My Review of Scream's 1x08: "Ghosts"

Written by Erin Maher And Kay Reindl
Directed by Rodman Flender

Piper (to Emma): "Second chances are rare. Don't waste them."

Anyone else feel like they were getting whacked with anvils left, right and centre? We've known for weeks (or speculated) that Emma had an older sibling out there and this episode definitely confirmed it. The question though, is it Piper or Branson because this episode made kind of a case for both of them.

With Piper, she's been getting closer and closer to Emma with each passing episode and yet again, she dropped the hint about her father no longer being alive, which by now is something that Emma should be picking up on. To be honest, I would genuinely be shocked if Piper wasn't Emma's mystery older sibling but at the same time, maybe the writers have been wanting viewers to think that so they could shock us with someone else. Like Branson for instance.

This episode ended with him getting caught with a scantily clad Brooke and then arrested as a suspect thanks to Noah and Audrey unveiling more about Branson's past. The fact that Maggie/Daisy doesn't seem to know the sex of her first born coupled with the fact that Branson would be in the same age bracket as Piper certainly makes him another possibility for being Emma's mystery older sibling.

Then there was the fact that Branson has a penchant for sleeping with students (Brooke, you're not the first), one of whom ended up being murdered as well. I'm not sure if Branson will actually be revealed as one of the killers but I certainly think he's an imminent death within the next two episodes and not someone whose eventual demise will generate a lot of sympathy either.

As for the rest of the episode - I liked that we met Emma's father, Kevin but it was a bit of a copout that it was only through flashbacks and Emma seemed a little too restrained over the fact that her mother hid the fact that she had another child for some reason. As for the aftermath of Will's death, aside from a few moments here and there, it seemed far less focused on than expected. I'm not entirely sure that was a bad thing either though.

- Some nice attempts of horror in this episode with Emma getting hallucinations of a split in half version of Will holding a bloody heart. I have to give the show props for that visual.
- Brooke was attacked but not killed by Ghostface. I'm starting to like the character, even if the actress is a little ropey in her emotional scenes.
- Brooke's dad got rid of the body of a fellow user friend of her mother's. Her mother actually is in rehab.
- Seth's real surname is Palmer. We also learned (unsurprisingly) that Maggie and Brandon had sex once too.

Certainly an interesting enough episode. I liked that "Ghosts" shed some further light on certain things, even if said things (Maggie having a kid before Emma etc) were obvious to begin. The fact that the show is upping the horror a little is nice too.

Rating: 7 out of 10