‘Scream’ TV Series Season 2 Spoilers: What Happened In Episode 4? The Brandon James Killer Makes Himself Known [RECAP]

No Lakewood party is complete without a psychotic killer on the loose. The unsuspecting teens on MTV’s “Scream” threw a surprise party for Kieran in episode 4, but ended up getting a surprise of their own when the new Brandon James killer sent them a spiked bottle of tequila.

The latest episode, titled “Happy Birthday To Me,” kicks off with Audrey (Bex-Taylor Klaus) burying the bloody corkscrew that the killer planted in her car. But getting rid of a murder weapon is not that easy. Audrey wakes up in the morning after getting poked with something sharp — the corkscrew.

“Nice try, partner, but I know you better than you think,” a new message from the killer reads.

Her mysterious stalker dug up the buried weapon and broke into her bedroom while she slept. But Audrey’s not the only one losing sleep over the Brandon James killer. Emma (Willa Fitzgerald) has a nightmare in which the masked murderer comes up behind Kieran (Amadeus Serafini) and stabs him in the back. The teen is worried that she’s still being haunted by the past. What she doesn’t know is that the threat is very real.

Despite the bad dream, Emma is ready to spend the day with Kieran. It’s her boyfriend’s birthday and she has a low-key evening for just the two of them planned. That’s Kieran’s idea of a perfect birthday celebration, but his cousin, Eli (Sean Grandillo), wants to throw a huge party. Kieran warns him not to ruin things for him, but Eli has his own agenda. He tricks Emma into thinking that Kieran really wants a big surprise party. Wanting to keep her boyfriend happy, Emma agrees to invite some classmates over since her mom is going to be out for the night.

As Emma plots Kieran’s birthday extravaganza, the Brandon James killer continues to send Audrey taunting text messages.

“Isn’t it fun to be screwed with?” a new message reads.

Audrey grows suspicious of Stavos (Santiago Segura), who has a history of watching her and seems to have an obsession with the Lakewood Six. She pulls the fire alarm so she can sneak into the classroom and see what’s on his laptop — and she doesn’t like what she finds. He’s got chilling drawings of the Lakewood Six, including one of Emma with a knife through her skull.

Elsewhere, Mayor Maddox (Bryan Batt) is growing suspicious of Jake (Tom Maden). It’s still not clear why he’s been communicating with Brooke’s (Carlson Young) estranged boyfriend, but he thinks that Jake is “avoiding” him. He goes to Sheriff Acosta (Anthony Ruivivar) and asks for his help in tracking Jake down. Acosta fires back that the police station is not a dating service, but Maddox puts him in his place. He reveals that he hired him to come back to Lakewood and play “savior.” That’s enough for Acosta to agree to look into Jake. After learning that he’s been calling out of school sick, the sheriff pays a visit to his house. No one answers the door.

Back at school, Noah (John Karna) tries to invite Zoe ( Kiana Ledé ) to Kieran’s surprise party, but isn’t actually able to ask her out. Fortunately Brooke was eavesdropping, and tells Zoe that Noah will pick her up later that night. Meanwhile, Eli picks up Emma to help her set up for the shindig. But Eli’s not just being generous with his time. As the two hang a banner, he “accidentally” falls and grabs onto Emma. The two appear as if they’re about to kiss when Brooke walks in with an expensive bottle of tequila.

The bottle comes with a note from Jake, which says that shots are on him. Unaware that their friend is actually dead, the teens all take a shot of the expensive bottle when Kieran walks through the door. Audrey’s the only one that knows that the bottle is from a serial killer — but she can’t say anything.

Things quickly go downhill at the party. Emma realizes that Eli tricked her into thinking that Kieran wanted a huge party, and the two confront him about his mind games. However, they have other things to worry about, because people start getting sick from the tequila. Audrey wants to get everyone to the hospital, thinking that they’ve been poisoned. Stavos chimes in that he thinks Jake dosed them with ayahuasca, an ancient brew that makes the drinker begin to hallucinate. He warns them that if affects everyone differently … it just depends on what’s “buried inside you.”

Brooke begins to trip and collapses into Stavos’ arms. He brings her to a bed where he promises to help her. She runs away though after hallucinating Jake.

Emma helps Kieran get into bed, and he passes out — but not before confessing that his cousin killed a dog when he was younger. Emma barely has time to mull that over when she begins to trip. She hallucinates a young girl and follows her out of the house and into the woods.

Audrey’s not doing any better. She has a vision of her dead ex-girlfriend, whom Piper (Amelia Rose Blaire) killed in Season 1. She apologizes to her and gives her a kiss before waking and realizing that she’s actually kissing Noah. The two best friends are confused, but Zoe chimes in and tells them that their energy is “glowing.” She gets in on the action, kissing Noah before pulling Audrey back into the mix.

As chaos ensues inside, Emma finds herself staring down someone in the Brandon James mask in the woods. She tries telling herself that the killer isn’t real, and closes her eyes when the person runs at her. When she opens her eyes she finds that the killer is gone … but then he jumps out from behind her. Emma runs, and fortunately finds herself in front of her father. While she’s surprised to see him outside of her house, his presence scared away the killer.

The cops arrive at Emma’s house to interview the teens about what happened. Sheriff Acosta is surprised to hear that Jake sent the bottle of tequila, but doesn’t believe Emma when she tells him about the person wearing the Brandon James mask. Since no one else saw the killer, the sheriff thinks that she was hallucinating. Emma’s disappointed, but Audrey sticks up for her, telling Acosta that he should be investigating his son, who enjoys drawing pictures of Emma covered in blood.

Maggie (Tracy Middendorf) returns home and is happy that Emma is OK, but not ecstatic to see her ex-husband. She warned him to stay away from Emma, but he tells her that he returned to say goodbye. Handing Emma an old photo of them together, he explains that he’s going away to get help. Meanwhile, Acosta approaches Stavos about the accusations from his classmates. Stavos immediately goes on the defense, but his dad tells him that he trusts him. Stavos leaves the room, giving his dad a chance to sneakily go through his things. As he investigates he gets a phone call from Jake’s parents. When he finds a Brandon James mask on his son’s desk, he warns the parents that they may want to cut their vacation short, because it appears their son is missing.

The episode ends with some serious fallout from the party. Emma sits down with Kieran for a heartbreaking conversation about her potentially returning home too soon after the murders. Just like the sheriff, Kieran doesn’t believe that Emma really saw the killer. What the two don’t know is that Eli is eavesdropping on their conversation. Later he confronts Emma and tells him that he believes her, but that’s not what Emma wants to here.

Noah’s not doing any better than Eli. Both Audrey and Zoe blow him off after their awkward kiss the night before. But it’s Brooke who suffers the worst. After thanking Stavos for helping her get through the bad trip, Brooke gets on stage to accept her position as one of the finalists in the Lakewood pageant. A banner is lowered, pouring blood all over Brooke and dropping the decaying corpse of her ex-boyfriend, Jake.