Scream season 1, episode 4, “Aftermath,” just finished airing, and Emma deals with the aftermath of last week’s death.
This week’s Scream begins with Emma’s mother saying they got Tyler in his crashed his car, and Noah showing up to the crime scene, understandably upset. At the accident, they found the Brandon James mask, and while the characters seem hopeful, we know it’s too good to be true. Meanwhile, Piper says she’s sorry for everyone’s loss — and actually appears to mean it.
“Maybe if I’d have punched my V-card, the rules of horror would apply,” Noah says, wishing he had died instead of Riley. The scenes of everyone grieving are both hilarious and truly heartwrenching, in true Scream fashion. Noah suggests vigilante justice (was that an Arrow reference?), and Audrey suggests their names could be Bi-curious and The Virgin.
At a town meeting, Jake is happy both Nina and Tyler are out of the picture, but it’s obvious Will still doesn’t trust him. The sheriff announces that Tyler was the killer and that it’s over, but both Audrey and Emma think he’s jumping the gun.
Plus they still have the issue of not being able to find Tyler’s head.
Will comforts Emma at work. “Is this what friends feels like?” she asks. Even though Will doesn’t show it, we have a feeling he’s not too happy with that label. At the same time, Brooke is shopping for funeral nail polish when she gets a message about voting for who you’d rather see on the chopping block next, Brooke or Emma. Her numbers are far higher than Emma’s.
Emma gets a yearbook in the mail, and there’s a page dedicated in memory of the Brandon James victims. The faces of the victims are cut out, and next to Emma’s father’s crossed out picture, it says, “The truth lies where the mask was made.”
Emma takes the yearbook to Noah and Audrey. Noah explains that the Brandon James mask was to protect Brandon’s sutures after each one of his surgeries. He had his surgeries at Lakewood General, which is now shut down. Without including Noah, Audrey and Emma decide to go there to get some answers.
Outside of the main mystery, everything seems to be falling apart. Riley’s family wants to sue the sheriff, Brooke thinks everyone hates her and her mom is avoiding the entire situation, and Will got into Duke but can’t pay the tuition. Jake suggests they finish blackmailing the person Nina and Tyler had targeted.
Audrey and Emma show up to the hospital, and Audrey jokes about splitting up. She even suggests the voice on the phone possibly being a woman’s, since you can use a $1.99 app to change its tone. Once again Scream is putting every single possibility on the table, and we love them for it.
The girls follow a blood trail and find an image of the mask on a door. Inside the room, they find a dead and rotting pig missing its heart (which went to Emma’s mother) and its head (probably an allusion to Tyler’s missing noggin).
The girls also see Brandon James’ x-rays and find out more than one mask was custom made for him after each surgery. Noah shows up and barely dodges their attempts to attack him before going into a monologue about finding the killer’s lair. The only problem? This lair seems staged, much like what you would find in unrealistic scenes in shows like Pretty Little Liars. (Isn’t it refreshing to hear those sometimes ridiculous moments being called out on another television show?)
The killer took souvenirs from his victims, and the group spots the missing yearbook pictures along with pictures of Emma. Emma then spots Nina’s laptop and copies files from the computer as they hear someone inside the hospital with them. On their way out, they spot a Brandon James mask, but when Emma grabs for it, Tyler’s head falls from the shelf.
The person in the hospital with them was the sheriff. Back at the station, amidst rantings of their stupidity, he says they swept the hospital a week ago and found nothing. He also admits it was an anonymous tip that told him someone would be at the hospital tonight. Since they found Tyler’s head, the sheriff also says he doesn’t think Tyler is the killer anymore.
And that person Nina and Tyler were blackmailing? The one Jake and Will are continuing to blackmail? It’s Brooke’s dad, who’s giving off some creeptastic vibes, if you ask us.
Brooke doesn’t want to be selfish, and Jake takes the opportunity to comfort her. Audrey and Noah try to open the encrypted files, which they obviously did not hand over to the police, but only one file made it onto the SD card. While Emma is at work telling Piper to stay because the investigation is not over, Noah and Audrey accidentally upload the video of Emma’s first time to the internet.