Chainsaw (Scream Queens)

"Beware of Young Girls" is the seventh episode of the horror black comedy series Scream Queens. It premiered on November 3, 2015 on Fox, after a week hiatus due to the 2015 World Series. The episode was directed by Barbara Brown and written by Ryan Murphy. The episode centers around the Chanels' effort to contact the deceased Chanel #2 (Ariana Grande) using a Ouija board to dig information about the killer, and Dean Munsch (Jamie Lee Curtis) dealing with facing her ex-husband (Philip Casnoff) and his young mistress (Tavi Gevinson).

This episode was watched live by 2.44 million viewers and received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

In the Kappa House, Chanel (Emma Roberts) organizes a funeral for Chanel #2 (Ariana Grande), as her parents ironically go on a cruise to celebrate their daughter's confirmed death. Chanel gives a scathing eulogy, calling her multiple curse words as she felt that Chanel #2 never had her back and that she slept with Chad (Glen Powell) (Even though all Chanels did the same behind Chanel's back). Concerned for their leader, Chanel #3 (Billie Lourd), Chanel #5 (Abigail Breslin), and Hester/Chanel #6 (Lea Michele) bring a Ouija Board for them all to contact #2 from beyond the grave. Thinking that was ridiculous at first, Chanel decides to go along with it. Chanel #2 answers various questions via the Ouija Board, up until she tells them that Chad is cheating on Chanel, which angers Chanel. Chanel wants to prove her wrong. Chanel walks into the Dickie's house, calling for Chad until she walks in to his room and catches him shirtless with a goat on his bed. At first, she thinks that he was having sex with the goat, but Chad then explains that he's lactose intolerant and his reason for having the goat is that goat's milk is lactose free. Chanel apologizes, realizing that Chanel #2 was lying, as Chad says that she's just angry because she's dead.

After the Ouija Board tells Chanel and her minions that Chanel is the killer, her minions find out and start to devise a plot to kill Chanel. While Chanel is asleep, Chanel #2's ghost comes to her room and tells Chanel that she has been sent to Hell and tells her about her awful experiences there. In order for her to make it into Heaven, she must make things right with Chanel, so she apologizes to her for her mistakes and also for sleeping with Chad. Chanel asks her why she said that she's the killer, and she answers that she's just in a bad mood because Adolf Hitler was motor boating her breasts. Before she leaves, she warns Chanel that her minions are plotting to kill her. This provokes Chanel to confront her minions and instead, persuade them to believe that Grace (Skyler Samuels) and Zayday (Keke Palmer) are the killers.

Gigi (Nasim Pedrad) brings up whether Grace and Pete (Diego Boneta) have considered investigating Feather McCarthy (Tavi Gevinson), as she claims she had a feud with Dean Munsch (Jamie Lee Curtis) during her time in Wallace University, and says that Munsch is most likely guilty for the crimes on campus. Meanwhile, Feather reveals that she had an ongoing affair with her Beatles 101 professor, Steven Munsch (Philip Casnoff), the ex-husband of Cathy Munsch. After Steven announced that he wanted a divorce with Cathy, she went ballistic, forcing Steven to temporarily move into the Kappa House. Everywhere Feather went, Cathy would be there, dressed exactly like her, until one day she got Feather kicked out of Kappa, forcing Feather to finish her education online. Soon after, Steven managed to get his house back after the divorce, asking Feather to move in with him. Except one day when she took a bath with her transistor radio, it is revealed that Dean Munsch may have attempted to murder her by pushing the radio into the bathtub, seemingly attempting to murder her the same way a previous Dean passed away. Pete asks Feather whether she would be able to go on record as a source, to which she willingly agrees.

Later that night, Feather returns home only to discover Steven's severed head in a fish tank. Dean Munsch is seen being placed under arrest by Detective Chisolm, as he says he has evidence leading to her murdering Steven. Grace Gardner and Pete Martínez investigate and manage to link Cathy Munsch to many of the other murders that happened on campus, and so, Cathy is suspected to be the Red Devil and is taken to an insane asylum. Grace and Pete share a kiss, thinking the whole Red Devil case is over, and Cathy Munsch sends Grace a text, asking her and Pete to come and visit her. The following day, they visit her in the asylum, where she reveals she can't eat bologna because it would put her into an anaphylactic shock. It occurs to Pete that the killer made a sandwich at the scene and had taken a bite out of it and they decide to find out what kind it was. Pete and Grace return to the scene to find out that it was a bologna sandwich, and thus, decide Cathy couldn't have been the killer. Feather was incarcerated in solitary confinement, deemed insane for killing Steven. Eventually, Cathy is released from the asylum and reclaims her position as dean of the university.

An ending sequence shows Cathy dancing to the song "Beware of Young Girls" and her narration reveals that she did in fact killed her ex-husband and she made the bologna sandwich as a cover-up so that Feather would get framed. She figured that since the Red Devil was on the loose murdering people, it would be the ideal time to kill Steven.

Production

Ariana Grande returns as a special guest star, portraying Sonya Herfmann / Chanel #2, the deceased member of the Chanels and Kappa Kappa Tau. Many fans and viewers express disappointment regarding her death in the Series Premiere, and in response, Ryan Murphy tweeted about her return in later episodes.^[1][2] On August 4, 2015, it was announced that Tavi Gevinson would be joining the cast as Feather, the mistress of Jamie Lee Curtis's character's ex-husband.^[3] Philip Casnoff was cast as Cathy's ex-husband on August 9, 2015.^[4] Returning recurring characters in this episode are Breezy Eslin as Jennifer "Candle Vlogger", Jim Clock as Detective Chisolm, Elise Fyke as Nurse Fine, and Judy Durning as a Painter in the asylum.

Reception

Ratings

"Beware of Young Girls" was watched live by 2.44 million U.S. viewers and got a 1.0 rating/3 share in the adult 18-49 demographic.^[5]

Critical reception

"Beware of Young Girls" received mostly mixed to negative reviews from critics. Patrick Sproull from Den of Geek stated, "overall, the performances remain superlative and the underlying postmodern fun remains infectious - but the script, while not messy per se, was focussed on areas that don't need to be touched on."^[6][7] The A.V. club LaToya Ferguson gave the episode a D, citing "What’s worst about “Beware Of Young Girls” is that it’s neither aggressively bad nor aggressively good enough to make it even a middle of the road episode. Instead, it’s merely a nothing episode."^[8] Terri Schwartz from IGN gave the episode 7.4 out of 10. She said that ""Beware of Young Girls" felt too much like a filler episode that was trying to buy more time until Scream Queens needs to resolve the whodunnit mystery."^[7] Despite the episode's negative reviews, critics responded to Jamie Lee Curtis' and Ariana Grande's performances were noted as the highest points of the episode.

References