Thank Odin for Scream Queens, right? In just two hours, the show introduced us to a ridiculous cast of characters, and killed off several immediately. Creator Ryan Murphy is famous for Glee and American Horror Story, and he’s using his talent to combine the humor of Glee with the horror of AHS in this new series.
Episode 1: “Pilot”
We learn that in 1995 four Kappa Kappa Tau sorority sisters leave another sister in a tub to bleed out and die in favor for a wild house party. Chanel runs the present day Kappa, with her minions Chanel numbers 2, 3, and 5. The group is hilariously reminiscent of Heathers and Mean Girls. The Chanels are despicable, easy-to-hate characters, especially Chanel number 1 (played by Emma Roberts), who spews quick-witted insults to anyone who looks at her funny.
Despite Chanel’s supposed popularity, Dean Munch makes it perfectly clear that she is out to tear Kappa Kappa Tau to pieces, shortly before accusing Chanel of horribly disfiguring the previous KKT president, Melanie. The Kappas are ruthless, or just clueless, but either way: dangerous.
Gigi, the Kappa national president, puts on a smile and tells Chanel she will handle any problems with Munch, while also telling Munch that the university should shut down this branch of Kappa immediately, even offering some suggestions on how to do so.
Then we meet Grace, the sweet girl whose best friend is her single father, and her one goal at college is to join her mother’s sorority, which is, you guessed it: Kappa Kappa Tau. They agree on a three-second hug with no eye contact to part ways, and it’s delightfully sweet and funny. Zayday, Grace’s roommate, walks in, and the pair seem to get along well. Grace even convinces Zayday to rush Kappa, suggesting that being sorority president is a good way to become President of the United States.
Just before the KKT rush meeting, Grace spots the Red Devil lurking outside the house and she follows him! No, Grace! Do not follow the primary villain into a deep dark plot point!
Gigi and Munch unveil their plan to the Kappas: the sorority must accept anyone who pledges, to Chanel #2’s horror. The Chanels meet the pledges: Hester, aka Neckbrace; Tiffany, aka Deaf Taylor Swift; Jennifer, the candle blogger; Sam, the talkative activist; and of course, Grace and Zayday.
Chanel is devastated that the group is required to accept anyone and everyone. She recruits an unwilling Ms. Bean, the maid, to scare off the pledges. She plans to create a fake fight between her and Ms. Bean and then throw her head into the not-turned-on fryer to ideally terrify the pledges away forever.
We also meet Boone and Chad in an adorably silly scene, which is not worth noting other than Chad and Chanel are in an on-again off-again relationship. Also, Boone is definitely in love with Chad.
Then Scream Queens introduces us to Pete, the barista, who picks a fight with Chanel and definitely loses because Chanel can talk faster and louder than him. Grace also meets Pete, and it goes from a pleasant conversation to an intense warning about KKT on the sidewalk in just seconds.
The misfits show up at the KKT house, and Chanel and Ms. Bean engage in the BIGGEST mystery of the episode: a real fight or a fake fight? Either way, Ms. Bean has “her face fried off” and lies dead on the kitchen floor as Chanel scrambles for what to do next. Grace, the practical, real-world girl, rushes to alert campus security of the situation, but Chanel stops her and bribes the rest of the pledges to say Grace murdered Ms. Bean instead. Grace folds.
Pete watches as the Kappas drag the maid’s body to the campus freezer and leave her there, because that’s totally a thing people do with dead bodies. Chanel reminds the girls “secrets are the glue that binds sorority sisters together,” which causes me to wonder how the Kappas can be such a small organization. If the Chanels are the only current members than KKT only consists of four members, and that may be the most unrealistic element of Scream Queens yet.
Munch has a small monologue about her life as dean while Chad smiles goofily in her bed. Munch is supposed to have an aura similar to Jessica Lange’s previous characters on American Horror Story, but she’s really missing for me as of right now. I hope that Curtis can transform her into someone who is as devastatingly mysterious as Murphy’s previous characters.
To no one’s surprise, Grace teams up with Pete to tear KKT down and return the sorority to its former glory. Unfortunately, Grace may be romanticizing her mother and the type of woman she was, in which case Grace is in for quite the surprise this season. Grace, Pete, Chanel, and Chad all return to the freezer, neither pair aware of the other, and discover that Ms. Bean’s body is missing.
The current Kappas sit in a circle about to perform a blood oath to swear the past nights events to secrecy. This scene marks the beginning of my favorite part of the episode. Chanel begins with a prayer to Odin, and when questioned about the legitimacy of the prayer, she responds, “I just Googled blood oath and this is what I found.” Brilliant. They each bring up the flaws of a blood oath until #2 decides it is all too much and wants to go home.
Chanel #2 packs her bag and checks her phone, which reads “Brave enough to open the door?” She nervously opens the door to reveal the Red Devil, who texts her “Do you still want to dance with the Devil?” “Maybe,” she replies.
The Devil texts her again, all while standing in the same room as her, “I’m going to kill you now,” and she takes the time to type out, “Wait whaaaaaat” before he stabs her in the neck. She hits the Devil and crawls to her computer where she urgently types a tweet describing the attack and how the Devil is killing her right now! The Red Devil stabs her in the head, and I’m dying laughing, just as #2 rises from the dead to press enter and tweet her final 140 characters.
I honestly cannot believe anything happened after that hilarious sequence, and yet the Red Devil struck again. Chanel and Grace talk over pumpkin spice lattes about their differences and perspectives on the sorority, but Grace turns down the offer to become a member of Chanel’s clique. Meanwhile, the other Chanels bury the pledges in the back lawn up to their heads, and sadly Tiffany loses her head when the Devil decides to do some late night lawn work for the Kappas.
Episode 2: “Hell Week”
The opening of “Hell Week” begins with another uninteresting Dean Munch monologue, and she then convinces the Kappas to stay on campus to avoid failing out of college. The girls try to figure out what to do with Chanel #2’s body when Hester shows up to explain in extreme detail the proper way of disposing of a body (which officially makes her Chanel’s number one murder suspect). The girls opt to place her body in the freezer, because that is totally a thing that people do. (NOT!) There was a nice pop culture reference to the “Mom” culture which felt right in line with the tone of the show so far.
Gigi introduces Denise Hemphill, who she found on “the yellow pages.” Good ol Gigi, and her ’90s quirks Denise is as efficient as the yellow pages, recommending that the girls call her company’s help line before ever mentioning to give the police a call. Still, the scene is hilarious, and I am Team Denise.
What’s a horror comedy without a trip to the basement? Nothing! Grace looks for soap, all while we see glimpses of the Devil and pieces of its costume lying about the basement. The bookcase falls on top of Grace as she reaches for the top shelf, and she seems unimpressed, but finds a locked door behind it and tries to unlock it to no avail.
Later, Grace tells Pete about the door and they simultaneously decide they have to break into the dean’s office to get the key that unlocks the door. They kiss, and then agree on accomplishing the task first because maybe serial killers are more important than midday make out sessions. Maybe. The shot ends with a creepy look from Pete, the first of many from several characters this episode.
Grace’s dad, Wes, finds an excuse to be on campus full time, and Dean Munch comes onto him, without success. Grace unlocks the basement door, and Chanel finds her rummaging through bloody clothes next to the bloody bathtub. She explains that a sister died in the tub and both Munch and Ms. Bean helped cover it up. Now, Grace seems determined to find out where the baby from ’95 is today.
Chanel and Chad break up…and Chad goes home to sleep, and talks to Boone for a little. Boone asks to crawl into bed with Chad because he is “scared” of the serial killer, and they discuss a previous time where Boone made him uncomfortable. This was a funny moment, but also wonderful because Chad ultimately lets Boone sleep in the same bed because they’re “bros.” This is a great way to demonstrate that just because a friend might be gay, it doesn’t mean the relationship has to change.
Of course, Chanel walks into their room and makes a series of stunningly horrible accusations, to which Chad politely refutes and defends his friend. Chad remarks that everyone wants to sleep with him, including “plants probably,” and pointedly calls Chanel homophobic, officially breaking up with her.
Pete cuts a perfect circle out of the glass in Dean Munch’s door, sticks his hand through, and completely shatters the glass. Thank you! Finally an accurate depiction of such an attempt. Pete pulls out a file for the KKT ’95 party and writes down a few names before the Devil shows up to pin him outside of the building with the letters “MYOB” taped to him. Grace and Pete calmly discuss the possibility of the ’95 party before Grace discovers the Devil costume in his closet. She accuses him of stalking her and of being the baby from ’95, and we get yet another scene with his creepy, seemingly all-knowing smile.
That night, Denise’s friend Shondell joins her on her stakeout, and Gigi talks to Grace’s father in his Jeep parked precariously outside of the house. They make plans to get coffee and then slowly drive off screen. As the car pulls away, a scorned Munch stands on the curb as if she could hear everything…which is ridiculous, because they were inside a car with the windows up. Okay, Munch. Whatever.
Chanel goes upstairs, while the others haze the pledges, and suddenly screams. Denise rushes into the house as fast as Denise can, only to find out that the girls want to go back upstairs to catch the killer. Denise politely opts out and rushes back to her car. (Team Denise!)
The girls grab all of the useless things they can find to fight a knife-wielding villain only to find “Sluts will die” in big red letters on the wall. Meanwhile, the Devil kills Shondell, who sleeps soundly out in the security vehicle. Denise finds her and screams “Shondell, why do you have a knife in your head?!” and drives away screaming, but not before stopping, and then pushing Shondell out of the car.
The Devil walks into Boone’s room as he works out, and he says, “What am I supposed to be? Scared?” His fraternity brothers find him spread out on the dining room table with his throat slashed. Chad and Denise rush into a KKT meeting to announce Boone’s death, and that Shondell’s body is missing. Oh no!
The very last shot is of the county morgue. The camera pans up to the middle drawer, which the Devil opens to reveal Boone, alive and well, saying, “What took you so long?”
Scream Queens has a lot of promise! I laughed at most of the visual comedy, and I could definitely appreciate the pop culture references as they didn’t feel forced. The script is also very well-written, and while sometimes crass, I can tell it’s to fit the characters and not necessarily to spout agendas through a TV show. I’m glad Ryan Murphy took a shot at the horror-comedy genre, because it is really working for him in Scream Queens. We have two mysteries on our hands: Who is the baby from 1995, and who is the Red Devil?
A risky part of this sort of mystery show is how far is too much? Glee went on for quite some time, milking it for all the show could give, while American Horror Story condenses stories into 13 episodes per season before switching gears. If Murphy can find a balance between the two, Scream Queens will be successful. We don’t need this show to be another Pretty Little Liars, where the murderer is revealed, but not really, it was someone else all along. I’m looking forward to the rest of this season already. Who will the Devil get next?
Favorite lines:
“I don’t think anyone’s gonna die in the 30 minutes we make out.” —Pete
“Denise is my name, security is my game. I watch these white girls so I can get paid.” —Denise
“Name one bad thing that ever happened at a Best Buy.” —Shondell
[Photo credit: Steve Dietl/FOX]
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