Scream Queens: Character Notes at the Midway

My wife and I have made it through the first season of Scream Queens up
to the episode, Ghost Stories. I just have some notes regarding the
last few episodes up until now. This isn't necessarily a review as much
as observations and such, with some thoughts gleaned from the series up
to this point.
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In Mommie Dearest, Jamie Lee Curtis finally emulated briefly the iconic
shower scene her mother, Janet Leigh, is famous for in the Hitchcock
film, Psycho (1960). I did always wonder when that time would come. It
is just a nice little homage, and I can only imagine Murphy/Falchuk
were jazzed to film this, even if it is abrupt and quick, with Curtis'
Dean one step ahead of Red Devil. That she gets to use martial arts to
take out two Red Devils and "Justice Scalia" (Gigi donning the Judge's
face mask!), all equipped with weapons! One with an ax. Another with a
hammer. The third with a knife. And there is Curtis, with those
hands/fists/chops/knees/feet as weapons! She clues them in on her
making love to a martial artist she taught passionate sex to in
exchange for fighting skills! That she continues to lay them out and
leave them on the floor hurting and in pain is makes for a really rad
encounter. They flee and there's the Dean still standing.

Getting beyond making Curtis cool and fly, she is taken to task for how little
her Dean has done to protect her students. It took the knife stab to
the head of candle freak, Jennifer (Breezy Eslin; getting her walking
papers), for Dean to finally close Wallace University due to safety
reasons. Grace and Zayday particularly chew her out for the death of
Earl Grey (Lucien Laviscount), murdered by Jonas' returning Boone
(having been "undercover" as Wakeen Feenix) while donning his Red Devil
disguise. After Grace and Pete inadvertently helped Dean Munsch send an
innocent woman to the slammer for the murder of Munsch's husband, she
had promised to provide them with info about "the baby". Before the
shower and living room defense, Dean was all smiles and smart ass
retort as Grace expected the info. Grace let her know that eventually
her own safety would be in jeopardy, and she was right.
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Grace is at odds with Gigi, believing she is involved in the Red Devil
serial murders, not even sure about her own father as she feels
concerned he knew her from 20 years ago. Through some digging, Chanel
hires Scotland Yard detectives (!) to get some dirt on Grace and Zayday
to prove they were responsible for the murders, but instead learns of
details about the mom kept secret over the course of the series. Chanel
isn't about to just sit on the file, so she confronts Grace and unloads
on her about the awful mother she never knew. Chanel is never one to
mince words…her style is to throttle you with the meanest, cruelest
barrage of insults and coarse language she can muster. When Grace slaps
her, my wife and I rewound the scene to see it again. She deserved far
worse than that. Denise Hemphill makes sure to provoke Chanel into
asking forgiveness, using her weakness in "having Chad all to herself"
as advantage to motivate her to action. Perhaps Chanel Oberlin is at
her most authentic when Grace and her are at tables by themselves.
Chanel has used Kappa as a means to hold onto a throne and maintain her
position as the queen, but when Grace addresses what all of that does
to her—the monster it creates with her, following the footsteps of a
mother who acted just as despicable—you perhaps see all of that act
weaken, and Chanel reason in her mind how right Grace is about treating
those in the sorority house with such disrespect. Not long after,
though Chanel is right back to addressing her underlings as bitches and
hos.
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Do you know why I never went into therapy? Because the less we know about ourselves, the better. Rummaging around in your life, it's like digging through a landfill. Sure, you may happen upon something interesting, but you're gonna get filthy. –Dean Munsch

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Gigi is working her irritating evil stepmom shtick, speaking
in that condescending tone to Grace as if she were a
third grader pouting about her daddy giving attention
to someone else. When her and Pete visited a mentally troubled
portrait painter at the hospital Dean temporarily stayed,
Gigi is with twin babies, a boy and girl, on a canvas. Dean
does fill in
past details about the second baby, but offers
no knowledge of what happened to those involved
with the bathtub party death. Hypothetically, Dean speaks
 in regards to that night to Grace. Dean, however, is
always calling to question Grace's motives and drive
for answers. That she always felt she was at the heart
 of the murders, when in fact Chanel's Scotland Yard
detectives proved her mom was responsible for the sorority girls ignoring the victim in the bathtub because TLC's Waterfalls was more important.

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The episode, Beware of Young Girls, decides against featuring Red Devil

but has Gigi in a revealing conversation with one of her murderous

cohorts. Red Devil(s) put to work killing three in Seven Minutes in

Hell get the episode off, but Jamie Lee Curtis is in peak devilish

form. Curtis is just having the time of her life, her career coming

alive in this series. In this episode, her Dean Munsch's estranged

husband shacks up with a dimbulb student named Feather after they meet

in class he teaches. Feather finds messages in his blood, along with

body parts, pointing towards the bedroom. His head is in the fishtank!

I doubt this is necessarily a homage to He Knows You're Alone but if

Murphy/Falchuk were to say it was I also wouldn't be surprised. My mind

just kind of does that. It produces scenes it emulates even if

unintentional.

Grace and Pete are sure Dean is the mastermind behind the killings, due

to her reasonable motive for doing so. While the twist regarding the

butchering of her hubby is spot on, obviously from us seeing Gigi in a

conversation before Grace's dad arrives, Dean being behind the Kappa &

Dollar Scholars murders is less likely. But seeing Curtis taken off in

a straitjacket and later painting in a mental hospital, as Grace and

Pete are influenced by her to investigate her husband's death, is a

gas.
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The slumber party is the next slasher staple to make its appearance on

Scream Queens. Besides bumping off three characters on one episode, in

Seven Minutes in Hell (playing off the seven minutes in heaven

regarding sex between two individuals) the girls are trapped in the

sorority house during a slumber party, with a "panic room writ large"

(Chanel was inspired by the movie, "Panic Room", to an absurd degree,

having her entire house triggered to be locked!). However, Chad was

able to set up a ladder and immediately break the window of Chanel's

room (a bit too easy, if you asked me). With a Red Devil outside the

house, and a Red Devil inside the basement, their presence obviously

indicates ties to someone inside the sorority. In slashers, fingers

point at this one or that one, often with the real killer or killers

quite well hidden behind the obvious, suspicious choices. Lea Michelle

continuing to pursue Chad, with the conversation gearing towards

reasons this wouldn't work, including Chad believing she's just too

freaky and psychopathic for his tastes, emerges once again in this

episode. Michelle makes it a habit to speak and poke her eyes out as

crazed as possible. She might as well wear a sign that says, "yeah,

probably not the killer no matter how deranged and creepy she looks".
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Seven Minutes in Hell, the sixth episode of Scream Queens, continues the slasher tradition of dwindling down the “cannon fodder” (as Curtis’ Dean Munsch described at the end of the episode) by bumping off the lower rung characters of the cast. The character of Sam (Jeanna Han) has went by the nickname of “Predatory Lez” for the previous episodes of the series. Tattooed, with choice hip hat-wear, and a rather chill personality, Sam was a cool character, particularly considering how tolerant she was of Chanel and her oddball cohorts. But I do think anyone watching the show (or potential viewers in the future) will see the writing on the wall. It would either be her or “candle girl”, Jennifer, next up to die. Jennifer has gradually been given more time on the show, rather very background with occasional bits of weird behavior to distinguish her as more than just this faint image distanced from us. The show has developed this “thing” (I’m not being purposely inflammatory but the show does kind of give it this enigmatic quality) between Sam and Chanel #3 (Billie Lourd) that isn’t altogether a building romance. Mainly because Chanel #3 isn’t the most engaging love interest. In fact, Chanel #3 can’t decide if she is in love with Sam or not. She insists on Spin the Bottle which would include a very determined kiss with Sam to properly indicate her real feelings. During a game of Truth or Dare, Sam spills the “deepest darkest secret” Chanel #3 has been harboring from her Kappa sisters which is she is the daughter of Charles Manson (!), resulting in a trip down to the basement (Sam is forced into a Dare where Chanel #3, deeply unsettled by her admitting the secret no one else but them knew, challenges her to go down there and rest in the bloody bathtub). Guess who is awaiting Sam? You bet, Red Devil. Going old school with the plastic bag (Cough, *Black Christmas*, Cough), Red Devil silences Sam after knocking her head up against the tub, dumping her in the there, and taking the bag to her head. Another character ready to bite the dust is Chad’s no-armed Dollar Scholar, Caulfield (Evan Paley). Caulfield lost his arms early in the show yet somehow survived. This go-around, because he couldn’t climb up a ladder, following his fellow Dollar Scholars who had made up safely, into Chanel’s room, Caulfield is easy prey. Two ax stabs to the stomach and off with the head. See ya, Caulfield. This episode doesn’t stop there. Yet another character, Chanel #5’s remaining twin lover, Roger (Aaron Rhodes), wants her to replace his dead brother by communicating with him through “click language”. Before Roger can get her fully invested, Red Devil intrudes, nailgun in hand. Soon Roger resembles Pinhead (probably on purpose as yet another homage).

So the episode bumps off three characters. Their significance isn’t altogether impactful, besides taking out secondary characters no longer needed on the show. Not long after Sam is gone, Chanel #3 has moved on, having a chat with Chanel #5 about the experience and “loving love”. I typically just have fun watching Lourd’s style of tilting her head and how her eyes bat and move like those Cat clocks on the wall. Her voice is also dark and low, but she follows the rapid dialogue style of the show. So Chanel #3 has a connection with Sam but because she just seems to have “that inability to feel much of anything”, the ability to move on is easier for her.

Chanel is a strategic character. In fact Chanel is playing a role. You have Emma Roberts playing Chanel, with Chanel herself moving in and out of a character, depending on who she needs to manipulate or convince towards whatever purpose will suit her needs and desires. Early in the episode she mentions how she slides into a role to make Chad believe he’s good in bed. Later, Chanel storms off in a huff when a selection committee among the Kappa sisters, involving a choice of marbles representing her and Zayday to determine who will be in charge of KKT, seems to go against her…there’s a tie and both her and Zayday are to share the Lead Heather of the sorority house. Not long after, Chanel tells her minions, Chanel #3 and #5 that she purposely used her marble to select Zayday as head of KKT so she would be less a target. Chanel toys around with Chad who just wants to fuck every girl he can and fears commitment with just her. Clearly his popularity and status is all that matters to Chanel and her throwing around “I love you” to him leaves him very uncomfortable. He will not break out her window because she used language that would draw him into commitment to her; she had to “take it back”. It is rather fun to watch Roberts posit cartoonish gestures, react with histrionics sometimes while other times (see how she goes down into an underground tunnel where Kappa Queens’ portraits scale the walls and watch her coolly walk Zayday down the halls. Minutes before this she was pointing accusations at other minions as the Red Devils and acting as if she could collapse from fright at any moment) her control of a room of people seems to indicate there’s an total awareness of exactly what she’s doing.There is a lot of technique involved in how Chanel operates among those around her. She is in charge even if it doesn't appear to be that way. A taskmaster pulling the strings...that is Chanel #1.
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Pumpkin Patch is the sibling episode to Haunted House, the fifth episode of Scream Queens, once again centered around Halloween and whether or not Chanel Oberlin will lose her position to Zayday of the KKT sorority. Dean Munsch is eager to put the kibosh on this Pumpkin Patch Halloween party (to bring awareness to “black hairy tongue” disease) because of the Haunted House disaster which produced the Red Devil’s (Red Devils’?) current roster of victims. Pumpkin Patch gives Murphy & Falchuk the chance to homage The Shining (and totally jazzing me, The Exorcist III) with Chanel #5 (Breslin) having to choose one of the twins (a running joke was her receiving a “double team”) with the other falling to Red Devil while they are pursued in Chanel Oberlin’s insisted-upon green maze replica (she’s filthy rich, so why not she persists…). There’s a funny regarding the clever “footprint removal” trick Danny pulled on his pops in The Shining which doesn’t go so well for Breslin’s disregarded twin lover (the twins are also rather “close” and fey). The episode runs without catching much of a breath, its pace following the rat-a-tat-tat of the dialogue exchanges and editing/camera techniques. This is designed for few long pauses. Patch continues the bizarre final scene of House where Gigi sits among dolls with this expression of odd delirious reflection. Patch shows that Gigi has sunk her claws into Grace’s dad and the two are close to being an item. We know what we saw in the previous episode, so when she talks to Red Devil at the end of Patch, it comes as little surprise. The lair of the psychopath is unearthed but Zayday’s “escape” after being kidnapped in House has a special twist all its own (with a nod to Silence of the Lam’s infamous “put the lotion in the basket” scene) which includes “Oakland Nachos”. Chanel #5 gets blamed for Oberlin’s arrest for the murder of the maid while Chanel #6 (Lea Michelle gets the honor now) continues her manipulative ways, whispering in ears and instigating conflicts among the sisters. Chad has a speech involving presidents and why Halloween shouldn’t be aborted by Dean that truly proves he’s no Rhodes Scholar. And Grace goes to her father for help to find Zayday, as Pete accompanies her, and finds pops in bed with Gigi. Then the psycho lair lights go out when our heroes (Pete, Grace, Grace’s Daddy, and Gigi) look to find Zayday, as “PI” Denise Hemphill leads the way, using a taser on Gigi when aiming for (hopefully) Red Devil.

What delights does Patch also include? Oberlin threatening Chanel #5 with evidence of her "rubbing it out to Dora, the Explorer" (seriously, this was actually drummed up in a screenplay!), Oberlin in prison with rejects from Orange is the New Black (she is all friendly and cozy with them until she's bailed out and then the bitch returns to call them losers), candle-obsessed Jennifer (Breezy Eslin) and her wall ant-colony, Oberlin attempting to ink out official sorority rules and writing her own in order to rig the election between her and Zayday, and the girls "fake eating" a gourmet meal (???). Michelle is having the time of her life as a completely deranged and incredibly ambitious Chanel, with that wicked plotting gleam in her eyes. Emma Roberts dresses as Jackie O, commissioning her fellow Chanels to costume themselves as other "assassination President wives"! The show continues to throw at the viewer the most immoral and abhorrent human souls imaginable. Now if the show would start killing them! Whether it is Oberlin cutting Chanel #5 down to size or driving her to the ground with oppressive, pointed insults that reduce her to a weak underling with no backbone or spine, or Grace ewwing at the thought of her dad making it with Gigi, the episode gets a hell of a lot in its running time. Again, few pauses or breaths taken. The episode leaves off with Gigi mentioning a "him" that Red Devil must get rid of so the plot thickens, I guess...
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