The 'Scream' Killer Is Revealed

And the big moment has arrived. After weeks of physical and psychological torture on MTV's Scream, Emma finally discovered the question we've all been wondering and theorizing about since day one: The Lakewood killer is Piper Shaw, aka the TV version of Gale Weathers. It's been a long road filled with lots of pointing fingers on the show and in real life. I for one can absolutely be blamed for thinking everyone from Kieran, Sheriff Hudson, Branson, Noah, Audrey, Jake and Will were killing people in Lakewood. But I've got to say that for the last few episodes of Season 1, Piper was looking more and more like the killer every minute. So what evidence pointed toward the podcaster's murderous identity?

We find out quite a bit about who Piper really is in the Season 1 finale's climactic moment. She is in fact Brandon James and Maggie Duval's daughter, the same daughter that Maggie agreed to give up in a closed adoption which meant that she didn't even know the sex of her own baby. Piper was bitter and angry and probably driven mad by the fact that she was "tossed" out and her father died, and yet her mother and half sister lived their perfect little life. Her reasoning behind the murders was purely revenge, but considering that Audrey seems to also be involved in the murders in some way. Perhaps Season 2, which will premiere in 2016, will tells us more? But for now it's all about breaking down the hints that Piper was the killer all along.

The biggest clue that started most of the guessing was in Episode 5 "Exposed" when Piper revealed that her father was murdered and the cops could never caught the person who killed him. Now, for some people this may have just been a quick throw away line to help Piper bond better with Emma. But it was hard not to dwell on that line. Now we know that the police are the ones who shot Brandon James on the dock when he went to meet Maggie after his supposed murder rampage. But as we heard from Piper in the Season finale, she clearly blames Daisy for Brandon's murder. Perhaps she really did believe it when she told Emma that they never caught her father's killer, because in her mind Daisy killed her father. Plus it just seemed so convenient that Piper would have a troubled history involving her father, much like Emma.

But that wasn't the only clue to lead people to Piper's name as a suspect. For one, whenever something major was going on, Piper seemed to be suspiciously absent from the dangerous action. She was mysteriously missing from most of the episodes where the gang explored the abandoned hospital and bowling alley where Brandon James used to work. Plus she was around quite often when Emma was experiencing some kind of traumatic moment, like the video of her losing her virginity going viral. She also seemed to have more information that anyone else in town regarding the case, the most obvious of this was when she was able to find Brandon James' mother over the cops, Noah and anyone else. (Does anyone else believe that she either made her grandmother lie for her or she just hired someone to play Brandon's mother?)

Plus in that penultimate episode, Piper not only explained that she found Brandon's mother through her social security number (seriously, no one else would have done this?), she also stated that when she went back to talk to Brandon's mother and saw that she pointed to Kieran's photo in the yearbook, Piper was very clearly bluffing for one major reason: Kieran was a new student this year, how could he be in the yearbook already? He wouldn't be in it, which means Piper couldn't have pointed him out and gotten the answer that Emma dreaded. And let's not forget one important detail: Piper is the one who told Emma that Audrey had a way of manipulating Rachel, putting some of the suspicion on Audrey, which later made Emma worry she was capable of murder, especially after seeing the tape of her threatening Nina. How did Piper find out this information about Audrey, but not Noah or Emma herself or even the cops? With Audrey and Piper seemingly working together, it would make sense for Piper to know about Audrey's dark side.

It was just a lot of little details that pointed toward Piper's secret killer identity. But while we now know who was doing the majority of the killing, there are still so many answers we still need. How did Piper begin this quest for revenge? When did she discover her identity as Brandon James' daughter? Did Audrey help her with all this? Who killed all of the victims? And did Brandon James really commit all the murders from the past? Season 2 needs to hurry up and get here already because there is still too much mystery in Lakewood!

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