I Have A New 'Riverdale' Black Hood Theory & I Can't Believe I Didn't Think Of It Earlier

The Black Hood has finally reemerged on Riverdale, and you know what that means: a whole lot more theories about who is really behind that mask. After another (probable) murder, we are getting closer and closer to finding out who has been terrorizing the town this season. Every fan has their own theories, but a new suspect crossed my mind while watching the latest episode that I have not really seen fans discussing up to this point: Is Sister Woodhouse the Black Hood on Riverdale? I know it feels kind of out of left field, but when you think about it, all of the creepiness in Riverdale goes back to her.

Spoiler alert: This post will discuss details from Riverdale Season 2 Episode 19, "Prisoners." I feel like I should have started suspecting Sister Woodhouse sooner, but it didn't really click until Betty and Jughead started talking about how Mr. Svenson and Chic were connected at the beginning of Wednesday night's new episode. They brought up that fact that both Chic and Mr. Svenson lived at the Sisters of Quiet Mercy group home for periods of time — Chic was born and raised there and Svenson was admitted after misidentifying the Riverdale Reaper. We know that Mr. Svenson was somehow involved in this whole Black Hood mystery, and Chic admitted that he was lying about his identity in order to get closer to the Coopers in the new episode... what if all of this sketchiness goes back to the nun in charge of the Sisters of Quiet Mercy: Sister Woodhouse?

I know it sounds wild, but when you really think about how the Black Hood has been acting and who has been connected to the killer, it actually becomes a pretty convincing theory. Let's go over some of the reasons why I'm starting to think Sister Woodhouse is the Black Hood:

1. An Obsession With Punishing Sinners

One of the very first traits we learned about the Black Hood is that he targets people whom he deems to be sinners. He shot Fred Andrews for committing adultery, strangled Ms. Grundy for being a child predator, and shot Moose and Midge for taking drugs and having premarital sex. Likewise, Sister Woodhouse's defining character trait is her strict opposition to what she deems to be sins, as we clearly saw a couple of episodes ago when Cheryl was forced into her secret gay conversion therapy.

2. The Physicality

All we know about the Black Hood's appearance is that he is an older man with green eyes. Obviously, Sister Woodhouse is not a man, but her eye color and the wrinkles around her eyes really could match what we've seen of the Black Hood. And she could definitely disguise herself to look like a man. The real setback here is that we've seen the Black Hood sprint very quickly, and I'm not sure Sister Woodhouse is that quick on her feet... but I guess we have never seen her run yet.

But of course, the looks may not even matter, since a number of fans are convinced that the real Black Hood is sitting back and ordering minions to carry out the dirty work. That brings us to:

3. The Connections

Sister Woodhouse is the one connection between Mr. Svenson and Chic, the two characters that we know for a fact have been making life hard for the people of Riverdale. Woodhouse basically raised Chic and she remolded a shellshocked, family-less Mr. Svenson after he realized he sentenced the wrong man to death. It's really not a stretch to believe that both men had a son-like loyalty to Sister Woodhouse, and would do whatever she told them.

4. What About The Betty Connection?

Another major thing we know about the Black Hood is that he knows a lot about Betty Cooper. It is that fact that led most viewers to suspect Chic or Hal Cooper to be the Black Hood, but it does not blow up the Sister Woodhouse theory. In fact, the Cooper family has a very close relationship with Sister Woodhouse: Alice Cooper lived with the Sisters of Quiet Mercy for months as a teenager, and Polly followed suit when she was pregnant with Jason Blossom's twins. Having lived with two Cooper women before, Sister Woodhouse probably has a much more intimate knowledge of Betty than we really know.

Since the new episode ends by seemingly wiping Chic's name off of the Black Hood suspect list, I'm even more convinced by this Sister Woodhouse theory. I can't wait to see if it proves true or not in the final three episodes of Riverdale Season 2.