RECAP: Scream Queens Series Premiere

Last night was the series premiere of FOX's newest show, Scream Queens! Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, the horror-comedy series has a star-studded cast including Emma Roberts, Keke Palmer, Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin, Jamie Lee Curtis, Skyler Samuels, Nick Jonas, Niecy Nash, and more!

I'm following along this season, and recapping for the blog, so read up on what went down below!


The two-hour series premiere started with a flashback to 1995 at sorority Kappa Kappa Tau at Wallace University The sorority is hosting a party, and one of the sisters comes downstairs with blood mysteriously all over her hands! Turns out another sister has had a baby (she thought she was dealing with the Freshman 15 apparently). A small group of Kappas surround the girl, who is holding the baby in a bathtub, but are more concerned about going back to the party and dancing to TLC's "Waterfalls." Most of the girls leave, only to come back to discover that the new mother has bled out and died in the tub!

Flash forward to 2015. Kappa sister Chanel Oberlin (Emma Roberts) runs the house now, house. She has minions, who she couldn't care less about (including their names), so she calls them Chanel #2 (Ariana Grande), Chanel #3 (Billie Lourd), and Chanel #5 (Abigail Breslin). Apparently, Chanel #4 got meningitis and died during the school year last year. (To avoid any confusion with all these Chanels, only the original with be called Chanel in the recaps. The others will just go by their numbers. Sad, but serious note). The Dean of Students, Cathy Munsch, (Jamie Lee Curtis) calls for a meeting with Chanel to talk about Kappa, and they clearly don't like each other. Dean Munsch calls her out about all of the issues going on at Kappa, from wild, drunken nights, to an assault case. We also find out that the president of the house mysteriously died after acid was added to her spray tan. The Dean thinks that Chanel did it, so that she could take over the house, and plans to take them all down. She revokes their charter, but Gigi Caldwell (Nasim Pedrad) , the national president of the chapter and also a lawyer, takes over, informing Dean Munsch that it's up to the board of trustees to make that decision, not her.

Meanwhile, Grace Gardner arrives to Wallace as a freshman. Her dad, Wes (Oliver Hudson) is trying so hard to convince her not to join a sorority. However, her mom was a sorority girl at Kappa, and she feels like she would be following in her footsteps and become closer to her in a way. Grace meets her roommate Zayday (Keke Palmer) is her roommate, and she's very talkative and confident. They establish a good relationship from the jump, with Grace admitting she's rushing Kappa, and convincing Zayday to do the same.

That night, Grace walks to the Kappa house, where she sees a mysterious figure pass through quickly (little did we know that this was the Red Devil, a central character who seems to be avenging the death of the girl from 1995!). At the rush party, while Chanel is getting ready, Gigi and Dean Munsch announce that Kappa will be required to accept ANYONE that wants to pledge, even the misfits! That turns off A LOT of people who quickly leave. Number 5 runs to tell Chanel, who quickly freaks out. In addition to Grace and Zayday, there a few weirdos left, most of whom get cruel nicknames from Chanel: Hester "Neckbrace" Ulrich (Lea Michele), "Deaf Taylor Swift (literally the girl is deaf and only sings Taylor Swift)," "Predatory Lez," and Jennifer who is a candle vlogger.

The next day, Chanel talks to her boyfriend Chad Radwell (Glen Powell) of the Dollar Scholars fraternity, who has an issue with the pledges because it will knock down her popularity level. "I would love you a lot more if other people love you too," the douchbag admits. Chanel then decides to recruit the Kappas' housekeeper, Ms. Bean, to help her with a plan to get rid of the pledges. She plans to dip Ms. Bean's head in an unplugged deep fryer to scare the pledges off. After meeting at a coffee house, barista and editor of the school paper Pete Martinez (Diego Boneta) tries to convince Grace not to pledge Kappa, thinking that it's truly dangerous. However, Chanel reveals that Pete was a bit of a stalker last year towards her, and Grace dismisses his warning.

That night, the Chanels see a creepy collage of Chanel along with a slew of candles in Ms. Bean's room. They gather up the pledges, and run to Ms. Bean to confront her. At that moment, Chanel dips and holds Ms. Bean's head in the fryer as she planned, only the fryer was actually on! After a dramatic moment, Ms. Bean falls to the floor, dead. Grace runs to get the campus police, but Chanel threatens that if Grace opens her mouth, Chanel will tell everyone that Grace was the one who did it. Chanel gets everyone else except Zayday to back her up by promising them a trip on her jet to Cancun for spring break. She swears them all to secrecy as they leave Ms. Bean in the freezer!

Later, Dean Munsch goes on a feminist rant about the Kappas, when we find her in bed with CHAD! Apparently, her love life is so terrible, the only way she gets sex is by blackmailing students on academic probation. Meanwhile, Grace runs to Pete, deciding to help him with his expose of the Kappas, and get the sorority back to its original state (not realizing that it wasn't that great to begin with). The two go to examine Ms. Bean's body, but Chanel and Chad pop in at that moment, scaring them off. However, we all see that the body is mysteriously missing!

That night, Chanel leads a blood oath with the other Chanels, but the others freak out, especially
Number 2 who plans to go home. As she packs, she gets a mysterious text asking if she's brave enough to open the door! She does and it's the Red Devil! They have a text conversation back and forth (even though they're right in front of each other), and the Devil texts that he is going to kill her, and stabs her to death. However, not before Number 2 sends out a Facebook status about her death! Are we that wrapped up in social media and texting?!

The rest of the Chanels find Number 2's body, with Chanel believing that  Ms. Bean is alive and that she is the one who killed Chanel #2. Later, the sisters welcome the pledges to Hell Week, and they plan to haze them BAD. Grace and Zayday, standing up for themselves, reveal that they want Kappa House to be a sorority of empowerment. Chanel then takes Grace to the coffee house to talk, inviting her to be one of her minions. Grace thinks that Chanel, deep down, is miserable, but could create a real sisterhood here. However, Chanel doesn't really care, and refuses to hear Grace out.

That night, the Chanels leave the pledges buried in dirt overnight in the backyard. As the pledges attempt to sleep, they hear a lawnmower start! As they helplessly scream, the Red Devil runs right over Deaf Taylor Swift! The next morning, the media is all over the campus to report on the murder, not realizing that Number 2 is dead as well as Ms. Bean (whose body is still missing). Dean Munsch states that all of the Kappa girls are suspects, and none of them are excused to leave campus. The Chanels realize though, that they still have to get ride of Number 2. As they plot, Neckbrace pops in on them creepily, giving them an extremely detailed plan to cut up and get rid of the body, because she's obsessed with death! However, Chanel is grossed out, and just throws Number 2 in the freezer.

Later, Gigi hires Officer Denise Hemphill (Niecy Nash) to be the Kappa's security guard. She doesn't have a gun though, so how much help can she really be?! As the pledges clean the house, Grace goes to get more soap and finds a secret locked room. Number 5 busts in on her trying to break in. and makes her leave. Grace later tells Pete, and they both plan to break into the secret room and the dean's office to see if there are any records of craziness at the Kappa house.  The two also randomly kiss.

The next day, Dean Munsch brings Wes into her office, trying to convince him to keep Grace in the house for some reason. She confidently guarantees him that his daughter is not a target (ODD!). She also tries to seduce him, but he states firmly that he wants a job as a professor at Wallace to watch over Grace himself.

Later, Grace breaks into the locked Kappa room, finding the blood-stained tub from 20 years ago, and a trunk full of stuff from the party that night. Chanel finds her, admitting that this is where Kappa keeps its darkest secrets. She tells Grace the story of the death, and how the girls covered it up. Apparently, Dean Munsch and Ms. Bean knew about it as well. Grace wonders if it's related to what's happening now, but Chanel tells her to let it go.

Aftewards, Chanel breaks up with Chad. His best friend Boone (Nick Jonas) believes she'll come running back to him. He admits to Chad that he's scared because of the serial killer, and is having trouble sleeping. He wants to sleep in bed with Chad, but apparently, the last time that happened, he tried to touch Chad (turns out Boone is gay). However, Chad lets him sleep in the bed anyway, and Chanel catches them the next morning after trying to apologize. Chad "forgives" her, only to break up with her moments later.

That night, Pete breaks into the dean's office, and finds a list of five names (maybe of the Kappa girls involved in the cover up?). However, he is quickly found by the Red Devil who knocks him out, and then leaves him stuck to a pillar outside of the administration building, with a small note attached to him warning Pete to "MYOB." As Pete later tells the story to Grace, she discovers the devil costume in his closet, and immediately believes he's the killer!

Boone himself later goes to see Chanel, admitting that he wants to come out on his own and then pledge Kappa! Though Number 5 protests, Chanel thinks that it will be a great way to advance her future media career if she is the first sorority president to let in a gay guy as a member.

That night, Denise's security guard friend Shondell brings her burgers. As the two of them talk, Gigi spots a new car outside of the house, but it's only Grace's dad. Gigi runs to the car to introduce herself. The two vibe from music from 1995, oddly the same year the original sorority girl died. Gigi invites him to get a coffee, and they drive off, as Dean Munsch mysteriously pops up and looks on.

All of a sudden, Denise hears a scream from the house. Turns out Chanel was attacked by the Red Devil, but managed to escape! The girls all run upstairs, though Denise smartly tells them not to. In fact, I was surprised Zayday went with them! Upstairs, they find a message in blood, saying "Sluts will Die." As Denise runs back to her car, attempting to call Shondell on the walkie talkie, we see the Red Devil has killed Shondell already. My question here is this: could Gigi possibly have been trying to get Wes away while all of this was going on?

Meanwhile, as Boone works out in his room, the Red Devil comes from behind him. Boone sees him, but, weirdly, isn't scared at all. He's later seen slashed up and laid out on a table in the fraternity house, surrounded by candles!

At the end of the episode, the Chanels and pledges debate who the killer might be, with several of them thinking it could be Chanel herself. At that moment, Chad and Denise burst in, revealing both Shondell and Boone are dead. The episode wraps with a visit to the morgue, where the Devil pulls out Boone's body. However, Boone quickly opens his eyes, and pulls off a fake neck slash that had been applied to his neck, revealing he isn't  actually dead! Which is great, because Nick Jonas is serious eye candy. but what is going on here?!

All in all, the premiere was decent. I don't think it needed to be two hours long, but I'm going to keep watching and recapping.  I have so many questions already. For one thing, I'm not quite sure why the Red Devil is killing off  Kappas now if he (or she) is trying to avenge the cover up of the original Kappa death! I get him killing Ms. Bean, but why not Dean Munsch? Unless the devil is Dean Munsch! Why is Boone involved? Who else is in this murder scheme?! Could Grace be the baby from 1995, or is it Pete? Lawd, it's so much going on! Guess we just have to keep watching to find out what happens!

Check out all new episodes of Scream Queens on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET only on FOX!