In this episode of Scream, “Let the Right One In,” the killer continues to toy with Audrey, Eli takes advantage of a disagreement between Emma and Kieran to make a move on his cousin’s girl, the killer targets Miss. Lang, and Zoe finds out the truth about Audrey.
“Let the Right One In” marks the halfway point of the season, and the body count remains surprisingly low. The rule of most sequels is more blood and gore (Okay, that Branson thing was pretty gross.) Will all the members of the Lakewood Five make it out alive, or will the body count begin to escalate as we make our way closer to the finale?
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Little Bo Creep
Eli may or may not be a killer, but he’s definitely weird. He apparently likes to break into people’s houses when they’re sleeping, watch them sleep and grab some toast and a cup of joe before heading out undiscovered.
All About Emma
Sheriff Acosta has to break the news to Emma and Maggie that Riley’s text messages to Kevin Duval came from her computer. Of course, Emma denies any involvement, and the Sheriff seems to be giving her the benefit of the doubt. The killer does have a knack for getting his/her/their hands on other people’s electronics.
The Sheriff appears to be willing to entertain the idea that Emma is being set up, citing her multiple run-ins with the killer, the articles that Emma found about Piper’s killing spree at the motel, the threatening phone calls and that incident at the fairgrounds. Oops, Maggie didn’t know Emma snuck out –and was almost eviscerated — after Maggie forbade her daughter from doing so. Busted!
This all adds up to someone obsessing over and stalking Emma. Maggie and Emma decide to tell the Sheriff about the old James’ farm and the photos of Emma and the mystery man. Meanwhile, Emma needs to hand over her computer since it could help them find whoever is doing all of this.
Audrey’s Secret is Safe — For Now
The morning after her true confession to Noah, Audrey is adamant that she can’t tell Emma the truth. Noah thinks Emma will understand. Audrey spent the night holed up with Noah in his bedroom. Apparently, her confession wasn’t broadcast to Noah’s podcast audience after all; it was merely recorded, and it’s a safe bet it will go viral very soon.
Emma Calls Out Kieran
Emma and Kieran continue to have trust issues. She confronts him about going to the Sheriff behind her back. Everything he told Acosta, plus the incriminating IP address, makes Emma look like a naughty girl. Emma questions why Kieran wouldn’t come to her first. Kieran’s defense is that Emma would have told him not to, and he’d rather have her pissed off and alive than dead. She’s been keeping things from the po-po, and that’s dangerous. It was for her own good. But Emma feels super betrayed.
Brooke Has Second Thoughts
Brooke is feeling a little guilty about what she did to Branson. She decides to confide in Audrey and admits to tying her ex to a bed, threatening to castrate him and then leaving him in a hotel room. Audrey responds with a Hard Candy reference, which is brills (a must-see, by the way). Brooke is worried that Branson is right where she left him, which is ridiculous because he could make enough noise to attract attention or housekeeping would have discovered him by now. All moot since the last person to really see Branson alive was the killer.
Emma’s Story Checks Out
The Sheriff and one of his deputies, Dwayne, head out to the “abandoned” farm. The Sheriff spots a photo peeking out from under an old chair. He sends Dwayne out to radio the station and makes a phone call. He tells the person on the other end that they have a “bigger problem than they thought.” The picture shows a man with his face scratched out with a small girl who presumably is Emma. So what is the Sheriff hiding? We know his son has a Brandon James mask, and his past is a bit of a question mark.
Kieran’s Dark Past
Emma arrives to work pissed-off, and Eli decides to play peacemaker. He tells Emma that Kieran had a really tough childhood, including an overbearing step-father. The two had a nasty fight the night he and Kieran’s mother died in a car crash. Kieran hasn’t forgiven himself for that fight. That, along with what happened to his real dad, could explain why Kieran is so overprotective of Emma. Or he could be a psycho killer. One minute Eli is trying to come between the happy couple, and the next he’s coming to his cousin’s defense.
Zoe Gives Noah Another Chance
Zoe has a renewed interest in Noah, and even though he just admitted to having feelings for Audrey, Noah’s still interested in Zoe too. They arrange a study date, and Zoe takes Noah out to the lake. It turns out that Zoe has a few skeletons in her closet. She was suffering from some severe depression and did something so horrible she can’t quite come out with any details, but it’s bad enough for us to assume it was attempted suicide. As a result of whatever it was, Zoe took a month off of school for some intense therapy. She got all the dirt on what she missed thanks to Noah’s podcast. Noah assures her that by Lakewood standards, Zoe’s is in the shallow end when it comes to hidden mysteries.
Zoe makes another reveal. She didn’t bring Noah out to the lake to study. She’s brought all the fixins for a date. Noah ignores a call from Audrey, promising Zoe his undivided attention.
Where in the World is Mr. Branson?
Audrey was calling to let her bestie know that she and Brooke were back at the scene of Brooke’s crime. Audrey and Brooke enter the hotel room (which is spotless), and there’s a blindfold on the pillow and Mr. Branson’s watch on the neatly-made bed. Brooke thinks Branson escaped and wonders how long until her little interrogation catches up with her. Not long. She gets a text from “Branson” saying he wants to meet up with her later at the school. Either Brooke apologizes or he’ll turn her in. You’d think after all those faux texts from Jake, Brooke would be a bit more wary.
Audrey’s concerned that Brooke is about to become fodder for a future episode of To Catch a Predator. The two leave the hotel room without realizing they were being videotaped.
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The Killer Tries to Set Up Audrey, Again
Miss Lang catches up with Emma at the Grindhouse. She’s been trying to apologize to Emma for locking her in the classroom for her own safety. Miss Lang was concerned about Emma’s PTSD, or so she says. Emma accepts Miss Lang’s apology, but she’s kind of over all of the “help” she’s been getting lately. Miss Lang is persistent and lets Emma know that she’ll be at the school later grading papers if Emma wants to call or stop by.
Eli decides that Emma needs to find the fun and offers to take her to dinner. There’s a little playful back and forth flirtation. Kieran happens to walk in and see the twosome and leaves without saying a word.
Miss Lang continues to be shady. But it’s unclear if she’s being shady good or shady bad. Her association with Branson would make us assume the latter. She has been taping conversations with Emma and perhaps Brooke, Audrey, Noah and Kieran too. She sits in her office with the files of the Lakewood Five splayed out all over her desk. Is she genuinely concerned about helping the survivors or is she a sinister slasher sporting a ponytail?
Brooke prepares to meet Branson, and Audrey receives a text from the killer. He/she threatens to send that incriminating video of her with Jake’s dead body in the storage unit to Brooke if she doesn’t come to the school alone. She winds up tagging along with Brooke.
Miss Lang is dictating some notes about poor, unstable Emma when she hears some noises, but when she peeks around, nothing is amiss. She gets a call on her phone, and it’s the killer. He tells her that Mr. Branson is waiting for her out in the hallway. I’m not sure this absolves her of all malfeasance, but she’s not the killer.
She heads out to the hall and finds a wind-up toy pig oinking its way down the hallway. Mind you, she’s gone from her office for a minute tops, but when she returns, the place is trashed — like, full-on heavy metal band motel room trashed. She heads back out into the hall and comes face to face, or face to mask, with the killer, who is holding on to Seth Branson’s hand. Yummy.
Ms. Lang escapes, only to trip over Mr. Branson’s body. He is alive, if not well, and looking very gnarly. The killer comes up behind her because she apparently forgot she was being chased, and Branson’s last word is “Run.” She takes off, and Seth gets a butcher knife in the gut.
Lang heads up the stairwell and predictably trips. The killer catches up with her and throws her around a bit, and she winds up unconscious. Her life is spared by the jangling of a janitor’s keys. Obviously, the killer wants her to stay alive because why else would he/she flee the scene? How hard is it to bump off a janitor?
When Brooke and Audrey get to the school, Audrey convinces Brooke to let her go in first and feel Branson out. This is just a ruse for her to get inside, alone, per the killer’s instructions. Audrey tells Brooke to keep her phone on.
Audrey starts screaming, “I’m here,” at the top of her lungs but is met by the frantic janitor instead of a sociopath. He’s called the paramedics but insists on escorting the impressionable young teenager to the teacher’s limp body. Brooke, who ignored Audrey’s instructions, is next on the scene. She and the janitor huddle around Miss Lang, while Audrey just looks freaked out. How will this hiccup in the killer’s plan affect her?
Coitus Interruptus
Things go well between Zoe and Noah on their first date. He gets to at least first base. Emboldened by his success, Noah invites Zoe to his house later because his parents are going to be out of town. As he’s condom shopping, he gets another call from Audrey, which he ignores.
Zoe hangs with Noah and happens to notice a file on his computer labeled “Audrey.” She sends him scurrying off on some fool’s errand because guys will do anything if they think it means they’ll get laid. The minute he’s gone, Zoe can’t wait to click away. She’s had a bit of a hard-on against Audrey since their weird threesome, and Zoe’s animosity towards Bi-Curious is steadily intensifying.
Zoe hears Audrey’s entire confession about Piper. She sends it as an attachment in an e-mail, I’m guessing to herself.
She and Noah get down to the matter at hand, ridding Noah of his pesky virginity. But the guy cannot catch a break because Audrey interrupts before he can get his pants off.
Audrey tells Noah about Miss Lang. It was a pretty bad fall, and she’s not sure the teacher is going to live. Audrey also lets Noah know that the killer was texting her again. He knew she was with Brooke and could have been posing as Branson. Uh, ya think? He had something planned. Noah is pissed that Audrey walked into the trap, but she explains that she really didn’t have much choice.
Audrey believes that the killer was setting her up again like he did with Jake. Whatever the killer had planned for Lang, he wanted Audrey to be a part of it. They both realize that if it weren’t for that janitor, there’s no idea what Audrey could have been walking into.
The Weirdest Date Ever
Eli takes Emma to the exact spot where Jake got knocked out cold by the killer in the premiere. It’s a construction site for a housing development. He takes her to a model home, which has been abandoned. Eli convinces Emma that the rush of doing something she shouldn’t is exactly what Emma needs to get her mind off her troubles.
Eli confides in Emma that because his mother is a hot mess, he sometimes likes to pretend he’s someone else. Boy, the evidence is really piling up against Eli right about now. He tells Emma that he sometimes sneaks into other people’s houses to help perpetuate his fantasy. Eli calls it Goldilocks-ing. For some unknown reason, Emma finds this charming as opposed to creepy or alarming.
Little does she know that there are two bodies in the bathroom, one of whom is clearly Mr. Branson.
Mo’ Secrets, Mo’ Problems
Acosta brings Maggie to the farm and shows her the picture. She asks if he’s told the Mayor, and the Sheriff makes it clear that he’d prefer to keep Quinn out of this for the time being. Maggie says she knows what the Sheriff is thinking, but he’s wrong. Uh oh. The sins of the parents being revisited on the kids, again.
It looks like Maggie and Acosta may know who’s targeting Emma after all. Maggie thinks the situation was “handled” a long time ago, but Acosta tells Maggie that this is all about Emma, and what is going on could be their fault. What is up with Maggie? Her teenage shenanigans were at the root of season 1’s storyline, and now it turns out the Mayor, the new Sheriff and Maggie are part of an even bigger conspiracy.
Firestarter
Eli plants some seeds that Kieran isn’t who he seems to be, and Emma is falling for it. And somebody is skulking around outside, which could exonerate Eli as the killer. How is it that they are sitting in a house with two rotting corpses, and neither comment on a strange smell? Branson is pretty fresh, but the other guy has been there a while. (It was dark, but my money is that Eddie was moved from one bathtub to another.)
Eli kisses Emma, but she pulls away. She and Kieran may be fighting, but she still loves him. Suddenly, the smoke detector goes off. Somebody has lit the house on fire with Emma and Eli inside. They escape through the garage. Emma wants to call the fire department, but Eli has a vested interest in her keeping quiet. He’s got a history with the police, and things could go very badly for him if they don’t just walk away.
Also, it turns out Branson is a hard guy to kill. As the bathroom is consumed in flames, his eyes pop open, and he weakly calls for help. If Branson, who has been stabbed, had his hands cut off and had been tortured with an iron, survives this fire, he’s the next Freddy Krueger.
Scream airs Tuesdays at 10pm on MTV.
(Image courtesy of MTV)
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.
