BWW Recap: SCREAM QUEENS Is a Russian Doll of 'Ghost Stories'

SCREAM QUEENS has always been a horror satire, playing off the genre's obvious tropes and pitfalls. Some episodes even have blatant references to classic horror films (the Shining, Silence of the Lambs, and Psycho the most obvious). Tonight, SCREAM QUEENS is at its sharpest, honing on three ghost stories that emphasize the show's strengths.

Most of the episode takes place in the Kappa house on the eve of campus being shut down. I equate it to the pre-Halloween episode that did the same thing. SCREAM QUEENS is clearly strongest on episodes that narrow the scope and focus on the most essential characters. Tonight's focuses are Chanel and Boone.

Before I get into the three ghost stories that inhabit the Chanel plot, I want to go through everything Boone does in the episode. Way back in episode 2 we get the reveal that he's working with Red Devil, and then last week he returned, reminding us that he's an accomplice in all the killings. Tonight he reintroduces himself to society as a ghost.

He runs into Chanel #3 outside, when he's outside pretending to be Joaquin Phoenix, and she's the one that spreads the lie that he's a ghost, an idea which Boone runs with. He reunites with a clueless Chad who believes he's a ghost. It's revealed subtly here (and confirmed at the end) that dead ghost Boone is straight and he was pretending to be gay to be part of the fraternity (an inclusion that seems unnecessary). Boone really wants to date Zayday (as a way to get into the Kappa house to attempt to kill people? Probably). He ends up killing Earl Grey (who surprise was dating Zayday, but that abrupt romance becomes negligible once he's dead).

Grace and Zayday find out Boone is alive and Red Devil, and the police get involved and start to search for him. (In the sharpest satire of the series, the police ask Grace and Zayday to describe Boone so they can get a sketch of him when they already have tons of pictures, and then assume he's a ghost killing everybody). Boone and the second Red Devil wait for their controller, Gigi, to come back. Gigi reveals that Boone is too high profile, and that the police know it's him. The second Red Devil is revealed to be his sister, and she stabs him.

In many ways this episode is the downfall of Boone. He stumbles his way back into the lives of his friends, and fumbles meeting up with Zayday. He's not careful enough to support the idea that he's a ghost, and he's too clueless to realize everybody knows he's the killer. Gigi and the second Red Devil are way more calculating and sold on the idea of the revenge killings. Whoever Boone's sister is is way more cold than Boone; she kills her brother! This plot, in many ways, needed to happen. Boone's death is the logical conclusion of his arc, and sets up the end of the season as Gigi and Red Devil on their own.

In the other half of the episode, Chanel and the other Chanels are staying in Kappa house for one last night before they're forced to evacuate the next day. Denise, in many ways, acts as a den mother this episode. It's her idea to start to tell ghost stories to remove the fear of Red Devil killing them. She uses her years of experience to make the horror of the murders less horrible. She passes on her horror stories, representative of the way stories are passed from one generation to the next.

In many ways, what Denise does in telling the ghost stories is what SCREAM QUEENS as a show is doing: retelling horror stories from the older generation for the new one. In the new tellings we get twists; they're never exactly like the original story. In the case of the ghost stories, they have different outcomes. In the case of SCREAM QUEENS, the stories are told with a new, satiric lens.

The first ghost story Denise tells is ripped out of Japanese horror. She tells the story of a killer who puts red and blue toilet paper in the bathroom. If the girl chooses red toilet paper, the girl's throat is slit. If she chooses blue, she's strangled. After telling this story, Denise goes to the bathroom and encounters red and blue toilet paper in the bathroom. The story she told is reenacted for a new generation. In this telling, she doesn't die.

The second ghost story, which Hester tells, is the serial killer who escaped from an insane asylum trope. He's a meat hook killer who hides in the back seat of a car. The driver is pulled over when a semi-truck behind her notices someone in the backseat. The driver is then killed. Chanel #5 reenacts this story when she gets fed up and can't stay in Kappa house anymore and goes to leave. In this telling, the driver (Chanel #5) does not die, but the semi-truck driver does.

The third ghost story has its first telling in modern days. Chanel pushes Hester down the stairs when she finds out Hester lied about being pregnant with Chad's baby, pushing Chanel out of Thanksgiving dinner at the Radwell's. After Hester is killed from the fall, Chanel states that it's a new ghost story. The younger generation learns from the older one. New stories are told and come up with. If Chanel's murder of Hester is any indication, then all the previous ghost stories are true too.

This is much what SCREAM QUEENS is all about. The show takes traditional tropes and stories, then retells them for the new generation. We get the maze from the Shining, but nobody dies in the snow. We get the night vision scene from Silence of the Lambs, but with comedic results. We get Psycho with an acknowledgment of the movie. SCREAM QUEENS' biggest asset is acknowledging its roots and its purpose.

Who's Red Devil?

Boone (RIP), Gigi, and I think the girl is Chanel #3. She easily could've concocted the ghost lie herself. Plus she's emotionally detached enough to not care about her brother.

Scream Quotes

Hester: "My spinal column was collapsing so I decided to bedazzle my neck brace and put it back on. You're the first to notice so that's how seamlessly that goes with this outfit."

Chanel: "Now I see we're stronger than ever i.e. planning a murder together!"

"I'm head of the Department of Paranormal Exploration, or DOPE"

Denise: "That story scared me good. My heart rates coming down, and I'm not gassy anymore."

Chanel: "Sacagawea taught the pilgrims how to make cranberry sauce"

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What did you think of SCREAM QUEENS tonight? 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. Tune in next week for SCREAM QUEENS' Thanksgiving episode!

Photo Credit: SCREAM QUEENS official Twitter

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