that Hal was indeed the Black Hood all along, having been brainwashed from a young age to kill anyone he deemed a sinner.

But, after we thought we finally put that Black Hood mystery to rest, Hal dropped the bombshell that he actually was not the Black Hood who shot up Fred Andrews and Hermione Lodge's mayoral debate at the town hall, and as Hal is admitting all this at the Cooper house, we see a second Black Hood attempt to shoot Fred at the Andrews house. With this revelation that another Black Hood is out there, the Tall Boy theory came back into full swing.

Tall Boy looks like a Black Hood suspect not only because of his size and eye color, but also from his connections and who the new Black Hood targets have been. Let's go over some reasons behind the Tall Boy theory:

1. Physicality. We've already been over this one, but it's worth repeating that Tall Boy is one of the only known characters matching the Black Hood's physical description. The Black Hood is also shown wearing a leather jacket on top of a flannel shirt very often, which is Tall Boy's signature outfit.
2. A Disgruntled Serpent. Tall Boy has not exactly been a team player throughout Season 2. He was the main voice of opposition against Jughead when he first joined the Southside Serpents, and then it was revealed that he worked for Hiram to chop the head off of the town's General Pickens statue in order to stir up animosity between the Serpents and the North Side.
3. The Hiram Connection. Aside from the Black Hood, Hiram Lodge has been the shady big bad of the whole season. Tall Boy was angry enough to work for Hiram before, so maybe he is doing it again.
4. The Target. The new Black Hood seems intent on killing Fred Andrews. The only two attacks we know that he has been behind are at Fred's mayoral debate and then at Fred's house. We know that Hiram definitely wants Fred out of the picture so that his wife can become mayor, and that he is prone to hiring hitmen to do the dirty work for him. It could all add up to Hiram hiring Tall Boy for another job.

Hopefully, we will learn the truth about the second Black Hood when the Riverdale Season 2 finale airs on the CW on Wednesday, May 16.