Written by Tommy Tracy
Warning: Full Spoilers Ahead
This show is killing it and yes, the pun was fully intended. After last week’s slightly disappointing (yet still enjoyable) episode, Scream Queens returns to form with “Pumpkin Patch”. This episode focuses on Chanel’s obsession with beating the kidnapped Zayday in the KKT presidential election and remaining popular by orchestrating a pumpkin patch fundraiser for the fictitious (and hilarious) Hairy Black Tongue Disease. This is scheduled to take place on Halloween, a holiday which is cancelled by Dean Munsch for safety reasons. Grace, Pete and Denise are on the hunt for Zayday, Gigi and Wes get together for a salad date and the rest of the KKT House remains as catty as ever. Oh, and there’s a maze and a pretty gruesome death.
Have I praised Emma Roberts enough? She is in her element as Chanel, walking the fine line between scared and insane. She will not let anyone stand in the way of her popularity, whether it be here quips with Dean Munsch (who was underutilized this week) or being incredibly offensive to everyone she makes contact with. She finally gets her just desserts for the murder of Ms. Beane and actually ends up in jail with local inmates. She instantly befriends the baddest bitches in the joint, promising they’ll remain friends if they help her. Her bail gets posted immediately following this and she replies, “later, losers.”
Zayday, who was kidnapped last week, is seen at the bottom of a pit, screaming for her life. I liked this scene because it was very little Zayday and had a nice reference to The Silence of the Lambs. I just don’t like Zayday. Sure, she’s sassy but she’s not as believable as Chanel or Denise, the latter who still thinks she’s the killer and will blurt out the first thing that reaches her brain. Denise, followed by Grace, Wes, Gigi and Pete, find the house Zayday is being held in and, of course, split up to find her. This scene is hilarious and even has Gigi getting tazed in her breasts but a trigger happy Denise. Yet, Zayday isn’t there; she escaped because, and bear with me here, the Red Devil is in love with her and, in his moment of weakness, was fooled by Zayday, who made a run for it. These scenes actually provide some real scares; you believe someone may die and are anxious to see who is behind the mask.
Chanel #5 (Breslin) also gets a pretty big arc this week. She is tired of Chanel and sells her out to the police, causing her aforementioned arrest. As payback, Chanel relegates her to lighting the pumpkins for her patch, with the help of twin sex toys, Roger and Dodger. This scene, which takes place in a maze pulled directly from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, is glorious, filled with tension and laughs. As the Devil stalks them, the twins admit that, while having a threesome with Chanel #5, they’ve both fallen in love with her and need her to choose. These twins are so stupid that, as they split up they continue to yell their plans through the maze, as if the Devil can’t hear them. It makes for a hilarious and gory death of Dodger.
The episode ends with Gigi being stalked by the Devil and here I started to question why? Why in the world would Wes let Gigi, his new flame, walk home alone at dark with a killer on the loose. It’s clear he’s very in love with her and now that Grace is okay with the relationship (she caught them having a “salad date” earlier), all should be good. This is where the episode gives us another great twist as Gigi informs the Red Devil that he’s been doing subpar work. I honestly did not see that one coming and I am actually upset the episode ended here.
This week’s Scream Queens was great and left us with such a great cliffhanger; I can’t wait for next week. All the pieces are beginning to fall into place, jokes are told and fear is spread. This week also brought back some great tunes from the ’90s (“Black Velvet”), some great references to The Silence of the Lambs, The Shining and a blink if you miss it reference to the underrated Exorcist III. Sadly, Munsch and my hero, Chad Radwell, were underutilized this episode but there wasn’t much room for them in this jam packed episode.
Final Grade: 9/10
https://youtu.be/mDSScZubxLw
