YMMV / Scream: The TV Series

• Abandon Shipping: Emma/Kieran by the end of season 2 when the latter is revealed to be the killer.
• Alas, Poor Scrappy:
  • 2x1: Even amongst viewers who didn't particularly like Jake Fitzgerald as a character, a minority of people question whether he deserved to die so horribly at Ghostface's hands.
  • 2x10: Most people who found Zoe to be an unlikeable Bitch in Sheep's Clothing still thought her death was pretty sad to watch, especially due to Noah's reaction to it.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Brooke a Dumb Blonde Alpha Bitch incapable of empathy, or a calculating manipulator who pretends to be dim and vapid so people will do as she likes? There's also a fair share of speculation as to what exactly she gets out of her relationship with Mr. Branson. The most popular answer seems to be Sextra Credit, but that hasn't stopped some theories.
  • Is Jake an oblivious jerkass incapable of realizing the harm and consequences of his actions, or is he just playing at being Dumb Muscle to better manipulate the others, particularly Will and Brooke? Does he actually find humour in other people's suffering, or is his sardonicism just a coping mechanism for the killing spree which has taken an increasing number of his friends?
    • There is an indication of sarcasm failure when he finds out about Riley's murder. Will's death, on the other hand, appears to hit WAY too close to home for him, considering his Will was murdered because he was trying to fix something Jake did. Ultimately, the notion of Jake being a Stepford Snarker isn't so far fetched; Jake seems to be insecure about people mistaking him for a weakling, and would almost rather be seen as a "Douche" (or "Doosh" as Noah Foster intentionally misspells it).
    • His 'bobcat and shark' speech to Brooke might be indicative of shady intentions. His manipulation of Brooke as he attempts to pin the entire blackmail thing on Will is either him maliciously selling his friend down the river, or a Dude, Where's My Respect? reaction for legitimately trying to help Will pay his tuition. There's also some debate as to whether or not his feelings for Brooke are genuine.
  • Why, oh why, does supposed 'good girl' Emma hang out with the likes of Nina and Brooke? One can easily say that she gravitated to the popular kids, but the fact of the matter is she just doesn't seem to fit. This is often pointed out as odd by Emma's many detractors.
    • People also point out that Riley fits with the clique despite being nicer than Emma, because she's Brooke's Morality Pet, while Brooke was supposedly Nina's Beta Bitch, thus creating a sort of "chain" between them, whereas Emma just doesn't seem to fit in there.
    • Emma may have been a part of the group due to dating Will. Brooke even makes a statement about her becoming a part of the group after she started dating Will.
  • Is Kieran a charming bad boy type with a good heart who wants what's best for Emma, or is he a creepy stalker developing an obsession for the girl who is vulnerable due to problems with her boyfriend and her friends being murdered? Turns out to be the latter except he's actually a Stalker without a Crush AND a Hidden Villain, as he was Piper's accomplice and a cold-blooded murderer who betrayed Emma and her friends.
  • Many fans find Will to be selfish, antagonistic, and whiny. The way he abandons Jake after he breaks the Mayor's nose caused many fans to sympathize more than Jake rather than the 'reformed' Will. Others side with Will at least in the latter situation, noticing that he's backing out of a criminal endeavor that can only end with people getting hurt, as Jake so candidly showed and took as much pride of as he does in engaging in said criminal endeavors.
    • It is worth noting that Jake put a knife to the mayor's throat and that Will had already been reluctant to have any involvement. Jake also retaliated by attempting to sell Will out as the only culprit to Brooke's father and pinning all of the blame on him, potentially getting Will killed.
  • Whether Mayor Maddox covered up his wife's destructive drug habit to protect her or to preserve his own reputation. Brooke seems to prescribe to the latter opinion, leading to her severing ties with him in Episode 8. Of course, there are still a share fair of fans who take Maddox's explanation with a grain of salt in the first place.
  • Did Audrey betray Piper out of a desire to take over as the main Ghostface, or was it out of an honest desire to protect Emma and the others? Or was it just because, as she put it, Piper "talks too much," making her a liability? It turns out Audrey was completely innocent in that scenario and Kieran was the real accomplice.
  • During their initial meeting, Haley tells Audrey she is impressed with her. It's debatable whether or not that was simply part of the prank or if Haley really did admire Audrey and the incident following the prank caused her ire towards Audrey.
  • Was Eli simply a Stalker with a Crush with a deranged obsession for Emma, or was he an emotional damaged kid damaged from having an abusive father who then abandoned him and an equally awful mother and just wanted the affection Emma gave to Kieran? The fact that Kieran was a psychotic murderer also raises the question about how much of Eli's Dark and Troubled Past actually happened.
  • Was Kieran really kidnapped and held hostage by Ghostface in "Village Of The Damned" or did he fake the whole thing to deflect suspicions away from him? The latter proves to be right.
  • Is Gustavo a well-meaning but troubled person who truly cares about Brooke and Noah, or is he a self-absorbed, insensitive Jerkass who only cares about using Noah for his writing talents? The fact that he doesn't have any problems with exploiting the brutal murders of several people to get a best-selling books doesn't help his chances.
• Ass Pull: Season 2's Plot Twist that Kieran was the second killer all along contradicts most of the prior plot points, notably those in Season 1 that pointed to Audrey as the culprit. Season 1 showrunner Jill Blotevogel confirmed that Audrey was supposed to be the second killer, but the Season 2 showrunners changed the killer's identity after Blotevogel stepped down, leading to the following plot holes.
  • In "Betrayed", the police find Audrey's DNA inside the Brandon James mask on Tyler's head. This is a nonissue in Blotevogel's original plans for the series, but it becomes an unresolved plot point in light of the Season 2 reveal, which doesn't bother explaining how her DNA got on the mask.
  • In "The Dance", both Piper and Audrey claim that Kieran is the killer, which fits with the initial idea that the two killers are working together to misdirect Emma with a Red Herring. However, given the Season 2 reveal, this essentially means that Piper is taking an unnecessary risk by giving away her accomplice's identity. It also undermines Piper's line that she has "one last surprise" for Emma as she already gave away her partner's identity.
  • "Revelations":
    • When Piper runs into Audrey, Piper knocks her out in a single hit and doesn't bother killing her. This is logical if both of them are working together as Ghostface, but the retcon makes this nonsensical because Piper is now purposefully leaving an eyewitness alive, specifically an eyewitness who knows Piper's heritage as Brandon James's daughter and can easily point the police in her direction.
    • Kieran decides to give Noah his gun, which allows the protagonists to defeat Ghostface. This decision made sense back when the Season 1 showrunners intended him to be innocent, but the retcon in Kieran's alignment means that this decision comes across as self-sabotage in retrospect, especially when his motive in Season 2 is to avenge his partner.
  • In "The Vanishing", Audrey states that she knew all along that there was a second killer because she was with Piper the night Rachel was murdered. However, previous episodes had her trying to stop Noah from figuring out that Piper had an accomplice, which is inconsistent with the idea that she is supposed to be innocent.
• Awesome Music: The bouncy tune that tends to play whenever Noah starts a Leaning on the Fourth Wall speech. It has the right amount of suspense and whimsy one would expect from a Scream TV series.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Emma, the protagonist, has received very mixed reception from fans. Some fans like her Nice Girl personality and find her to be a sympathetic-if-flawed heroine who is making the best she can of an incredibly difficult and stressful situation. Others find her to be very bland, boring, and stereotypical and also have a strong dislike for her Poor Communication Kills tendencies. It is worth noting that most fans like almost every other female teen character far more than her, even Nina, the Alpha Bitch who was murdered in the first few minutes of the first episode. The fact the rest of the cast seems to be more lively makes this much worse (namely Audrey, Noah, Brooke, Riley, Will and Jake), as when compared to them, she comes across as bland. Her actions in stealing a video and creating a false alibi for Audrey to get her freed further land her into this spot with many fans. Some agree with her actions to protect her friend who has been there for her through this tough time, while others figure that the video tape and Audrey's DNA inside the mask is too suspicious to simply ignore, and that letting Audrey remain in custody could have helped prove her possible innocence or possible guilt depending on if any more murders and calls from Ghostface to Emma happened afterwards. If Audrey ends up being one of the killers, any murders she commits would be Emma's fault for getting her freed.
  • Made ironic with the Chirpster poll on which of the Girl Posse should be killed next. Brooke has over 300 votes, while Emma has only two.
  • Detective Lorraine Brock falls either as an is either loved or hated by fans, with no room in between. Those who dislike her criticize Brock's overall lack of professionalism, including violating various police procedures, as well as the fact that she acts like an unnecessarily abrasive jerkass for no good reason. Due to the previously mentioned issues, as well as her overall lack of success in finding a killer leading her to be Put on a Bus offscreen after two episodes, many fans find her to be incredibly incompetent as well. Those who like her point out that four teenagers have been brutally murdered, one of them in the very police station, so she has to be abrasive and go on the offensive to round up any possible suspects. they also argue that she has been no more incompetent than Sheriff Hudson, who found clues but followed them up the wrong trail, going after the already dead Tyler, while Brock's prime suspect Audrey has yet to be found innocent. Though it is worth noting that Detective Brock herself admitted that the primary evidence against Audrey could have very easily been tampered with or otherwise unreliable, something which the police later confirmed, though this stemmed from Emma secretly interfering with the investigation, leaving the mystery of Audrey's DNA being inside the mask as of yet unsolved.
    • At the end of the day, the fact that the evidence is unreliable and could have been tampered with is all that matters. Witness testimony is considered a weak form of evidence in the first place for a reason. Brock was pursuing Audrey while ignoring every other suspect on evidence she admitted was faulty.
  • Sheriff Clark Hudson also fits here. Some fans see him as likable, reasonable, and a good love interest for Maggie, and many feel he's trying his best to capture a killer with very little evidence to go off of. Others see him as bland, incompetent, and so useless at his job that Lorraine and even the teen cast (with Lorraine and Emma being examples themselves) far outclass him in actually trying to solve the crimes and find the killer's identity. Brock's fans have also criticized him for taking issue to her treatment of Audrey (in particular, interviewing her without giving her the opportunity to have a parent/guardian or lawyer present, which violates police protocol along with her constitutional rights), saying that Lorraine is justified in cutting unnecessary corners when a masked maniac is on the loose killing people. Those who dislike him also point out that all the murders have happened while he has been in charge of the case, but it's worth pointing out that Ghostface may have planned it that way all along to discredit him, or if Hudson were one of two possible killers, his perceived incompetency would be justified because he'd be doing it on purpose to take suspicion off of himself.
  • Season 2 introduces the new sheriff in town, Miguel Acosta, who got hit with this quick. Some fans hate him for his Deadpan Snarker nature, his skepticism and his serious, no-nonsense demeanor and lack of building relations with other characters besides his son Gustavo, whereas other fans like him precisely because he's a Deadpan Snarker who shows signs of Reasonable Authority Figure, saying that in just a few episodes he has proven to be a far more competent sheriff than Clark Hudson was in all of season 1.
  • While she used to be a popular Ensemble Dark Horse, a large portion of the viewers consider this as of the Season 2 finale with The Reveal that she was NOT helping Piper murder anyone, saying that this makes Audrey a complete moron and that her actions throughout Season 2 make absolutely no sense, as she had far easier ways to resolve her issues. Others still like her and are glad that she's innocent and thus can still be friend with Emma and Noah.
• Badass Decay: A through and through bad boy in Season 1, Kieran became far meeker in Season 2 (barring one instance when he punched Eli). Gets hit hard with this in the Season 2 finale, where after two seasons of brutally killing people and easily manipulating everyone, he accidentally reveals his identity by a simple slip of the tongue while talking to Emma, and after shooting his cousin Eli (who Emma had injured), Emma and Audrey, the latter being shackled, manage to take him down with incredible ease.
• Broken Base:
  • Whether or not the series should have continued the story of Sidney, Gale, and Dewey.
  • Whether the many pop culture references are a necessary staple of the franchise, or distracting name-drops meant to seem 'relevant'.
  • When the design for the new Ghostface mask was released, there was a vocal debate about whether the design was better, worse, or at least serviceable when compared to the classic mask. After the show started airing, however, things cooled down somewhat.
  • Brooke's character development as of "Jeepers Creepers". Some fans found her Sanity Slippage Axe-Crazy bits with Branson were interesting and compelling (with some even arguing that she was in the right) while others disliked the regression of Brooke's development towards being a better person and thought she went too far.
    • Somewhat balanced out in the following episode, when Brooke has a My God, What Have I Done? moment, and tells Audrey what she did.
  • The Season 2 Finale. Specifically The Reveal that Audrey was completely and totally innocent and that Kieran was Piper's one and only accomplice. Some fans found it to be a highly satisfying, if predictable, twist, while others absolutely despise it for giving Audrey countless moments of being an idiot, making her Too Dumb to Live, saying that it leaves Season 2 filled with plot holes, and that its a highly transparent Retcon of Season 1's ending. Many fans have gone so far to say they're quitting the show.
• Catharsis Factor: After all the atrocities that Kieran Wilcox is revealed to have committed as Ghostface, it may be a comfort to some viewers to see him sentenced to a life in prison, then butchered by whom is presumably the original killer, Brandon James, in the holding cell. That said, some consider him to have gotten off easy.
• Complete Monster: The Ghostface-clad Lakewood Slashers from the first two seasons are malevolent murderers.
  • Season 1: Piper Shaw duplicates the killing spree of Brandon James, starting by killing Nina and her boyfriend Tyler, and later killing depressed student Rachel, making it look like a suicide. Constantly tormenting her half-sister Emma Duvall via texts and phone calls, while being friendly and helpful to her face, Piper targets her friends for no reason other than to hurt her. Piper tries to force Emma to choose between killing two of her friends, and ends up killing Riley. Later, Piper has Will kidnapped and later set up in a Death Trap which Emma is tricked into triggering. Eventually framing Mr. Branson, Piper tortures Sheriff Hudson on a live camera, before leaving him in to be killed in a trap like Will before him. When Ghostface's identity is finally revealed as Piper, she reveals her jealously for Emma's life, and plans to kill the latter in front of their mother Maggie, before slowly killing the latter.
  • Season 2: Kieran Wilcox, while playing the part of loving boyfriend to Emma, is in fact yet another Copycat Killer and accomplice of Piper Shaw. Personally killing Audrey's girlfriend, he also put Will in a Death Trap for Emma to trigger and saw the Sheriff — his own father — tortured and brutally murdered. In season 2, Kieran torments the cast by viciously picking them off one by one, even dropping the corpse of one in front of his girlfriend and murdering one of his girlfriends, while also killing off any cops who get in his way. Leaving Zoe's drowned body in a coffin underwater, Kieran leaves a recording of the latter's screams and struggles to have others, including her boyfriend, think they have a chance of saving her and frames Emma and Audrey for his own murder of the Mayor. Exposed in the finale, Kieran shoots his own cousin before gloating about a plan to murder and frame Emma for his own crimes.
• Crosses the Line Twice: While Riley's death was incredibly sad, the inclusion of the oblivious janitor on his headphones made the whole thing perversely funny.
• Despair Event Horizon: Riley's death in "Wanna Play a Game?" pushes several characters over it, creating room for definitive Character Development for the first time in the series.
  • Jake's death is a huge one for Brooke.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Noah became one of the most liked characters from the very beginning as the show's Randy Expy.
  • Riley is easily one of the most overall liked characters by fans. While most characters, even others on this trope, have people who dislike them, Riley was the one character most, if not all fans genuinely liked and cared for thanks to her pleasant nature and chemistry with the other characters. As such, many were not happy at all to see Riley killed off in Episode 3 of Season 1.
  • Brooke has also proven to easily be amongst the most popular characters on the show, mainly for how entertainingly bitchy she is. A lot of people are rooting for her to be the Final Girl instead of good girl Emma. She is now liked even more after Episode 4, where Riley's death shows the audience that she does have a good side and genuine depth to go with her bitchiness, and for being one of the most well developed characters in the show.
  • While initially The Scrappy for being the resident Jerk Jock, Will won over a lot of fans by the end of season 1 as his Jerk with a Heart of Gold status was emphasized. Particularly due to his multiple heroic feats as well as his Cruel and Unusual Death being caused by Emma's terrible decision making.
  • Both 'Stavo and Eli have proven exceptionally popular as of the end of Season 2. the former gained a lot of fans after suffering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from the other students in his highschool, to say nothing of his romance with Brooke or Troubled, but Cute vibe (while managing to remain a Nice Guy). Eli was more divisive early on, but the fact he's overall more interesting than Kieran and his massive woobie status help him a lot. Particularly after the finale where it turns out Kieran had been framing and tormenting Eli all his life, not to mention that Eli had genuinely been trying to protect Emma. The fact he's killed/nearly killed trying to save her from his psychotic cousin also gave him a notable boost in popularity.
• Fan Nickname: "ScreaMTV" for the show as a whole.
• Fanon: Regarding the Brandon James murders, being the series overarching mystery, which was Cut Short along with the series. The common consensus was that Brandon was either framed or simply blamed for the murders of another. The two most popular suspects in these theories is Brandon's brother Troy, having went on the killing spree in defense of his brother and retaliation of his bullies; the other is Emma's father, Kevin, having went on the killing spree to frame Brandon, whilst proping himself up as a survivor, especially as one of Brandon's bullies. Both these suspects are potentially teased at the end of the Halloween special, with a "Mr. James" checking into a hotel, juxtaposed with Kevin visiting a grave.
• Fridge Horror: Kieran was likely underage when he met Piper, making her guilty of grooming her own accomplice and exploiting his bloodlust on top of everything else.
• He's Just Hiding: Eli has people convinced that he survived his attack at the end of season 2.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In "In the Trenches", while talking to Will over the phone, Emma says, "I think it's about time we got on Netflix." This line becomes unintentionally meta now that Scream is available to watch on the streaming service.
  • Also, Nina outing Audrey and Rachel by posting a video of them kissing online becomes very ironic now that Bella Thorne has come out as bisexual after a photo was leaked onto Snapchat of her kissing a girl.
  • Amy Forsyth was originally cast as Audrey before Bex Taylor-Klaus replaced her. The two would star together in Hell Fest a few years later.
• Hollywood Homely:
  • It's a bit hard to buy Noah as having trouble finding girls when he's played by the modestly good-looking John Karna.
  • Also applies to Rachel, who's biggest character trait is that she's insecure and views herself as ugly, despite being played by the relatively attractive Sosie Bacon. This might be intentional, though, to illustrate that Rachel's self-image is a result of her low self-confidence rather than on her physical appearance.
• I Knew It!:
  • From the start, several fans were betting that Brandon James and Maggie had a lovechild who may or may not be involved in the killings. Episode 8 confirmed this.
  • Many fans guessed that Piper Shaw was the season 1 killer almost from the moment the character was introduced.
  • A lot of people figured that Audrey was the second killer long before the Season 1 finale. However, the Season 2 showrunners retconned this reveal and changed the second killer's identity after the Season 1 showrunners, who themselves verified that Audrey was meant to be the accomplice, vacated their positions.
  • On the other hand, pretty much everyone guessed that Kieran was the actual second killer within a few episodes of the second season.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Ghostface killing Riley just to punish Emma for refusing to continue playing his game, and the way he did it, is certainly a candidate for this.
  • Nina goes over it in the first three minutes of the pilot, when she proudly defends her posting of Audrey and Rachael's makeout tape as a necessary part of the high school social hierarchy.
  • Jake assaulting Mayor Maddox for not bringing the full $100,000 blackmail money to the drop off. Will calls him out, as no one was supposed to be hurt, but Jake just brushes it off as always.
  • Kieran crossed this long ago with the reveal of his bullying of his cousin Eli and aligning himself with Piper, but his sadistic mental and physical torture of Noah and murder of Zoe is what pushes the gang over the edge with Emma even telling him that he's going to pay for what he's done (though she doesn't know it's him at the time.)
• One-Scene Wonder: In the Scream tradition, Nina Patterson is very much this, due to Bella Thorne's performance and the fact that she is just so unrepentant in her bitchiness.
• Padding: A consistent criticism is that the series focuses too much on romantic drama for a supposed slasher show. Notably, Ghostface in Season 1 kills eight people within ten 40-minute episodes while Ghostface in Season 2 kills nine in twelve 40-minute episodes, a much lower kill rate than even the first Scream movie, which had five kills in a 2-hour runtime.
• Paranoia Fuel: Like the film series, the show has its fair share of examples.
  • Someone triggers the security alarm at Emma's house. The security service calls, lulling Emma into a false sense of security... and then he asks Emma if she likes scary TV shows. Nothing happens to her, but Nothing Is Scarier definitely in effect.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Will Belmont. Initially hated for his overall douchebaggery and seeming lack of redemptive qualities, Will slowly grew into a more likable person and redeemed himself over the course of the first season, even placing his life at risk to save others three times in just two episodes — two of which were while he was critically injured, no less. His shocking and brutal death also gained a lot of sympathy for him, especially because of the well-deserved blame fans had for Emma, due to her stupidity getting Will killed after he'd completely redeemed himself for his past actions.
  • Eli came off as incredibly creepy at first glance, especially with Kieran telling Emma about all the creepy things he did back when they were younger. A lot of people are warming up to Eli now, though, since it's been revealed that Kieran is the killer and has been blaming Eli for all of his own crimes for years, thus meaning that all those times Eli tried to warm up to Emma were genuine. A few fans are even hoping that Eli will pull a Not Quite Dead and return for Season 3.
  • Even though some people don't like the reveal that Audrey wasn't the accomplice killer, many agree that it turning out to be Kieran was the best thing that could happen to his character, since as soon as he reveals it he finally starts developing a personality.
• Romantic Plot Tumor:
  • The love triangle between Emma, Will, and Kieran in the first season. Besides widespread opinion that Emma isn't a very good protagonist, it also takes time away from the actual serial killer plot and nabs screen time from other characters, all of whom tend to be more popular than these three.
  • Discussed by Noah and Riley while stargazing on the football field. Obviously, it's played for irony.
  • Many also feel that way about the romance between Clark and Maggie.
  • And in Season 2, there's now another love triangle between Emma, Kieran and Eli starting.
• The Scrappy:
  • Piper Shaw ranged between this and They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character amongst fans, simply because there seemed to be no reason for her to be around at all. She had little in common with film series counterpart Gale Weathers while also having very few distinguishing traits of her own, seeming to exist merely to remind us that Gale also existed and to add yet another suspect to the "who is the killer or killers" pool. What really solidified her scrappy status, however, was the season one finale. Besides being an incredibly obvious killer, Piper was also essentially a gender-flipped copy-and-paste of Scream 3's Roman, one of the most divisive characters and killers in the entire film franchise. This is further solidified by Amelia Rose Blaire's heavily criticized performance, primarily for being rather lifeless pre-reveal and downright Narm-tastic post reveal. She's even given a Take That, Scrappy! scene in the opening of Season 2.
  Girl in theater: "It's so crazy how no one even suspected Piper, right? That's what everyone says."
  Audrey: "You know, that's what they say."
  • Jake Fitzgerald. He began as a Base-Breaking Character, and while he does have a Vocal Minority fanbase, most viewers found him intolerable due to his actor's very weak performance as well as his Jerkass tendencies and inconsistent characterisation. It reached the point that the very first thing the new Season 2 showrunners did was kill off Jake as soon as it was humanly possible to do so.
  • Kieran Wilcox: There were some signs of him falling into this category in Season 1, but it became much more apparent in Season 2. Many fans consider him the least interesting character on the show. Some would say being the killer and Piper's accomplice got him out of the Scrappy heap.
• So Bad, It's Good: Some fans view the entire series as this, finding its many flaws and Narmy qualities to be part of the appeal.
• Special Effect Failure: The fire from the ending of "Let The Right One In".
• Take That, Scrappy!:
  • The anticlimactic nature of Piper's death could be seen as this. Also he having a pigs heart sewn into her body afterwards.
  • In the season 2 premiere, Jake is dumped by Brooke after being put through an incredibly Cruel and Unusual Death. There was definitely a large number of positive (or indifferent) responses to the character's demise.
  • Emma slapping Haley in "Dawn Of The Dead" is definitely portrayed as this.
  • As of episode 2x09, The Orphanage, Haley is stabbed to death by the killer she was dating and her body is strung up for the cops to see. The character's death received an overwhelmingly positive reaction.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Audrey as Piper's accomplice. While most Scream films have The Reveal of two Ghostfaces working together, none of them ever had one killer get away scot-free and try to cover up their tracks, especially since the protagonists, unlike the audience, don't know that there is a second killer in the first place. Furthermore, Season 2's premise of a new Ghostface blackmailing Audrey is potentially the first time in the franchise that there are two separate Ghostface factions battling each other. However, the show abandons this idea by disclosing Kieran, the blackmailer, to be Piper's actual accomplice from the very start, and it also makes Audrey Good All Along by explaining that while she wrote letters to Piper and brought Piper to Lakewood, she didn't partake in any murders.
  • The Halloween special featured the appearance of a third killer who claimed to be the first Ghostface, but that plot point later turned out to be a Red Herring as the rest of the special was about a completely unrelated killer. The original plan was to have the third Ghostface act as a Sequel Hook for Season 3, but with Scream: Resurrection focusing on a new story and cast, some felt that the Halloween special should have been a proper Grand Finale, especially since the suspect pool for a hypothetical Season 3 is rather small ^note Realistically, it can only be Brandon James, his brother Troy James, or Emma's missing father Kevin Duval.
• The Woobie:
  • Rachel Murray to a T. Bullied because of her sexuality and forced to retreat into her house, it becomes very clear Audrey is her only friend. That she is brutally murdered while talking to who she believes is Audrey is even worse.
  • Emma is also showing signs of becoming one. Not only does she have to deal with her Disappeared Dad, her mother's dark past, her cheating boyfriend, and the guilt of allowing Nina to spread an embarrassing video of her former best friend, but she also must deal with the killer stalking and harassing her and, as of Episode 3, the guilt of inadvertently causing Riley's death. Her reaction upon discovering Riley's body makes it clear that she's close to reaching her Despair Event Horizon, and the subsequent leaking of her sex tape with Will pushes her over the edge. From there, she accidentally causes, and then witnesses, Will's brutal death, right after she had done so much to rescue him to begin with. Episode 8 reveals she is developing paranoid insomnia, which plagues her with surreal hallucinations as she continues to convince herself that everybody who tries to help her is doomed.
    • Only gets worse in season 2. She comes back after being in therapy for three months after a public breakdown following the killings, and is still suffering from severe PTSD. Her Disappeared Dad comes back only for it to be revealed that the reason he left her behind in the first place is because he was struggling with alcoholism and was abusive towards Emma's mom, shattering her perfect image of him. A new killer is targeting her and her friends again, and she's afraid to tell anyone for good reason this time, as most of the authority figures in her life dismiss what's happening to her as delusions due to her previous struggles with mental health until the new killer makes their presence very obviously known. In addition to that, her boyfriend, who was previously one of the only people she felt she could trust, is now working with the very police attempting to victim-blame her and is essentially being forced to snitch on her.Made even worse when her and her best friend are framed and arrested for the killings by the real killer who is none other then her own boyfriend who never loved her. He tricks her into shooting a innocent boy who did like her and was trying to protect who he then kills. A year later she and her friends go to a island to get away from her town on Halloween only to get targeted by a killer again. The killer turns out to be the first boy she opens up to who kills multiple people so he can be her hero and be together putting more indirect deaths she responsible for on her conscience.
  • Audrey straddles the line between this and Jerkass Woobie in season 2. She may exhibit some extremely shady behavior, but she's also being stalked and psychologically tortured by the new killer who's doing everything possible to make her look guilty. Not only that, but it's becoming more and more obvious that however involved she may have been with Piper's plans, she never wanted to hurt Emma and she likely wasn't at all involved in Rachael's death, despite feeling extreme guilt over it.
  • As of the Season 2 finale, Eli would definitely qualify. With the revelation that Kieran had been framing Eli and making everyone think he was the psycho since they were kids, his actions toward Emma that could once be seen as mannerisms of a Stalker with a Crush turn into the actions of a concerned guy who wants to protect someone he cares about from being hurt. The fact that Eli (seemingly) dies while trying to save Emma (and that Emma herself non-fatally shot him earlier when she thought he was the killer) only adds further salt to the wound. All Eli wanted was to protect Emma and he winds up getting killed because of it. Poor guy.

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