Seven Minutes in Hell

"Seven Minutes in Hell" is the sixth episode of the horror black comedy series Scream Queens. It first aired on October 20, 2015 on Fox. The episode directed by Michael Uppendahl and written by Ryan Murphy. In this episode, Chanel (Emma Roberts) makes a surprising decision: to protect herself from the Red Devil by leaving Zayday in position of power and win the election as president of Kappa Kappa Tau. When the Kappa girls hold a slumber party, it costs the life of some people and a shocking discovery is made. The episode title refers to the game Seven Minutes in Heaven, one of the ones played by the Kappa Kappa Tau sisters and Dickie Dollar Scholars brothers in this episode as part of the slumber party.

The episode was watched by 2.59 million viewers and received mostly positive reviews from critics. After this episode, there was a week hiatus due to the 2015 World Series.

Plot

The Chanels and the pledges vote for their new president between Chanel (Emma Roberts) and Zayday (Keke Palmer). It comes to a tie. Zayday suggests they both be co-presidents, which makes Chanel angry, causing her to run up to her closet. When Chanel #3 (Billie Lourd) and Chanel #5 (Abigail Breslin) enter, they see her crying and go and comfort her until she starts to laugh and tells the Chanels how it was part of her plan and opts to cede her presidency to Zayday as she thought by not being the leader she won't be the Red Devil's target. She walks downstairs and tells everyone about it. In her room, Zayday and Grace (Skyler Samuels) suggest they throw a slumber party and play 'Truth or Dare' to find out who the killer is. When she announces the idea to the sisters, they argue about it until Chanel #3 suggests they play "Spin the Bottle" and some of the sisters give in. The sisters play "Spin the Bottle" which results in Hester (Lea Michele) and Jennifer "Candle Vlogger" (Breezy Eslin) kissing. When Chanel #3 gets her turn, it was actually Grace, but Chanel #3 declared that they can respin, leading her and Sam "Predatory Lez" (Jeanna Han) to kiss. Afterwards, Chanel #3 talks to Sam in the bathroom and tells her why she wears earmuffs. She wears them because a boy was obsessed with her ears and sent her an email threatening to cut them off if he even saw them again and so she hides them with earmuffs. That night in the kitchen, Jennifer and Sam tell the sisters that all the doors and windows are locked, Chanel thinks someone might have hacked into the security system she had installed after watching "Panic Room" with Chad (Glen Powell). When Jennifer says it's only a matter of time before one or all of them are killed, the lights suddenly go out and the sisters scream.

Chanel then calls Chad, who, along with his Dickie Dollar Scholars brothers are on their way to Kappa House to do a panty raid. She calls him with her satellite phone as the phone lines are down and he tells her he was coming over anyway and confesses about sleeping with Dean Munsch (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Denise (Niecy Nash) to her. When the frat brothers arrive with a ladder, Chad climbs up, breaks the window and climbs in, when he looks out he sees the Red Devil and shouts at his brothers to climb up. Earl (Lucien Laviscount) and Roger (Aaron Rhodes) manage to, but Caulfield (Evan Paley), having no arms, struggles to get up. When he makes a quarter of the way up, the Red Devil knocks over the ladder, causing Caulfield to fall and the Red Devil then chops him in the chest twice with an axe before chopping his head off, much to everyone upstairs' horror. Regardless of what happened, the Kappa sisters and Dickie Dollar brothers decide to play "Truth or Dare" to determine who the killer is. The game ends up with Sam revealing that Chanel #3's father is Charles Manson. Angered but confused by her feelings for Sam, Chanel #3 orders her to go down into the basement, take a nap in the bloody Kappa bathtub. She is visited by the Red Devil there. She asks them to take off their mask, which they do but we don't see, and she says "I knew it. I knew it was you" before the Red Devil walks behind her and suffocates her with a sheet of plastic.

The group soon decides to play "Seven Minutes in Heaven" and Chanel picks Chad and they are then seen in Chanel's closet making out, until she says that Chad must promise not to sleep with anyone else and pinky swear on it. Soon it's Chanel #5 and Roger's turn and they walk in. Chanel and Chad are walking back into the living room when they hear a scream. They go down to the basement and find Hester who discovered Sam's body and some of the sisters claim that Hester's the killer as she was the first to find her. In Chanel's closet, Chanel #5 and Roger, who probably didn't hear the scream, are making out until Roger starts talking about how happy he is to be separated from his brother, Dodger (Austin Rhodes), who died in the previous episode. While talking, suddenly he is shot three times with a nail gun and falls to the floor as the Red Devil continues to shoot him with the nail gun while Chanel #5 watches in horror. The killer continues to shoot and leaves soon after, leaving Chanel #5 screaming and crying. The group enter the closet and are shocked to see Roger dead, but soon claim Chanel #5 as the killer. Chad mentions him and his brothers fighting two Red Devils, letting everyone know there's two killers. Chanel claims Pete (Diego Boneta) as the killer as he hasn't been seen yet, Grace says he told her he's studying. Soon Chad finds a trap door under one of the Chanel's shelves. The group suggest that's how the killer got in and left after killing Roger. Chanel and Zayday go explore it, since they are co-presidents. Down in the tunnel, Chanel shows Zayday portraits of some of the past Kappa presidents and tells her a bit about them. When discussing where they'll be, the Red Devil appears with two axes and chases them, with both of them narrowly escaping after Chanel saves Zayday.

The next day, Grace talks to Detective Chisolm (Jim Clock) about how the murders may be related to Kappa, except Coney's. While the detective talks about having uniformed officers protecting the house, Wes appears and tells Grace they're leaving, but she refuses, claiming that her sisters need her. In the bathroom, Chanel #3 and Chanel #5 are both distraught by the murders of their significant others and decide to make a pact to outlive Chanel, whatever the cost. Chanel decides to give the sisters a pair of pink nun chucks and declares that they will no longer lose anymore sisters. The girls start dancing while the Red Devil watches through the window.

Production

At the day the series premiered on Fox, series creator Ryan Murphy revealed that there would be a three-part Halloween episodes.^[1] This is the third and last special Halloween episode. Returning recurring characters include Kappa pledges Jennifer "Candle Vlogger" (Breezy Eslin) and Sam "Predatory Lez" (Jeanna Han), Detective Chisolm (Jim Clock), and Dickie Dollar Scholars fraternity members Caulfield (Evan Paley), and twins Roger (Aaron Rhodes) and Dodger (Austin Rhodes).

Reception

Ratings

Seven Minutes in Hell was watched live by 2.59 million U.S and got a 1.0/3 rating/share in the adult 18-49 demographic, up from the previous episode.^[2]

Critical reception

Seven Minutes in Hell received generally positive reviews from critics. LaToya Ferguson of The A.V. Club give the episode a B+, citing "After weeks of pointing out Scream Queens’ aggressively mean-spirited nature and confused tone, this week’s episode, “Seven Minutes In Hell,” finally feels like a strong piece of course correction for the show."^[3] IGN's Terri Schwartz give the episode 7.8 out of 10, stating it as "one of the series' weaker installments, though it did have several gems like Zayday's (Keke Palmer) pronouncement that, as co-KKT president, "the biggest change I'd like to implement is for everyone to stop being killed by a serial killer," and the Dickie Dollar Scholars' intervention with Chad for having sex with too many old people."^[4] Patrick Sproull from Den of Geek says "Scream Queens' halfway point ended on a thrilling note. We've got a long way to go before the finale but the journey from here on out certainly looks like an exciting one."^[5]

References