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Mommie Dearest
Season One, Episode Eight
MD 17
Air date: November 10, 2015
Written by: Ian Brennan
Directed by: Michael Uppendahl
Production code: SQ-108
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Wait a minute, are are you supposed to be Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia?
Dean Munsch after seeing the judge costumed up killer

Mommie Dearest is the eighth episode of the first season of Scream Queens, and the eighth episode overall in the season. Ian Brennan served as writer and Michael Uppendahl served as director. It had its official release on Tuesday, November 10, 2015 on Fox.

Grace enlists Chanel's help to learn more about KKT's past, and ends up realizing she might not be so different from her nemesis after all. Dean Munsch goes "psycho" when she becomes the latest target of the Red Devils. Meanwhile, Denise becomes the new house mother of Kappa House and a shocking figure from the past returns.

Plot[]

The episode opens with Grace sitting in Cathy Munsch's office to have a discussion about the baby in the bathtub incident. Despite her making a promise to Grace and Pete to reveal the events of what happened that night in 1995 in exchange for pursuing Feather, Cathy claims she has no memory of ever saying that in the first place. She says she was probably high on Klonopin, and so she can't be held accountable for anything she may have said during that time. Cathy also says that because Feather is the Red Devil killer, the murders have nothing to do with what "may or may not have happened" at Kappa 20 years ago, so it doesn't even matter anymore, and since Feather has been caught, there's nothing to worry about. Grace is noticeably angry that Cathy will not offer up any information, especially since it would greatly help solve who the murderer really is. She tells Cathy that she knows for a fact that Cathy is going to ignore everything that's going on at Wallace University until it personally sneaks up behind her and stabs her in the heart. She then storms out of Cathy's office.

Cathy is then seen in her house getting ready to take a shower. She closes the bathroom door, takes off her robe, steps into the shower, and draws the curtain closed. She turns the water on and as she's scrubbing her body, the bathroom door creaks open. The silhouette of the Red Devil is seen on the other side of the shower curtain. The Red Devil then raises their knife and pulls back the curtain, revealing an empty shower. Cathy suddenly comes from behind and smacks their face against the wall and the bathtub saying that she has seen 'that movie' fifty times, referencing 'Psycho', which Jamie Lee Curtis's mother, Janet Leigh starred in. She gives the Red Devil a quick punch in the face before running to her foyer to call 911. Meanwhile, the Devil begins to get up from the bathroom floor and head towards Cathy. She decides to just hang up the phone because she's frustrated with 911's "new automated system" and doesn't have time to deal with it since she hears the Red Devil approaching. She grabs a fireplace poker and starts repeatedly whacking the Red Devil with it. As the devil lays on the ground seemingly unconscious, Cathy opens the door to an adjacent room and another Red Devil emerges - this one wielding an axe. As Red Devil #2 helps the Devil #1 get up off the floor, suddenly another murderer carrying a hammer shows up dressed as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Cathy then tells the murderers that when she was a junior in college, she spent a year abroad and had an affair with a "beautiful eurasian man" who taught her everything he knew about fighting in return for her teaching him everything she knew about making love, and then gets ready for the blows. She then proceeds to get into a full out brawl with the murderers, smacking them against various objects, throwing them against walls, and knocking them all to the ground. Justice Scalia won't go down without a fight, and Munsch personally punches them several times in the face before they fall to the ground. Unable to defeat her, the 3 masked murderers finally give up and quickly flee the scene.

Back at Kappa house, Chanel conducts a meeting with the rest of The Chanels to see what evidence they discovered that proves Zayday and Grace are the killers. Hester says she went rummaging through Zayday's drawers and found that not only are both Zayday and Grace on the pill, but also their cycles are synced, just like their thirst for murder. She says that "those who pill together kill together" and Chanel gets annoyed that that's not even a saying. Next, Chanel #5 says she knows for a fact that Zayday is the murderer and plans on killing again because when you rearrange the letters in her name, it spells out "I MAY SLAY LIZ DAW". She says she has no clue who Liz Daw is, but clearly Zayday is contemplating slaying her. Chanel gets angry that all of the clues are terrible and says that in order to get anything done right, you have to pay someone a lot of money to do it, and that's just what she plans on doing. Chanel #3 says nothing. She also tells the other Chanels to put on some oat bags and poop green turds like the old sad hags like they are.

Shortly after, Denise is shown making mozzarella sticks in the Kappa house kitchen. Chanel #3 comes down the stairs and asks what she's doing. Denise says she's officially moved in to Kappa house, and a flashback shows her telling Munsch that she doesn't want to sleep in her car anymore when there's a perfectly good room in Kappa not being utilized just because Chanel #2 was murdered there and Denise doesn't want to take a hogbath with baby wipes; the dean just wants to shut her up, so she says it's perfectly fine that Denise moves in. Chanel #3 then says that she wants to offer the officer a ridiculous amount of money if she could prove that Zayday is the killer. She tells Denise to picture the largest number she can in her head, and Denise says $1 million. Chanel #3 questions why that's the largest number Denise could think of, and then Denise thinks up $3 million dollars, and Chanel #3 agrees to give her the amount.

Meanwhile, Grace is meeting with the dean again in her office. Cathy tells her that smugness gives you wrinkles, and Grace responds by saying that she isn't being smug, she's just being right. Since Cathy personally got attacked by the killers, she is now willing to give some information to Grace, just as Grace had predicted. Cathy tells Grace that she hypothetically would be an accessory to homicide if she did in fact witness the death at Kappa in 1995 and proceeded to cover it up. She says that even if she did think the murders were linked to what happened 20 years ago, she couldn't start offering up information to the authorities because she would risk implicating herself. She also says that she thought someone would just shoot the killer and it would all be over with, but now, since they are coming after her, and Wallace University would not survive without her, something needs to be done. She then hands Grace a file that contains the name of the girl who died in the tub, but she complains that it's not enough and she needs to know everything about what happened to the baby and all the other girls that were there. Munsch says she doesn't know because cover-ups only work if everyone has tiny bits of information. She says it's up to Grace to piece it all together. Grace then looks at the name of the bathtub baby's mother - Sophia Doyle. She immediately gets confused because she was convinced that she was the bathtub baby, but her mom's last name was Mulligan according to her dad. The dean tells Grace that the most thing appalling about her is that she acts like she's this hero who's trying to solve the murders and bring justice to campus, but really it's just about her finding out who her mother is. Grace gets angry and says she wants to solve the murders, but she also wants to know if she's the reason why they're happening. Cathy says the less we know about ourselves the better, and that rummaging around in our own life is like digging through a landfill. She tells Grace that she might find something interesting, but she's going to get filthy doing it. Grace quickly grabs her belongings and storms out of the dean's office once again.

Jennifer is then seen dumping shopping bags filled with candles onto her bed. She's yelling about how she's going to kill 'that dumb bitch' when Denise swings by and asks who she's talking about. Jennifer says the girl at Candle Junction doesn't understand the concept of a 22 for the price of 20 sale, so now her life is ruined. Denise says that's fascinating and quickly changes the subject by asking Jennifer about Zayday. Jennifer says Zayday is really nice and that there's no way she could be the killer. However, Jennifer did become suspicious when Zayday told her a story about how there was a group of rich girls at her high school called, 'The Peacocks,' who told her to dress up in her fanciest clothes and sit with them at lunch. The whole time they made fun of Zayday's outfit for being too cheap, and since that moment she vowed to get revenge on entitled rich girls everywhere. Jennifer then says that now that she thinks about it, Zayday could totally be a serial killer. Just then, Zayday walks out of the bathroom, and gets mad that Denise and Jennifer are making false assumptions about her, since she heard every single thing they said. She tells Jennifer that she might want to check the bathroom before she decides to tell personal stories about her suite-mate, and she tells Denise that she wishes she was a serial killer just so she could kill her first. She then warns both Denise and Jennifer to stay away from her.

That night, Jennifer is in her room making another candle vlog. She's talking about how sturdy the wick is on this particular candle when the the Red Devil opens the door, sneaking into her room. Suspecting that it's one of the other Kappa sisters, she yells, "Guys, I'm recording!" and continues to vlog, disregarding the interruption. She apologizes to her viewers and continues discussing the 5-star quality of the "Mrs. Claus" candle, not noticing the Red Devil approaching her from behind. Without warning, the Red Devil stabs her in the head, as her face collapses onto her laptop keyboard while the video is still recording.

Meanwhile, Denise calls a meeting with The Chanels and says that she has no evidence that Zayday is the killer, but what she does do is ask them if she could have a 10% advance on the $3 million she was offered. Chanel agrees and excuses herself to meet up with Chad Radwell for their "night of 1,000 compliments", where Chad sits across from Chanel (fully clothed) and consistently compliments her, and Chanel says it's a work in progress. Chanel starts heading downstairs and the other Chanels and Denise all follow. Chanel starts complaining of there being an awful burning smell. As they walk downstairs towards the dining room, they witness Jennifer's dead body sitting frozen stiff on the dinner table in a meditation pose. Her body is covered in melted wax, and she has a candle melting on her head. She's holding 2 burning candles and has multiple candles surrounding her. The girls scream in horror.

Now at The Grind, Grace Gardner meets up with Pete to do some investigating on Sophia Doyle. Pete tries to find information online, but he's not having much luck. Grace gets aggravated and says that she knows Sophia is her mom and that she's had a feeling that she was the bathtub baby ever since these murders started. She says she used to speak to her mom when she was little, and that she felt her presence. Grace says she was always a benevolent spirit, but there was some kind of sadness there that was keeping her from moving on, as if she had some unfinished business. That's why Grace came to Wallace University and joined Kappa Kappa Tau - because she wanted to finish what her mom started, and in order to do that, she has to find out who her mom is and stop the madness that is going on at Wallace. Pete suggests that since they can't directly find Sophia, they should look into the Hag of Shady Lane, since she's the one who took care of the baby before disappearing altogether. He thinks they should visit the only logical place where crazy people go - the insane asylum.

At the asylum, Pete and Grace approach the woman who "paints them all". They ask her if she remembers a girl from about 20 years ago who wailed a lot and maybe had a baby with her. The lady hands them 2 paintings - one of Gigi Caldwell, and the other of Gigi wearing a black cloak and holding 2 babies - a boy and a girl. Grace makes the connection that Gigi must be the Hag of Shady Lane and her and Pete run out of the asylum with the paintings.

Later, Dean Munsch makes an announcement to the press that after the continued murders at Wallace University, she will be shutting down the entire campus indefinitely. She says there will also be a candle lit vigil and moment of silence for Jennifer on the main quad under an oak tree. Chanel is outraged as she watches a live stream from her laptop inside KKT house. She's upset that Kappa is officially done and that they can't throw anymore awesome parties, which means she won't be popular and Chad will break up with her. She obviously can't let that happen, so she decides to enlist two Scotland Yard detectives to justify that Zayday and Grace are the killers. The Scotland Yard Detectives say that the only reason they came here was for information about the death threat on the Duchess of Cambridge. She says she wants Zayday and Grace locked up in prison, and she threatens to kill the Duchess of Cambridge if they don't make it happen.

Shortly after, Grace is seen storming into Gigi's kitchen as Gigi is getting ready to make enchiladas. Grace immediately calls Gigi out on being a liar, and Gigi has a confused look on her face. Grace says she wants to know the truth about everything and shows [Gigi the painting of her holding 2 babies from the asylum. Gigi agrees that the painting looks like her a little bit, and asks Grace if the painting is hinting at the fact that she wants Gigi and [Wes to have kids together. Grace states that the painting is from 20 years ago and was done by a woman at the Palmer Asylum for the insane who remembers Gigi being there with 2 babies. Gigi asks Grace if she's been smoking anything lately and makes a comment about how she wants some too. Grace says that she knows the picture isn't concrete proof of anything, which is why she went looking for more. She called the Kappa National Chapter and they emailed her a copy of Gigi's resume and application for the job as President. Grace says they must have not read it at all because it's filled with total fabrications. Gigi says that everyone exaggerates on their resume, so that's not proof of anything. Grace says it's funny how Gigi didn't list the one true thing she found out - that Gigi was once a student a Wallace, but dropped out after her sophomore year for "medical reasons". Grace says that coupled with the painting, this information proves that Gigi went nuts and had to be committed because she was somehow involved with the death of a fellow student. Gigi then gets an attitude and says that it's not convincing that Grace is accusing her of being a murderer just because she lied on her resume and 20 years ago a crazy person painted a picture of a girl that sorta looks like her. Grace says it will at least be enough to keep her away from Wes, and Gigi shuts her down by saying that she thinks her fiance trusts her. Grace seems confused, so Gigi shows her the engagement ring. Grace angrily demands that Gigi stays away from her dad, and Gigi responds "Or what..? You gonna kill me?" Grace is left speechless and storms out of the kitchen as Gigi finishes chopping up an onion for her enchiladas.

Back at Kappa house, Chanel is meeting with the Scotland Yard detectives to see what evidence they might have found. The detectives tell Chanel that one of her very housemates has contemplated killing her - Libby Putney, known as Chanel #5. She apparently hosts several chatrooms online with names such as "Does anyone want to help me poison Chanel Oberlin?" Chanel gets angry because she didn't ask for dirt on #5 - all she cares about is information on Zayday and Grace, but Chanel laughs at Chanel #5's real name. The detectives say they found nothing on Zayday or Grace, but they did find a criminal record for Grace's mother. They hand Chanel the file on Grace's mom, and Chanel gets excited as she thinks the file will prove that Grace is involved in the killings.

Grace then barges in on her dad just as he's finishing up a phone call with Gigi. Wes says that Gigi is worried about her, and Grace says that she's the one who's worried about him. She scolds him for getting engaged to Gigi without even telling her. Wes says he's still confused about what happened, since he never actually proposed to her. He says Gigi suggested she should go to the mall and buy a few things for their new house, and suddenly she came back with lamps and an engagement ring. She was so excited about the engagement that Wes didn't want to bum her out, so he just played along with it, hoping he would get some mind-blowing sex. Grace says that he can't actually marry Gigi because she's crazy, and Wes laughs it off and says that she's just quirky. Wes tells Grace that she's still his number 1 girl and promises he won't get serious with Gigi without talking to Grace about it first. Grace doesn't believe him, and Wes tells her it's been 16 years since he's last dated someone, so he finally deserves a little happiness too. Then, Grace realizes that Gigi must have known her mom from the bathtub incident, which means Wes must have known Gigi. Grace assumes her dad might have something to do with the murders, so she tells him to stay away from her as she runs out of the house.

Grace heads back to Kappa, where Chanel is waiting for her in the living room. After discovering Grace's mother's criminal record, Chanel states that this is evidence that proves Grace is just like her mother. She tells Grace to sit down so that they can discuss the manner in which Grace is going to turn herself over to the authorities. Chanel then begins to tell Grace that her mother was elected Kappa President in 1995 on a campaign platform that largely consisted of a pledge to make Waterfalls by TLC the official KKT house song. She reveals to Grace that her mom ended up hooking up with a "douchebag" the night of the Kappa party where Sophia died - a douchebag by the name of Wes. She got pregnant, and it is unknown whether it happened that night or a few nights after, but nine months later, Grace was born, which proves that she isn't the bathtub baby. Grace's mom then changed her name from Bethany Stevens to Mary Mulligan in an attempt to put the past behind her, but after she had Grace, it drove her off the deep end. She was arrested for shoplifting, petty larceny, grand larceny, drunk driving with a baby in her lap, drunk driving with a baby on top of her car, and possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. Obviously appalled, Wes then sued for custody of Grace and won. Mary died one year later after driving drunk and crashing into a tree, causing the car to burst into flames. Chanel then begins to insult Grace's mother to the point that Grace slaps Chanel and storms out.

Later, Denise is shown wearing #5's clothes while she makes an announcement to The Chanels that she's going to be the new mother of Kappa house. Chanel then walks in and tells Denise that she's the one who calls the shots, since she's the president. Denise gets defensive and tells Chanel that she's in charge now and ushers Chanel out of the meeting to have a talk in the bathroom. Denise tells Chanel that she heard about the mean things she said to Grace about her mom, and she demands that Chanel apologizes to Grace. Chanel says that everything she told Grace were facts, so she doesn't need to apologize. Denise then decides to threaten Chanel that she'll take her man, Chad, if she doesn't apologize, so Chanel angrily agrees and storms out of the bathroom.

Grace is then seen in her bedroom as she opens up a box that contains a picture of her mom. She takes the picture to her dad, and he confirms that it is in fact her mom in the picture. Wes also confirms that everything Chanel told Grace about her mom was true - about how she was a criminal, and how he had to sue her to get Grace away from her. He said he was going to tell her the truth eventually, but she just got so attached to the fake story that he didn't want to upset her. He admits that he is the one responsible for burning their family's house down to cover up any evidence that Grace might have found. He says he cares about her so much that he committed arson to protect her, and that he didn't want her joining the sorority that brought out the worst in her mother. He apologizes to Grace for lying, but tells her that he worked his ass off to try to give her a wonderful life and because of that, he got to decide what was best for her, which included making up a fake story about her mom. Grace gets mad that both her parents were there the night of Sophia's death, and her dad knew that people were getting killed, but he never told her. Wes says once again that he was only trying to protect her, and Grace says that he can't protect her from who she really is, the daughter of a criminal. As she walks out, she warns Wes to stay as far away from her as he can if he wants to protect himself. Gigi then walks in and asks Wes if everything is okay. She says she saw Grace running out and that she looked really crazy. Wes says that Grace is just upset, and Gigi tells him that Grace has been slowly falling apart ever since she got to Wallace. She says she thinks Grace has a superwoman complex and her inability to keep her friends from being murdered is driving her insane. Gigi says she asked Cathy to pull Grace's file, and she tells Wes that Grace has a 1.4 GPA. Since Grace is failing out of school, Gigi suggests Wes take some serious action, such as committing her to an asylum, and tells him that he will be failing her as a father if he doesn't do something. Wes then gives a smirk as if he's pondering the decision.

Shortly after, Grace meets up with Chanel at The Grind. Chanel brings over 2 coffees, but Grace switches the two cups, suspecting Chanel did something to her drink. Chanel tells her that she came to apologize and says that all the horrible things she said about Grace's mom were mean, even by her standards. She admits to Grace that she has an awful mother too, who's even worse than Grace's mom. She disowned Chanel's older brother because he was born with cradle cap (crusting on a babies scalp), she shamed Chanel's sister for joining the Peace Corps, and she wouldn't let Chanel go to her high school graduation because she had a bad zit and didn't want her deformity to embarrass the family. Chanel says that everyone has mommy issues and admits that she joined a sorority to make up for the lack of attachment to her mother. She says Kappa is like the mom they never had, and Grace gets mad that Chanel doesn't treat it that way, as she's continuing the same bitchy legacy that Kappa has had for years. Chanel says that she's a work in progress and that maybe her and Grace were brought into each other's lives to deal with their mom issues and help each other become better people. Chanel says that Grace's life is way better off now that Chanel told her the truth about her mom, but Grace says that Chanel's intention wasn't to make her life better, it was to destroy her. Chanel says she's truly sorry, and Grace thanks her. As Grace walks away with her coffee, Chanel admits to spitting in it, so Grace sets the coffee cup on the counter and leaves the coffee shop.

The episode closes with Boone working out in a local gym while wearing a fake beard. Many people fall for his disguise and think that he's Joaquin Phoenix. Some people crowd up to him and take pictures of him and ask for his autograph, when suddenly his phone rings. He answers it, and tells the person on the other line that he can't live like this anymore. He says all he does is work out and kill people, and that he's at the gym right now. He also says that Gigi is the one that got them into this, and now she's blowing their brand after showing up to Cathy's house in a Justice Scalia costume that she found in the discount bin at the Halloween store. He then says Gigi must be eradicated, since she's the weakest link amongst them. He demands, "We take her out, and then we finish what we set out to do" then hangs up the phone.

Deaths[]

Main articles: Season One/Death Chart and List of deaths

Character Cause of Death
Jennifer Stabbed in the head and made into a candle by the Red Devil.
Bethany Commits suicide by crashing her car into a tree. (revealed in this episode)

This chart is for characters that survived or have an unknown status after an attempt of murder by the Red Devil.
Character Situation
Cathy Fights off two Red Devils and a judge costumed up killer and wins.

Guest Cast[]

Special Guest Stars[]

Guest Stars[]

Co-Stars[]

Absent Cast Members[]

Reception[]

Poll[]


Trivia[]

  • The scene in which the Red Devil's attempts to murder Dean Munsch in the shower is a nod towards the actress Jamie Lee Curtis's mother, Janet Leigh, who performs the original scene in the 1960's horror film, Psycho.
  • During the scene when Grace slaps Chanel, a reference is made to the 1980's film of the same title, Mommie Dearest, when Christina slaps her mother, Joan.

  • There is a flashback to a scene which took place during Chainsaw, when Jennifer tells Denise Hemphill how Zayday wanted to get revenge on popular girls after being humiliated by a group at her school called 'The Peacocks'.

  • Multimedia[]

    Soundtrack[]

    Youtube-16.png "Eternal Flame" – The Bangles
    Youtube-16.png "Waterfalls" – TLC

    Images[]

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    Credit to; screencapped.net

    Videos[]