We’re back with episode 5 of “Scream: The TV Series.” It was announced earlier this week that the MTV series from executive producer Wes Craven was given the green light for season two. What that means for any of the remaining characters remains to be seen.
When we return to George Washington High, Emma is still dealing with the aftermath of an unwillingly recorded sex tape with Will going viral. Everyone is staring, laughing and making comments. She’s embarrassed; but, Emma, no one is very good their first time, so you shouldn’t take it so personally. Will tries to comfort her in the hallway, but she’s upset and accuses him of recording the video, which he denies and suggests that it’s something Jake would do. Will leaves Emma alone at her locker, the perfect time for Ghostface to call. He asks her, “How does it feel to be the star of the show?” in a line taken almost directly from Scream 3. We get it. A movie within a movie within a movie. Scream Inception.
SCREAM. THE TV SERIES. WOOSH! SPLASH! SPARKLE SPARKLE!
Four teens are dead, a masked killer is on the loose and Sheriff Clark is in way over his head. Enter Detective Brock, a strong woman with an obvious history and attraction to Lakewood’s favorite sheriff. She informs him that he has been removed from the case, but that he’ll still be needed in enforcing the town’s curfew. Ouch. Talk about having your balls in your woman’s purse!
The next day at school, everyone files into Mr. Branson’s class – which seems to be the only class that they ever have. An extra who just spruced up her resume takes Riley’s seat in class, but she is quickly kicked out of it by Brooke, who states “That’s Riley’s seat. Forreva!” Or, I mean, it’s her seat until school’s out for summer. Or until you die, Brooke. Noah is seated behind Emma and he profusely apologizes for being the reason the video was uploaded and Emma understands that he had no idea that would happen from trying to decipher Nina’s computer. The topic of class discussion is The Scarlet Letter novel – no horror movie talk, why? – and it makes Emma uncomfortable because the slutshaming in the book directly relates to the cyberbullying she is suffering through now. At least Kieran didn’t watch the sex tape, though, because he “likes anticipation.”
That night there’s a candlelight visual for Riley. I’m glad to see people didn’t forget about her so quickly. Maybe she should have been the opening death? All of the memorials for Nina and Tyler are still there, too, and Audrey adds a picture of Rachel because “she deserved a life.” Everyone is at the visual, so every actor gets a paycheck this episode… Detective Brock, who wants a meeting with Emma, Sheriff Clark, Maggie (ew…), Will, Jake, Kieran, Piper, Mr. Branson, Brooke, Noah, the mayor… Literally EVERYONE in the whole town is there. No one is working or sleeping tonight, apparently. Emma gets up to make a speech about Riley getting over her shyness when the pair first met, but she’s interrupted by a snapchat or facetime from the killer showing that he/she is watching in the audience. This is an homage to Scream 2 when Gale and Dewey see footage of themselves in the classroom on campus. Ghostface concludes with a text warning Emma not to tell the new detective about their correspondence. So, of course she doesn’t.
The passage of time in this show is incredible. We get to see a week’s worth of days in an hour. The next day Brooke is being mean to the waitress at Emma’s coffee shop job until Jake shows up to calm her down. Is this a budding romance? Brooke feels guilty about hiding a secret from Emma, which she eventually tells her. The only reason Will ever asked Emma out was on a dare and there was a time limit for him to actually sleep with her. Emma is hurt, obviously, and storms out of the coffee shop and runs into Piper…who gives her alcohol to relax. Finally, a logical and realistic solution to teenage angst. When Piper leaves, Will shows up and the alcohol disappears from her system and she’s all emotional and basically tells him to fuck off. Yes, gurl, Kelly Clarkson all over dat ass.
Now it’s time for Will and Jake to receive their blackmail money from Brooke’s dad, the mayor. Seeing how Brooke’s dad just admitted her mother to rehab, today may not be the best day. He only brings $10,000 to the meeting, but promises he can bring the remaining $90,000 with a little more time. Jake beats him up pretty badly afterward, which causes Will to back out of the whole thing. Will thinks they are going too far and wants nothing else to do with it. This causes them to fist fight later on at school and it’s absolutely heartbreaking to see everyone’s favorite closet couple on the outs. I know they came up with some good Twitter hashtags that night. Only adding insult to injury, Kieran and Emma make out in front of Will after a self defense class because there’s nothing sexier than high school gym uniforms and dirty floor mats that haven’t been washed in years.
Also after the self defense class, Audrey and Noah break into Mr. Branson’s classroom and laptop after discovering a link to his computer on the files from Nina’s laptop. They discover that all of his student helpers have their own profile to his hard-drive and his last student aids are… Nina, Tyler and Riley. Did Mr. Branson kill them to hide a secret? Wes Craven certainly wants you to think so! Mr. Branson almost catches them, well, he basically does. They try to lie their way out of it, he goes along with the lie and is vengeful when they leave. Meanwhile, a cop and Detective Brock finally break through the encryption in Nina’s laptop and find something so damaging Brock says, “Damn. No wonder this girl’s dead.”
In a series of disturbing events, Maggie makes out with Sheriff Clark (why? you’re far too good looking for that, Sheriff), Jake visits Brooke and they discover a video of her father taking a dead body out of a trunk, and Ghostface calls Emma to say he’s happy to meet her, new and improved. She threatens to kick his ass, but he’s unfazed and said she’s still just a game and her life will be over when she loses. This prompts her to run into the arms of Kieran, who takes her on a date to an empty field. He brandishes a gun and teaches her how to use it incase she ever encounters Ghostface on her own. The episode ends with them having sex and hopefully no one records it this time.
