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'Scream Queens' Season 1, Episode 2: 'Hell Week'

Adrianne Ramsey |
September 23, 2015 | 12:52 a.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

Chanel is not impressed (FOX)
Chanel is not impressed (FOX)

The episode begins with a monologue from Dean Munsch (Jamie Lee Curtis), who is silently seething about the police activity and immense media coverage over Tiffany’s (Whitney Meyer) beheading at the end of the previous episode. She, Gigi (Nasim Pedrad), and a police officer confront KKT, who not only deny any involvement, but also claim not to know anything about the “disappearances” of Ms. Bean (Jan Hoag) and Chanel #2 (Ariana Grande). It is decided that all the pledges will move into their house and be assigned security, which highly disturbs Chanel #5 (Abigail Breslin). 

The Chanel’s then discuss what to do with #2’s body, which is still lying upstairs in her room. They are interrupted by Hester (Lea Michele), who turns out to have a creepy obsession with dead bodies and death in general. She gives them tips on how to deconstruct the body, and Chanel (Emma Roberts) calls her insane. They all decide to move her body to the meat locker, where Hester’s crazy obsession with the Chanel’s and KKT is made even more apparent.

The Chanel’s are then introduced to Officer Denise Hemphill (Niecy Nash), who may just have to be the worst security guard in the history of security guards. She is completely under qualified, totally scared, and not even armed. Needless to say, the Chanel’s are not impressed with Gigi’s choice of security. Meanwhile, the pledges are cleaning the floor with toothbrushes, another hazing tactic of Hell Week. While Grace (Skyler Samuels) heads to the basement to get more soap, she begins to investigate and finds a padlocked closet. She tries to go inside but is interrupted by Chanel #5, who snidely informs her that Chanel is the only one with the key. Grace and Pete (Diego Boneta) later have a meeting about this, and they kiss – it is very clear that Pete has a crush on her; but why he’s advancing on her so quickly is what’s questionable. 

READ MORE: 'Scream Queens' Series Premiere: Recap

Wes Gardner (Oliver Hudson) shows up at the school to have a meeting with Dean Munsch, who is wearing a sexy top and drinking scotch at ten in the morning. She assures Wes that Grace is safe, but he is not convinced – after brushing off her advances towards him, he asks her to give him a job at the school so he can look after Grace, and she accepts. 

Grace further investigates the basement and breaks the padlock on the door, to find the bloodstained bathtub and yellow dress from the 1995 incident we saw in the first episode. Chanel discovers her and proceeds to tell her that rumor has it that Munsch and Ms. Bean knew about the pledge’s death and helped to cover it up. That leaves two questions – one, what happened to the body, and two, what happened to the baby? Pete, on the other hand, breaks into Munsch’s office and is able to find a list of names in regards to the 1995 incident in one of her files. Just as he finishes writing them down, he is knocked out by the Red Devil and awakens the neck morning, hanging to a column by his underwear. He and Grace have an uncomfortable encounter back in his dorm, where he not only strips down to his underwear in front of her, but she discovers he has a Red Devil costume in his closet – he claims to be the school mascot at sports games. But is he telling the truth? They have an angry confrontation before she storms off. 

Meanwhile, all is not well with Chanel and Chad (Glen Powell). They have sex but Chad just talks the whole time and brags about himself. Fed up, Chanel breaks up with him, which angers Chad – no one breaks up with the Chad Radwell. He heads back to his room, which he shares with Boone (Nick Jonas). Boone, who clearly has a crush on Chad and, according to Chad, “touched his wiener” before, snuggles up next to him, as he is freaked out about the raging serial killer. The night is far from over, as Chanel, who regrets breaking up with Chad, walks in on them and freaks out. Chad tries to calm her down, but all it ends up with is a nasty argument and Chad declaring that he is breaking up with Chanel. It’s clear that these two’s relationship is far from over.

The Chanel’s meet up in the Grind to discuss more hazing ideas, and Boone stops by their table. He lets Chanel know that he is planning on publicly coming out as gay and wants to join Kappa. While Chanel is fine with it – for reasons more so to promote herself – Chanel #5 freaks out, slewing horrible and homophobic comments at Boone, all whilst threatening him in the process. Boone doesn’t even flinch and leaves the ladies to consider his offer. 

That night, Denise and fellow security guard Shauntell (Deneen Tyler) wait in the security car outside of KKT, focusing more of their energy in eating and singing along to the radio than actually looking out for the Red Devil. Also parked outside is Wes, once again trying to look out for Grace – creepy dad, much? Gigi joins him and tries to give him advice about giving Grace from space, and they end up bonding and driving off to get coffee. However, as Wes's car leaves, we see Munsch looking after them, and there’s something about her angry expression that scares the living crap out of the viewer! 

Back in the house, the hazing continues – the pledges have stripped down to their underwear and are being judged by the Chanel’s, as well as being forced to drink mayonnaise shots. Could this get any worse? Of course. Whilst upstairs to get white chalk to draw on Zayday (Keke Palmer), Chanel is attacked by the Red Devil, and after a harrowing struggle, she is able to get away and runs off screaming. Denise hears the scream and runs into the house to investigate, but it is the girls who run upstairs to find the killer. Denise, instead, leaves the house, only to find Shauntell dead with a knife in her throat, having been killed by the Red Devil. Hollering, she drives off, pausing only once to push Shauntell’s body out of the car. The girls nervously head upstairs, where they are horrified to see “SLUTS WILL DIE” painted in blood on the wall in Chanel’s room. 

Niecy Nash as Denise, the worst security guard ever (Fox)
Niecy Nash as Denise, the worst security guard ever (Fox)

Meanwhile, Boone works out in his room, only to be approached by the Red Devil. A bunch of boys from DDS that viewers have not been introduced to go to find him, and oh do they find him – stripped down to his underwear on a table, surrounded by burning candles, and with his neck slit. The boys completely panic and scream their heads off.

Back at good ol’ KKT, the girls are having an ethnic-cuisine dinner to “celebrate” the culmination of Hell Week," which just results in another argument between Zayday and Chanel. Chanel finally breaks down, saying that the girls are sisters and are bound to protect one another. Officer Denise and Chad interrupt the dinner, Denise to announce Shauntell’s murder and that the body is now missing, and an emotional Chad to announce that Boone is dead.

However, all is not what it seems – Boone’s body is taken out of the morgue cabinet by the Red Devil, and surprise, surprise…he’s not even dead! He rips off the strip of fake blood on his neck and smiles, saying to the Red Devil, “What took you so long?” This was the biggest surprise of the night and introduces the perfect plot twist, as Boone and the Red Devil are clearly in cahoots. 

In short, the two-hour premiere of Scream Queens has lived up to the hype that it has been receiving. Literally everyone has a motive to be the Red Devil. It was a great combination of fresh, funny, and scary – hopefully the rest of the season can live up to the killer momentum that has been introduced. 

Reach Staff Reporter Adrianne Ramsey here



 

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