Wait, Did This Riverdale Star Reveal Who The *Real* Trash Bag Killer Is?

Season 6 of Riverdale may already be underway, but there are still a ton of lingering questions from Season 5 that have yet to be answered. One of the main ones is who the Trash Bag Killer could be. Betty’s latest masked nemesis was initially her reason for returning to Riverdale, but he kind of got sidelined in the midst of all the killer truckers, Jughead disappearances, and Mothmen. But the TBK mystery was back and more twisted than ever in the third episode of Season 6, and a cheeky tweet from one of the show’s stars seems to be hinting that Hal could be Riverdale’s Trash Bag Killer. It’s not really a theory that makes much logical sense, given that Hal was killed a few seasons back, but anything can happen on Riverdale.

Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers from Riverdale Season 6, Episode 3, “Mr. Cypher.” In the thick of the horror-inspired “Rivervale” event, the gang faced off against their most terrifying adversary yet: the devil himself. While Veronica, Jughead, Kevin, Reggie, and Tabitha all struggled to find a way out of Lucifer’s soul-stealing deals, Betty’s face-off against the devil was much more personal. He took the form of the Trash Bag Killer, and upon questioning the person she believed to be her torturer, Betty even got a glimpse into her father Hal and sister Polly’s damnation in hell.

The sound of her sister crying out for help from hell was too much for Betty; it drove her to grab a pair of scissors and kill TBK. Then she took of his mask and revealed the face of her FBI colleague Glen Scot. Glen has been a prime TBK suspect among fans since he was first introduced, so this reveal in the alternate “Rivervale” reality could really mean Glen is the Trash Bag Killer in the core Riverdale timeline. But there’s another wrinkle in the killer’s identity...

Right after the episode aired, Lochlyn Munro, the actor who played Hal Cooper before he was killed off, implied on Twitter that he was playing the Trash Bag Killer in the episode. Munro was also listed as a special guest star in the episode’s credits, so this checks out.

Munro’s casting in this part raises a big question: Why would the show bring him back for this TBK cameo when the big reveal at the end of the episode was going to be Glen under the mask? It could be a super subtle hint that in the Riverdale reality, Hal Cooper really is the Trash Bag Killer.

Hal as TBK makes a ton of sense as a concept. TBK is obsessed with Betty, and has no qualms with killing anyone but her, much like how Hal behaved as the Black Hood. The big issue with the theory, however, is that Hal died back in the Season 3 finale. Viewers saw Penelope Blossom shoot him in the head after he failed to kill Betty in her twisted obstacle course. Then again, the show never actually gave fans a clear view of Hal’s dead body, so the writers may find some way to explain how he could have survived. I mean, we all know the Riverdale writers’ room is not afraid of a stretch... even when it makes absolutely no sense.

Since “Rivervale” is still in full force, fans will likely have to wait until Riverdale Season 6 shifts back to its core reality in 2022 to find out more about the Trash Bag Killer. New episodes of Riverdale air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.