Scream Queens recap: Season 2, Episode 7

“Won’t this get a little bit confusing?” This week, Dr. Hawful’s lingering question is still doing just that — lingering. Last week, the reveal of Cascade and Hawful as two of the three killers was a showstopping moment, but it’s beginning to get a tad too confusing keeping up with who’s doing what. Now, Holt’s serial-killer past is catching up with him, too, which means this entire staff is now under the potential attack of four killers. Can we get a break?

While not quite a killer himself, Dr. Holt does have that pesky problem of an evil hand. Remember how one of the surgeon’s hands used to belong to a serial killer? Well, that terrifying limb decides it’s time to really take over its host. As Holt becomes increasingly stressed, the hand gains more control over his arm; when Holt even attempts to gain some comfort, the hand knows how to ruin it all. Slapping him in the middle of the night, giving him a wedgie while doing yoga, and throwing salt into dinners are just a few of the ways the reincarnated killer hand is ruining Holt’s life. If that wasn’t enough, Munsch has decided to put Holt in the spotlight for a dangerous surgery. Duct-taping his arm to his side won’t work on a surgery, that’s for sure.

Let’s move on to the full-blown serial killer, Dr. Cascade. Even though we know his true identity, there’s still an air of mystery around the young doctor. For one, why does he still believe he’s dead? Thankfully, #3 isn’t going to sit around wondering, and instead decides to take a psychiatric approach to the issue. What better way to figure out if his condition is mental than a good old personality test? Pulling from the most professional sources, including Cosmopolitan, #3 drills into Cascade’s mind to see if he really is making up his “dead” condition. It turns out he’s mistaken and is, in fact, alive and well. What she fails to reveal to him, though, is she now knows he’s a psychopath, immediately giving her the nagging feeling that Cascade is the Green Meanie.

For some reason #3 reveals this news to #5 — who doesn’t take it so well — but is that really so shocking, seeing how the Meanie has tried to kill her twice? To make matters worse, #5 subtly conveys this to Chanel, and now there seems to be no hope for Cascade to get away with his deeds. There has to be more to Cascade than his literal killer instincts, and #3 sees the sweet man underneath.

Let’s make this even more complicated, shall we? Hawful, being her awful self, decides that instead of putting on the Green Meanie costume herself, she’ll have Cascade take out her next targets for her. Of course, the no. 1 victim on her list is none other than Chanel, whom Cascade doesn’t seem too pleased to have to kill (but he doesn’t really show any signs of being against the idea, either). However, Hawful also wants #3 killed, and this puts Cascade in a position to staunchly defend the woman he loves. Sure, he needs to kill people to feel normal, but Hawful is exploiting that and choosing the only person he truly cares about as the next punching bag.

Before any actual killing can occur, #3 confesses her love for Cascade, and even admits she knows he’s the real killer. Cascade doesn’t seem too shocked to hear this, and he, too, professes his love for the Chanel clone. He knows he has to at least kill the leader of the Chanel gang, but #3 thinks if she can divert Cascade’s attention, he’ll lose the desire to kill altogether. I’m sure Hawful will be okay with this… Not.

NEXT: The Green Meanie takes its next victim

As if on cue with all the murder talk, Chanel #10 gets the latest deadly greeting from the Green Meanie, who decides to strangle her to death. While this was most likely not the handiwork of Cascade, it remains to be seen if Hawful or the unidentified third killer is responsible for the latest bloodletting. The murder isn’t completely a waste, though, as #10’s heart was still viable to use for the surgery Holt has been forced into performing. Covered in blood and still afraid of his own killer hand, Holt reluctantly agrees to take on the surgery with one arm tied behind his back.

Munsch uses this strange tactic to her advantage when an interested member of the press decides to watch the surgery. “He’s just that good,” explains Munsch to the reporter while Cascade drills through limbs and bone. Everything seems to be going smoothly — to the shock of everyone in the room — until Holt gets to the actual heart transfer. Knowing he only has minutes to attach the fresh heart, the pressure overcomes the doctor, who ends up asking Cascade to finish the job. Acting as a pure angel and muse, Chanel steps up to Holt in her pink scrubs to inspire him to not give up. She knows if she can find something to calm him down, the surgery can be a record-breaking success. Out of nowhere, Holt says his au pair used to sing “99 Red Balloons” to help him fall asleep, so Chanel, #3, and #5 perform a rousing rendition of the German hit. This gives Holt the courage he needs to finish the heart replacement with gusto!

Feeling the love grow stronger in his heart, Cascade even tacks on one more good deed for the day. Holt’s serial killer-hand may have been polite during the epic surgery, but who knows when it might want to snap a neck or stab another person? Cascade saves the extra hand from the day’s surgery to replace Holt’s erroneous one, a gift Holt never saw coming from his colleague.

In the end, we get a lovely shot of Holt and Chanel, finally snuggled up together in bed. The fresh bandage from the hand surgery is the main image we focus on, so when it hops up on all five fingers, it’s hard to miss. The hand scurries over to the bedside table to grab a pen and paper. Allowing us to delve deeper into the hand’s previous owner, written on the paper is “KILL CHANEL,” placing Holt back into the same spot he was before. Will the good doctor ever catch a break? Perhaps he just doesn’t want to — or, maybe, Cascade had this planned from the beginning. Only next week’s episode and some more witty murder banter will reveal the truth.