BWW Recap: 'Chainsaws' Rip Up the Past on SCREAM QUEENS

"Aren't we all running from chainsaws in our past?" Wes asks his film analysis class early in the episode. SCREAM QUEENS in its third hour decides to preoccupy itself with the past. Who dated who last year? Who's the baby in the pilot? Who's Chanel #3's father? In doing so, the show manages to make wonderful forward progress in theme, plot, and character, maintaining a consistency with the two-hour premiere.

Wes shows his film analysis class (of which Grace was originally a part, but left after seeing her dad was teaching to keep an eye on her) the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. After the movie ends, he talks to Gigi, played by Nasim Pedrad (SNL), about how past traumas affect the present, and how they stick with you. It is a shockingly open emotional admittance in an episode full of artificiality. In saying this, Wes shows a maturity and understanding lacking in the other characters. He's aware of what is going on, and his main goal is protecting his daughter. This fits in directly with Dean Munsch in the episode. Dean Munsch speaks to the students at a vigil, talking about how well-protected the campus is, and trying to stop a panic by denying the presence of a serial killer. We find out later that she does indeed know that that is going on, and she comes up with a plan to move into the KKT house with Gigi to keep a "protective" eye on the girls.

Contrast this with the Greeks early in the episode. Chad talks artificially about the "death" of Boone, worrying about who will compliment him now. Chanel and Chanel #5 don't care about the death of Chanel #2, and instead worry about how her death affects them. The Greeks in this episode show an immense apathy and egotism, considering themselves before they consider anybody else. This is shown most starkly in Chanel #3's decision to tell her secret to Sam (formerly Lez). Chanel #3 takes the tragedy of the deaths and turns it into how it affects her. Her secret is that her father is Charles Manson (aliens spoke to her mom and encouraged her to meet him in prison, conjugal-style). She worries that if this secret gets out, people will think she's the killer. Chanel #3's dad secret ties into the effects of past trauma on the present. Her dad was a serial murderer, and his actions in the past have a direct effect on her life in the present.

Lastly, there are the innocents. Grace, Zayday, and Denise go to Bel Air to meet up with Chanel #2's parents and see if she is there. Chanel #2 isn't there of course. Her parents start to talk about how Chanel #2 previously had been to rehab, and equate a relapse to her sudden disappearance. We don't believe it as an audience, but the characters use the past trauma as a way of understanding and logically explaining the presence. She's had problems before, so she'll have problems again. Later in the episode, Grace and Pete decide to investigate the mysterious birth a little more. They find a KKT sister from 1995 who dropped out the same semester the baby would've been born. They look to the past as a way of understanding the present, assuming that the trauma that occurred twenty years before is the same cause of the trauma occurring now.

Something I worried about before the show premiered was if SCREAM QUEENS would be able to maintain a stable tone, theme, and storyline. Ryan Murphy shows of the past have gone off the rails as the season went on, often choosing cheap, nonsensical thrills over logical storytelling. I'm so happy to see that this third episode is exactly in line with the first two. It really shows that Murphy and co. have a plan this time around. Worth noting is that this show is aware of the canon that surrounds the horror genre, and as a result manipulates the audience's perception of the events by playing into and subsequently subverting the tropes.

This subversion of tropes is shown by the red herring's in the episode. In episodes 1 and 2, we get hints here and there that it could be certain characters. In trying to think about who the killer might be, I often think "oh, no, it's too obvious that it would be them!" In this episode for example, we get the idea that either Chad, Zayday, or Dean Munsch are the killers hammered into our heads. Several of the characters denounce Chad's behavior and note his obsession with knives and cadavers. Denise directly accuses Zayday of being the killer, listing all the reasons it could possibly be here. We see as an audience Dean Munsch forcing Gigi out of their shared bedroom, and moving the beds together. The show cuts to Gigi walking downstairs, and then she is attacked. By the end of the episode, Gigi and Wes call the police on Dean Munsch, accusing her of being the Red Devil.

SCREAM QUEENS is self-aware enough to realize that people will try to guess the killer, and that they will draw from what they know from previous horror franchises to do so. The show uses this self-awareness against the viewer, by establishing a sort of tension between what might be a clue and what might be a red herring. Is Denise onto something in her suspicion of Zayday? Did Wes make the right call and just lock up one of the Red Devils? The show leaves so much up in the air that it forces us into a position where our guess are made in vain, because at this point it is genuinely impossible-and the show pulls this off beautifully because it is so satirical and campy.

Who's Red Devil?

I'm sticking with Wes as the killer, and I'll throw in Boone as his accomplice. We get confirmation last week that Boone is actively working with Red Devil, when Red Devil "saves" Boone from the morgue. I think the idea that it's Wes is handled very well in this episode. He shows his class the Texas Chainsaw Massacre which is Red Devil's weapon of choice this time around. He's the one who accuses Dean Munsch of being Red Devil, and it's very possible he could've orchestrated that entire situation just to book her. We learn that he has Grace's phone tracked. I think his emotional openness that I talked about earlier also sets him apart from the other characters for a reason; pointing that he's not empathetic but sociopathic.

Scream Quotes

"Where is #2s body? Is she alive? Is she dead? Who's stealing all these bodies?"

"My best friend in the world who complimented me all the time was murdered. So I'm super sad."

"I heard munching box is what killed Michael Douglas."

"Those are whale distress calls. I find them very soothing."

"When you put on a costume it changes you."

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What did you think of the SCREAM QUEENS this week? Loved it? Hated it? Can't wait for more? Let me know in the comments below, or on Twitter @gunnar_larson. Also, don't forget to follow @BWWTVWorld on Twitter and Like us on Facebook for all of the latest TV news, reviews, and recaps.

Photo Credit: Michael Goi | FOX

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