Scream episode 5 review: Exposed

This review contains spoilers.

1.5 Exposed

Before I get into this week’s plot–in which plenty is indeed exposed–I’m happy to say I just heard that there is going to be a season two for Scream. I don’t know what this means for the current slasher plot, as now it doesn’t necessarily have to be resolved by the end of the season–and we don’t know yet how many teens we’ll have left by then.

Of course, we’ve gone for two weeks now with nary a splatter, so I HOPE there won’t be too many teens left, anyway. This week, we learn some more sinister secrets, the revelation of which will hopefully have significant bearing on the current action, or at least come to fruition in a way that makes all the precious non-bloody moments worth it. For now, though, almost everyone has now had at least a little beam of the spotlight shone on something they’d rather have kept in the dark.

Except Emma, of course. Now dealing with the “cosmic justice” (per Audrey) of her own video leak scandal, she’s on the receiving end of way too many of these revelations. To add insult to the humiliating injury of having her first intimate moment with Will broadcast to her entire school, she learns from Brooke that Will had only initially gotten involved with her on a dare. A dare from Nina, of course, as that dearly (?) departed girl seems to have left several gifts that keep on giving.

Emma also serves as confidante to Podcast Piper, who finally hinted at her angle on this whole thing–her own father was murdered when she was a kid, and no one bothered to investigate. She doesn’t elaborate much, but might Chekhov’s Dead Dad be someone we already know… or know of?

Also exposed all over the place this week are the shady dealings of several different characters. Sheriff Hudson, for one, is now dealing with having his power usurped by an old flame who’s apparently had a bad influence before. Mr. Branson–or at least someone who has access to his laptop–is revealed to have the ability to see through the webcam of anyone who downloads the language arts homework. Even our dear Audrey has her character questioned by Piper, who tells Emma that Rachel’s parents told her that Audrey intimidated their daughter.

Hottie loner Kieran, too, has been suspiciously absent in the wake of Riley’s murder. To Emma, he’s becoming more and more irresistible; I don’t want to speak for the entire viewing audience, but for those of us not in high school anymore, he’s seeming less and less mysterious and more and more just sketchy. Emma, though, in the midst of her “don’t care” reawakening, sees no reason not to hook up with him in the middle of the woods in the middle of the night… in the middle of his makeshift firing range. Shudder.

Then there’s Brooke’s dad. Nothing like footage of dragging a body bag out of your car when your wife has been MIA for several weeks to give your daughter the wrong idea, am I right? It’s especially inconvenient when this footage is in the hands of your daughter’s friends Will and Jake, who have a falling-out over their blackmail scheme when the latter turns violent and breaks your nose.

What we mostly have this week is more confirmation that Mr. Scary Maskman is the only character telling the whole truth–except, of course, about who he/she is. Or “are,” I could say–we now know courtesy of Will and Jake that there’s more than one mask floating around out there. I can’t say I know exactly who the killer is yet, but there are more who could be than not.

(That said, as of right now, I have no doubt Sheriff Hudson is involved–he straight up creeps me out. As does Kieran. And Piper’s in the mix somehow. More astute observations as the situation develops.)

Mr. Killy McPhonevoice also, though, asks Emma how it is to be the star of the show. Her “stardom,” though, at the moment is mostly by default–as new detective Brock points out, she’s the common denominator in all of the murders so far. After this week’s revelations, we can (hopefully) assume more killing will bring more connections to light. With the season halfway over, this slasher show needs to get slashin’.

Read Holly’s review of the previous episode, Aftermath, here.

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