Who the EFF is Black Hood?! As theories have been tossed from cubicle to cubicle at the FLARE office, each has always assumed the Black Hood is a dude—the person who attacked Fred Andrews, Ms. Grundy, Midge and Moose was clearly a man, with deep, green eyes and a bulky build. BUT… could it be that the Black Hood is actually a woman?

This Reddit theory suggests just that the woman terrorizing Riverdale is Penny Peabody, Serpent lawyer, Alice Cooper’s half-sister and Betty Cooper’s biological mom. Woah, right?!

It sounds totally crazy, but Reddit user -ICrackers makes a pretty damn good case. We already know that Alice was a Serpent when she was younger, so it makes sense that her sis would be part of the crew, too. The theory goes that Penny became pregnant with Betty when she was too young to care for her properly, and Alice took Betty with her to the Northside to give her a better life. As Betty grew older, Alice started to use her job as one of the town’s most prominent journalists to paint the Southside in a deeply negative light.

This upset Penny, especially since Alice was, at her core, a Southside Serpent. Now, Penny is upset that she lost her daughter, angry that her half-sister continues to pit North against South and ultimately, super pissed that none of the shitty people in the North are ever reprimanded (hiii, Archie buying a gun under-the-table and daintily throwing it into the river when he was through his phase).

Consider everything the Black Hood has done: torturing Betty but never harming her, exposing Alice’s past, seeking to uncover all the horrible people from the Northside. It kinda adds up, no?

Here’s where our own addition to -ICrackers’s theory comes in. As we’ve already said, it’s clear either one or several different dudes are doing Penny’s bidding. It could be that donning the black hood is how Penny asks her Serpent clients to repay her. In case you forgot, Penny was the lawyer Jughead asked for help prior to F.P.’s trial, and, when Jughead asked her how he should pay, she said he could do her a favour in the future. F.P. had many a ruffled feather when he heard that she was involved, which makes us think that F.P. knows what Penny is capable of.

This also means that Jughead could be the next Serpent required to carry out one of the Black Hood’s murderous tasks. A debt is owed, after all. And wouldn’t it be a special kind of torture for Betty to come face to face with Jughead wearing that terrifying hood? It’s the ultimate revenge.

Thankfully, the face behind the hood will be revealed soon, according to K.J. Apa (a.k.a. Archie Andrews) and Madeleine Petsch (a.k.a. Cheryl Blossom). “A couple more episodes and the mystery will be revealed,” Petsch said in interview with Glamour“When I read it, it shocked me.”

UGH. THE SUSPENSE.

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