TV Review: Scream The Series (Season 1, Episode 9)

Last Updated on July 22, 2021

EPISODE: THE DANCE

THE DISH: With Mr. Branson locked firmly behind bars as the prime suspect of the Lakewood serial murders, Emma teams up with reporter Piper Shaw to investigate further.

WARNING: MINOR TO MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE YET, STOP READING HERE!

THE DICE-UP: Ah yeah my good friends…Nine down, one to go. Whoa! After last week left the unsatisfying salty taste of tears in my mouth, the 9th and penultimate episode of Scream The Series did a bang-up job of finding the right groove at last night’s “Dance.” Last time we left off with Mr. Branson getting whisked away to the hoosegow, while Brooke narrowly escaped the killer’s blade with a slash to the forearm. Well, we scoop it up this week with a flash back to a year prior, when our presumed killer snuck into the Lakewood municipal records in order to lift Brandon James’ records and murderous mask. Then we move to the now, Piper’s Halloween episode of her real life crime podcast, where she, like us, wonders about the veracity of Mr. Branson’s arrest. Could he really be the assailant or just a patsy, a fall-guy? Or perhaps he’s working in tandem with another.  Either way, the entire town thinks Branson is the man, including Sheriff Hud, who allows the school Halloween dance to go off with out a hitch…and Maggie, who goes so far as to give herself a maternity test with Branson’s DNA. You know, in case he’s her long lost child back with a twist of torturous revenge!

Emma needs to see Branson, face to face, eye to eye.  The young teach assures our final girl that he in fact did not kill Will, and has zero knowledge of what increasingly seems like a frame job. I think so, even if Audrey and Noah don’t quite. Emma then links up with Piper to follows a lead the latter had regarding mama Brandon James, Cassie, who lives in a nearby suburb. Nice casting of a creepy old lady by director Ti West here, as she instantly rattles Emma’s cage even further by remembering Maggie (as Daisy) and confirming that Seth Branson was indeed Brandon’s son. But really, how can we trust a doddering old coot when she looks more fried than a slab of Sunday bacon? Can’t, especially with Piper looking like a pig-in-shit right beside Emma as it all goes down. It stinks I tell ya…stinks!

Then there’s Brooke, alone without a dick to ride and a credit card to max out. Poor girl. She finds herself being spied on through her webcam right before showering at Jake’s. When she tells him about it, he basically tells the chick to stop whining, which sends her off in a tizzy. To the liquor store in specific, where she plans to buy provisions for a post-dance party at her place. Emma agrees to attend with Kieran after they boogie, man…a scary (and admittedly tacky) pun when considering Noah and Audrey uncover footage of Kieran getting touchy-feely at a bar with Nina, our first victim, the night before she got diced. But does that mean Kieran is really behind all the murder and mayhem? Doubtful, considering he’d have to have been across the lake when Sheriff Hud, his estranged father mind you, got thwacked upside the dome by our masked maniac moments earlier. Perhaps Kieran is working in cahoots? I still have my doubts, even when Piper came in at the last second to tell Emma the old lady confused Seth with Kieran. Because, um, those two names sound so damn alike!

Here’s where I shove all my chips in the middle and say I think, unequivocally, that Piper is one of the killers. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, so be it. It’s a testament to the brilliance of the show’s mysterious whodunit blueprint. But if Piper is involved as the forgotten lovechild of Maggie and Brandon James, as I postulate, remember, she got whacked on the head by the killer (her partner?) when Will was first assaulted a few weeks back. Again though, her wounds were conveniently lenient. On the whole, she’s been manipulating one suspect narrative after another, pointing Emma in all kinds of implicative directions. Question is then, if it is indeed Piper, who’s her running mate? Kieran? A now escaped Branson? Jake? Has to be someone, not simply to adhere to the SCREAM motif, but for the reasons mentioned above. One thing is for sure, we’re all going to find out once and for all who the killers are, as Ti West’s slickly choreographed “Dance” moves continue on through to next week’s bound-to-be-ballsy finale. Meet you at Brooke’s bash for the so-long soiree! 

KILL OF THE WEEK: The only kill of the week came via a nameless police officer who was gutted and left to gorily bleed out inside the jail by Branson’s cell. Whether or not Hudson got merked too is yet to be determined.

BLOOD & GORE:

• Sheriff Hudson with a bloodied head and uniform, strapped to a tree.
• A large pool of gore as an unnamed cop lay lifeless near Branson’s jail cell.

WTF CHARACTER MOMENT: Why, all of a sudden, did Audrey get the wild hair up her butt to just now check Rachel’s raw video footage? All of sudden she finds the vid to implicate Kieran? Seems a bit shady to do such a thing so long after Rachel’s death.