Welcome to our weekly Scream recap. We kick off the second episode with a great opening in which we get to meet Rachel, the other half of the viral video scandal, for a few moments before she is killed off. I really hope this continues to be a weekly tradition, opening with a taunting murder very similar to the classic opening kills of each Scream film. This one doesn’t pack quite the same punch as the murder in the pilot, but it does feel more Scream-ish in that the killer is actually using a phone to taunt her. While the voice is scrambled, it’s not the Ghostface voice we heard in the pilot and sounds decidedly female. But it is hard to be sure and could even be an oversight. You never know.
We’re also introduced to Piper Shay in this episode, host of a true crime podcast who has come to town to investigate the murders and uncover any possible links between what’s happening now and Lakewood’s mysterious past. This character is very obviously our new Gale Weathers. It remains to be seen whether or not she will maintain Gale’s spunky personality. So far we haven’t seen enough to really be able to tell.
Audrey gets more time to breathe as a character when we see her realistically reacting to Rachel’s death—although it would still have been nice to see more in this area. It’s at least clear that this wasn’t a phase or experiment for her, even if she’s not a lesbian, and that she cared very deeply for Rachel. However, her relationship with Emma doesn’t develop any further from where we left it in the pilot.
Noah continues to be the most interesting character. Unlike Randy, his obvious predecessor, he’s given a subplot of his own and actually gets the girl—so far, at least. His classroom deconstruction of what’s happening also seems to be a weekly staple, which is welcome. It actually works better this week than it did in the pilot. While he appeared to have blood on his forehead near the end of the last episode, this is explained away as paint. Still, the show is setting him up to be the killer pretty heavily. His relationship with Riley is the easiest romantic pairing to invest in as a viewer. Brooke’s tryst with a teacher continues to be gross.
There are even more references to the original Scream this week, from the Ghostface calls to the investigative reporter to a scene where Emma overhears two girls talking about her in the bathroom, and these are welcome for the most part. They help establish the tone of Scream and the show continues to develop its own style at the same time.
With it being an MTV series with a very clear and conscious demographic, it seems completely likely that the killer is going to turn out to be one of the two guys fighting for Emma’s attention. The boyfriend’s been kind of a prick so far, but that doesn’t really scream murder. Kieran, the sheriff’s son, the mysterious new guy who just moved to town also feels a little bit too obvious.
But he’s still my pick for the killer, at least this week. There’s a scene at the basket ball game where he points out how strange it is that Emma was getting mysterious texts, possibly from the killer, just moments before her boyfriend showed up to talk to her. He’s planting doubt in her mind. This has echoes of both Stu in the original Scream and Mickey in Scream 2. Both guys were quick to point out the off-kilter behavior of others and both of them turned out to be the killer. This move is a tried and true Ghostface tactic. Until I probably change my mind next week, I think Kieran is following tradition.
