Chic Cooper May Be The Real Black Hood On 'Riverdale' & Not Just Because He's Creepy AF

Being Chic Cooper can't be easy. To have grown up without knowing your parents for years, seemingly not enjoying working in the field of "fantasy fulfillment," and at constant threat of being attacked in your unsafe apartment building is not an easy life. However, he doesn't seem entirely relieved when his biological mother and sister show up to his house wanting to help. Now that Riverdale (directed by: Allison Anders, two episodes, Dawn Wilkinson, two episodes) has seemingly done away with the Black Hood, the show's biggest question may now be: "What's going on with Chic Cooper on Riverdale?"

When Chic first meets his relatives, he seems to be more interested in keeping an emotional distance from them than getting to know them. He admits that he has gone by the Cooper house before, the house he almost grew up in. He also admits that he didn't go in because he thought the Coopers would not want "someone like [him]" around. Chic Cooper seems to be warning his biological family to stay away from him — but why? What threat does Chic bring to the Cooper household?

Towards the end of the Season 2 winter premiere episode, "The Blackboard Jungle," Betty shows up at Chic's apartment and sees him being attacked and stabbed by a stranger. This suggests that Chic is trying to keep his biological family safe from the dangerous life he lives, but the harrowing final moments of Chic watching Betty as she sleeps hints that there's something far more sinister afoot.

"The Blackboard Jungle" ends with Chic slowly walking into Betty's room as she sleeps. He stands next to her bed, slowly leaning over — the light from outside illuminating only this left eye. For a moment he doesn't look dissimilar from The Black Hood, a mysterious dark shape with the exception of an eye peering through. It's not clear if Chic Cooper and the Black Hood are directly related, but they do seem to share one thing in common — an obsession with Betty.

While it may never be clear why The Black Hood was obsessed with Betty, it's no wonder that Chic is losing sleep thinking about her. She had the life he never had a chance at. When he first meets Betty and their mother, his attention quickly turns to his sister as he expresses jealousy at her upbringing. He's upset that she got the chance to grow up with a family and have a "normal" life — or at least as normal a life as one can have while living in Riverdale.

Between the suggestive lighting in the bedroom scene, the shared obsession with Betty, and Archie's belief that he's "not so sure they [got the right guy]," it looks like Chic could end up being the Black Hood. Or, at the very least, may have been using the threat of the Black Hood to terrorize Betty. Whatever relationship Chic has with Betty, it seems to be far too dependent on Chic's "idea" of Betty and not who Betty actually is. But while Betty may have reason to be afraid of Chic, Chic has no idea that he may need to be afraid of Betty.

The closest that Riverdale fans have gotten to seeing "Dark Betty" in Season 2 was when she decided to sing/strip to "Mad World," or as Veronica calls it "that Donnie Darko song." Chic seems to prove that secret dark instincts seem to run in the Cooper family, but Chic has no idea what he could be in for if he wrongs Betty. Chic may have suffered through years of loneliness and envy, but Betty's life hasn't been a picnic, either. Even if this "new" addition to the Cooper household isn't the true identity of the Black Hood, things are going to be a lot more tense in the Cooper household as long as Chic is around.