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by Melissa Parkin
And the
killer is…
Wait for it…
Wait for it…
 |
| Eliza Morse/MTV |
Lakewood’s
bloodbath comes to an end, but not before a few more residents bite the dust.
Picking up right where we left off, Ghostface crashes the school’s Halloween
party by hacking into the projection feed, showing the live video of Keiran’s
father, Sheriff Hudson, bloody, beaten, and bound by the masked killer. To make
matters worse, news hits that Seth Branson has escaped police custody and that
a deputy was murdered during said breakout.
Emma’s mother
demands that her daughter stay at the dance, given the heavy police presence
there. She heads over to the precinct to examine the crime scene, where it’s
clear that it’s been staged. Emma dials Keiran, but he ignores the calls as he
oh-so suspiciously loads up his revolver inside his car. She tries reaching
Brooke next with the same rotten luck, as Noah attempts to trace the killer’s
location via the hijacked video feed. Piper assures Emma that she’ll head over
to Brooke’s place to make sure she’s okay. The podcaster warns Emma not to
trust anyone as she heads out. Ghostface calls Emma, leaving her a trail of
breadcrumbs to follow in regard to the Sheriff’s location. When she relays the
message to her mother, the pair cracks the clue and races to Maggie’s old house
where they find Sheriff Hudson bound and gagged against the tree where Brandon
used to leave Daisy gifts. Maggie rejoices in the discovery that Hudson’s still
alive, but the elation turns to horror as she cuts the binds holding him to the
tree and all his intestines pour right out into her hands. Talk about spilling
your guts…
Emma later
receives word from Noah that malware is wreaking havoc on the local cell
network, revealing why Brooke isn’t receiving any of Emma’s messages. Most
unfortunate of all, Noah manages to triangulate the killer’s cell…to Brooke’s
house in the midst of her party. Jake crashes the festivities, igniting a fight
between him and Brooke. She storms off inside just before everyone outside at
the pool flees the premises upon finding a fellow partier dead in the pool
house. Audrey comes face-to-face with the killer, who slams her against the
side of the house with a knife primed and ready to stab the teen.
Unbeknownst
to the hysteria, Brooke eventually comes back out to the deserted poolside in
disappointment, believing everyone simply bailed on her. She heads inside the
house just as Seth Branson shows up, claiming that Ghostface broke into the
precinct and killed the deputy in an attempt to frame him. Brooke doesn’t buy
the story and locks him outside just before the lights go out around the pool.
Brooke stares out at the darkness in confusion when the electricity returns and
Ghostface appears in place of Seth. She races away as the killer breaks down
the door, and the girl hides inside her father’s unplugged chest freezer, where
he previously stored a dead drug addict’s body. Ghostface bests her by locking
her inside and tossing the chest about before stabbing the freezer’s walls from
every direction, cutting the girl. To make matters worse, the killer plugs in
the freezer, and leaves her to die.
Noah and Emma
arrive on scene, coming across the abandoned property. To Emma’s utter horror,
the pair finds Piper’s car parked outside with her phone and glasses on the
ground, and blood smeared across the driver side door. As they head up to the
front porch, Kieran comes out from around the corner with his gun aimed at
Emma. He lowers it immediately after realizing it’s her, but she doesn’t return
the favor as she continues wielding a crowbar with intent to strike.
Confused,
Kieran demands to know why Emma doesn’t trust him. She relays the message Piper
gave her, claiming that he’s in fact the son of mass murderer Brandon
James. He refutes the remark and claims ignorance to everything that’s happened
tonight. Emma realizes that he hasn’t a clue about his father’s death and is
forced to tell him. He’s clearly distraught by the news and willingly
surrenders his revolver to Emma as a sign of good faith. The three go inside
Brooke’s house where they split up to find her. Emma and Kieran stumble upon a
clueless Jake wandering back onto the property, unaware of the killer at large.
The three hear banging coming from the garage, where they find the locked
freezer and free a shivering Brooke from the icy chamber.
Noah searches
the poolside, coming across Audrey’s backpack and beloved camcorder. Assuming
the worst, he screams in terror when Audrey suddenly startles him from behind
after he comes across the dead partier. Seeing the knife wound on his friend’s
arm, Noah asks what happened. Audrey claims she blacked out after running into
the killer…who against all logic left her alive. Everyone safely gathers in the
house, where Brooke informs Emma that there’s a working landline she can use to
call for help. Kieran’s gun exchanges hands and eventually falls in Audrey’s
possession as Emma receives a call from the killer on Brooke’s landline.
Ghostface says he/she has Emma’s mom and leaves it up to the teen to figure out
where. Given that the killer said earlier that this all ends tonight, she
assumes it has to be at the dock where Brandon James was killed by the police
back in the day.
Running
through the woods, Emma discovers her mother bound and gagged on the pier. The
killer corners her on the walkway, peeling off the mask at Emma’s demand.
Surprise, surprise. It’s none other than Piper Shaw behind the Brandon James
disguise. Apparently, she holds some grievances for Daisy being indirectly
responsible for her father’s death and then later giving her up for adoption
when half-sis, Emma, got “the perfect life.”
Piper’s plan
is to set up Seth Branson, who she has tied up in the trunk of her car. Emma
tries to attack Piper with the knife hiding behind her back, but Shaw’s wise to
the plan and manages to slice Emma across the abdomen before she can strike.
Maggie manages to free herself from her restraints and tackles Piper before she
can kill Emma. The girls’ mother gets stabbed in the process, leaving the
wounded Emma unguarded. The two share a struggle, but Piper ultimately gets the
upper hand over Emma. The psychotic podcaster coos victoriously as she prepares
to reveal a “big twist.” Suddenly, a gunshot blast sends Piper hurtling into
the water. Audrey emerges from the woods with Kieran’s gun in hand, taking out
Piper for good with a clean shot to the head when she emerges from the water.
All’s well
that ends well…
But it’s not
the end--not really.
Following the
happy morning-after scene showing the survivors rejoicing in their victory, the
character arcs come to a close. Emma and Kieran finally become an official
couple. Seth Branson is freed from police custody. Jake erases the spyware from
his computer, and Noah wraps up Piper’s “Autopsy of a Crime” podcast for her
listeners. Despite the case coming to a close, he expresses his suspicions as
to the night when Will and Piper were both attacked. Did she make it all up? The
audience knows better, having seen the incident firsthand. As Noah’s voice-over
combs through the scene, Audrey’s shown to be burning a bunch of letters sent
to her by…you guessed it, Piper Shaw, along with stolen police notes from the
original Brandon James case.
This
television adaptation of the famed franchise definitely delivers in its season
finale, but there is some criticism that can’t go ignored. For those familiar
with CBS’s 2009 mini-series Harper’s Island, the big reveal shouldn’t
come as much of a shock. As previously stated, the similarities between Scream
and executive producer and writer Jill Blotevogel’s previous work, Harper’s
Island, are staggering. So when it came down to predicting Scream’s
killer, it only seemed logical to think that it mirrored the other series. And
that logic didn’t disappoint, because they share the exact same reveal. As for
Audrey’s unspoken compliance in the killings, it really just came down to
commonsense. Was it really a twist? Not really. Are the unanswered questions
really indecipherable? Not likely.
Given that Scream:
The TV Series was originally planned to be a mini-series, there’s obvious
concerns that extending this 10-episode plot will ruin the intrigue of what
made it popular. If one attempted to predict future “twists,” they’d say that
Brandon James isn’t really dead and that Emma’s father was the original killer.
Plus, considering Scream is a notorious slasher franchise, it seems hard
to imagine how they can rack up the same body count from season to season, if the
show’s keeping the same cast. If Scream adapted into an anthology like American
Horror Story, giving audiences a new mystery with completely new characters
each season, it would be easy to keep the pace and story in check. Sadly,
that’s not the case here. The same case and characters will return each season.
It’s in the series’ best interest to keep the show running for as long as
possible, leaving us all to fear that the series will become an eventual,
convoluted mess à la Pretty Little Liars. Be afraid, people. Be very,
very afraid. Nevertheless, season one wrapped up with bloody satisfaction.
Scream: The TV Series - “Revelations” Rating: A -
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