Scream
Season 1 Episode 5 “Exposed”
Directed by Brian Dannelly
Written by Erin Maher, Kay Reindl
Created by Jill E. Blotevogel, Jay Beattie, Dan Dworkin
Starring Willa Fitzgerald, Bex Taylor-Klaus, John Karna, Amadeus Serafini, Connor Weil, Carlson Young, Jason Wiles, Tracy Middendorf, Tom Maden, Bobby Campo
MTV
Air date: Tuesday, July 28th, 2015, 10pm

Last week on MTV’s new horror series Scream, things got good and scary. Riley’s death put the whole town on notice, and when Emma (Willa Fitzgerald) was sent an old yearbook filled with clues, she, Audrey (Bex Taylor-Klaus), and Noah (John Karna) end up in a horror movie staple – the abandoned hospital. There they find bloody pig remains, a Brandon James mask, and Tyler’s rotting head. Noah is convinced it’s the killer’s lair, but Sheriff Hudson (James Wiles) interrupts, and the three are safe for another week. One of the things retrieved from the hospital was a flash drive; the only useful thing taken off it is a recording of Emma’s first sexual encounter with Will (Connor Weil) and whoops… it just went viral.

“Hello Emma. How’s it feel to be the star of the show?”

That’s a greeting she gets from the killer on the phone. At the candlelight vigil for the deceased, Emma receives video of herself speaking, and threats of her mom’s demise. Emma is paranoid, and sees the masked man there (keep that in mind later). My favorite part of the series continues to be the best-friendship between Noah and Audrey. They come across as two actual people rather than characters on a show, and they talk about the same inane nonsense that teenagers ramble on about:

Audrey – “Superman wears a mock turtleneck now.”

Noah – “Ugh don’t even get me started, I mean if they ever put the Hulk in bike shorts, I’m done.”

Audrey – “Aw but they’re so stretchy”

Noah – “Hush!”

The show went schizo this week with every group of characters focused on something totally different. Noah’s tech skills uncover a link connecting English teacher Mr. Branson (Bobby Campo), to all three dead teens. Will and Jake (Tom Maden) blackmail Brooke’s Mayor dad (Bryan Batt) while constantly arguing. Brooke (Carlson Young) and Jake later uncover what happened to Brooke’s mom (and it doesn’t look too good for her dad either).

Emma finds out about the “She’s All That” aspect of her relationship with Will, and then IMMEDIATELY jumps into the arms of Kieran (Amadeus Serafini), who conveniently has an excuse for being gone last week when Riley was killed. There is suspension of disbelief, and then there’s this. Serafini looks like he was cut and pasted from an Abercrombie catalog, and it’s actually distracting. He looks like no high schooler I’ve ever seen. And then, in a moment that made me cringe in a “how f’n stupid can everyone be” moment, Emma just has sex with him outside in a park… at night… when for weeks she’s been stalked and tormented by a crazed killer. AND… in the SAME episode, she’s reeling from her sextape getting out! AYFKM!!! The name of the episode is EXPOSED! That has to be either the worst character development, or the laziest writing I’ve seen in a long time. I mean, the series is based on the Scream franchise, and I seriously hope that just marked both of them for death. This single scene nearly killed the whole series for me.

We’re now two straight episodes without a kill, in a series based off a slasher franchise, and that’s a huge no-no. There are too many really annoying characters that… for some reason, are being allowed to live. The writers can’t really think we care about Jake and Will’s complex extortion plot can they? I also think they tipped their cap big time on the (or one of the) killer(s). Piper Shay (Amelia Rose Blaire) has been just kinda lurking in the background for the first few episodes. She revealed to Emma (who she’s bonded with) that she does her murder podcasts, because her father was murdered when she was 2. My guess? Her dad was killed by Brandon James, and she blames Emma’s family for her dad’s murder. To a true horror-phile, that may seem too obvious, but this IS an MTV series.

Scream returns next week with a new episode at 10:00pm ET on MTV. Hopefully, this horror series actually kills a few people next week.

Videos

Scream (TV Series) | Official Teaser (Episode 5) | MTV

See what’s coming up next on Episode 5 of Scream. Don’t miss new episodes every Tuesday at 10/9c on MTV.

Scream (TV Series) | “˜Lying to Emma’ Official Sneak Peek (Episode 5) | MTV

Brooke and Jake are keeping secrets from Emma about freshman year, but Brooke is beginning to crack…

Scream (TV Series) | Killer Predictions | MTV

The Scream cast makes their predictions on who the masked killer could be.