“Boyfriend, killer, boyfriend, killer.” – Mickey Altieri, “Scream 2”
On “Scream” this week, Emma begins to worry that she’s dancing with the devil as “The Dance” sets the stage for a bloody season ender.
And just when, after a month of murders (and apparently, a year of planning given the flashback we see of the killer evading the hilariously inept security staff at the county records office and stealing the Brandon James mask), it seemed like Lakewood’s nightmare was finally over. Mr. Branson’s arrest happens to coincide with Halloween, which is of course the anniversary of the original massacre. To Piper’s audible surprise, Sheriff Hudson allows plans for the annual dance to continue, convinced he has his man behind bars.
Emma isn’t so sure. Maggie has ordered a DNA test to see if Branson is really her son, but the results will take time. And despite his squirrely behavior (I’ve tended to think that Bobby Campo is one of the weaker members of the ensemble and thought so again during these scenes), her face-to-face confrontation with him doesn’t yield the confirmation she was hoping for. But she gets another chance at closure when Piper reveals that she’s found Brandon James’ mother. Mrs. James is your typical elderly woman in genre fare, batty and off-kilter, spouting creepy and cryptic dialogue. She drones that her egg being old (um, ew) was why Brandon had so many issues and unsettles Emma further when she mistakes her for “Daisy” and blames her for Brandon’s death. But she does let slip that “Brandon’s son” paid her a visit and, prompted by the girls, eventually remembers that his name was Seth.
That’s enough for Emma. You can see the relief in her smile when she gets out of Piper’s car. She wants it to be Branson, she wants Will avenged, she wants it all to be over. And finally feeling like it is, Emma flirtingly accepts Kieran’s invitation to the dance, promising to pick out “awkward couple costumes” for them. And then they have pizza with their parents, weirdly both a blended family dinner and a semi double date.
But someone who isn’t convinced is Audrey. She still doesn’t understand why Branson would murder Rachel, as she had no connection to him, the webcam spying, or the Brandon James history. So Audrey hits on the idea that Rachel accidentally caught him doing something incriminating on her camera and thus her death wasn’t part of his master plan, a theory that seems to have merit when she discovers that Rachel’s video files have been wiped from her computer, just like the malware on the school server. But she has access to the backups on the cloud so she and Noah have a “raw footage film festival” before the dance. And what do they find? A damning clip, but not of Branson. It’s of Kieran...in a bar with Nina...the night before she was killed.
Noah is skeptical (there’s some hero worship there from when he pulled him out of the lake in the pilot), but Audrey notes that Kieran fits the profile for a slasher movie suspect – he’s a mysterious newcomer with a secret connection to two of the victims and who set out to seduce the ingénue the killer is obsessed with. Audrey is convinced she has to warn Emma and shows her the video. When Emma confronts Kieran about it, his explanation is reasonably plausible. He got into an epic fight with his dad (I think the show kinda dropped the ball on Kieran and Sheriff Hudson’s relationship), went to a bar to blow off some steam, and ran into Nina. Emma is aghast that a second boyfriend slept with Nina and didn’t tell her, but Kieran claims nothing happened between them.
It’s enough to shake Emma’s trust, though, understandable given what she’s gone through. Kieran storms off kinda douchily, with a parting shot that she’s letting Branson beat her if she doesn’t believe him. And the situation flares up some tension between Emma and Audrey, who’s not happy to have Emma equate trusting her with trusting Kieran. So Emma’s already rattled when Piper rushes into the dance and tells her that she took the school yearbook to Mrs. James and that she identified Kieran, not Branson, as her visitor.
About Piper. I again found her super suspicious throughout this episode. She’s the one who mentions the mask being stolen on her podcast, a previously unreported fact. Piper also finds Mrs. James and sorta manipulates Emma into coming with her. Could she have coached this old coot to throw people off the trail by claiming Brandon had a son? And she’s, conveniently and off-screen, the only person who hears Mrs. James change her story and implicate Kieran. Long story short, I’ve got my eye on you, Shaw.
In non-nuGhostface news, there’s the romantic tension that’s been building between Brooke and Jake the past few episodes. I actually kinda like them together – these two privileged assholes bringing out the best in each other – and Carlson Young and Tom Maden have some chemistry, though I’m convinced one or both characters will bite it in the finale before they can become a couple. Anyway, Brooke comes to stay at Jake’s after her dad and Branson’s arrests and she clearly appreciates his support.
But then, she catches someone spying on her via her computer webcam. Jake swears it isn’t him (though, despite his claims that the spyware network has been shut down, we later see him watching the security feed from Brooke’s house), but he characteristically puts his foot in his mouth about Branson and her family and Brooke bails. Both quickly revert to form. Jake douches it up at the dance, inviting some bimbo-y blonde to be his arm candy in a clear effort to make Brooke jealous (this girl, btw, is a total redshirt). And Brooke embraces being the queen bee bitch, deciding to throw a rager at her empty house, which sets up a nice bookend to the pilot for the finale.
Speaking of, nuGhostface has party plans of his own. Earlier in the episode, Sheriff Hudson is dismayed to discover that the killer’s communications with Emma pinged cell towers on the far side of the town’s titular lake, nowhere near Branson’s house or the school. He goes searching for a witness to tie Branson to the calls, but ends up stumbling upon nuGhostface in an empty summer rental, who promptly knocks him out. Maggie’s concerns about his whereabouts prove well-founded when the killer streams a video of Hudson beaten and bloody on the big screen at the dance. And finally, we see that Branson has escaped from the sheriff’s station (wasn’t the mayor there too? I wonder if he fled or was killed), a gory mess left in his wake. Cut to “To be continued....”
“The Dance” is done. Do you think you know whodunit? Branson? Kieran? Piper? Someone else entirely (I still think Brandon’s older brother is involved somehow)? Share your final “Scream” killer theories in the comments section before Tuesday’s season finale.
