Scream Queens recap: Season 2, Episode 5

The unimaginable fear has come true: Det. Denise Hemphill has died. The rest of this recap should be dedicated to the hilarious rise and fall of a security-guard-turned-FBI-pro. However, like a double-edged sword, other stuff happened that we simply cannot overlook. Taking Hemphill’s knack for sleuthing in stride, we must push forward and complete our mission the uncover the Green Devil.

Apart from the downright heartbreak over Hemphill, Chanel #5 sustains her machete wound, forcing her to hole up in the ICU to properly assess the internal damage. Of course, she’s later moved to the Chanels’ apartment so Chanel can use her for a punching bag in the midst of so much horrifying turmoil. The other not-so-lucky Halloween partygoers are taken out Hannibal-Lecter style, strewn up on the ceiling like decorations. Dean Munsch is concerned over the fresh and high body count, but in her own crazy way, her greater concern is the fate of the hospital. Her luck isn’t completely gone, though, as she learns the press has driven every individual suffering from a strange disease to the C.U.R.E. Institute. Just like that, the medical business has turned around and is busier than ever.

With such an illustrious reputation as its new label, the hospital, led by Munsch, has to dial back on who’s allowed to perform medical procedures — which means Chanel and her followers are no longer fit to do anything more than clean bed pans. Dr. Hawful loves this new role for the girls and gives them some additional and colorful tasks to do, including extracting sperm from a comatose man to prove he’s the biological father of a child. This annoys Chanel to no end, much like every other form of manual labor, but her greatest fear now is making sure more Chanels don’t die. Her plan to combat this is to recruit more followers, and she pulls them directly from the remaining hospital patients.

A United Nations representative is one of the most recent patients, and her afflictions are far from normal. Every new sentence is delivered in a different, yet spot-on accent by the UN employee — which isn’t exactly a terrible skill to have in her line of work, but does come with problems. Unbeknownst to Dr. Holt, Dr. Cascade, and Chanel #3, they’re all subtly taking on the same traits. Holt, being the handsome genius he is, concludes this phenomenon must be called “Madonna Syndrome,” due to the singer’s similar issue.

NEXT: Zayday’s one step closer to finding the killer

While this becomes a distraction for the Chanel gang, Zayday makes it her mission to learn more about the baby boy who could be tied to the current murders. For a brief recap, a patient had a baby on the night of the ‘80s hospital killings, which screams “possible connection” in horror-genre rules, so Zayday is taking every precaution to get her man (or boy). Munsch points out that Chamberlain, the mysterious but extremely friendly candy striper, wasn’t actually hired by her and is actually just a random gentleman who decided to work on the crew. This prompts Zayday to contact the living mother of the baby to finally learn the identity of said child.

Zayday and Chanel #5 meet with the woman, who tells them she doesn’t know of any child. But before they leave her home, Zayday spots a photo of the woman and her husband at the time. Because the man in the photo is black, Zayday has further proof Chamberlain could, sadly, be a new suspect.

While the real problem is being solved, the Chanels are, of course, still concerned about their own fur-adorned skins. However, Chanel overlooks one crucial member who could possibly provide a strange level of protection: Hester tries to join the ranks. In her own freaky way, Hester knows how to navigate the mind of a serial killer, but it’s not impossible for us to see she has more nefarious plans than getting back in good with her old Kappa girls. To commemorate their new team of loyal followers, the Chanel gang holds a slumber party at the hospital — which at first sounds like a terrible idea with a killer running around and all, but that’s exactly why they chose the sterile environment.

During their makeover sessions, Chanel sends the newest Chanel recruit, a woman who can’t move any muscle in her face, to the dark depths of the hospital to look for a surprise gift. All of this is a ploy to get her alone and offer her up as a lamb to the slaughter, but Tristan works through his jealousy from not being given a surprise gift by following the new recruit and sending her packing. Unfortunately for every party involved, Tristan gets the slice, literally, as he’s cut in two by the Green Devil.

With more murders and no suspect in sight, Munsch is losing all patience, especially with those around her who don’t follow orders. Munsch attempts to get rid of Hawful once and for all, but it seems she’s underestimated her esteemed colleague. Hawful warns that upon her expulsion, she will reveal Munsch’s fatal illness to the press, further proving Munsch isn’t fit to run the hospital on her own. If that blackmail wasn’t enough, Hawful goes as far as to threaten the former dean’s life. Hawful now has Munsch on her out list, but it appears she still wants the Chanels gone all together. However, Munsch is still proud of the off-the-wall work the girls do. She even congratulates them on hiring new Chanel members to act as shields, and offers new additions to the crew to up the body count. Before we can even be properly introduced to any of them, the Green Devil attacks the new girls, picking the girl with 11 fingers as his newest victim.

On a final cliffhanger, we cut back to the mother of the hospital baby whom Zayday met with previously — this time, we get the real identity of the ‘80s baby boy. It’s none other than Dr. Cascade, resident health practitioner and lover of Chanel #3. This might not mean Cascade is the Green Devil, but it makes him a strong suspect at the very least. Knowing Zayday, the true identity of the baby will quickly be revealed to her…and acting as a spiritual successor to Hemphill, she’ll bring the hammer straight down on this justice.