In the season 1 finale of Scream Queens, “Dorkus”/”The Final Girl(s),” Pete makes a disturbing confession to Grace, the remaining Red Devil’s identity is revealed (as is the details of a plan for revenge 20 years in the making), Kappa Kappa Tau undergoes a major transformation and the Chanels get what they deserve.
The time has come for all our questions to be answered, and we start with Pete’s connection to the Red Devil murders. He recalls the night the security guard was killed out front of Kappa Kappa Tau. Pete had been lurking, or investigating, or stalking and witnessed the Red Devil emerge from the car. Pete followed the killer to the Dickie Dollar Scholars house where he witnessed Boone taking off the costume. Pete confronted Boone and listened to Boone’s story, how the Kappas killed his mother, how Kappa is humanity at its worst and had to be stopped, basically his whole devious plan to bring down the sorority.
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Band of Blood Brothers
Pete realized he and Boone were working toward a common goal: Pete through the newspaper and Boone via mass murder. The Red Devil isn’t the bad guy in this sordid tale; the Kappas and the Chanels and the Greek system are the “beasts.” The psychological abuse endured by those just looking to belong has resulted in 104 hazing-related deaths since 1970. The Red Devil’s body count is paltry in comparison.
Even though Grace herself had rationalized killing Dean Munsch, she’s come to her senses and isn’t letting Pete off the hook just because he thinks he’s serving a higher purpose. And it’s not just that Pete sat idly by; he was recruited. Pete killed Roger the night of the Kappa sleepover. Granted, he was forced to by the Red Devils or suffer a grisly fate.
Grace reminds Pete that they were supposed to be the good guys, but Pete reminds Grace that she even had her doubts about playing by the rules. The night after they visited Mandy, Grace questioned whether the Red Devil might have had the right idea. Can you overcome evil without becoming evil yourself? It’s catching, kind of like crabs.
Pete continued his killing spree by stabbing Boone. Gigi was the brains, but Boone, he was the muscle, and Pete figured that Gigi couldn’t inflict any more harm without the brawn of the operation. And, apparently, Pete realized that his logic may have been a tad flawed when siding with serial killers.
Pete did have one more slip, shooting Chanel with the crossbow. All of the rest of his actions would have been in vain if he didn’t end the Kappa queen’s reign or terror.
We all know Pete went all creeper on Chanel, but the details of their short-lived affair come to light. Chanel told Pete that her deepest, darkest fantasy involved a man dressing up like Daryl Hannah in Clan of the Cave Bear and he complied. But it was a set-up, and Pete was humiliated in front of Chanels Number 3 and 5.
Pete swears to Grace that everything he’s done has been for her, to clean up Kappa and give her the sisterhood she’d always longed for.
Grace tells Pete she hates him and never wants to see him again, and the only way he can force her to stay is to kill her. She starts to leave, but Pete lures her back with the promise of revealing the identity of the other killer, who is not only Boone’s twin sister but a Kappa as well. Before Boone can give her a name, the remaining Red Devil emerges from his closet and stabs Pete, but instead of running, Grace begins fighting the killer but gets knocked unconscious.
The Kappa Everyone Hates
Chanel #1 is dealing with residing in her own personal hell. After her sorority sisters left her high and dry at the pool and alone with Dean Munsch, Chanel penned a strongly-worded e-mail to them expressing her disappointment. This opus included calling them stupid, useless trollops, outlined their plan to kill the dean and finished with a threat to kill her sisters if the Red Devil didn’t. The Red Devil sent the e-mail to the entire campus, and the university was flooded with students who returned to publicly shame Chanel, who has become the most hated woman in America after the mainstream media picked up the story.
What choice does she have but to kill herself now that she’s been stripped of everything that made her a force to be reckoned with? Chanel orders a venomous snake online and lays on her bed, waiting to be bitten and die like Cleopatra, but her plan hits a few snags. Firstly, Zayday enters Chanel’s bedroom before the deed is done, and secondly, the snake is your garden variety, harmless garter snake.
Zayday says that despite the fact that she and Chanel don’t see eye-to-eye, and Zayday is not okay with Chanel’s use of racist remarks in casual conversation, she’s got her co-prez’s back. Now is the time to catch the killer and rebuild Kappa Kappa Tau under a kinder, gentler regime. Of course, where is the fun in that?
The Kappa Who Wants to Apologize
The Red Devil bursts in but is taken down by Zayday, and it becomes obvious that this is not the real Red Devil. First off, he’s got a penis, and we know the killer at large has girly parts.
They drag him downstairs and learn that he’s a pizza delivery guy. He came to the house to deliver a pizza and was knocked out by the Red Devil. When the guy woke up, he discovered that he was wrapped in dynamite. The real killer promised to spare his life if he killed everyone. With seconds left on the timer, the Chanels and Zayday scatter, and the pizza guy explodes.
Yes, this is a tragedy, but it’s time to move on. Chanel has decided her top priority is to rebrand herself. Chanel #3 questions if catching the killer might not be more pressing, but Chanel points out that Boone is the killer. So as long as they stay away from places where gay people congregate, like behind a Bennigan’s, they should be golden.
Chanel decides to embark on an apology tour, starting with previous Kappa president Melanie Dorkus. Chanel will fake-apologize, the other Chanels will record it and they’ll post it online.
The Kappa with a Plan
Grace escapes unscathed and goes to see her dad. She can’t figure out why the Red Devil let her live. Wes wants to call the police, but Grace argues that Denise will just arrest Zayday.
Grace questions how she could have misjudged Pete so badly, but her dad comes to the guy’s defense. Sure, Pete was in league with serial killers, but he was coming from a place of love.
With Grace’s V-card intact, and her first serious boyfriend worm food, it’s time to focus on the task at hand, to figure out which one of her sisters is the “last” killer. Grace is going to need all the intel on them she can get, and in order to do so, Wes has to take one for the team, which means seducing Dean Munsch.
The dean arrives at her apartment to find candles everywhere and a half-naked Wes in her bed. As the dean has her way with him, Grace and Zayday do a little snooping. They check the Chanels’ class schedules looking for clues. They find evidence against one of the Chanels, although we don’t know which one because they refer to her as “she.” The most damning evidence is that she attended Sweet Valley High and has a social security number of 123-45-6789 and a home address of Sesame Street.
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The Kappa with a Grudge
Chanel #5 receives a text claiming a possible Tinder match. Chanel excuses Number 5 from the meet and greet with Melanie because the fact that a man has shown any interest in her is nothing short of proof of God’s existence.
Chanel and Chanel #3 finally get an audience with Melanie, and she doesn’t look good. The two Chanels argue over whether she resembles Jason Voorhees from Jason Goes to Hell or Freddy Krueger and, unable to agree, let the matter drop.
Melanie had recused herself to an arctic compound in Alaska, but her parents made her return home six weeks ago. Now she’s living like Miss Havisham and blames Chanel for spiking her spray tan with acid. Chanel sits on the edge of Melanie’s bed and removes a pair of scissors from her purse. Zayday and Grace burst in just as Chanel tries to repeatedly stab Melanie. Number 3 is a bit confused by the change of plans, but Chanel insists that Melanie is the killer.
Grace and Zayday tell Chanel they have proof that Hester is the Red Devil. Now Chanel really has a reason to apologize. Color her face red for the mix-up.
The girls return to the sorority house. They hear a scream and race upstairs, where they find Number 5. She claims that the text she received was a fake. They all head to Chanel’s closet and find Hester with a stiletto in her eye. She’s not dead and wakes up and fingers Number 5 as the Red Devil.
The Kappa Who is the Last Red Devil
There is a new power structure in place at Kappa Kappa Tau. Zayday is the lone president, Grace is second in command and Hester, sporting an eye patch, is the treasurer. It’s winter semester, and Dean Munsch has allowed the Kappas to have a special rush, especially now that the Kappas are aligned with her almost militant commitment to political correctness — as long as it leans to the left.
Anyone who wishes to join Kappa can; it’s now part of the bylaws, but all is not as it seems. In a voiceover, we learn that Hester is indeed the remaining Red Devil. She recalls growing up in a mental institution and how she, Boone and Gigi developed their elaborate plan for revenge. Boone and Hester chose personas, and having noticed that nobody wants to know anything about anyone who is gross or weird, she stole the neck brace off another patient.
While at the local coffee house, Hester and Gigi found the perfect costume. All cool serial killers have a signature look, and when the university’s mascot made an appearance, it was decided that the Red Devil was the way to go.
Boone never actually enrolled in the university, but since frat guys never go to class anyway, he just blended in. Even though Hester’s transcripts were clearly faked, she was let in as part of a quota to admit special needs students.
Once she was in, the rest is history. And now Hester knows who her father and half-sister are, and she has a true family, not the psychos she used to roll with.
But what happened to the Chanels? Well, someone had to take the fall. Hester drove the stiletto into her own eye but had enough knowledge of human anatomy to avoid permanent damage.
Chanel #5 denied being the killer, and Grace and Zayday believed her. They still believed they had all the proof they needed to implicate Hester. Hester insists she falsified her transcripts because she was embarrassed by the fact that she was home-schooled. The fact that Hester looks like Boone? Coincidence. And what about Hester’s missing parents? She hired actors who claimed to be Hester’s biological parents/CIA agents.
Number Five’s parents, who weren’t thrilled with the frumpy finished product, had no qualms about selling her out at Hester’s request.
Not content to take down just Number 5, Hester framed Number Three for the deaths of Deaf Taylor Swift and Predatory Lez. Add to that the fact that she’s Charles Manson’s daughter with a shoe box full of letters from dear old dad offering advice on how to kill her friends, and her ear-muffed goose was cooked. Hester also produced a letter from a psychiatrist saying he had treated Number Three for split personality disorder, and being dumb as a can of paint, Number Three was easily convinced she was insane.
And the Kappa take-down wouldn’t be complete without implicating the house’s ringleader, Chanel #1. Chanel did kill Miss Bean, even though she continues to insist that was simply a Hell Week prank gone wrong. There is the matter of her attempt on Melanie’s life, but Chanel insists that was only because she believed the former Kappa president of being the Red Devil.
Hester also used a credit card in Chanel’s name, and sporting a blonde wig, faux fur and over-sized sunglasses, cleaned out a home improvement store of items used in the murders, including a crossbow and a lawn mower.
Chanel argues that she had no motive, but Hester questions what better way to get rid of the undesirable pledges and make Kappa Kappa Tau the utopia Chanel had dreamed of than by murdering the undesirable?
All three Chanels are placed under arrest by former male strippers turned deputies, hired by Chief of Police Denise Hemphill. The Chanels are denied bail and await trial in jail.
The Kappa Who Gets Away with Murder
There is one thing Hester didn’t count on: Dean Munsch. The dean confronts Hester and admits that she knows Hester is guilty. She remembers her face from the night Hester was born in that bathtub. The dean thinks Hester should have some culpability, but Hester argues that everything worked out and she’ll never kill again, unless she’s texting and driving. The Chanels deserve to die because they perpetuated the system that created Boone and Gigi and herself.
Munsch has grown a conscience (sort of) and feels an obligation to save the Chanels by turning Hester in, but Hester threatens to turn the dean in for covering up the murder of her mother and killing her husband. Or they can move on with their successful lives. Munsch opts for the latter.
The Kappas Who Embrace Insanity
The Chanels choose to represent themselves and are found guilty, thanks in great part to Chanel referring to the jury members as hippos. They also sleep through most of the trial, and their only defense is screaming at the jury that they didn’t kill anyone and then threatening to kill the jury.
But the judge isn’t sending the girls to jail; they’re going to an asylum. The judge tells the women that they are three of the worst human beings he’s ever come in contact with. (Seinfeld finale, anyone? Anyone?)
As she exits the courthouse, Chanel has an epiphany. Maybe they were sociopaths and didn’t know it, mainly because they chose to surround themselves with other crazy girls. So when they enter the Palmer Asylum and witness a plethora of women completely detached from reality and capable of anything, she knows the Chanels are going to feel right at home.
Number Three goes full-on lez, and a potent mix of meds makes Number Five tolerable. She and Chanel even become true besties. Inside the asylum, there is no judgement, no more popularity contests and no boys to stay skinny for.
Wes and Dean Munsch fall in love, and Chad decides to devote his life to charity — not one in particular because he doesn’t know of any on an individual basis.
But we all know that there are no happy endings in the horror genre. There has to be a sequel, which is why in the final moments, Chanel comes face-to-face with the Red Devil once again. What did you expect, donkey faces?
There has been chatter about a second season, which would take place with four of the original characters at a summer camp. Imagine the possibilities…
(Image courtesy of FOX)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Jennifer has worked as a freelance writer in the entertainment field since 2012. In addition to currently writing feature articles for Screen Rant, Jennifer has contributed content ranging from recaps to listicles to reviews for BuddyTV, PopMatters, TVRage, TVOvermind, and Tell-Tale TV. Links to some of Jennifer’s reviews can be found on Rotten Tomatoes.
