Pangloss

Oh yeah, I'm still wondering WHY Kieran killed Rachel. Like, WTF did she have to do with anything? To throw the cops off the trail?

That's how I felt! He finally got interesting! My only complaint is that it took way too long to build to that point. I really would have liked to see more of the Crazy Kieran, instead of the mere 10 minutes or so that we got. But hopefully if season 3 happens, they'll really milk that idea. Agreed with @Free there were so many references to the movies, but in a way that paid a good tribute to them. I really liked the angle of Kieran being Piper's boyfriend, and the last line of the episode was AMAZING. Again, I just wish we'd gotten more of a chance to see Kieran being crazy. He just flipped out of nowhere, and the turn of personality was just too abrupt. At least in the original movie, we saw Billy acting creepy AF in a couple of scenes so that the crazy was foreshadowed effectively. Kieran was just like "I'm boring" and then all of a sudden it was "I'M CRAAAAAZZZZZYYYY!!!!" much too fast. I really hope season 3 happens, and I hope Brooke gets to kick even more ass. ...Wait hold on I just thought of something: in the autopsy report, Maggie says that Piper was in her mid-20s when she died (which makes sense with the Brandon James timeline). First of all, a girl in her mid-20s writing BFF letters back-and-forth to high-school aged Audrey is definitely some kind of crime (but then again so is murdering people, so obv Piper didn't have much regard for the law...) but more importantly: wouldn't that make Kieran way too old to be in high school? I mean I know that we on this forum have joked about that, but now it's become a real plot issue. I hope they address this in season 3!

I love this idea, but for it to fly, Maggie would have to be in on it. She's the coroner, and so she had to get deep into that body and would have noticed if it were a fake (unless we're going with a hidden twin theory like I had about Zoe lol). That said, it could be Jake, and Maggie could be in on it! That would be pretty cool.

I actually noticed this too! When the deputy asked about the fingerprints. There was something strange about how they made it a point to show the audience that question being asked. I thought to myself, "Well duh, the killer wore gloves," but I did wonder why they insisted on having that line in the episode. It even made me question that deputy... I guess we'll see if it has any significance in the finale.

@Last Time Lord I had the same reaction to the Mayor pulling out the pitchfork! Idiot. Also: how freaking stupid does the Mayor have to be to meet an anonymous extortionist in an abandoned barn late at night when there's a freaking murderer on the loose?!?!?!?! I mean I know it's a slasher show but come on, the Mayor is REALLY that stupid? At that point, he just had it coming... Even in her death, I still get a strange feeling about Zoe, and (even though this is totally out there and not evidenced at all) I wouldn't be surprised if she turns out to be the killer/accomplice (the finale promo basically told us there are two killers in addition to PIper) and the "body" we saw was, like, her twin sister or something. In fact, maybe Zoe has a twin whose identity she assumed (which had something to do with her disappearance last year) and that was the body we saw (totally out-there theory, I know). Eli is creepy but I get red-herring vibes from him. I'm really glad we're learning more about the mayor's scams though, and I'll bet the murders link back to that entirely. Also, Lang still creeps me out. In the promo for next week, did anyone else see the scene in the back of the police car (where Emma and Audrey are presumably attacked by the killer) and immediately think it was a nod to Scream 2? The exact same thing happens to Sidney and Halle... also worth noting: before the script for Scream 2 leaked onto the Internet, Halle was planned to be one of the killers. Casts suspicion, then, on Audrey, Lang, and anyone seeking vengeance for the death of Piper or Brandon. The thing that made Piper's guilt obvious was that she revealed her motivation too early in the season. This time, though, I think the motivation will come as a complete surprise to the audience.

I actually agree. I think that Emma is a good, stable lead character. She grounds the show in a very pragmatic place -- as a lead, she seems to keep the show on some kind of axis, which she wouldn't if she were as interesting as Brooke or Audrey. Nevertheless, she still has things that make her interesting. Her mental health arc this season is something, at least, and she did accidentally kill her boyfriend in (my opinion) the most gruesome death of the series so far. She's similar to Sidney in the original movies, in the sense that she's stable and level-headed. She's just also not as bad-ass and confident as Sidney was. But maybe she'll get there.

Yeah, the show did cover how they were blackmailing people, but I guess I just want to know more about it. That storyline felt so incomplete. Like I really want there to be some specific secret they're trying to cover up, or a specific conspiracy that unravels the whole thing. I wanted there to be so much more to this plotline :( As @Lady Calypso says, Kieran is always missing during these incidents, and he's the only one who has not been attacked by the killer. Let's see if he pulls a Billy Loomis and gets "killed" by ghostface this season. That, for me, will be game over. Bonus points if it's right in front of Emma.

I was actually thinking something similar -- my thought was: what if, all those years ago, Kevin Duval stole Brandon's mask and killed all those people to frame Brandon, and Maggie had no idea. Then Brandon and Piper teamed up to exact revenge, or something? Other thoughts: -I still don't believe Zoe's story about why she was away the previous year. It just doesn't add up. Unless the writers just wanted us to be suspicious of her for a little, just to throw us off the scent? I actually really hope there's more to Zoe's story than just "oh I went through some stuff and had to go away for a while." Come on, give us a little more than that... (on the plus side, I'm glad she's gone because she really annoyed me) -Still unexplained: why did Rachel die? Equally important, why did Nina die? The first two murders of the series still don't make sense. Rachel had nothing to do with the Brandon James thing or even with Emma (except through Audrey). And will they PLEASE, PLEASE explain wtf Brooke's dad was doing with Will and Jake already? This has been driving me crazy since the first episode of the first season, and I really hope it's the key to unlocking the killer's identity. Come on, PLEASE just tie up that plotline already, this loose end is driving me nuts. -I still think that "Branson" is "Brandon's Son" (don't forget, Kevin Williamson writes for this show, and he also did the script for "I Know What You Did Last Summer," which uses the exact same patronymic device as a central plotline). I feel like there's still something we don't know about Branson that's going to come out, even though the writers had some mercy and finally let the poor bastard croak. -So Audrey knew that Piper was Emma's half-sister? And she wanted to "take Emma down"? Dang, Audrey, I didn't think that plotline was going to get more dramatic but I'm really glad it did. What else don't we know about you and Piper? -Let's look at the original Scream movies (spoilers ahead if you haven't seen all 4 original movies) to find a potential plot line: the first season of Scream basically had the same plotline as Scream 3 -- shunned half-sibling appears out of nowhere to avenge maternal abandonment. So let's consider the strong possibility that season 2 will have the same motivation as another of the Scream movies. This could implicate Kieran (disgruntled boyfriend whose shocking motivation will be revealed at the end), a new character (such as Lang) avenging Piper's death (but this would bore me to tears, so I really hope they thought out something more creative than this), or even a surrogate final girl like they did in Scream 4 (Brooke or Audrey, both of which seem extremely unlikely). Of these options, I think Kieran would be the most interesting and most satisfying killer. Also, when Emma was in the car with Audrey and she said she had been ignoring Kieran's calls and texts, my spidey sense started tingling -- I thought that if Kieran was the killer, that would be a good way to test her to see if she would say anything to her own boyfriend, and what kind of action he would have to take as her boyfriend in order to cover his tracks.

To be fair though, Sidney survived despite losing her virginity... to the freaking killer himself! I think @Cthulhudrew is really onto something with the whole "who's the real Kieran?" thing. But then if that theory pans out, who are Eli and his mom?

Stavo being a copycat killer does make a lot of sense, especially since he seems like the kind of weirdo creepster who would enjoy killing people just for funsies. I really hope that's not the case though. I think that horror stories are stupid when the killer doesn't have a motive. The "why" is the most interesting part to me. Like yeah ok, Michael Meyers just liked killing people. That bores me. There's nothing interesting about a guy just slashing people to bits because he feels like it. The thing that makes Scream a good show is that it's suspenseful and constantly keeps the audience on its toes trying to unravel a good mystery. If it does turn out to be Kieran and Stavo, whether they're working together or not, I hope that each of them has a good motive. Although in the original Scream movie, they deliberately chose to have one killer with a motive (Billy) and one without (Stu) so that they could have the "best of both worlds" sort of thing. The worst thing, I think, would be if the killers are just killing out of revenge for Piper. If that's the case, the show's plot will have just completely stalled and stagnated. I hope it surprises us with an epic plot twist. PS I still want to know wtf Nina was doing with Jake and Will that was so shady. And still no explanation for the pig farm. There are so many loose ends.

Like @Steph619 I also got the feeling that Ms. Lang was reacting to Kieran, not Emma. I have a feeling that both Kieran and Stavo are the killers, but I don't know why they would be working together. I love the Norman Bates vibe they had going when they found Piper's body. And like @Xazeal said, Hailey seemed very smug about her "special friend" which gave me the impression that it was Kieran, but could also be Stavo... but then Kieran seemed totally accounted for on the dance floor while Hailey was getting murdered. Or at least the timing of the show made it seem that way, so I'm leaning toward Stavo. Especially with that reveal about how he's basically a sociopath (watching his friend die and drawing calmly). I get really creeped out by him with Brooke. And Zoe is full of crap. She very clearly distracted Noah with sex to get his mind off of her guilt. She definitely has something to do with all this, but what? My theory is that the killer (or at least one of them) is Stavo. The show is trying to make it soooo obvious that it's him, so the audience completely dismisses him and keeps looking -- so he's hiding in plain sight. If that's the case, it's masterful. There's like a big red arrow that says "HE'S THE KILLER" in every episode, and yet we all keep looking because it's just right in front of us and we can't even see it. They're relying on audiences thinking that way -- that's why Billy Loomis was such an effective character. Same deal. I wonder, though: what connection would Stavo/Kieran have with Piper? How is Lang involved, other than that she knew Piper growing up? And they still haven't explained that whole pig farm thing. Then in the preview for next week's episode, Maggie and Miguel were talking about how "Brandon James is back" -- for real? Didn't they kill his ass decades ago? I don't understand any of this.

I think they did that maybe to shut down any rumors or speculations that might've buzzed about Audrey and Noah. Like I think they just wanted to make it very clear that Audrey and Noah were purely platonic, so that the question wouldn't be a distraction to the audience. That was my take on it anyway.

Recording any conversation without the consent of all participants is definitely illegal, especially if she is planning to profit from book sales. Guess she won't be seeing any of that money now... ...Unless she's pulling a Billy Loomis and faking her own death? They did say she was still breathing.

I think that was that Eddie kid (the insignificant hotel clerk who was murdered early on) next to Branson in that bathtub. Also, I feel like now they're just torturing Branson. Like, have some mercy and just let him die already. I came away from this episode feeling very suspicious of Zoe and Eli, but not sure if either one of them is the killer. I think that Zoe had something to do with the whole Piper thing, explained by both her mysterious absence last season ("oh I was at a space program! ...Um, just kidding...") and her snooping into Audrey's recorded confession. I don't think she's just a curious bystander. As for Eli, the question is: did he put the bodies in the bath tub? Did he know they were there? And that's such a strange place to hang out. How did he know that place was abandoned? (And who is keeping it clean?!) Does it have something to do with Brooke's dad and his shady dealings? Also, are we ever going to find out what that conspiracy was between him, Jake, and Will?! This has been driving me crazy since last season, and I think they're dragging it out too far. I still think Kieran looks plenty suspicious.

Also: Audrey admitted to "kidnapping" Noah at the carnival (btw I love his reaction when he walks out -- "NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE" lol, that's the first time a character has ever actually heeded what the audience is saying to the screen) -- does that mean it was Audrey who chloroformed him in his car? Wearing the freaking killer costume and Brandon James mask? Why would Audrey have that?!?!?!?