Scream Queens S2 E10 Review: "Drain The Swamp"


Note: This review contain spoilers for the episode. You have been warned.

No, to the best of my knowledge, the title isn't a reference to a certain presidental campaign's motto. It relates to a threat that has been made for the entire season thus far. If the swamp next to the C.U.R.E. Institute is drained, then the dead bodies will be discovered, leading to a boatload of trouble for the employees. Buckle up, pledges, it's time for the season finale.

Okay, I'm fairly certain that Scream Queens has a finale problem. So far, both seasons have spent almost every episode building up to something grand only for the finale to run out of steam. Like I predicted earlier, Denise returned as a deus ex machina to save the day. Somehow, she manages to stop Offel's plan of killing everyone with a bomb. Cassidy sacrifices himself by saving Chanel No. 3 from getting skewered, completely getting rid of that plot. As for Brock's struggle with the shadow impulses of his serial killer hand, he's long since discovered that the hand didn't really want to kill Chanel Oberlin, he did. 

Dean Munsch's fatal illness? Turns out that she's just an alcoholic and she needed to start drinking water again. Compounding the plot, Chanel Oberlin narrates the final moments of the episode, showing that she has learned absolutely nothing from the whole affair. Someone dressed up as last season's Red Devil mascot/serial killer shows up in the backseat of her car, but I'm not holding my breath for that to be relevant in the event that the show gets renewed. Just like a similar gag in the last season finale, it'll probably be revealed to be someone pulling a prank on her.

Quite frankly, it's just disappointing. Maybe I was wrong to get my hopes up based on prior evidence, but it's still irritating. I also didn't like the way that Nurse Hoffel ultimately went out. I haven't seen a lot of slasher movies, but I know that horror movie villains typically go out in some amazing way. In this case, she just drowned in a random quicksand patch in the swamp. 

In terms of good parts, well, I don't have a lot to say. The negative qualities definitely outweighed the positives. I did like Hester and Brock's plans to run away and start hunting people for sport on their own private island, as well as Chanel Oberlin's plan to kill Dean Munsch by throwing a pumpkin spice latter at her brain during a surgery. Still, moments of that quality were few and far between. Part of me hopes that Scream Queens will get renewed, but only so the cast and crew can prove to the audience that they can create a season with consistent quality.

Zachary Krishef is an evil genius. Do not question his knowledge of Saturday Night Live trivia or Harry Potter books.