The Dance: Scream Episode 9 Recap & Review

In the opening sequence of The Dance, we see an older surveillance video of an unknown assailant breaking into the records department of the police station. The mysterious culprit rifles through a box of old files containing the Brandon James investigation information– when they find what they’re looking for, the infamous mask, the killer tries it on and creepingly stares up to the camera.

Mr. Branson is now in custody for the murders of the teens of Lakewood High, and is still being questioned by authorities. Emma feels if she meets with Mr. Branson, and he has a reaction to her presence that he must indeed be the killer. Emma sits down in the interrogation room with Mr. Branson, and he smiles and says “Hello, Emma” in a rather bone-chilling voice.

Emma tries asking Mr. Branson several questions in hopes he will admit to something, but really gets nowhere. Emma also tries to make Mr. Branson to confess to being Brandon James’ son, but ultimately fails when he tells her he has no idea what she is talking about.

Emma presents her theory that Mr. Branson may be her brother to Audrey and Noah, and Noah seems convinced that Mr. Branson has to be the killer with the very plausible evidence he discovered in the previous episode. Noah also unveils a new theory on Mr. Branson’s chosen fake-name: Bran-son, short for Branson’s Son.

Kieran visits Emma at her house and the two rekindle their relationship by agreeing to go to the local Halloween dance together. Emma goes to work and Piper shows up informing her that she found Brandon’s mother and met with her. Emma, desperate to find out the truth and get the the bottom of the Branson-mystery, agrees to go with Piper to meet with Mrs. James again.

Brooke packs her things to go stay with Jake while her father, the Mayor remains in jail. Things seem to be going well at first with Jake, until when she is about to take a shower she notices her webcam rolling. Unsure of what to do, and with her suspicions Jake may be behind the recording, she decides to head back home.

When Emma and Piper meet with Mrs. James, we find out she a very elderly lady whom had Brandon when she was nearly fifty-years old. Mrs. James seems a tad cenile and not all with it but Emma tries her best to find more information on her families troubled past. Right when Emma and Piper are about to leave, Mrs. James informs the girls that Brandon’s son recently came to visit her but she could not recall his name. Emma suggests Seth and Mrs. Branson says yes, that was his name.

Emma finally feels some relief in knowing Mr. Branson is her mother’s son that was given up for adoption and hopes it’s enough to keep him behind bars. Giddy for the dance, Emma feels herself finally getting back to normal.

Audrey desperately tries to find a link to tie Mr. Branson to Rachel and a possible motive for him to have killed her. Audrey decides to go through all of Rachel’s video footage in hopes to find some sort of clue. When Audrey is about to give up, she stumbles across a video of Kieran and Nina at a bar and what looks like the two leaving together. Audrey finds the video to be perfect evidence of why Kieran would want to hurt Rachel instead of Mr. Branson.

Brooke calls Emma and tells her instead of going to the Halloween dance, she is going to throw a massive booze-filled Halloween party at her house. Emma agrees to go after the dance with Kieran, excited for a fun night out.

Sheriff Hudson travels near the lake to try to discover some evidence to link the calls Emma received to Mr. Branson, since the calls were pinged close to the lake. When a house peeks the sheriff’s interest, he heads inside to find an open laptop with surveillance footage of both the high school and police station. Suddenly, the sheriff hears a noise coming from the back of the house and the killer appears, striking him over the head with what looked like a fireplace poker.

Kieran texts Emma telling her he would meet her at the dance instead of pick her up since he has something “he has to do.” (’cause that’s not suspicious?) Emma shows up at the dance and meets up with Audrey. Audrey decides to tell her about the video she found of Kieran and Nina and even shows it to her. Emma, not wanting to come down from her high horse, defends Kieran and tries her best to brush it off.

While Kieran and Emma are dancing, Emma brings up the video and Kieran admits to seeing Nina at the bar when he first moved to Lakewood and giving her a ride home since she was pretty drunk. Kieran said Nina used a fake name and that nothing happened, despite it being the night before Nina’s murder. Emma tries her best to believe Kieran’s story and Kieran becomes offended that she won’t accept his answer. Kieran storms off leaving a distraught Emma alone at the dance.

Piper makes an appearance at the dance to tell Emma that she returned to Mrs. James’ house to show her yearbook photos of Mr. Branson to confirm that it was him that visited her. Mrs. James says the man who visited her was not Mr. Branson and ultimately points out Kieran in the pictures as being the one who came to see her. (Ah ha! I knew it!)

Out of nowhere, the lights at the dance shut off and a projector flicks on showing a tied up Sheriff Hudson, bleeding and duct-taped. We are then shown a blood-filled jail cell and a dispatcher announcing that Mr. Branson was on the loose.

Well, next week’s the finale and I really hope we do find out who’s behind everything. The writers obviously want to make Kieran look suspicious but is he really the killer? Would it be that easy to find out? Will Brooke’s Halloween after-party be one giant blood bath? I guess we will need to wait and see.

I’m just not convinced Kieran’s the killer or at least, the only killer. However, I am not sure who else to point my finger at. Overall, I did enjoy this episode even if it wasn’t scary or had any kills, it was still an interesting and entertaining watch.