Brendan Jesus
Episode 2 “The Spirit Queen” takes this already dark tale and ramps it up to extremes. We get a healthy dose of backstory on the five girl’s parents, as well as a plan that might take the life of one of the students. Does Episode 2 live up to Episode 1? Let’s take a look and dive into the whole bloody affair.
Episode 2 “The Spirit Queen”
We start six months in the past at Karen and Kelly’s party, the one where Imogen is accused of kissing Greg. Karen tells Imogen that they are fighting, though she doesn’t tell Imogen why. Later, we find out it is because Greg had taken Karen’s virginity and it didn’t really go too well. Imogen finds Greg in Karen/Kelly’s room and initiates a kiss with Imogen. Kelly tells Karen what she saw, which proves to be the inciting incident for the Karen/Imogen debacle.
Present day finds us back in detention with the five girls. Imogen brings up a way to take Karen down: a scandalous video of Karen on a phone, the video was taken the night of the party and it will “destroy” Karen, in Imogen’s words. Tabby offers up the idea of screening this video before the Jordan Peele double feature. Later that day, the four parents all confront their respective kids about the detentions they have received, while also receiving more messages from A (identity unknown). Mouse gets a video titled, “for your viewing pleasure,” which is A killing the rat that gets put in Karen’s bookbag. Faran gets a video of A putting the razor in Karen’s pointe shoe. Noa gets a video of A spiking her drug test. Imogen and Tabby get a video of A defacing Karen’s spirit week posters.
It’s double feature day! The five girls go buck wild with handing out fliers for the Jordan Peele marathon, hoping to get as many people in the seats to see the Karen video. Tabby coerces Chip (Carson Rowland) a fellow student who works at the Orpheum, and has a major crush on her, to play the Karen clip before the screening with the promise that she would go to the spirit dance with her. The screening starts, and, “vote for Karen for Spirit Queen,” pops up on the screen. What ensues is a video of Karen wasted out of her mind, talking about how small Greg’s penis is, and asking Tyler (Brian Altemus) if she’s hot. Karen, obviously angered and upset, runs out of the theatre while everyone in attendance laughs at her.
Later that night Karen texts Imogen and asks to meet at their old spot, and feeling guilty, Imogen obliges. Karen asks how Imogen got the video, and Imogen tells her that after Karen kicked her out of the party she came back to get her sweater and walked in on Tyler filming Karen, and tried to stop it. Imogen says she took the phone and just basically forgot to give it back. Karen is more upset that rather than deleting the video Imogen kept the phone to use as fuel if she ever needed it.
It’s finally Friday, the day before the dance. Kelly, under the guise of being Karen, goes to Principal Clanton and says she wants to withdraw from the Spirit Queen race, making Imogen the automatic winner. Kelly even goes so far as to say she was the one who destroyed the posters and framed the two girls. This whole situation seems very insidious, and something is definitely up. Kelly tells Karen that come Monday, no one will remember the video. The Principal calls Imogen to the office to inform her that she will be the Spirit Queen, and tells her, “like mother, like daughter,” which throws Imogen into a full-blown panic attack. At this point, Imogen doesn’t even want to go to the dance, but Tabby talks her into it, saying that the five of them will all go as friends; though Noa can’t go, still, because of the ankle monitor.
At community service that day Noa confronts Sheriff Beasley and asks for a favor. Knowing Noa has a hefty deal of ammo on him, he agrees to let her take the ankle monitor off for the night and go to the dance.
On Saturday we get a super wholesome montage of the girls getting ready for the dance, almost making us forget we’re watching a straight-up horror show. At the dance, Imogen apologizes to Kelly for the harm she and her friends have caused, and Kelly seems to be accepting of the apology. Greg spikes the punch, while Ash and Mouse get high on a dab pen. Also, side note, Ash and Mouse make such a cute couple, not sure what their respective sexualities are, but I definitely ship them. Mouse also mentions a childhood trauma that she went through, but it will stay alluded to for a while. Noa and Shawn (Alex Aiono) break off from the dance to go have sex in a classroom. Don’t you worry though, A is not too far off.
It’s time to announce the Spirit Queen! Imogen walks up onto the stage, just giving full Carrie vibes. They handle this reference really well, but rather than straight up carrying it out letter-for-letter we get a monkey wrench thrown into the plan. As Karen is in the rafters ready to drop the pail of paint on Imogen, we see a second person up there with her. The four girls try pointing out to Imogen that Karen is up in the rafters, but she doesn’t notice…until instead of a pail of paint falling, it’s Karen’s body pushed by A. In a shot mirroring the shot of Davie’s feet and a pool of blood, we see Imogen’s shoes as the pool of Karen’s blood slowly expands towards her feet.
Final thoughts
Okay so this episode is full of quite a few references, but there is one reference that I think for the majority of people went unnoticed. Like Martha is Dead, or since this is an homage to ’80s slasher Blood Rage, the sisters are not who they say they are. My friend Liz pointed out to me in our discussion that she doesn’t think Karen is dead. Rather, she thinks Kelly is dead. Upon going back and watching this episode again there was a line that stood out to me, a line were Kelly tells Imogen that she thought she was over the twin-fusion. I think Kelly is the one who went to push the bucket off of the balcony, and Kelly is actually dead. Also I have a theory as to who A might actually be, but I think it’s best to wait a little longer to dig deeper into that.
