‘Scream’ Season 1 Episode 4 ‘Aftermath’ Review

Written by: Ignacio Ramirez

Episode four opens with a strong emotional scene that features Emma and Audrey trying to calm down a hysterical Noah as they witness Riley’s lifeless body being rolled away into the ambulance. Like I mentioned in my first review, Riley’s death hit me and many other fans hard which is why I enjoyed (when Emma and Brooke sat in Emma’s bedroom listening to) Piper’s podcast about how not specifically knowing all the kids but having questioned them and talked to them made it surreal enough to have her speechless and in shock when she found out about Riley’s murder. During a public conference at the police station, Sherriff Hudson basically summarizes the current events and concludes that the terror is over because of Tyler’s headless body being found in his crashed car near the town’s bridge.

So after work, Emma arrives home to a package of a 1994 high school yearbook, finding it to have all of Brandon James’ victims from that year with their pictures cut out and Emma’s dad’s picture severely crossed off. She brings the clue to Noah and Audrey who become fascinated and that’s when Noah gives another victory speech about Brandon’s face and the medical part of his life, which sparks an idea in the friends – Why not visit the hospital? Unfortunately it has been abandoned for seven years which probably means the records are going to be impossible to find. That doesn’t stop Audrey from convincing Emma of the good outcome this visit could result in. As those two head for the abandoned building, we get caught up with Will telling Jake of his college acceptance letter, but worried because of the money problems. Jake informs him of a way to pay off the bills and Will isn’t too fond of the idea – since it’s the notion of drawing sales from the infamous videos the two keep talking about.

As the episode progresses Emma and Audrey finally arrive at the hospital when they stumble upon a room full of photos of Emma, Riley and many other victims hanging from the ceiling. When they exit the room they see and follow a trail of blood leading them to a dead and torn up – might I add headless – pig, its heart missing, hinting it to be the heart that was sent to Maggie in the pilot episode. When they find the light switch they become surrounded by x-ray photos of Brandon’s face and while searching through files Emma discovers documents of how each hospital visit James’ face would slowly change, with Audrey commenting that there is more than one (surgical) mask. I honestly have no idea what that could mean to the plot, maybe it’s just a tiny detail to fill in the puzzle of a mystery. Noah then shows up but not before making us think that his footsteps belong to Ghostface, which leads to Emma nearly tazing his man junk.

Noah expresses his thoughts on the killer’s ‘lair’ saying it most likely is staged and making references to other fictional killer’s lairs, when they stumble upon a laptop – Nina’s laptop. When they open the computer Emma sees numerous files with one named after her, suddenly a loud noise startles them, and they hurry and copy the files onto an SD card from Audrey’s camcorder. On their way out, Noah points out the killer’s mask sitting at the top of a dresser and decides to pull it down revealing Tyler’s decomposing severed head falling to their feet as the three of them scream in horror, they run looking for the nearest exit except the only thing they find is Sherriff Hudson who takes them to the police station for questioning. Supposedly he got an anonymous tip but what if he’s bogus and is the killer? Can you say, Brandon James’ brother? And if Noah is part of it did he mention the hospital to lead Emma to make her think that the hospital even has meaning or was it just a distraction because he actually has something bigger in mind? I feel like that whole hospital scene and finding Nina’s laptop was sketchy as hell because why would the killer hand over really good evidence? I mean, yeah the files are password protected but that would be so easy for the cops to override. All this confusion is giving me a headache, but isn’t that what a good mystery does?

So the episode concludes with Audrey’s camcorder being confiscated, but Audrey being the smart little nugget she is, the SD card was kept in her pocket and not placed back into the camcorder. She then, along with Noah, opens the files on her computer at Noah’s workplace just to find the files to be useless because apparently the memory card was ejected too early (grunts loudly, “EMMA!”). But one file seems to be okay and when they open it Noah and Audrey are greeted to a half-naked Will and Emma making out while unknowingly secretly recorded. Audrey and Noah fight to turn off the video and while pressing random buttons on the laptop the file is accidentally sent to a list of many people, which is very stereotypical but gets the job done nonetheless.

Emma, while with Piper at the coffee shop advising her to stay in Lakewood because knowing there might be more to uncover about the town’s many secrets will entice her Gale-esque personality, receives a message along with the rest of the coffee shop’s visitors – Emma’s first time with Will.

So this was the drama part of the episode which highly hints to Will and Jake’s video collection, which before we all thought only included Nina but now reveals to have Emma involved. Who are Will and Jake blackmailing with these videos? Brooke’s dad was receiving those weird messages asking for money, could it be Mr. Maddox they’re blackmailing? It’s super obvious now and if I’m wrong about this I’ll most likely throw a bitch fit because that plot line fits perfectly together. Nonetheless, more secrets are being revealed slowly but surely and we’re all finding out how fake and conniving some of these people really are, which isn’t an adjective one would want to be described as considering there’s a killer on the loose showing no sign of stopping until the whole truth is told.