In most slasher flicks the rule is if you have sex, you’re dead. Scream the TV Series has managed to become a much stricter beast making sure no one even makes it to the second date.
It wasn’t two days after Audrey was caught making out with Rachel before the killer hung her off a roof and now Noah will be deprived any chance of romance in the killing of Riley.
Riley would be one of the last of the teenagers we should care about, but the list whittling. By my count, Emma, Noah and Audrey are the only decent kids left on the show (well, to be honest I wouldn’t be too sad to see Noah go). As far as the others are concerned Brooke is self-absorbed and oblivious, Will and Jake are complete douches and Kieran is too busy being Bro-ding to give a damn about.
It’s only now that I kind of see the sleight of hand Scream is using to continue looking ballsy. Both Rachel and Riley were good and likable characters that secretly got relatively little screen time. The show is filled with so many assholes and one-dimensional characters, that it’s refreshing to find one that is genuinely good or interesting. Scream shows us just enough for us to latch on, hoping that we might see more of them, before offing them completely. It’s a nice trick, but it’s all smoke and mirrors. Our fondness for the characters in Scream is different from that of say Breaking Bad. [SPOILERS OF A TOTALLY DIFFERENT SHOW AHEAD] For instance, when Hank is finally killed off, we’ve spent so much time with him that we’ve come to love him and all his faults. It seems as if the show can’t possibly be the same without him. [SPOILERS OVER] By giving us such little time to get and know the characters, our response when someone dies is more like, “Darn it, I liked her. Oh well.” We then continue watching without feeling any loss.
Not too much was revealed in this episode that we didn’t already know. Emma found out that her mother is Daisy and the both of them took it fairly well. We did learn a bit more about Will and Jake’s secret they keep dangling in our faces along with finding out they’re both totally capable of murdering at least one another. Money is clearly involved it what I can only assume is the illegal selling of sex tapes starring the deceased Nina.
The ignorance of the cast continues to perplex me. It has to be clear to everyone by now that they can’t trust their cellphones. It’s well known that the killer has the ability to text virtually anyone at the school and take on the identity of others. Yet, characters like Brooke and Riley are still convinced the person on the other end can be trusted. This leads Brooke to go to a random hotel room and willingly cuff and blindfold herself hoping that it was Mr. B.
Come on, Brooke!
Riley is almost worse. She’s not only convinced the headless Tyler is the one contacting her, but for whatever reason she doesn’t trust the local cops with this knowledge, fearing they might hurt him. I understand that the police aren’t exactly popular nowadays, but this guy has been missing for days now during a string of murders and decides to text rather than call her. That’s trust all right.
Perhaps Riley has a good reason not to trust the cops though. I could go on about the sheer recklessness of the teenagers if the police weren’t so much worse.
In an attempt to catch Tyler, the police decide to bring a decoy in to stand in for Riley. This leaves Riley, Brooke, Emma and her mother at the police station, normally the safest place to be if a mass murderer is coming for you, when it’s actually staffed with police officers. Yes, every officer they had went to capture Tyler leaving the rest of the group in an empty building with not even a secretary to guard the entrance.
Next weeks episode didn’t stress the possibility of a death like the last few did. Perhaps the body count will be slowing down. My only hope is that these kids start taking these deaths seriously, lest this show have no cast by the fifth episode.
