The group finds Father Gabriel cowering and screaming for help on a large boulder while futilely trying to fend off a group of walkers below him. What an intense and insane season this is already shaping up to be, isn’t it?įirst of all– Gabriel, the priest the group stumbles upon early in the episode, is mysterious, not to mention annoyingly meek– which in itself is a mystery, since the zombie apocalypse has been going on long enough now for someone to be used to, and not paralyzingly afraid of, the walkers. I give this episode 4 out of 5 soggy walkers. As Chris Hardwick said at the very beginning of tonight’s Talking Dead: that was vile. So now we know Emma’s dad will be back (and staring at Kieran’s grave in the dark?), and someone will be checking back into the hotel under the name “James.” The gang is now even closer–one particularly sweet moment is Audrey explaining her relationship with Emma to her new girlfriend–which is a good thing, as it looks like they’re going to need each other more than ever.Wow. The conclusion of the special, too, alludes to this new mystery, and after two hours of a different story, I found I was excited at the prospect of returning to Lakewood for more murdery goodness.

A satisfying kill unto itself, in the vein (pun not intended) of some of Scream’s best, it also serves as a reveal that there is still a killer on the loose–and not even Kieran knew who he/she is. Brandon is still an enigma, and yeah, we should probably get some answers about him soon, but a break from the whole thing before we stop caring about answers at all is a wise choice.Īnd how about that opening kill? Sudden, gory, unexplained–Kieran got what was coming to him, and how! The show could have easily kept him in a cell, maybe attempting some sort of ersatz Hannibal Lecter thing, but eliminating a plot that has been adequately concluded eliminates what could have turned into an albatross in season three. One concern about heading forward into a new season has been Brandon James plot fatigue–how many times can his mask be handed off to a new teen-killer who turns out to be covertly connected to the previous one? With the Halloween special, though, we get–yes–a masked killer, but one rooted in a spooky local legend…and who is not Brandon James or remotely related to him. Noah’s not thrilled, as he’s still got some survivor’s guilt going on, but he and the other survivors all agree they need to get out of Murderville for a while. Noah and Stavo–now published graphic novelists–are there to learn about Anna Hobbs, the historical murderess, so they can draw on her story for their next contractually obligatory book. The special, though, occurs in a different location and almost feels suspended in time we know it’s a number of months after Kieran’s spree ended and he was convicted for all the murders, but the central one-off mystery is based on a notorious set of murders in the island’s distant past. It looks like it’s going to be the latter! We now have confirmation that season three is a go, and with this special, a hint of where it’s going. This episode also, presumably, was conceived at a time when Scream’s third season was as yet undetermined, so flexibility to serve as either a series-ender or a bridge between seasons would have been a concern.

It’s a great combination of fun and holiday spooks.

What does happen is an adventure equal parts Agatha Christie, I Know What You Did Last Summer, any number of haunted mansion movies, Scooby Doo, and Lizzie Borden (and in my opinion, a part or two of The Ghost and Mr.

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