Scream The Second Season - Psycho

So the second episode wanted to allow Emma to work out some issues, get through the trauma, confront the boogeyman, and reclaim her sanity. But, obviously, with a killer on the loose and tormenting Audrey, any victory over fear will clearly be shortlived. Keiran tells Emma he has to move after the sheriff confronts him about being a minor and living alone without a legal guardian. But Emma's mom sees her pain and the loss that separation would cause and intervenes by discussing with Keiran's aunt about moving from Atlanta to live with him. Problem solved, right? Again, the series hasn't identified who the "new" Scream killer is, the accomplice who helped Piper commit the Lakewood crimes. With talks to Zoe and her psyche teacher (at a restaurant called "The Grindhouse"), Emma decides to tackle an obstacle of fear by going to the spot where she was sliced at the dock, with Keiran's encouragement. Keiran gets a reward, too, when Emma returns ready to fuck. And on top of that, Keiran's weirdo cousin comes with his aunt to live in the house; he starts up a conversation with Emma in school, just sort of oddly inserting himself into her life. Meanwhile, Audrey looks to thwart Noah's efforts to locate Piper's accomplice, and she's led by the killer to a storage unit containing the disemboweled corpse of Jake. Audrey threatens the hotel clerk who saw her with Piper when Noah looks to get his eyewitness testimony on the podcast. Also, Noah's pursuit of the accomplice continues to annoy Audrey as her cover-up becomes increasingly difficult because of him. With all of Emma's drama, her father (Tom Everett Scott) is about to reenter her life. Gustavo (Santiago Segura), son of the sheriff, continues to be a staring oddball, creeping about, with eyes on Brooke, somehow getting her to talk about Jake and his absence over two days...he seems to act as if he knows what is going on. Gustavo is clearly presented similarly as Audrey...suspicious. Brooke and her father are still awkwardly existing as father and daughter, although their relationship is more about being in the same room without much else. Zoe indicates to Emma she has had a rough past, so that is put out there for the viewer to chew on.

There is no actual Ghostface activity as this episode is more or less developing the characters than anyone avoiding a blade to the stomach. Scream fans typically want their Ghostface action so this episode, with quite a title from Hitchcock's film, Psycho, might be disappointing. I thought it was just okay. I haven't been too thrilled by the second season, if I'm honest, so I could see why any remaining characters left by the end didn't get a third season. 2/5

*I did fail to mention that a portion of the episode concerns Emma questioning her sanity after seeing news items and obsessive articles collected at the Taylor house, returning there with her mom to find the place emptied. She is left to wonder what is real and not since she also mistakes a customer at the Grindhouse for Piper. At least, Emma has some friends and interested parties willing to talk it out with her. So sympathy is there. But, again, who among them could be a killer?