As I noted last week, I’m in full on hate watch mode for Scream at this point. But this week’s episode managed to turn that around just a bit. I don’t really know what’s going on at this point since there are so many poorly written plot points and character motivations, but I think it’s lumping together to get to that same apex of entertaining awfulness that made “Wanna Play A Game?” such a fun episode.
“Betrayed” gives us multiple suspects, more of the adorable podcaster Piper Shaw, and sequence that’s so badly thrown together it actually circles around to being good again. Am I still watching the same show here?
At the beginning of the episode, Emma has a dream that’s laid out like most generic Scream sequences. It’s pretty dumb overall since you know Emma’s never going to be in actual danger, but her dream actually works for the rest of the show. You get the sense that she blames herself for the killings (as she should because she’s terrible), and it sets her on a great path of self destruction. In horror fiction terms, she’s going to make a lot of ludicrous decisions going forward, and it’s definitely going to be fun watching it go down. Following that, there’s this scene between Noah (the horror nerd) and his best friend Audrey (the girl who was outed in the beginning of the show, she really hasn’t been important until now hilariously enough) as Noah has such a Scream-esque speech that once again summarizes the show’s mystery as the characters he mentions walk through the background behind him. You just can’t make this stuff up, folks. It’s pretty wonderful. We also have a new detective in town who’s doing her job, but terribly. She was introduced a few episodes ago, but hasn’t had any bearing on the story until now. Basically she starts bringing in all these kids for questioning without really caring how laws work. It’s pretty funny horror fiction logic as she decides to just start questioning everyone about the murders without any of these kids asking for a lawyer. She’s far too aggressive for someone who has zero evidence.
But then we figure out Audrey’s DNA was on the inside of the killer’s Brandon James mask. As Audrey (or is it Aubrey? Really doesn’t matter) hastily calls Emma to destroy a memory card, while being detained so it looks double suspicious, we find out Audrey was super angry after first victim Nina leaked a video of her. The whole episode was trying to set up Audrey as the killer, but none of it made any sense. It’s all arbitrary plot stuff that’s obviously establishing her as a red herring. Speaking of red herrings, there’s plenty of them in this episode. The whole “The Mayor killed his wife” plot came to a head as one of the jock bros chickens out and gives him back the footage of the Mayor possibly killing his wife. It’s all so stupid. The only reason this sequence is great is because it involves Piper Shaw and she instantly makes all scenes she’s in that much better.
But the scene is so badly thrown together it all works. The Mayor saying things like “Be careful, there’s a killer on the loose,” meeting in a warehouse in the middle of the night, the stuff that led to that where one jock bro threatened the other jock bro in the gym, and finally the killer shows up and stabs somebody. It’s a good time, for sure.
Assorted Musings:
- I can’t keep accidentally liking this show. It’s not good for my heart.
- Despite my wishes, MTV has picked up Scream for a second season. Either that means the story won’t actually end at season end, or that we’ll get a second season with a mostly new cast and story a la the Scream films. I’m hoping for the latter.
- I’m hoping there’s an endgame in sight because there’s a huge difference in this episode because it’s finally active. Major difference from before.