The Red Devil is no match for a pair of intrepid pop stars. Entertainment Weekly revealed Ariana Grande and Nick Jonas will return to Scream Queens later this season. Grande's Chanel No. 2 appeared to be knifed in the back by the masked killer after a hilarious text-off in the premiere, while Jonas' Boone was left for fake dead before it was revealed that he was working with the Devil him(or her)self. There was no way creator Ryan Murphy would let that be the last viewers saw of Boone. The cliffhanger was way too good for his story to end there for Jonas, but Grande's fate is a little more uncertain: Chanel No. 2 was dropped off in the meat locker her fate seemed to be sealed. However, Murphy told EW Grande would definitely be back with her next appearance set for Episode 6. How is Scream Queens going to pull off Chanel No. 2's return? And how does Boone know the Red Devil?
For a show that just started, Scream Queens is already generating a boatload of questions. These returns are only adding to the mystery. Murphy did tell EW that Grande would not be a ghost. "Nothing you think is happening is happening on the show," Murphy told EW. "You think some people are dead — they’re not dead."
Does that mean Chanel No. 2 is in on the murders too? That can't be right since she fought off the Red Devil, but maybe when her body was removed from the meat locker whoever moved her realized she wasn't dead. After all, someone did move Ms. Bean, so maybe they moved Chanel No. 2 as well. It was easy to assume the Red Devil was the one who took the body of Ms. Bean, but it could have been anyone, including Jamie Lee Curtis' Dean Munsch. She did help keep the whole dead sorority sister in the bathtub thing covered up.
Another option is the tried and true flashback return. There has to be a reason the sorority is being targeted beyond the fact that the sisters are a pretty cruel group of individuals. I would not be at all surprised to see more peeks into the past as the series goes along and Chanel No. 2 is one of Chanel's key minions. Murphy insists Chanel No. 2 is "recurring," but there is no reason she can't be recurring... in flashbacks.
If she did somehow escape death and is currently off being nursed back to health she will have a major story to tell when she returns. Given what the Chanels' life goals look like, I imagine her near brush with death would be used to strategically up her popularity. I would say her Kappa Kappa Tau sisters would be proud, but I know they wouldn't be.
Then there is the curious case of Boone to consider. There was no doubt that he would be back after that killer (pun intended) reveal. He is working with whoever is behind that mask and his "death" has moved him into a spy-like position. There is a lot of speculation about which character is the college-aged version of the bathtub baby, and I think there is a very real chance that Boone is that baby all grown up. Jonas may have dropped a major hint to EW when he said, "I can tell you that he is a part of the team of people involved in this master revenge plan. His history with it goes very, very deep."
I am 75 percent sure that means Boone's mom died in that bathtub. If she did, then that answers the question as to why Boone is working with the Red Devil, but it also raises a new question: why is there a "team" of people working against the Kappa Kappa Tau sorority? Would Boone really have been cool with assisting with a plan that involved mowing down Deaf Taylor Swift? Of all the deaths, hers was the most brutal and she wasn't even a sister yet.
There is still plenty of time for Scream Queens to answer all of these lingering questions. For now, I'm just glad to know Grande and Jonas will be returning for more screams. It seems Chanel No. 2 and Boone still have some work to do and I can't wait to see what that entails.
Images: Steve Dietl/FOX; Giphy (3)
