Scream
Season 2 Episode 2 “Psycho”
Directed by Scott Speer
Written by Meredith Glynn
Created by Jill E. Blotevogel, Jay Beattie, Dan Dworkin
Starring Willa Fitzgerald, Bex Taylor-Klaus, John Karna, Amadeus Serafini, Carlson Young, Tracy Middendorf, Tom Maden
MTV
Air date: Monday, June 6th, 2015, 11pm

Second episode of the season, and the second one named for a horror flick. Emma (Willa Fitzgerald) returned to Lakewood last week after a time in a rehab center, and she’s being handled with kid gloves by her friends. Noah (John Karna) started a blog about the Piper Shaw murder spree and the Survivor 6, but fans of his blog may be taking things too seriously. A group organized a prank of Audrey (Bex Taylor-Klaus) at her movie theatre job, which almost had disastrous results. Audrey is now receiving texts and calls from an unknown stalker who seems to want to peg her as Piper’s apprentice and conspirator. Emma is haunted by dreams of an old farmhouse which turns out to belong to the brother of Brandon James, the infamous Lakewood killer. Meanwhile after Brooke dumps him in a pool, Jake (Tom Maden) is attacked by a new masked maniac and done in with a scythe. The Survivor 6 is down a man… and counting.

Spoilers below.

Emma confronts her mom (Tracy Middendorf) with what she saw at the farmhouse; picture and newspaper clippings summarizing her entire life, and shockingly, her mom isn’t surprised. To prove there’s nothing to hide, her mom takes Emma back there and there’s nothing on the walls. Naturally Emma thinks she is going crazy; maybe some form of PTSD. She begins to think she came home too soon. Meanwhile Noah has a lead on the blog weirdo, showing Audrey comments from an Eddie Krueger who claims to have proof that Piper had an accomplice. Krueger… Craven… a bit obvious, but I approve of the effort.

Audrey is still getting stalker texts and charges at the prankster girl from the theater. The tension and fear is getting to her but unlike Emma, Audrey’s confrontational paranoia makes her a lot more interesting. Brooke (Carlson Young), meanwhile, is dealing with her own paranoia about Jake who hasn’t reached out since their breakup. He even doesn’t respond to the promise of a “boob pic”! He must be dead… oh wait. While she’s confessing her worries to Emma, Noah is making a love connection with new girl Zoe (Kiana Lede), and creepy new kid Gustavo (Santiago Segura) is making comments about the predatory nature of human beings. He may as well be walking around with a sign around his neck reading “SUSPECT.” And Miss Lang (Austin Highsmith), it’s a tad weird to offer out your phone number to students and meet them for coffee after school… just saying.

And just when the show was bordering on the tedious they hand it back to Noah and Audrey, my favorite on screen besties since Perks of Being a Wallflower. When she agrees to come back and assist him on the blog he is elated:

“Yes! Bi-Curious and the Virgin officially out of retirement!”

“I’ll dust off my costume.”

“Aw, so you did keep it.”

It’s gonna really hurt if and when one or both of them get whacked.

Lakewood Days is upon them, a huge town celebration. When Brooke assures her dad, the Mayor (Bryan Batt) that she’ll be in the Lady in the Lake show, we see who he’s busy texting. It turns out he was told by a mysterious texter to lure Jake to his demise. Turns out Audrey isn’t the only person being harassed by the killer.

Brooke caves in to report Jake’s disappearance as a missing person case, but wouldn’t you know it, the minute she’s walking into to meet the sheriff “Jake” texts her. And right after an awkward convo with Gustavo who hangs out the police station. Emma’s meeting with Ms. Lang causes a PTSD freakout in the coffee shop seeing images of Piper. So of course, when you’re scared to death because you survived a horror movie scenario, what better thing to do then to go pick up your boyfriend, investigate the spot where you shot the maniac killer, AND then go have sex in the car! C’mon people! The main characters are so unrealistic and unlikable on this show. And hey, while we’re at it… let’s wander home, alone in the totally empty streets while a car slowly follows… ugh the headache!

There are some more plot details that happen. Emma’s long-gone dad shows up out of nowhere and Audrey stumbles onto Jake’s disemboweled body. Here’s my main issue with Scream season 2 so far: It’s ordinary. In the Wes Craven film, they go out of their way to explain the rules of horror sequels; more gore, higher body count, etc. Well, in two episodes of Scream we’ve got one dead (the least important of the main characters) and almost no gore. They’ve spent two episodes introducing new characters using ominous cliche music to indicate who to be afraid of, and meanwhile, they haven’t actually explained any of the new story yet. The first season was all about the Brandon James legend, so far there is nothing to grasp onto, and in horror when that’s the case, you make up for it in bloodshed. The show is off to slow start and really needs a WOW moment to re-hook the gore hounds like me. Otherwise, the show is catering strictly to the teeny bop crowd. By the way, if I ran the show, the “wow” moment would be killing Emma. Her story doesn’t even seem important to season 2, as the killer is targeting the other Lakewood 6 so far.

Scream continues next Monday night at 11:00 EST on MTV.

Video

Scream 2×02 Promo “Psycho”

Scream 2×02 “Psycho” – Tension results when Maggie shares too much about Emma’s past; Emma tries to control her fears when someone unexpected arrives in town; and Noah investigates a new lead for his podcast.