New 'Riverdale' Theory About The Black Hood Explains His Obsession With Betty

Ring! Ring! Who's calling? Oh, it's only a maniacal killer out to sabotage your entire existence and destroy everything and everyone you hold dear. Yup — that's basically what's up with Betty Cooper these days. The ponytailed amateur Nancy Drew has crossed way over the line into the dark side, considering she's the lone communicator with a masked murderer and has found herself at the center of the biggest mystery the town of Riverdale has ever seen. Um, is The Black Hood Betty's dad on Riverdale? New theories about why Betty Cooper is actually being targeted are floating around.

The Black Hood has made it clear that his intention is to cleanse the town of Riverdale of its sins. "Riverdale is not innocent. It's a town of hypocrites, degenerates, and criminals. My wrath is the price of your lies, your secrets, your sins. I will not stop. I cannot be stopped. I am the wolf. You are the flock," he said in his letter. And his whole M.O. is making sure Betty realizes that she's just as guilty as he is, if that whole creepy mirror exercise he put her through means anything. Yeah, that did not exactly answer the question "Who are you?," but whatever. Nice try, dude, but this isn't the time for sneaky mind games and abstract lessons. Why are you so obsessed with Betty?! Redditor methodwriter85 has an idea:

This is my theory- Black Hood is Betty's biological father. He's a Serpent who got sent away from Riverdale to a mental asylum. He was a childhood friend of Alice, and they had sex together, resulting in Betty. (Would anyone really be shocked if Alice and Hal didn't have a history of perfect fidelity to each other?) Let's say that Alice and Hal have a fight one night 17 tears ago, and Alice decides to go off to Southside to cool her. She winds up revisiting an old friend at the townie bar. In a biblical sense. Maybe she was passed out and it wasn't consensual, like Cheryl being roofied tonight in this episode.

When she gets pregnant, Alice decided to keep this to herself as Black Hood is mentally unstable. He's sent off to a hospital before she gives birth, and Alice assumes that he doesn't know that Betty is his child. Of course, he does, which is why he goes looking for her.

That would explain why Black Hood feels possessive of Betty. And it would explain how he knew about Alice's arrest.

Say what? OK, it's possible. Maybe things didn't all play out exactly like that, but we could totally buy a version of this narrative. Alice's past is still one big question mark. We know she had Serpent ties and that she was probably way different than the controlling mother she is today, so maybe someone connected to her history would go after her and her family. And if that person is Betty's actual father, everything runs so much deeper.

The other hunch being tossed around is that Chic Cooper, Betty's long-lost bro, is behind that Black Hood. No, he's not a man in his 30s or 40s, but he does look eerily like Betty and he shares her blood. That might explain why big bad BH told her to look in the mirror in order to reveal his identity. Dun. Dun. Dun. This concept also applies to the estranged father theory above. Is it possible there are two murderers à la Scream and they're teaming up? Is this all one big family affair? But these towheaded siblings look so adorable together...

This show is so bonkers that the possibilities really are endless. Happy sleuthing, Riverdalies.