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The house is not the only thing burning in episode 7 of “Scream.” MTV

It might be time to move out of Lakewood. A new killer is terrorizing the town, claiming the lives of two teens — plus poor Mr. Branson’s hand. Well, things only got worse in episode 7 of “Scream” Season 2.

Sheriff Acosta (Anthony Ruivivar) confronts Emma (Willa Fitzgerald) after discovering that the emails sent to her father came from her IP address. Emma is shocked and immediately denies sending them. But the sheriff doesn’t think she’s the culprit. He warns Maggie (Tracy Middendorf) that her daughter is being targeted by someone obsessed with her.

Emma doesn’t know what to make of all this. Recent events have put her on edge, and it doesn’t help that Kieran (Amadeus Serafini) gave the sheriff even more private information about her. She confronts her boyfriend, angry that he would betray her. However, Kieran doesn’t regret anything. He tells her that he’d rather her be angry and alive than dead.

Elsewhere, Audrey (Bex Taylor-Klaus) is freaking out over telling Emma the truth about everything. She finally came clean to Noah (John Karna) in episode 6, but her best friend thinks that she needs to confess to Emma that she was the one responsible for bringing Piper (Amelia Rose Blaire) to town. Noah firmly believes that Emma will understand — Audrey is not so sure.

The two go out for a cup of coffee where Zoe (Kiana Ledé) corners Noah. Although she previously brushed off an offer to go out, she decides to be the bold one and asks her crush if he could help her study for applied physics. Noah happily says yes, but is clueless that Zoe is actually hitting on him. Fortunately that’s why he has Audrey to fill him in.

Noah runs off to get ready for his date while Audrey stays behind at the coffee shop. It’s there that Brooke (Carlson Young) goes running to her for help. She explains everything about handcuffing Mr. Branson (Bobby Campo), including threatening to cut off his “little Branson” and leaving him handcuffed overnight. Brooke doesn’t know what to do. But Audrey’s got an idea.

As Audrey and Brooke head for the hotel, Sheriff Acosta brings his deputy to the abandoned James farm on the edge of town. Maggie told him about Emma finding photos of herself at the barn, and the sheriff wants to investigate it himself. The place is pretty cleared out, but Acosta does find a single photo halfway hidden underneath a chair. It’s of a man holding onto the hands of a smiling little girl. However, the man’s face is scratched out.

Acosta hides the photo from his deputy and places a call when he’s out of earshot.

“We have a bigger problem than we thought,” he tells the person on the other end of the line.

Who did Sheriff Acosta call? That’s not the only mystery.

Noah meets up Zoe, who brings him to the lake for a picnic and romantic swim. But Zoe is hiding a dark secret. She lies about where she was last school year and Noah catches on. Zoe’s not ready to talk about what she’s hiding, but she does confess that she had no friends and was pretty lonely.

“One night I did something really stupid” is all she will say.

Meanwhile, Brooke and Audrey arrive at the hotel room. “Scream” viewers know that the new Brandon James killer broke into the room and hacked off Mr. Branson’s hand before using an iron to cauterize it. However, the teens don’t find a bloody mess when they enter. In fact, Mr. Branson is gone. The bed is made and the blindfold rests on the pillow.

Brooke’s confused and gets a text from her former lover. He tells her to meet her at his old office in the high school or he’ll turn her in for handcuffing and threatening him. With no other option, Brooke decides she has to go to the school. What she doesn’t know is that the killer set up a camera in the room and is recording her conversation with Audrey.

As the girls head to the school, Ms. Lang (Austin Highsmith) is in her office looking over files on the Lakewood Six. She tried to talk to Emma earlier in the day, but was shot down by the teen, who lost trust in her teacher after getting locked in her office. But it looks like Emma might have a good reason for mistrusting Ms. Lang. Her teacher secretly recorded their conversation again. She listens to it and files it with over a dozen tapes of other students involved in the Lakewood murders. It’s not clear what her intentions are, but she’s definitely not working with the Brandon James killer.

Ms. Lang gets a call from the killer on her office line. The killer teases her about taking an “interest” in her students before revealing that Mr. Branson is waiting right down the hall for her — and that he won’t be as “handsy” anymore. Confused about the call, Ms. Lang ventures into the hall. She follows a toy pig that keeps moving and “oinking” down the corridor. Meanwhile, the killer breaks into her office and ransacks the room. And the killer’s not done there. Ms. Lang bumps into the psycho in the hallway, but is able to escape. She runs down the hall and eventually finds Mr. Branson’s bloody body. Ms. Lang stops to help him, but it’s too late. The killer comes up behind her and makes another attempt to stab her. Ms. Lang moves quickly and the knife plunges into Mr. Branson.

The Lakewood teacher takes off again but doesn’t get far. The killer grabs her and slams her against the wall before throwing her off the steps. Her head hits the ground and a pool of blood spills out around her. However, the killer doesn’t finish the job. A janitor causes the masked murderer to run off.

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Brooke (Carlson Young) finds Ms. Lang (Austin Highsmith) in a pool of blood in episode 7 of “Scream.” MTV

Meanwhile, Brooke and Audrey are right outside the school. Brooke is ready to face Mr. Branson, but Audrey received a text telling her to go into the school alone. She manages to convince Brooke to let her go alone, which is how she discovers the janitor and Ms. Lang. Brooke comes in right behind her as the janitor reveals that she’s still breathing.

Elsewhere, Emma finds comfort from a surprising source — Eli (Sean Grandillo)! Although she’s mad at Kieran, she takes Eli up on his offer for dinner. But Eli doesn’t take her to a restaurant. He reveals that when he’s feeling sick of his mom he sneaks into homes and makes up a different life. While he doesn’t exactly take Emma into a random person’s house, he does break them into an abandoned model home at a construction site. Emma’s a littler nervous about it, but quickly warms up to Eli and his “goldilocks” adventures. However, that doesn’t mean she’s romantically interested in him. She pushes him away after he kisses her.

“I love him and I have to ...figure it out,” Emma explains, referring to her relationship with Kieran.

The smoke alarm goes off before Eli can really argue about his cousin, and the two discover that the whole house is in flames. Both exits are blocked, but they manage to escape through the garage. Emma wants to call the police, however, Eli warns her that no one can ever know they were there. What Emma doesn’t know is that there is more to just the building being engulfed in flames. Mr. Branson’s body was dragged there, along with Eddie (Chase McCleery Bouchie) from the motel. And the killer’s stab wound didn’t kill him. He was left to burn alive inside the house.

Other Important Moments From Episode 7:

Zoe’s Onto Audrey

Zoe’s up to something. She knows about Audrey’s role with Piper and used Noah to email a file of her confession to someone. But who did she email? It’s not clear if she’s looking to blackmail Audrey or rat out her secret.

Maggie’s Hiding Something

Maggie meets Sheriff Acosta at the old James farm. It’s there that he shows her the photo. Somehow Brooke’s dad, Mayor Quinn Maddox is involved, and it sounds like they know who could be stalking Emma.

“This is about Emma,” he warns Maggie. “We both know it could be our own fault.”

Perhaps it’s the mysterious brother of Brandon James, Troy?