Riverdale — “Chapter Twenty-Two: Silent Night, Deadly Night” — Image Number RVD209a _029.jpg — Pictured: KJ Apa as Archie Andrews — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW — © 2017 The CW Network. All Rights Reserved
11. Betty Buries Archie Alive/Black Hood Is Killed
Episode: “Chapter Twenty-Two: Silent Night, Deadly Night” (Season 2, Episode 9)
The Black Hood’s obsession with isolating Betty Cooper during Season 2 hit frightening new lows in the midseason finale, as the gun-wielding assailant ordered her to dispose of the one person she had told everything to: Archie Andrews.
After forcing the pair to find the missing Mr. Svenson (by sending them his severed finger), the Black Hood laid a trail of breadcrumbs that lead them to an empty casket. Suddenly, he appeared from the darkness and pulled a gun on them, ordering Archie into the coffin and Betty to bury him alive – undoubtedly his twisted way of regaining Betty’s undivided loyalty.
Seeing the lifelong friends in such dire straits was a hard watch and we couldn’t help but feel for Archie as his best friend was forced to shovel dirt on top of his own coffin. However, a slight distraction allowed Betty to attack the Black Hood with the shovel and rescue Archie from the dirt, leading to an all-out chase for revenge.
In a beautifully-shot sequence, Archie pursued the Black Hood all the way through the eerie fog and onto a bridge before pulling a gun on him and ordering him to surrender. With so much history between them in a mere nine episodes, it was clear that there was a lot weighing on Archie’s mind in that long drawn-out scene and, for a moment, it looked as if he might actually have pulled the trigger. But alas, the gunshot that followed came from Sheriff Keller’s gun and killed the Black Hood immediately, allowing the sheriff to unmask the assailant and finally give us the truth – the Black Hood was Mr. Svenson all along (or was he?).
With unnerving visuals and a genius ’80s-like score, the whole chase looked like it belonged in a classic thriller movie and it was a fitting payoff to the first chapter of the Black Hood story. If only that was where the saga actually ended…