It’s official, I am never going to visit an island.

That being said the Lakewood 5 plus Stavo did during Scream’s 2-hour Halloween special and found out something gruesome – no matter what, they’ll never be able to escape the murders. But while it may have been another nightmare for them, it was a guilt-free treat for us. Especially because 10 minutes into the episode, we KNEW who the killer was.

It was the poor man’s Kieran. The reason they keep getting into these “unwelcome” situations is part Emma’s fault. She keeps falling in love with dudes who seriously scream “KILLER.” Case and point – Alex Whitten aka the poor man’s Kieran. Alex is the good looking dude, with blonde slicked back hair, a leather jacket and a free attitude… all clear hints at Kieran. We all knew it, Emma didn’t. This girl really needs a radar.

Emma isn’t completely at fault though. Because of everything that’s happened, these 6 teens are a target for a bunch of psychos… not only did they survive one killer in Lakewood, they survived TWO. And 3 if you count whoever murdered Kieran at the courthouse. So knowing that they literally can’t catch a break, why did they go to an island dubbed murder island? Bad judgement on their part and the perfect opportunity for whoever wants to take a stab at well, stabbing them.

The one good thing that came from the murders? Noah is a best selling author for his book based on all the killings in his hometown. His publisher, Jeremy, insists he break that “writers block” and offers to take them on a trip to get inspiration from another chilling murder story – Anne Hobbs, who as legend has it, killed her whole family in a fit of rage while wearing a bag over her head. Dramatic.

Noah is hesitant but with Kieran’s death looming over the city, Emma is dying for an escape. No pun intended. I guess it can’t be easy to be in a murder town for Halloween as the girlfriend of the crazed killer. Emma’s got a pretty bad rep for herself.

So off to murder island they go. That’s not really what it’s called but it might as well be. Everyone is having a good old time until they aren’t able to locate Jeremy, the prankster who thought it was funny to wear a Hobbs mask and scare a bunch of survivors. He had it coming honestly.

Shortly after, Billie, who lives in the caretaker’s house, is found dead, in the same way Hobbs’ victims were. Then Emma gets a call from the “Scream” voice who promises she’ll never get rid of him. Here we go again.

And so we’re 100% cliche, a huge storm is headed their way and everyone’s a little freaked out by the whole “murder” situation repeating itself for the umteenth time. Gina arrives right smack in the middle to surprise her GF Audrey but freaks out after finding the Sheriff’s head on the front porch. With no cell service and no way off the island, the gang turns to Alex, who has a boat at the dock.

He drives them out there but SURPRISE, his boat has been stolen, so instead, he allows them to take up residence in the Whitten mansion. Everyone’s on edge because you know, there’s a killer on the loose and it very well might be the person who finished off Kieran in a secure holding cell.

A lot of things start happening at once – Jeremy arrives but nobody believes that he’s 100% innocent so they lock him inside a bathroom. Audrey freaks out on Gina because she finds out she arrived on the island a lot early than she said and was taking pictures of her and Emma during “girl time.” Stavo and Noah get their McGayver on and try to get an old radio to work to call in some help.

When the power goes out, Stavo, Audrey, Brooke and Noah end up in the master bedroom and that’s where we finally begin seeing the observant Noah we all and love. He wasn’t feeling motivated for another novel out of “survivors guilt” and he didn’t like the story of Anne Hobb’s because it was too “ghost story.” When he actually gets a look at the room, he finds a secret tunnel and realizes that Anne Hobbs wasn’t crazy. In fact, her father had a wandering eye, tried to come onto her, her mother tried to defend her, her father killed the mom and her brother, she in turn killed him, then died herself. They also find Jeremy dead, killed by the dude posing to be Alex Whitten, confirmed by a picture of the REAL Alex.

“If that’s not Alex, who’s with Emma now,” Brooke wonders. Well great question guys. So much for leaving your best friend with a dude you barely know. I mean, you’d think that they’d have learned from Kieran. They were literally BFFS with him and he was the killer, so what can you expect from a dude you’ve never met?

But Emma is a survivor. She doesn’t know it, but she’s much stronger and smarter than anyone believes. At first she falls victim to Alex’s kindness. He tells her to stay safely in the room while he “checks things out” and then she’s attacked by the Hobbs masked killer. He comes back shortly after looking worried but turns on “psycho mode” quickly when she finds the real Alex’s body. “You’re not the real Alex,” she states. Bingo.

Long story short, this twisted dude named Tom saw her story on the news and felt a “connection” because he felt they were going through the same thing. His parents were murdered when he was 4 and he was attacked by the media. When he saw Emma, he hatched this plan to bring her to the island so she would fall in love with him. He spread the word about the Hobbs murder to Jeremy, who brought the gang down then posed as Alex Whitten because he knew “Emma loved bad boys.” Then he began killing off anyone who knew the real Alex and could ruin his disguise.

Emma decides to play it cool, acting exactly the way Tom would want her too. She pretends to be impressed that he’s killed all these people for her, she cradles in his arms and tells him she’d love to run away and pretend to be someone new. Props to Emma for not completely freaking out. Then, when she has the chance, she knees him in the balls, hides, stabs him from behind and lures him out to the balcony where she finally, FINALLY, find the fighter inside. She’s not a victim, she’s Emma fricking Duval. And with that, Tom lunges at her, falls over the banister and dies. Oh and the rest of the group comes running from the underground tunnel. Thanks for making it out you guys.

Another murder mystery in the books. Emma found her sense of self, realizing she couldn’t run away from her problems, she had to face them head on which meant embracing who she was – a survivor, hero and a Duval. She even applied to a college in Lakewood! No matter how much you think you’re over it though, you have to be seriously deranged to stay in that town, just saying.

Meanwhile, Noah got over his writer’s guilt seeing that many times, victims didn’t have a way to tell their story. As a survivor, he did and he would. Now that really is taking a lemon and making lemonade.

Stavo and Brooke  decided they’d be going to New York together. Audrey gave jealous Gina a second chance because she’s know to make bad decisions once or twice.

But the FINAL mystery is only just beginning. You see Tom may have been psychotic, murderish and obsessive, but he didn’t finish off Kieran. That means, someone in the Scream mask did. Was it Brandon James? Was it Emma’s dad? We’ll find out in the 6-episode season 3 hopefully.

Thoughts on the Halloween episode?