We are now officially at the halfway point in the season for MTV’s series Scream, and every episode has provided more and more revelations, proving the series has plenty of tricks up its sleeve. This week specifically gave viewers character driven insight and more dark secrets that reside among the core group we’ve come to know. After a video of Emma’s first time (with former boyfriend and popular athlete Will) surfaces, Emma now faces mass amount of judgments from her fellow students. They whisper to each other how they’d hide themselves in shame, transfer, or one note in her locker, the killer writes she’s just like her mother. Massive shout out to the original Scream films courtesy of the writers. Will hopes to make amends with Emma and denies any involvement with creating the footage of their now very public romp. Sheriff Hudson, along with other officers, are greeted at the killer’s lair and are introduced to special task force officer, detective Lorraine Brock. They have brought her (and others) on to the case and bench the sheriff after finding him incapable of handling a serious crime on his own, the tension is evident…

When class with Mr. Branson resumes, Brooke returns to her protective side warding off a careless student sitting in Riley’s former seat, and Noah explains to Emma that the video of her going viral was completely accidental. Someone makes a public jab at the short duration of the video (ouch!) and will almost snaps before Emma takes the opportunity to share the info about a candlelight vigil held for the departed students. Kieran finds a minute to talk to Emma and she shares her constant fears of what could happen with every call, message, or incident resulting in dire circumstance, and Kieran reminds her she doesn’t always have to be afraid. Except…she sorta does! At the memorial for their friends, Piper finds Emma and begins to question the relationship between Rachel and Audrey. She continues to tell Emma that according to Rachel’s parents, Rachel seemed to actually be afraid of her former girlfriend, which Emma defensively responds that it must have been the only way to hide her sexuality from her family. The new detective in town asks Emma to meet her the following morning for questioning, before Emma takes to a podium to share a story about her friendship with Riley. Before she can conclude her heartfelt story, she receives a video of herself from the killer, showing that he is present and watching her in the crowd.

Emma steps back in confusion and Noah takes over to share his fond recollection of memories with Riley while Emma continues to stare into the crowd. She promptly receives a text that threatens her mother’s safety if she informs the cop about any of their conversations, and briefly comes into her line of vision (mask & all) before quickly vanishing from the memorial. When Emma goes to meet detective Brock, the newly tasked law enforcement official asks her about what the caller had said, and Emma covers claiming they were creating a Brandon James themed prank. She continues to pry about Emma’s awareness with the killer, but she manages to diffuse them for the time being. When her mother asks about their conversation, she tells her that much like her mother; she has to keep secrets to protect Maggie/Daisy. (I can’t decide what I want to call her yet.) Jake finds Brooke at Emma’s coffee shop, and Brooke is feeling guilty for knowing something more to the leaked video. When Emma overhears the discussion, she confronts Brooke after Brooke mutters, “I cannot just keep lying to Emma.” things are going to get uncomfortable. Brooke removes Emma’s hot cup of coffee from her reach before telling her the story. (I love Brooke, she’s all about preservation) Brooke divulges her knowledge of a bet made freshman year, and as it turns out, Nina challenged Will by saying he couldn’t sleep with her. Obviously, Will managed to win soon after and Brooke tells her friend that she couldn’t have said anything earlier because she was worried about how she would react. Emma isn’t quite ready to let the friendship go after half of her clique obviously murdered, but repeats the notion that the killer accurately stated about everyone in her life lying.

photo courtesy of: bloody-disgusting.com

Brooke’s dad (a.k.a. the mayor) goes to a rendezvous point setup by Jake and Will, and is greeted by Jake wearing a skeleton mask demanding money in exchange for keeping a secret video hidden. He doesn’t have access to the entire $100,000 initially, but promises he will in two days time. When Will realizes that only $10,000 is accounted for – and now all of the sudden becoming concerned for the safety of others – he tells Jake he wants out of their deal. Piper, who is lurking near their school, finds an emotional Emma and secretly offers her a flask of Bourbon (Emma drinking mid-day with a killer on the loose seems like a formula for trouble.) Piper tries to relate to Emma and explains that her father was murdered and that is what fuelled her to do what she does, which Emma compares to her father’s absence as a child. A ploy from Piper for information? Perhaps…

photo courtesy of: hypable.com

Will tracks down Emma and instead meets Emma’s hand as she lands a wickedly good slap across his face, before confronting him on the bet. She is disgusted that he couldn’t have ever shared the truth after so long together, and is completely over the notion of a relationship with Will. After growing concern for her mother’s whereabouts, Brooke does some digging and her mom’s usual fashion-splurge locations haven’t seen her. Brooke questions her father in a panic and he deflects by saying he actually checked her into rehab, which is most likely a diversionary tactic on his part. Brooke next finds herself opening up to Jake about her family woes, and a frazzled Will stops her to question how she could share the secret about the bet. Jake steps in to assist her, gets into a scuffle with Will, and a bloody-nosed Jake tells him he’s done helping him. I get the feeling Jake makes a better ally than enemy, so Will’s probably not in the best position.

A mandatory self-defense class (Yes Lakewood, that’s a superb idea!) pits Audrey and Will as examples with Audrey flipping him with ease, further lowering Will’s sense of so-called belief of testosterone produced masculinity. Go Audrey! Kieran expresses a desire to help Emma in more ways, and in the meantime Audrey and Noah snoop from Mr. Branson’s computer after realizing the hacked footage centers from their literature class. They determine Tyler and Riley had access as his teacher’s assistants, and conclude that he may have been the reason they died. When the teacher catches them off guard they deflect by saying they were looking for a new scene partner, Branson slyly replies, “I’m sure somebody would be up for a dramatic threesome.” Mr. Branson has game, there’s no denying that – it just happens to be illegal! Emma receives another phone call from the killer that starts as audio of her breakup with Will, and a now scorned Emma snaps back with sass-itude that leads the killer to refer to her as the “new Emma.” before reminding her he can end their game at any point.

With every scene, Sheriff Hudson and Maggie seem to have more feelings develop, and he explains his past with detective Brock, but confirms that’s in the past and the two begin to kiss. I guess you could call that confirmation that they are a couple. Jake stops by Brooke’s house (who is alone of course) and brings a pizza along with some heavy flirtation commencing between the two. He begins to reveal another motive for his presence, and tells Brooke that Will, Nina, and Tyler were blackmailing her father, leaving out his involvement of course. Little do they know, her father watches via security cameras and writes down Will’s name, oh boy… (Also, Jake very well could have been aware of her father watching because of the hacked cameras, so potentially well played Jake!) He offers Brooke a copy of the tape, and downplays his reason for having it, but Brooke is too unsettled by what it could be. When they play the tape, we see her father dragging a body from the trunk of his car, and the date on the tape is the day after her mother “left”. It’s really not looking good for Brooke’s mom, and Brooke’s bad-luck streak continues!

Kieran takes Emma to the middle of a wooded area, and gives her some much needed shooting practice, but when he offers her the gun to keep…she politely declines. I have a feeling that could be a major mistake for our heroine. Things begin to take a romantic turn and she questions if the killer could be around, but Kieran being mister smooth reminds her at in this moment “I’m holding you, and he’s not.” The gesture leads to some outdoor star gazing sexual encounter, but hey – might as well live it up while you can in the Scream series… you never know how long you have!

Aedan’s Final Thoughts:

-Brooke. I continuously love her character, her pairing with Jake, her snappy defensiveness for friends – she’s definitely favorite character worthy by far. (And Jake, I do enjoy his character as well)

-Will is quickly making more enemies and I feel that he could find himself in danger rather quickly from the killer, the mayor, and even Emma…that slap meant business!

-I really want to root for Emma and Kieran, but this relationship seems to unfortunately be doomed from the start. With their position – along with their parents’ roles in the series, you know disaster is right around the corner.

-My current top 5 suspects would be (in no particular order) – Audrey, Brooke, Mr. Branson, Sheriff Hudson, and Noah.