This week’s episode of Scream Queens centered on Dr. Brock and his murderous hand along with a few oddities that you won’t find elsewhere on television … The episode entitled “The Hand” lived up to its name by giving Dr. Brock a moment in the spotlight and revealed with the stressors of the C.U.R.E. Institute are causing him to lose control of the former killer’s hand. Not only did that begin to affect his work life but his personal life as well — nearly stabbing Chanel on a overly salted dinner date. Needless to say, Chanel knew better than to stick around when she’s being targeted enough, and Brock is back to the drawing board to restrain himself.

“The Hand”

For this week’s peculiar medical case, a woman who had absorbed her twin was the patient — having grown extra legs and arms to the equivalency of a human spider. Aside from giving her possible advantages in life, it began to make the woman’s heart work even harder to maintain blood flow. Cue the C.U.R.E. Institute’s much needed medical assistance. What made this procedure even more crucial was a looming journalist hoping to bust the hospital and Brock’s on-edge hand. Opposite Brock (Dr. Cascade) is shown to be training on his own at the swamp entrance with some impeccable martial arts skills that would make any reasonable person suspicious of him, but Chanel #3 is only in awe of her love interest.

Speaking of Chanel #3, she begins to help Dr. Cascade diagnose his supposed dead-disease that turned out to be nothing (and his coldness stemmed from an AC unit), but, during the medical investigation, she did figure out that her potential boyfriend was certainly the (or a) killer donning the Green Meanie mask. When taking the time to decide what to do about her revelation, the Green Meanie (at least one of them) attacks Brock, but this is a rare example of his hand helping him when it fights off the killer once again. Another Green Meanie (Hoffel) takes the time to make Brock more anxious and likely to kill Chanel, also hacking his email with the password, “I went to Harvard” in all caps to sign him up for sexual spam mail. Classic Nurse Hoffel if you ask me.

Sometime later, Dr. Cascade and #3 begin to work on another case (where it turns out that a man poisoned himself to avoid a clingy girlfriend), and she tells him about knowing who he truly is. He decides he won’t kill her or the other Chanels, and she concludes she won’t turn him in so they can possibly give their relationship a try. One of the killers next targets the Chanel with too many intestines and strangles her to death (leaving a new heart for the woman with extra limbs). After all of the necessities are gathered, the surgery begins — but Brock has to halt it after growing fearful of what his hand will do next. Munsch tricks him into going back at it with only one hand and the Chanels singing his 80s jam “99 Luftballons,” making the surgery turn out perfectly (retro) and helps Brock regain his confidence.

Now that the patients were shockingly not murdered, the same couldn’t be said for the journalist who discovered how dangerous the hospital really was. Just as he finds a frozen Denise Hemphill in the basement, he is killed by the Green Meanie, which means the truth won’t be getting out about the C.U.R.E. Institute just yet. As the episode approaches its final moments, a changed Dr. Cascade offers to do the hand transplant for Dr. Brock to rid himself of an evil limb, but, in the very end, we see the new hand writes “Kill Chanel” on a pad of paper, which suggests there is more to the hand transplant than meets the eye.

Overall Grade: 7.8/10

Scream Queens knows that it is a series with zany humor and barrage of absurdity, which is something that makes the series even more enjoyable. This week went off the rails with the Brock story, hospital patients and strange medical diagnosis, which may not be as successful as the random stories in Season 1. Even through the hospital setting doesn’t explore the murder mystery aspect as much as Season 1, I do still enjoy the wackiness of Scream Queens and wish that a third season seemed likely to give them a new concept to explore with a phenomenal cast and crew.

Aedan’s Final Thoughts:

Dr. Cascade telling Chanel #3 it was “controlling” for her to ask him not to kill Chanel was pure millennial humor about a ridiculous concept of freedom.

Even though the chances aren’t looking great, I hope Scream Queens finds a way to carry on past this shortened second season.

Catch up on Scream Queens with Season 1 on DVD.