[For Scream Queens‘ “Mommie Dearest” or any other recaps on Fetchland, assume the presence of possible spoilers.]
FOX Summary:
Mommie Dearest Grace learns more about Chanel; Dean Munsch becomes a target; a figure from the past returns.
Episode eight, “Mommie Dearest” begins with Grace in Dean Munsch’s office waiting to hear what happened with the sorority baby in the bathtub twenty years ago. But Munsch backpedals on her promise from the end of episode seven and claims not to know anything. Then Grace gets all threatening and weird saying Munsch will fess up the truth when it stabs her in the heart… whatever that means. Next we’ve got Munsch in the shower scene from psycho with the Red Devil ready to stab her before she takes him down with a swift blow. She’d seen the movie Psycho like fifty plus times, the Dean explains. Then just as she’s calling 911, the two Devils enter along with an intimidating somebody in a Justice Scalia mask. But it turns out Munsch had some serious martial arts training with a previous lover and she fights them all into submission until they run away. The Dean reigns victorious once again.
In the next scene the Chanels meet to discuss all the reasons they believe Zayday is the killer but none make any sense. So, Chanel says they’ve got to do what her father always says when you can’t get something done right you pay someone a lot of money to do it. So, she’ll hire someone to find better reasons Zayday and/or Grace are the killers. Next we see Denise in the Kappa kitchen frying up mozzarella sticks. She’s living at Kappa now on 24 hour security duty for Dean Munsch. Chanel No. 3 then offers Denise three million dollars to prove Zayday and/or Grace are the killer.
Then Grace is back in Munsch’s office and the Dean gives her a hypothetically heavy case for why she can’t tell her anything about what happened. Still, she tells Grace the name of the girl who died in the bathtub, Sophia Doyle, and claims that’s all the info she has. Grace is disappointed because she’s pretty sure that’s not her mother’s name – at least not according to her father. Then the Dean points out that maybe Grace isn’t the do-gooder she claims to be and really just a girl looking for her mother. This gets Grace all feisty and defensive. She’s out to find the killer, dammit! Yeah, right.
Back at Kappa Denise is asking around looking for reasons Zayday’s the killer. Candle girl, Jennifer tells Denise about a story Zayday confided in her one night. It’s a classic bullying story and at the end Zayday says she’s out for revenge against the bullies. But then it turns out Zayday’s eavesdropping on Denise and candle vlogger’s convo. Z tells Jennifer she’ll be sorry she ever told that story. So, right on schedule, that night while recording her candle blog, Jennifer gives a candle five stars and then gets whacked with a throat slashing – but the Red Devil doesn’t miss or get his ass kicked this time. Meanwhile in another room at Kappa Denise tells the Chanels she needs an advance of ten percent on the three million to help finance her investigation. Chanel says Denise can just call her family’s money managers for the money. Denise’s “Can I get that in cash?” is still floating through the air when they all then discover Jennifer’s dead body, covered in candle wax.
Grace tells Puppy Pete she needs to find out all about her mother and the answers to what happened to the bathtub baby. They quickly determine that the answer key to everything lies with The Hag of Shady Lane. Because she’s a hag, and evidently quite shady they figure she must have been in a mental institution and leave right away to go there and ask her questions. At the institution they talk to the lady who paints all the patients and she then reveals to them, with a painting, that Gigi is The Hag of Shady Lane and apparently also the bathtub lady but (shocker) she had two babies – a boy and a girl. These scenes are prime examples of how ridiculous the investigations are on Scream Queens. Hey, I’ve got a theory and then five seconds later that theory just happens to be the truth… or so it seems for the moment.
Grace then goes to Gigi’s to confront her and doesn’t scare The Hag of Shady Lane even the the tiniest bit. In fact Gigi drops the bomb that she’s now engaged to Wes, Grace’s Dad. So, the disillusioned Grace leaves and now Wes is the next step on Grace’s confrontational tour. He immediately tells Grace how Gigi was the one who bought the engagement ring and that he’s just going along with it for the great sex that comes along with letting Gigi wear the ring. Then when he mentions that it’s been 16 years since her Mom died Grace realizes that her father must have known Gigi back when she was born. Wes gets all weird and mirror happy while Grace backs away and out the door – now thinking he’s a killer in cahoots with Gigi AKA The Hag of Shady Lane.
The Dean then speaks to the campus, tells them about Candle Jennifer’s death and subsequently shuts down Kappa, as usual. In Chanel’s inevitable hissy fit that follows she hires Scotland Yard to prove that Grace and Zayday are the killers because she simply can’t abide Kappa closing and the subsequent relinquishment of her popularity. Sure they don’t have any jurisdiction in the US, forget about on a college campus, but they can investigate like a Mutha and she’s got plenty of benjamins to bring them on board. Scotland Yard quickly comes up with lots of info for her including the fact that Chanel No. 5 is intent on murdering her. But she quickly dismisses this info because it’s not at all surprising and not to mention that it’s not even slightly related to why she hired them. They’re supposed to prove Grace and Zayday are the killers! Scotland Yard tells her Grace and/or Zayday don’t seem like probable suspects BUT Grace’s mother does have a criminal record. Chanel takes one look at the file and declares that this is all the evidence they need to prove Grace is the killer.
When Grace returns to Kappa Chanel tells her all about her mother and it turns out that she wasn’t the bathtub lady at all, but just a Kappa girl that got drunk and pregnant then fell down the slippery slope of bad girl decisions after that with shoplifting, drunk driving, meth, etc. Denise then tries to play house mother to the Kappa girls. She borrows clothes from Chanel No. 5’s closet and tries to get the girls to do some community service. Chanel interrupts saying Denise can’t be the house mother because she’s the house president. But then they have a private pow wow just the two of them and Denise says Chanel has to apologize to Grace for berating her mother or else Denise will sleep with Chad again and take him away from Chanel. This taps into Chanel’s greatest fear of losing her popularity (the only reason she’s with Chad) and thus Denise finally has her attention. So, Chanel then does what Denise demanded and apologizes to Grace, saying we all have mommy issues anyway. “Kappa is like the mom we never had,” she explains.
When Grace later asks Wes questions regarding what Chanel said about her mother and he says it’s mostly true. They were just really young and foolish, etc. When asked why he hid it from her all these years Wes says he was just trying to protect her. But then Grace gets all strange and says she’s her mother’s daughter and he should stay far away from her if he wants to protect himself. She storms out all huffy puff like. Then Gigi comes in as Grace leaves and tells Wes Grace is doing badly in school and falling apart. He should commit her (or something) otherwise he’s really failing her as a father. That is what good fathers do, after all, commit their child to an institution for getting bad grades their first semester in college. No wonder our country’s mental institutions are simply bursting at the seams with lazy college freshmen….
Then in the final scene we encounter an incognito Boone Clemens, played by Nick Jonas and back from the dead. He attempts to workout at the gym in a giant lumberjack fake beard and stache while on his cell talking about how he’s tired of playing the Red Devil and killing people for Gigi. The plan is to take her down. We knew he was still alive and now we know he’s out for the The Hag of Shady Lane. Well, bring it on, Bro. We’re all waiting to see this one go down.
“Mommie Dearest” makes many attempts to imply that Grace could be our killer but we’re not falling for it here at Fetchland.com. We’re still convinced it’s Chanel No. 1. Hey, she actually kills people for reals! And she’s funny and rich and looks damn good doing it too… What better combo exists for a killer on the glamorous comedy romp Scream Queens than this?
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