Episode 2 of Season 2 of Riverdale is available on Netflix. Those that have not watched it should be warned: this article contains plot spoilers in the very next paragraph. You have to stop reading now in order to avoid them. If you don't care about the plot spoilers, then scroll down.
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The episode, which is called "Nighthawks," centers around Archie Andrews, his fears over the fact that someone shot his father, and Pop Tate's efforts to save his fledgling business. The episode finishes with Midge and Moose starting to kiss in a lover's lane. A man, almost for certain the one that shot Fred Andrews and murdered Miss Grundy, emerges from behind Moose's car as he and Midge start to kiss. This man, the apparent serial killer that's terrorizing Riverdale, fires shots into the car, perhaps killing the amorous teenagers. Whether they are dead or not is something that isn't clear as "Nighthawks" ends.
Many are taking this murder scene as a reference to the Zodiac Killer and/or the 2007 film on that unknown individual. Phil Owen, writing at TheWrap.com on October 18th, offers this headline regarding the second episode of season two of Riverdale: "Yes, That Was a ‘Zodiac’ Homage at the End of ‘Nighthawks.’" Owen comments that the scene where Midge and Moose appear to get shot is "a pretty obvious homage to the 2007 David Fincher serial killer movie 'Zodiac'" (October 18th).
One can see why the murder scene would be taken to be an allusion to Fincher's film and even the Zodiac killer. After all, that unknown murderer did have lover's-lane victims. However, many appear to be missing a big point in zeroing in on the Zodiac film reference. That doesn't mean that Riverdale is going to follow a Zodiac kind of timeline. It may be sad commentary, but the Zodiac isn't the only serial killer that shot people in lover's lanes.
There is an unknown serial killer called the Phantom Killer that had numerous lover's-lanes victims in a town called Texarkana shortly after World War 2. Those killings and the police work that followed are the subject of a 1976 film by Charles B. Pierce called "The Town That Dreaded Sundown." If anything is to be considered an "obvious" allusion it's the fact that Episode 4 of Riverdale is also called "The Town That Dreaded Sundown."
#riverdale goes phantom killer??? this show is too much for me. remaking of the town that dreaded sundown? @MyFavMurder @CW_Riverdale pic.twitter.com/WgaiDhusis— Sarah (@SaRaJaRv) October 19, 2017
Having watched that flick a few years back, the physical depictions of the Phantom Killer and the mystery killer in Riverdale are similar. At this point I think a stronger argument could be made that the allusion in Riverdale's "Nighthawks" is to The Moonlight Murders that plagued Texarkana in the 1940s and not anything to do with the Zodiac killer's murders. That doesn't mean that the scene of the shooting of Moose and Midge isn't similar to the 2007 Zodiac film. However, I think a lot of fans are missing the reference to the Phantom Killer here. He's the subject of the "The Town That Dreaded Sundown Film" and he shot young people in a lover's-lane setting.
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