I want to punch this Eli kid in the face so hard. I suppose that means Scream is doing its job well enough in that it’s able to get a strong reaction out of me, but I’m concerned that Eli is intended to be a likable character. I fear that if I were to go on a message board for this show (something I have avoided up until now, but the urge increases every week) there would be legions of people typing his name and surrounding it with heart eyed emoticons and *SWOONS*. I don’t think I could deal with that.
So what is it about Eli that has suddenly made him face punch worthy even though as recently as last week I didn’t even know the character’s name? Well, let’s get into it. First of all, he’s an asshole. He clearly wants to be with Emma for reasons that aren’t explained as she continues to suffer from Bella syndrome in that every guy is interested in her because the plot dictates it and not because of any actual defining characteristics. But of course that can’t happen because Emma is with Kieran (look at me getting all of the names down finally). So his big plan is to tell Emma that Kieran wants her to throw him a big surprise party for his birthday, as opposed to the intimate evening they originally had planned together. Emma falls for this disappointingly quickly, but either way, that is a terrible fucking plan. Sure enough, he gets found out about 4 seconds after the party starts and everyone is rightfully pissed at him. Not sure what other outcome you could have expected dingus.
Oh and also before the party he is helping set-up the decorations and at one point tries to kiss Emma. In the fiction of the show, this guy has been around for what? 4 days? Does he actually like Emma or does he just hate Kieran? Or is her perhaps infatuated with Emma because he is a serial killer? Also a later conversation with Brooke reveals that Emma wasn’t fully opposed to the idea of this dude kissing her. Come on Emma! This kid looks like the sort of person you find out years later was torturing animals in secret and you don’t even bat an eye. He just oozes skeeziness. You may be one of the worst protagonists on any show ever, but even I think you can do better than that. So in conclusion, fuck Eli.
The big hook in this episode is that at Kieran’s birthday party, a bottle of alcohol is left on the front step that is purported to be a gift from Jake, who everyone believes is still in Mexico and not disembowelled in a storage locker. Everybody seemingly forgot that even alive, Jake was a complete piece of shit so they go ahead and drink the liquor, no questions asked. Naturally it turns out to be laced with a hallucinogen and everybody starts freaking the fuck out.
I liked the idea of a house full of hallucinating teenagers while a killer is on the loose, but alas not enough was done with the concept, outside of an admittedly pretty cool moment involving a letterboxed screen. Mostly it seems like a reason for Emma to be disregarded when she says she was attacked outside of her home. Oh and Noah and Audrey make out. And so do Noah and Zoe. And Zoe and Audrey. So that was unexpected and you figure it escalated from where the scene cuts out, which will make for a pretty fucked up morning, but no. Apparently it stopped after the making out. Noah and Audrey barely seem to give a shit the following day, but Zoe breaks it off with Noah because he was apparently enjoying his Audrey make-out session too much. I guess Zoe forgot about the part where she totally participated and that everyone was out of their minds on drugs but hey, gotta have that teen drama I guess.
Outside of that, not a whole lot has changed. The killer still remains largely in the background, only popping up once and that may not have even been real. The stuff with Emma and her parents remains uninteresting and the stuff with Audrey trying to stay one step ahead of anyone finding out her involvement with Piper remains the most interesting.
Oh but I should mention that the episode ends with Brooke up on stage and having the mangled corpse of Jake dropped on her head. So the show is definitely nailing the cliffhangers lately. With each passing week, Scream seems determined to work its way from atrocious, to oddly watchable.
Killer prediction – Fuck Eli and everything that kid is so I hope it’s him purely so Emma will get to beat the living shit out of him.