“Halloween is upon us. And the Devil is gonna come a running.”
By Amber Dowling
Editor’s note: With Terri Schwartz out of the country on a set visit, Amber’s tackling Scream Queens for us this week!
Full spoilers for the episode follow.
With a show like Scream Queens, it’s only natural to take back-to-back weeks to celebrate the scariest of all holidays, Halloween. But where last week’s “Haunted House” provided lots of dead bodies and gruesome imagery (pussy fingers, anyone?) this week’s “Pumpkin Patch” turned the dial up on the Red Devil chase.
With Zayday missing and the show keeping its stride by not having the characters take it seriously, it was up to Grace, her father and salad dater Gigi to lock her down before the big KKT presidential vote. Oh, and save her life, of course. Meanwhile, Chanel continued to see a dissention in her flocks thanks to a fed up Chanel Number 5, Dean Munsch’s decision to cancel Halloween and a backstabbing Hester, who continues being a switch hitter. Er, double agent.
There were plenty of typical horror tropes throughout the episode to make fun of, including a snow-dusted hedge maze straight out of The Shining. Watching Roger and Dodger attempt to save Chanel Number 5 by running through it (rather than away from it, natch), was one of the night’s highlights; their oblivious ignorance fit right in with the show’s tone — backwards footprints, poorly timed ultimatums and all. Dodger’s eventual gutting wasn’t a shock nor was it a hard loss, but it did serve as a tidy little reminder that people are going to die on this show, and the throwaway characters are dwindling in numbers.
The Red Devil’s layer, with its random pits (did he dig it or can houses come with them?) and meat hook room was also right in line with every horror movie ever, but it was useful in throwing the old red herring out in Gigi. Since we didn’t see her fight off the Red Devil it was pretty much a give me that she was working with him in the end. Whether her fake participation was to throw everyone off her scent or to gain credit with Wes and a grossed-out Grace (who walked in on “Red Velvet” sexy times) is unclear, but it’s probably a combination of both. The real question is which “he” was Gigi referring to when she told the Red Devil that the situation was too close and “he” needed to go? Was it Wes, Pete, or someone else entirely who wasn’t in that scene?
One theory — if you’re into the multiple Red Devil theories — is that she was referring to the dude (or gal) in the Devil costume courting Zayday. As the sister recounted, he sent her little gifts and made her Oakland nachos, proving his eternal love. Perhaps the lovesick attempt rubbed the other devils the wrong way. If Gigi was referring to Wes, however, something tells me Dean Munsch will attempt to save him. Between her third wheel antics and the strange look on her face when she found out they were dating, there’s more going on there to explore. In the meantime, can we just please have more Denise/Munsch gal time? At this point, who hasn’t slept with Chad Radwell?
As for Chad’s wannabe Jackie Kennedy Chanel, it was a rough night indeed. Her arrest was a fun opportunity to see her react to her surroundings in prison and stew about the Chanels’ betrayals. It was almost disappointing that she was pulled from the situation so soon because it would have been interesting to see her become more of a prison Queen B, but in this show the quick pace is key to keeping the plot going and it made more sense to have her released sooner.
I’m sure we’re return to the little old fact that her father has disowned her and she’s been accused of Ms. Bean’s murder in the near future anyhow.
The second Halloween installment of Scream Queens wasn’t as spooky or gruesome as last week’s “Haunted House,” but it served to move the plot along via Chanel’s arrest and Gigi’s big reveal. The series said farewell to at least one throwaway character, narrowing down the field of potential kills, while also throwing in several horror tropes and making fun of their sheer ridiculousness.
