With the sudden occurrence of Jake’s mutilated body becoming a spectacle in front of the entire school, Sheriff Acosta decides it’s time for a lock down. The heap of concerned parents flood the steps of George Washington High while the rest of the student body have their concerns fixated on Emma Duval. Is she the one to blame for the recent slaying? Or are other psychopaths out there twisting the hand of Lakewood once again?
1. Emma’s dilemma continued:
Emma had no idea what was in store for her this episode. After the immediate shock and realization that Jake was dead we see her and Audrey run to Brook’s side. All of the issues she has been dealing with up until this point have been primarily focused on her own mental health. Even through all her hardships she still manages to face reality as it’s handed to her and comfort her best friend.
In a later scene after the unfolding events that lead Emma to finding Jake’s cellphone planted in her backpack, it’s now aware to us as viewers that the killer is inside the building. She overhears a girl named Haley Meyers talking bad about her. Fed up with all of it, Emma confronts her. An argument ensues to where Haley says all Duval’s are crazy, and what does Emma do? Slaps the shit out of her! This was completely unexpected but really showed how she is far from the fragile girl we met in season one. After the brawl Emma is escorted by Ms. Lang to an office where she can calm down as triggers from her PTSD are dwindling in her head.
The mayhem doesn’t stop there … While inside the office alone she begins to hear scratches at the window. Her phone rings and upon answering it is none other than the killer himself stating that he’s coming for Emma. She opens the blinds to find ghostface starring her in the face, taunting her. In a rash decision she smashes through the glass with a chair and manages to cut herself on the arm in the process. The hallway is clear of any killers and Emma is left to wonder who would believe her now.
By the end of the episode for Emma we see her do something sort of tactical. When asked about the cut to her arm she blames it on the “panic attack” she suffered only moments ago. I believe she lied to the cops about her motives because not only would all the adults assume she was crazy but she also knew that ghostface wouldn’t dare come back around unless she’s alone. Her plan exactly.
2. Broken Brooke:
Poor Brooke, the turmoil this girl endures throughout the episode was worse than I thought. It’s clear from the beginning she’s an absolute wreck, having to stay put in front of Jake’s body as the medical examiner, Maggie, photographs the scene. She recalls how Jake asked her to the upcoming carnival and she never gave him an answer. Now she’s kicking herself inside for not doing so.
In the scenes that follow, Brooke is heard sobbing in the shower while Audrey waits for her to be finished. Audrey is fully aware that she should’ve told Brooke about Jake’s death but there was no right way to do so. A disheveled Brooke confides in Audrey talking about how this entire situation is a nightmare, along with my favorite line of the episode, “Is this really all happening again?” Oh sweetie, you have no idea.
The real intensity of her pain can be felt in her last two scenes. In the first one we see Brooke approaching Jake’s body bag while Maggie finishes up her notes. She asks her how long Jake has been dead for but at first Maggie is hesitant to say anything but seeing how much this tragedy affected her she tells it has been about three days. Still distraught about the idea of someone else posing as Jake the two share a long hug. I like to think Brooke sees a mother of her own in Maggie, knowing she’ll always be there for her. In the second scene we finally witness Brooke alone. She enters the pool area where her and Jake sneak into and submerges herself beneath the water. In a harrowing sight we see her screaming as loud as possible, truly capturing the torment she felt about Jake’s life ending in the hands of another killer.
She has no doubt that Mr. Branson could be the cause of all of this. In the next episode I’m theorizing that Brooke will seek revenge on him but ghostface could possibly finish the job for her.
3. Accusation Acosta:
Sheriff Acosta made a big appearance in this episode. Being a man of the law we saw his enforcement take over as he did everything in his power to dig as deep as he could. There were numerous ways I saw him accomplish this goal, whether the residents of Lakewood liked it or not. He knew for a fact that whoever killed Jake could still be in the school. Instead of letting everyone loose at first he rather placed the school in lockdown so the interviews he conducted would slim down his targets as murders.
We hear Acosta refer to Stockholm syndrome as a tactic he uses. During his interviews with Kieran, who had a handgun in his bag, and Emma, in possession of Jake’s phone, get off quite easy. He believed and negotiated with the both of them at every turn in order to gain the information he wanted. He made Kieran trust him so he would slip up about Jake’s phone and made Emma believe he trusted her instinct about the killer being back to keep her stable.
After the scene between Maggie and Brooke, Acosta approaches Maggie and tells her he’s removing her from the case entirely. When she questions his judgments he tells her that she’s too close to this one by a mile. Part of me thinks he only did this so the police could remain anonymous in the investigation without Maggie’s ties to its past, and also because he needed Jake’s fingerprints to gain access into his text messages. Within the texts he finds exchanges with the mayor on the night of his murder. Will Acosta now consider him the prime suspect?
4. Gutsy Gustavo continued:
To be honest my heart broke for Gustavo this time around. All of my theories about him have miraculously been answered and now my outlook on him has turned a new leaf. During the episode Noah and Audrey are bickering back and forth that he is and is not the killer. At this point, Audrey is fed up with Gustavo’s mysterious boy agenda and drawings and decides to confront him. She takes his iPad from him and beholds to everyone in the room what gruesome imagery he’s made of his fellow classmates. I was expecting a major enraged freak out but instead he began upset, his voice going soft and cracking with fear. He recanted by saying the drawings were merely fantasy and he used them from a comic book he was in fact writing. Ah-ha! This explains everything clearly now. He draws not in obsession but rather because it is an escape into something he loves to do. This part of him is vulnerable and when Audrey exposed him as a person different than the one he puts on for others, he broke down. His classmates then proceeded to attack him violently, which was undeserved. I hope Gustavo can move on from this and realize that being yourself on the outside isn’t as bad as it appears to be.
5. Conniving Karen Lang:
This snaky, deceiving women has a ton of explaining to do! We as viewers know for a fact now that Ms. Lang is up to no good. During the scene where Emma is stowed away in the office after her altercation with Haley we witness Ms. Lang lock the door behind her. Before she does so, Karen checks her surroundings to make sure the coast is clear. Why is she purposely setting up Emma for danger? It’s too coincidental that the moment she left the killer made his appearance. In my mind Karen Lang may not be the killer but she’s helping them one way or another. We’ll see if one of the remaining Lakewood five catches on to her secrecy.
6. Nosy Noah:
We’ve been waiting on plenty of cliffhangers this season but Noah’s discovering at the end of this episode is the biggest one solved, for now. Before the students were finally released to their parents Noah make a sly move by pocketing Audrey’s cellphone in his pocket. In the parking lot he manages to crack her security code and what he stumbles upon shatters his world … not only does he read the text messages between Audrey and the new killer, which she denied happening, but he also saw the gif of Audrey picking the tiny notes off of Jake’s body! Now Noah knows that Audrey has some tie to Piper’s accomplice. Will this new discovering break their friendship forever or will nosy Noah investigate in secret and meet his demise? Only the next episode will reveal the truth.
