MTV’s ‘Scream’ Finale: The Killer Is Unmasked (and Tells Us How It Happened)

Spoiler alert! Do not read on if you haven’t watched the Scream season finale.

MTV’s Scream ended with a bang as the killer behind the Lakewood murder spree was unmasked … and then shot.

Podcaster-turned-murderer Piper Shaw (Amelia Rose Blaire) revealed it had all been a plan to avenge her dead father, fellow serial killer Brandon James—before she took a bullet that sent her to the bottom of the same lake where Brandon’s story ended all those years ago. Here, Blaire talks about how she learned her character’s true identity and whether Piper’s actually dead.

Emma and Piper

I read you were trying to figure out who the killer was. Did they end up telling you or did you figure it out?
They actually told me right at the end of filming Episode 6. We were about to go in to do the scene with Will and Piper in the abandoned car dealership and [showrunner Jill Blotevogel] told me. I knew [Piper] was a Brandon James sympathizer and I got that from the beginning, because why else would she come back to Lakewood? But I did not expect that she would end up being the killer. So when I [found out] I had to take all that research that I’d done of what goes on in the mind of a rampaged killer and what sparks something like that and turn it on myself. It completely changed the emotional life of what I’d been doing.

RELATED: Jill Blotevogel Shares How the Killer’s Trajectory Was Plotted

Did the rest of the cast know?
Everyone else was in the dark until the last episode. So it was fun when it finally got revealed because I was giggling secretly all this time: “I’ve been killing all the teenagers.”

The show did drop a few hints that Piper might be the killer. Were you worried that people would figure it out too soon?
It’s funny because I totally didn’t, but then in Episode 5, in that scene where Piper tells Emma about her father, all of a sudden everyone was all, “What if she’s Brandon James’ daughter? What if she’s the killer?” I was like “Holy s–t! These guys are really good because I had no idea.” The fans are really, really smart and very impassioned. It was cool to read all their theories and ideas about who the killer is and why.

Piper went from investigating the story to being the story.
That that was her plan all along—to come in as this outsider who slowly starts to weave herself among the teenagers and the story so that in the end she could have this big reveal on her podcast. She became part of the story so she could tell it from her point of view rather than from an outsider’s. [The showdown at the lake] was all set up. She knew exactly what she was doing, she had planned every bit of it. It was all going according to plan right up until the last moment when Audrey comes out with her gun.

Is Piper definitely dead dead?
Well, she got shot in the forehead. It’s kind of hard to come back from that. Yeah, I think she’s dead. Unless she’s got some kind of magical powers, which I don’t she does.

At the end, we see Audrey has been corresponding with Piper. What can you tell me about that?
I do know a little bit about it but I don’t want to spoil [it.] There are definitely secrets that have been going on underneath the surface between Piper and Audrey. And what that means, what the extent that is, I don’t know. It’s going to be really exciting to pull that apart in Season 2.

As much as she loved torturing Emma as the killer, it seemed like Piper had formed a sisterly bond with her in person.
Piper had a love-hate relationship with Emma. She wanted to get to know her and she wanted to win her favor and be a friend to her. But then she also hated her with her entire being. It’s very complicated. I think at times she didn’t know. “Do I hate this girl? Do I love her? I can’t wrap my head around how I feel because it’s so volatile.”

Was it the same thing with Daisy?
I think Daisy is the reason that all of this has happened. The reason that Piper was given away and had all this life of constantly wanting for more and asking questions and feeling left out. Daisy is at the root of it for Piper. There’s so much hatred.

How was it for you to play within the archetype of [movie character] Gale Weathers and make it your own?
It was a lot of fun to build this whole backstory and character [for Piper] just from the little clues I’d get throughout the scripts and create her from those little bits. But I always felt that there was something definitely a little off about her, that there was something underneath the surface. She was essentially wearing a mask when she was with Emma and when she was out and about interviewing people. It’s interesting, considering that she’s calling Emma as the killer and talking about taking off masks while she just has such a huge one on the entire time.

Scream has been renewed for a second season.