Scream: Wanna Play a Game? Review

With last week’s slow moving episode after a thrilling pilot, this week Scream got us right back into the action. The whole episode was full of tricks, games, and being exactly where you didn’t want to be. So, just how did our favorite character’s fare?

The episode begins with a flashback to Brandon James’ first murders in 1994, a subtle hint to how last night’s episode would end: with a mask, a victim, and a lot of blood. But, was it Emma’s fault?

Emma now spends most of her days on phone calls and in texting wars with the masked killer. After being assigned to work with Kieran for a class project, she persuades him to bring over his father’s files on Brandon James. That’s when she finds out he was obsessed with her mother. Brandon James, not Kieran. Of course, she was only curious about her mother’s involvement after her phone conversation with high pitched, creeper voice, masked murderer. No, not his given name…but, I’m going with what we’ve got so far. 

This killer may be holding the strings, but Emma is his puppet. What she does or doesn’t do, effects what the killer will do. When Riley and Brooke get a text from who they think is Tyler, they take it to the police even after Riley expresses her hesitancy to do in case he was really in trouble. However, when Brooke wanders off, Emma and her mother go to find her. Since earlier in the episode when Emma refused to play games with her mystery caller, he threatened to start hurting her friends. So, in the car she gets the text where she is given a choice: “The good girl or the bad girl.” 

While she thinks Riley is safe in the police precinct, she was also the most skeptical of involving the police in finding Tyler. This, clearly, made her the most liable to do something stupid. 

Thinking Riley is protected, Emma warns her unknown texter not to hurt Brooke (who is waiting handcuffed, blindfolded, and in lingerie at a hotel for Mr. Branson who she thought was the one who texted her). However, he took that as a choice and lures Riley out of the precinct, stabbing her to death. Poor Noah had to hear her dying over the phone and Emma was the one to find her laying in a pool of blood.

I would say this is a classic move in the horror genre: the good ones always go first. But, since Nina was one of the first ones to be killed…that’s not true. As we are learning, Nina was kind of a terrible person, so somehow this is all connecting Emma, right?

Who really cannot be trusted? 

Will and Jake. Sorry, Will, but you can’t fool us with your nice guy, clean cut, farm boy act. Not when you run around with the likes of Jake. Anyone else buy him working in the field when Jake came to ask him about where the money they hid went? Please. The moment we find out what that money was from is the moment any chance of Will being genuine goes down the drain. Later when they meet up, we see that Will brought a knife in the back of his pants in case Jake pulled something on him…but, that may say more about Will than it does about Jake. 

Since it looks like Jake and Will used to film Nina in her house, maybe the money was profit from selling those videos? Whatever their story is…I like this gradual build to whatever it is that they were involved in. Jake is obviously being made to look like the sleazy one…all the more reason to question Will more.

Who can be trusted? 

Audrey

Unfortunately, we didn’t see too much of Audrey this week. However, I liked seeing Emma and her team up when Emma told her about how Rachel was actually murdered and confided in her about her recent phone calls and texts. Audrey is already the tough one out of this group of teenagers and her tenacity may just start to help getting answers.

Noah

How Noah protects Audrey and sticks up for her already makes him a nice guy. He is also just as fearless. Sure, he didn’t like being thrown and left alone in that lake in the first episode. But, who would? Audrey and him are an unstoppable team and you know she will be there for him after Riley’s death begins to sink in. 

Emma

Since it is pretty clear Emma is the victim of the masked man, there’s no question she’s on the right side of things. However, she’s going to need help taking on this guy because obviously handling things on her own isn’t going to work out in everybody’s best interest. 

Next week, it looks like this new trio will be banding together to find out answers on their own. Going to the police doesn’t seem like a guarantee to safety anymore. But, with Noah’s horror knowledge, Audrey’s relentlessness, and Emma’s determination…they may Nancy Drew the shit out of this Brandon James, Millennial sequel.