“Oh, it’s hard being friends with you, Sidney. When you’re friends with Sidney, you die.” – Ghostface, “Scream 3”
The title of “Scream”’s third episode – “Wanna Play a Game?” – isn’t really a question at all. Lakewood’s teens have little choice about being pawns in nuGhostface’s plans. But because he takes his time setting up the chess board this week, it’s probably the weakest of the three episodes we’ve seen so far.
Specifically, I was really disappointed with how they handled Emma finding out her mom Maggie was “Daisy,” the object of Brandon James’ obsession. It plays out when Emma, the killer’s words from last week still haunting her, overhears Maggie and Sheriff Hudson – in a classic television contrivance – recapping the entire subplot. She then confirms her suspicions when Kieran lets her snoop through his dad’s files (and sidebar – Kieran was acting mighty suspicious in this episode. He seemed reluctant to let Emma come to his house, he conveniently found the damning police statement after receiving a text message that, in a rare occurrence, the audience doesn’t see, and he casually mentioned that he had been arrested before). This should have been a major moment in the show’s life, but it fell flat for me. And the actual confrontation between Emma and Maggie – with Emma also revealing that she’s being harassed –was very mutely played by Fitzgerald and Middendorf. Hopefully there’s more to come here, as Maggie clams right up when Emma presses as to why her dad is a person of interest.
Other bits and bobs felt random and disconnected. After her introduction last week, Piper is barely a blip in this one, getting backstory from Noah on Brandon James. We see him slay his first two victims (for possible future reference – Dara Aldean and Brett Kenner) in a flashback, which at first I thought was the show trickily giving us some gore in an episode where nobody would die in the present day. Also, there was a beat with Audrey seemingly contemplating suicide that felt forced, although I did like her recognizing former BFF Emma’s tell (“You just did your hair twirl thing”).
There were also romantic developments, that set things up for later in the hour, but weren’t so riveting on their own. Pushing him to resume their relationship, Brooke plays a game with Mr. Branson, seemingly thinking that showing him how easily she could ruin his life would be a turn-on. Meanwhile, Noah plans a romantic date with Riley, which involves...taking her to the store where he works and playing her cut scenes from video games? And this...gets her so hot that she sets out to sex him up right then and there? Huh?
We do find out a lot more about what Will and Jake are up to with the pervy spy videos. Jake digs up a hidden cashbox – confirming suspicions I’ve had that they were selling them – and is furious to find it empty. When confronted, Will concedes that he took the cash...before Tyler could. Ah, so Tyler was in on it too; Nina did say in the pilot that Tyler had tech savvy. The boys bicker back and forth throughout the episode about being able to trust each other, with Jake musing that Nina often pit them against one another and Will retorting that Nina was blackmailing Jake. Verrry interesting, and it certainly gives them motive for ridding Lakewood of both Nina and Tyler. Also, we see Will riding some kind of scary-looking farm equipment, which I have to assume someone will be skewered on before the season’s out.
But things really take a turn for the better when Riley receives a text from Tyler. Now, the audience knows that he’s Tyler of the Dead, but the rest of the teens don’t. For reasons I don’t get, Riley is super loyal to Tyler and wants to hear him out, but Emma (who suspects the person harassing her might behind the message when she hears Brooke got one too) and the others insist on going to the police, though the guys secretly split off, hoping they can pay Tyler not to incriminate them. Sheriff Hudson sets a trap to snare Tyler, but nuGhostface is already one step ahead.
And that’s when the real game begins. Having lured Brooke to a hotel room by pretending to be Mr. Branson, nuGhostface direct messages Emma and insists that she choose – “the good girl or the bad girl.” Thinking Riley is safe at the police station, she begs him not to hurt Brooke. But apparently, the entire police force went along for the Tyler sting, because it’s all too easy for the killer to trick Riley outside to her demise. He scares her, stalks her (in a sequence that reminded me a little of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s final face-off with the Fisherman in “I Know What You Did Last Summer"), and stabs her, leaving her to bleed to death.
I thought the show played up the melodrama of Riley’s murder a bit much. I mean, Riley and Noah didn’t have a grand, epic romance; they had gone out on two dates. So Riley squeaking out that she could “see our stars” as she was expiring was probably supposed to break my heart, but made me roll my eyes instead. Her slaying does juice the story at this juncture, though. It raises the stakes for Emma, who now knows how life-or-death serious her stalker is. And, like Emma and Audrey, it gives Noah personal skin in the game.
Were you bummed “Wanna Play a Game?” killed off Riley? Who do you think will be bumped off next? Be sure to share in the comments section.
