BWW Recap: SCREAM QUEENS Reveals 'The Final Girl(s)'

SCREAM QUEENS, since its inception, has been a satire of college Greek life, a system that breeds hateful, self-obsessed people. Every few weeks in the news there's a story of a fraternity throwing a racist party, or spitting on veterans, or leaked sorority emails. Chanel and her cronies have been representations of these people. I would say exaggerations, but they're not. SCREAM QUEENS returns to these roots in a more than satisfying two-part conclusion.

Hour One

I'm splitting this recap up into the first hour and the second hour. They're actually episodes 12 and 13, and they're so different in structure and separate that I think this is necessary. First, though, I want to remind y'all of what happened last week. We found out Pete has been working for Red Devil #2, the baby in the bathtub, Grace's half-sister, and Wes's daughter.

We open this week immediately after the end of last week's. Grace confronts Pete about being Red Devil's henchman in a wonderfully paced sequence. The show finally makes good use of Grace. Pete reveals his backstory: Pete reveals that he tested the DNA of the Kappa sisters and found out who Red Devil was. Boone convinced him to work for Red Devil. Pete killed Roger, Dodger, and Boone. Before Pete can tell Grace the name, Red Devil pops out of the closet and stabs him.

We then see Chanel. We find out that an email she sent to Kappa house has been leaked (reminiscent of the University of Maryland sorority email leak). She's hated by everyone, and says she plans to kill herself ("like Cleopatra"). Zayday, ever the forgiving, loving one, convinces her not to. Zayday proposes that she and Chanel work together to make Kappa the best it can be. Then Red Devil comes in.

This Red Devil is scared by the snake. He starts to SCREAM and Zayday and Chanel unmask him-it's a random pizza guy we haven't seen before. The girls drag him down stairs, and all the Kappa sisters huddle around him. The pizza guy reveals the real Red Devil hit him over the head, strapped him with dynamite, and made him go in there to kill Chanel. He blows up.

Grace goes to Wes and they have a heart-to-heart. She convinces him to help her. Wes seduces Dean Munsch while Grace and Zayday look through the registrar to find the files on all the Chanels. They realize who Red Devil is (the sister whose social security number is 123-45-6789).

In the aftermath of the explosion, Chanel #5 is crying hysterically; Chanel #3 is stoic; and Chanel decides she needs to go "on an apology tour" to better her image. Their first stop? Melanie Dorcas, the Kappa sister who had acid thrown in her face. They go to visit her, and Chanel tries to kill Melanie because she thinks she's the Red Devil killer. Grace and Zayday show up, and reveal that Hester is the Red Devil.

All the Kappa sisters return to Kappa house. They find Hester on the ground, with a stiletto through her eye. They think she's dead. She wakes up, points a finger at Chanel #5, and says she's Red Devil.

Hour Two

"They perpetuated the system that made me, Boone, and Gigi."

SCREAM QUEENS really goes for the jugular in its conclusion, offering a scathing indictment of Greek culture. At the very beginning of the second hour we start in a flash-forward. In fact, the majority of the episode is in flash-forward to show the aftermath of the Red Devil killings. It's January, Kappa rush week. Zayday is president. Grace is vice president. And Hester is treasurer. In chilling voice over, we hear that Hester was the Red Devil killer.

We get Hester's backstory. How Gigi raised her in the asylum. We already knew her backstory from previous episodes. The important part is that flash-forward Hester is all about making Kappa great. She says that, without the Chanels in the picture, Kappa is able to become the house it's supposed to be. And, without the harmful perpetuated behavior of the Chanels, Kappa house is a more loving, open environment.

We flashback after this, however, to see the conclusion of Hester putting the blame on Chanel #5. Hester, in fact, is an evil genius. She created a multi-layered Gone Girl-esque plan to put the blame on all the Chanels. She convinced Chanel #5s parents to speak against her. She brought in Chanel #3's Manson-Dad secret, and letters that incriminate her. Last, she puts the blame on Chanel, who she says wanted to kill all the pledges that made Kappa worse. The three Chanels run when Denise comes in. They're arrested.

Flash-forward, again, to May 2016 and Dean Munsch says order has been restored to Wallace University. She, in a similar voice over, talks about the better behavior of the campus without the harmful Chanels. Dean Munsch, in the aftermath, wrote a successful book on New New Feminism, and is really capitalizing on the new Kappa.

Dean Munsch, though, knows Hester was Red Devil. She confronts her, and threatens to out her secret. Hester goes into a monologue that feels like the entire show's thesis statement: the hateful behavior of college Greek life created the murderous Red Devil killer. She was only a killer out of circumstance. If she had been afforded a normal life, outside of the hate, she wouldn't have done it. She then blackmails Dean Munsch with the knowledge of her killing her husband; both women agree to keep the secrets.

Last, the Chanels aren't allowed bond. They go to trial, and they're almost let off Not Guilty, until Chanel opens her mouth and whines about how unfair the jury and trial was. The jury changed their mind, and changed the verdict to Guilty. In the end, it was her own behavior that put Chanel in jail, not Hester blaming her. The Chanels end up in an asylum, where they similarly take over like they did at Kappa house. At the end, Red Devil kills Chanel. Whether it is Hester, or a new killer from the asylum is unknown. Either way, her continued awful behavior, even after being imprisoned, lead to her eventual demise.

SCREAM QUEENS as a whole was a very consistent and successful show in doing what it needed to. It absolutely hit the nail on the head with its overall themes on the destructive powers of Greek culture in this finale. Above all, it managed to end a murder mystery with a completely satisfying conclusion, which is hardly ever possible. I'll miss the fun this show brought to my TV screen. Thank you for reading with me all season! I hope y'all liked the finale as much as I did.

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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.

Photo Credit: SCREAM QUEENS official Twitter

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