S02.E07: Let the Right One In

[Cranberry]

Eli takes Emma on a criminal adventure while Noah’s relationship with Zoe escalates and the Killer lures Brooke and Audrey into a deadly trap. 

 

[Cranberry]

Another sneak peek:

[Last Time Lord]

Holy Shit. I'm not even sure if Branson deserved that. Also? Could not tell who that was stashed into the bathtub next to him.

This episode seemed to have exonerated Emma having a psychotic break and doing the killing herself, as she was with Eli pretty much the entire time all everything was going down.

I'm honestly at a loss as to who the killer could be. Only real suspect left is Kieren, just based on  how mysterious he's been all season, but considering I said pretty much the same thing about Ms. Lang last week, it seems almost too obvious. Plus, look how that ended up.

Got to say, I really think the psychological thriller approach to this season opposed to the straight up slasher that was last season is really working wonders, despite the slow build up to when  things really started taking off.

[Anela]

I haven't kept up with it this season, because it seemed worse when I watched the first episode, and I've had other things on my mind since. I watched a bit of it tonight, but my power went out, so I missed major parts of it.  

I did see that girl email the wav file of Audrey confessing that she brought what's her name to town. I wonder if she emailed it to herself. 

[Pangloss]

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. 

Edited July 13, 2016 by Pangloss

[Free]

9 hours ago, Last Time Lord said:

Holy Shit. I'm not even sure if Branson deserved that. Also? Could not tell who that was stashed into the bathtub next to him.

This episode seemed to have exonerated Emma having a psychotic break and doing the killing herself, as she was with Eli pretty much the entire time all everything was going down.

I'm honestly at a loss as to who the killer could be. Only real suspect left is Kieren, just based on  how mysterious he's been all season, but considering I said pretty much the same thing about Ms. Lang last week, it seems almost too obvious. Plus, look how that ended up.

Got to say, I really think the psychological thriller approach to this season opposed to the straight up slasher that was last season is really working wonders, despite the slow build up to when  things really started taking off.

The psychological approach is a good idea, my problem is more with the writing and characterization/execution to pull it off though.  It reminds me more of low rent Pretty Little Liars than the Scream franchise at this point.

Edited July 13, 2016 by Free

[JohnSmithSensei]

The killer was towering over Ms Lang, so it rules out the girls and the smaller males. Branson's out, so that leaves Kieren.

I was shipping Emma and Audrey since last season and I thought they'd get some more traction this season, but they seem to be dragging their feet on it. Good thing Brooke's entered the picture.

Edited July 13, 2016 by JohnSmithSensei

[Grace284]

Emma has become quite the unbearable little brat. I look forward to her hooking up with the irritating little cousin for what I hope is their immediate double murder.

I appreciate they're not going the slasher route this year, but I still think we need to see the killer more. Casually waving Branson's disembodied hand was a highlight of the episode. I still think it's Emma's dad somehow and Kieran's 'secret background' is that he's actually 42.

[Chaos Theory]

Poor Noah getting cock blocked.  I thought I though the scene in the drug store was hilarious "Are you a big boy?"

Audry and Brooke were a fun team.  I loved the Gard Cabdy reference plus Brooks line was funny, "you are dark but in a good way."

What was the school shrink doubting exactly?  I didn't quite get the point of all those tapes.

Edited July 13, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[Cthulhudrew]

6 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

What was the school shrink doubting exactly?  I didn't quite get the point of all those tapes.

She's writing a book on Emma and the Lakewood murders. Note that a couple of the tapes are labeled "Chapter 1, 2, etc."

Pretty unethical, even for a high school teacher, and I'd think potentially actionable from a legal standpoint (recording conversations, using that information to publish without consent). I am not a lawyer, though.

[Chaos Theory]

8 minutes ago, Cthulhudrew said:

She's writing a book on Emma and the Lakewood murders. Note that a couple of the tapes are labeled "Chapter 1, 2, etc."

Pretty unethical, even for a high school teacher, and I'd think potentially actionable from a legal standpoint (recording conversations, using that information to publish without consent). I am not a lawyer, though.

Ooooooh!  Plus there is the whole matter of them being under age teens.  

[Pangloss]

1 hour ago, Cthulhudrew said:

She's writing a book on Emma and the Lakewood murders. Note that a couple of the tapes are labeled "Chapter 1, 2, etc."

Pretty unethical, even for a high school teacher, and I'd think potentially actionable from a legal standpoint (recording conversations, using that information to publish without consent). I am not a lawyer, though.

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.

[KaveDweller]

5 hours ago, Pangloss said:

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 no matter what there have to be two killers.  Almost everyone has been shown to have an alibi while a killer was doing something.

[Cthulhudrew]

There was an awful lot of blood for a blunt force trauma/fall for Miss Lang, I thought. Even considering how they overdo blood from injuries in tv/movies, for that particular type of injury? Hmm.

On another note, had a thought earlier. I still tend to think the killer is Kieran, but I find myself coming back to the Eli's Mom theory I had several weeks ago (albeit acting alone, not with Eli this time).

Consider: We saw Jake breaking into that development lot with what looked like kerosene/gasoline, presumably to burn something. He was working for Brooke's dad, but didn't finish the job before being caught by the killer. A few episodes ago, we saw Brooke's dad approach Eli's mom about a "job" he had unfinished- Jake's burning down of the house and/or development?

So perhaps Eli's mom was killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. She is killing the Lakewood 6 in revenge for her brother's death (theory). She used the house as her base of operations for a time, to hide at least one body. Then, when given the job (and money) by Brooke's dad, she stashed a second body there (Branson) and burned the house down per orders, thus doing away with two pieces of evidence as well as being able to collect a reward? 

I'm sure there's more to things than this, as we haven't yet gotten to the Brandon James tie-in of the season, and I'm not sure how she'd fit into that, though. (Kieran might still; what if his argument with his step-dad was over his "real" parentage? Maybe the sheriff wasn't his real dad after all?)

Edited July 14, 2016 by Cthulhudrew

[truthaboutluv]

Quote

There was an awful lot of blood for a blunt force trauma/fall for Miss Lang, I thought. Even considering how they overdo blood from injuries in tv/movies, for that particular type of injury? Hmm.

This. I was really confused when I saw all the blood because while I'm no doctor or even a medical expert, I would think being slammed into the wall like that would result in internal bleeding and trauma, not some massive pool of blood spilling out. 

Quote

 

...Unless she's pulling a Billy Loomis and faking her own death? They did say she was still breathing.

And remember last season, we saw Piper get attacked with Emma's ex, before he was taken and tortured. 

Quote

I think no matter what there have to be two killers.

This. I am still convinced that there is a copycat killer and the real killer who was Piper's accomplice last season. This week's episode made me really suspect Zoe (is that new girl's name) as the copycat killer. It's not that she did anything so suspicious and admittedly I find her kind of annoying but that bias aside, I think of all the new characters, she's the least suspicious, which might be exactly what the writers are going for. The lie about her being at some space program was a red flag but they quickly shifted to some tragic, attempted suicide story and then the rest of the episode was her and Noah almost getting it on. 

On the flipside, Stavo has been presented as incredibly creepy with all the drawings, we've seen him throwing a mask like the killer's away, we even saw his dad searching his room and asking him questions and he seems really into the murders and what happened. Eli has been presented as incredibly manipulative and also very creepy with the weird house breaking, standing at the couple's door with a knife, deliberately lying to Emma about Kieran wanting a party, the bodies were in the house he took Emma too, etc. Both of these guys have such glaring red flags, it makes me think it's not them. 

Which once again brings me back to Kieran. I think it will be brilliant if this goes back to Kieran and Piper and some back story about Brandon James and Emma's mom. The conversation with her and the police guy clearly hinted at some history that they're both covering up. And a great way to take the scent off Kieran is the fact that at the end of last season it seemed like Piper tried to set him up for the fall and shift things on him. That was probably a way of convincing viewers he really wasn't guilty, especially when Piper was exposed. But I agree with others who have mentioned Piper's comment to Emma that she had one last big surprise before Audrey shot her. Again, I know I rag on the actor constantly (and believe me I would like to stop but dude just seems to get worse) but putting my bias of not liking him aside, Kieran really just makes the most sense at this point.

Not to mention the writers don't seem interested in doing much with him. He's barely around, he and Emma continue to have no chemistry and I swear when she and her poor acting told Eli she loved Kieran, I had to laugh because the show sure hasn't done shit to believably sell that in my opinion. That relationship always seemed forced and awkward, even going back to last season, probably due to both of their horrible acting. He also seems so removed from the other main characters - like Audrey and Noah are best friends and Emma and Audrey have a long history where they were best friends, fell apart and now have gotten close again and Brooke and Emma are close and now we had this episode where Brooke and Audrey were interacting. Kieran doesn't have that. He just doesn't really serve any purpose in my opinion, so they might as well just make him the big bad evil. 

Edited July 16, 2016 by truthaboutluv

[jhlipton]

12 hours ago, Cthulhudrew said:

There was an awful lot of blood for a blunt force trauma/fall for Miss Lang, I thought. Even considering how they overdo blood from injuries in tv/movies, for that particular type of injury? Hmm.

True.  Head wounds bleed a lot but she appeared to lost a lot of blood.
But we saw her attack the killer when there was no one around to impress, abd fought against him long before the janitor showed up. She might be a killer but she's not in league with the guy who attacked her.

[niklj]

Dayum, somebody in the writer's room hated Branson.

Why doesn't Noah just explain the situation between him and Audrey to Zoe more?

[jhlipton]

13 hours ago, niklj said:

Why doesn't Noah just explain the situation between him and Audrey to Zoe more?

There you do again, expecting common sense in a horror movie!  Let's face it, the dim-bulbs on Are You The One have more straterigizing abilities than any of the Lakewood 6 5.

[truthaboutluv]

I'm not sure what there is for him to explain. Supposedly Zoe has been at the school all her life like the rest of them, save for her convenience absence when all the killings happened last season. Therefore I would assume that she, like most of the students are probably well aware that Audrey is a lesbian and that she and Noah have been BFF for years. That's why I said I thought her whole speech to Noah about some feelings he supposedly had for Audrey was just her bullshit way of checking out on him, without having to say she simply wasn't that into him.

But then the writers actually did that ridiculous nonsense of Noah giving some romantic confession to Audrey that she thankfully shut down very quickly. I am still confused who in the writing room thought that was a good idea. But basically, I'm not sure why Zoe seems so bothered by Audrey or what Noah would have to explain to her that's not public knowledge which just further supports my suspicion that she's the copycat killer while Kieran is the real one who was working with Piper. 

Edited July 16, 2016 by truthaboutluv

[Pangloss]

5 hours ago, truthaboutluv said:

But then the writers actually did that ridiculous nonsense of Noah giving some romantic confession to Audrey that she thankfully shut down very quickly. I am still confused who in the writing room thought that was a good idea.

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.

[jhlipton]

BTW, how stoooooopid was Ms Lang?  She knows there's a killer out to get her, but when she finds Branson, she completely ignores everything around her.  Jeez!

[Steph619]

I have no idea who the killer could be. It has to be someone connected to Piper who wants to finish the job off for her. I for sure thought that it was Ms. Lang, but that's obviously out of the question. It was really messed up that she was going to profit off of a student's private conversations with her.

I kinda like Zoe, but that whole pretending she was in a space program thing and then admitting it was a lie was suspicious to me. I wonder if she emailed that Audrey audio file to someone or just herself. 

Someone in the writing room must hate Branson more than Brooke does because they just won't let him die.

Was that house that Eli took Emma to the same house that we saw in the beginning where Eli made breakfast for that couple? 

[Lady Calypso]

This supposed 'love triangle' between Zoe/Audrey/Noah is kind of ridiculous. Audrey doesn't like guys, as far as I understand. I know she could learn that she's bisexual, but here's the other thing: I don't want Audrey/Noah to ever become a thing. They're too good as BFFs to be in a romantic relationship. Zoe's lie about the space program was odd, though. It just felt forced in. 

I couldn't help but laugh at Noah's attempt at buying condoms.

It's good to see that Sheriff Miguel has finally understood that Emma may be innocent in this. 

I feel like Eli's definitely a red herring here. But he did help Emma to forgive Kieran, so if I'm right about Kieran being the killer, maybe Eli's an accomplice who helps him out.

Damn, Branson. Now that was harsh, and he was still alive by the end of the episode. But I guess Ms. Lang is not the killer. I will say that she put up a hell of a fight, besides getting distracted by Branson. The killer seems to be a guy, only for the way he easily tossed Ms. Lang down the stairs and over the railing. But I like the theory about two killers. Sometimes, I feel like there are. I wouldn't mind if one killer was Zoe. She's the least suspicious, and they're really starting to turn up the romance with her and Noah. 

I still am convinced Kieran was Piper's accomplice, though. The way the killer attacked Ms. Lang, but destroying her office first and taunting her with Branson's hand? That felt angry, and maybe a little....I don't know, rushed? Kieran bringing Branson's body to school was planned, but then finding Emma and Eli together was not. Perhaps I am reading into things. But I would like to think that my theory could fit if they went there.