Written by Tommy Tracy
Warning: Some Plot Spoilers Ahead
Scream Queens is fast becoming my new favorite show on television, showcasing the very best ideas Ryan Murphy and company has ever had (and that’s coming from a huge fan of Glee). The sheer ridiculousness of this show is the most entertaining aspect of it and it’s succeeding because of it. The quick and witty quips and out of nowhere humor is not for every slasher lover but if you can set aside your expectations of what “horror” should be and laugh at what it actually is, “Chainsaw” will be enjoyable for you.
“Chainsaw” slows down a little bit from last week’s season premiere but that was to be expected. The patrons of Kappa Kappa Tau are still attempting to survive while also dealing with their everyday problems. Chanel still wants to get Chad back, giving us a scene with some of the funniest and dirtiest dialogue we’ve heard on television. A nice twist involving these two and the other Chanel’s is also great. Speaking of the Chanel’s, Chanel #5 (Abigail Breslin) has a great scene where she gives up on the house, telling us she’d rather be having sex in very strange positions than be murdered. Chanel #3 (Billie Lourd) becomes friends with house lesbian, Sam and Chanel #2 (Ariana Grande) is still posting strange Instagram photos, even after last week’s “death”. A nice scene with her parents (played by Hostel II’s Roger Bart and Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Charisma Carpenter) is welcome but lacks a true finish. Obviously we’ll get some resolution to this but it did fall a bit flat. But the Chanel’s are still my favorite part of this show because everything they say and do is what Scream Queens is all about.
Things get a little stressful with Grace (Skyler Samuels) and her father, Wes, or Professor Gardner (Oliver Hudson), as he is now the new film analysis teacher. Grace storms out of the class but Wes still keeps to his schedule, showing his class The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Again, this scene is very funny; Wes’ glee at the images on screen while his class hides behind their bags and pukes. Things between Wes, Gigi (Nasim Pedrad) and Dean Munsch (Jamie Lee Curtis) also get interesting because the former two have a true attraction to each other but Munsch just wants Wes as a sexual partner. Meanwhile, Grace reconciles with Pete and the two embark on an adventure to discover a secret about Kappa House but we’ll have to wait until next week to see this pan out.
This episode boasts two of the funniest scenes I’ve ever seen. One involves Coney, the new Wallace University mascot and replacing the former Red Devil mascot. Coney is an ice cream cone with big, googly eyes and a large smile, high-fiving girls on campus, smacking butts and giving students ease. He meets the Red Devil and two have an epic battle involving karate chops and chainsaws. Speaking of epic battles, Chad (Glen Powell) and the Dickey Dollar Scholars, still reeling from the loss of Boone (Nick Jonas), decide to take revenge on the Red Devil. Chad insists they “take back the night” by walking the campus with baseball bats and calling him out. With the Backstreet Boys “Backstreet’s Back” playing in the background, they roam the streets, beating down a red fire hydrant and car until the sounds of a chainsaw breaks them up. Another chainsaw revs and we are surprised with the site of two Red Devils. The following fight is HILARIOUS and one you’ll have to see to believe.
“Chainsaw” is another home run by the Scream Queens staff. Everything in this episode works and it creates a lot of questions on who the killer(s) are. Everyone may be a suspect and the episode does a great job at creating many over who could be behind the mask. Wes is my frontrunner because it just makes the most sense; he seems like the kind of guy who would want revenge and if the plot plays out like I think it will, this would make the most sense. Dark and gloomy Hester is also a key suspect and after this week’s She’s All That transformation into Chanel #6, this becomes more and more likely. Chanel #5’s rant also puts her at the top and Keke Palmer’s Zayday also becomes a suspect because she has a chainsaw under her bed that her grandmother sent her. Let’s not forget Boone, who wasn’t dead after last week and was nowhere to be seen in this episode. The show ends with us believing the killer is Dean Munsch because reasons? Even if Gigi was attacked by the Devil (to Munsch’s slasher white noise machine), when he escaped he ran out the window and Munsch appeared from upstairs. This is the episodes only flaw and we’ll see how it plays out next week.
