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Piper Shaw

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“ Now, I have one more surprise for you before I open you up, and you'll never see it coming... ”

–Piper Shaw to Emma Duval, Revelations

Piper Shaw (formerly known as Piper Anderson James) was a recurring character who was revealed to be the main antagonist of the first season of Scream and the mastermind of the second Lakewood Murders in 2015. She was the illegitimate daughter of Brandon James and Maggie Duval and the maternal half-sister of Emma Duval.

She was portrayed by Amelia Rose Blaire.

Description

A smart, quirky and Gale Weathers-like host of a wildly popular podcast Autopsy of a Crime, who comes to town to investigate the recent deaths. Similar to Gale, she knows about the protagonist's family. As of her reveal as the Lakewood Slasher, Piper was shown to be an aggressive and very unstable homicidal psychopath.

Background

Initially claiming to be a visiting podcaster investigating the new 2015 Lakewood Murders, it is revealed she is the daughter of the original killer, Brandon James, and his best friend Maggie Duval. After Brandon's presumed death by the police, Maggie's parents made her give up the baby for adoption, with Maggie never even knowing if the baby was a boy or a girl.

Piper spent the majority of her adolescence at the Blessed Sister's Children Home, where she was foster sisters with Kristen Lang. When she found out who her parents were she grew to hate her mother for abandoning her and causing fathers death; she also resented her half-sister Emma for getting the "perfect life" while she was left alone. Piper decided to plan a "reboot" killing spree, targeting Emma's friends in order to make her suffer.

Piper was also a famous podcaster, who documented murders. She used this as her cover to interact with the citizens of Lakewood, and also "bonded" with Emma. Audrey Jensen brought her to Lakewood in order to plan a documentary for Brandon James together, however, Piper was only using Audrey to gather information on Emma, who was Audrey's childhood best-friend. As the Lakewood Slasher, she took great pleasure in making Emma suffer by killing her friends, and making her feel indirectly responsible. Emma grew to trust Piper and would confide in her, unknowingly giving the killer information.

Piper recruited her lover Kieran Wilcox to be her accomplice in the murders; Kieron's father was also Clark Hudson, the Lakewood Sheriff who abandoned Kieran when he was young. Clark was also romantically involved with Maggie, which disgusted Piper and Kieron to see the parents who abandoned them so happy together.

Piper's plan was kill and frame Seth Branson for the murders after she killed Emma and Maggie. After helping Kieran kill his father, Piper was ready to finish her plans and kidnapped her mother, Maggie, so that Emma would be forced to come to the same dock where Brandon was shot. She cruelly revealed herself as the killer and took great pleasure in the pain her betrayal had caused Emma.

Piper managed to severely wound Emma and her mother, slashing Emma's stomach and stabbing Maggie in her side. As she prepared to finish Emma off, saying that she had one final surprise for Emma (presumably revealing Kieran as her accomplice), Audrey, who saw Emma running to the dock, intervenes and shoots Piper in the chest with Kieran's gun, causing her to fall into the water. She emerged a few seconds later and was then shot in the forehead by Emma, killing her instantly. Her corpse fell into the same lake that her father's did, but her body wasn't found. Kieran, who's identity as her accomplice was not revealed, eventually managed to retrieve her corpse from the lake. He kept it refrigerated in the orphanage where Piper grew up until it was eventually found by Emma and Audrey. Kieran also surgically implanted a pig's heart inside her, as her autopsy (done by Maggie) revealed.

Throughout Season 2, Kieran continued Piper's work once Emma returned from a therapy retreat, starting the killing spree all over again in order to avenge Piper's death. He proceeded to terrorize and murder the people that she failed to kill, including Jake Fitzgerald and Seth Branson. He also began stalking and harassing Audrey about her involvement with Piper, made Brooke suffer mentally, manipulated Noah emotionally and continued making Emma suffer by killing her friends. In the end, however, Kieran was defeated by Emma and Audrey and put in jail.

Appearances (12/24)

Season 1 (9/10)

Season 2 (3/14)

Relationships

Family

Allies

Enemies

Confirmed murders

Season 1

Crime Scene Photo Victim Cause of Death Episode
Scream S01E01 Pilot 1080p KISSTHEMGOODBYE NET 0448 Nina Patterson Back slashed, throat slit. Pilot
Riley's Death Riley Marra Stabbed in side of back, femoral artery slashed, bled out. Wanna Play a Game?
Clifton's Death Clifton Roberts Stabbed to death (offscreen) The Dance
Grayson's Death Grayson Pfeiffer Throat slit (offscreen) Revelations

Quotes

Before reveal

  • I always have a very serious caffeine addiction.
  • Life is like Charlie Brown and his football. That bitch Lucy keeps yanking it away but you got to keep kicking.
  • My dad was murdered. I was too young to remember him and the police never solved it. Honestly I don't think they tried.
  • I started to ask questions as soon as I could talk and I have never stopped.
  • We all have our demons.
  • It's just it's hard to know the truth unless you have the whole story.

As Lakewood Slasher

Piper as Lakewood Slasher

Piper masked.

  • It's what you want, right? On Instagram and Facebook...Perfect smiles, perfect lives, but I know the truth.
  • I'm the one that's gonna lift the mask.
  • By all means. They'll reach a nice, confused man named Art, who works at GPB Security, and the cops will never get here in time. So I suggest you, Talk. To. Me!
  • I know that everyone you trust is lying to you, playing you. Your two-faced friends, your fraud of a family, your whore of a mother. It all started with her Emma, but it's gonna end with you. See you soon.
  • I wanted you to have a little pride, instead, you forgive his lies, just like Daisy did all those years ago, I don't forgive so easily.
  • Yes! Game's still on and we're in the bonus round!
  • Small catch, Emma. It's not just you that I want. Yes, I told you it started with Daisy, but it ends with you! Can't have one without the other.
  • Just you, Emma. Or others will die!

After reveal

  • Hey, Sis! Surprise!
  • MINDBLOWN!
  • Do you know one benefit of stripping off masks is sometimes you find the perfect fall guy.
  • You broke my heart, mommy.
  • You always hurt the ones you love.
  • Now, I have one more surprise for you before I open you up and you'll never see it coming...

Trivia

  • Piper's character has many similarities with Gale Weathers.
  • Piper's name was originally named "Piper Shay".
  • She had a podcast called "Autopsy of a Crime".
  • She is the first killer in the entire franchise not to withheld possession of firearm during her reveal.
  • She has a love of coffee, even promising to respect Emma's privacy for the sake of it.
  • Piper was the main antagonist in Season 1.
  • Piper was the final character to be killed in Season 1.
    • She was shot once in the chest by Audrey and then once more in her forehead by Emma.
  • In Revelations, Piper revealed herself to be the killer, and her motivations has many similarities with Roman Bridger and Jill Roberts.
    • Similar to Roman Bridger and Jill Roberts were related to Sidney, Piper is related to Emma and is the long lost half-sister Emma didn't know existed until she saw her mother's ultrasound and found out Maggie had slept with Brandon James. Subsequently, she shared a hatred of her younger sibling for having a family just like Roman did to Sidney.
    • Like Nancy Loomis, Piper had a helper. Her helper went on to be the New Killer of Season 2.
    • Both Piper Shaw and Jill Roberts filmed most of their murders with their partners.
    • Piper was also the first lost long half sibling exacting revenge in the TV series, who would later be succeeded by Jamal Elliot in Season 3.
  • Piper has various similarities to the movie killers: she's related to the final girl (Emma) like Roman and Jill were to Sidney. She worked as a reporter (like Nancy Loomis) and just like Jill Roberts, she had a completely different personality when revealed as the killer.
  • The story about her motivation for her current job is fake.
  • In Exposed, she told Emma that Audrey tried to force Rachel Murray to do things that made Rachel uncomfortable.
  • Piper is the first killer in the franchise to be in an inappropriate relationship with her accomplice, Kieran Wilcox, seeing as she was an adult while he was a teenager.
    • They would later be succeeded by Jamal Elliot and Beth in Season 3, and the first in the films by Richie Kirsch and Amber Freeman from Scream (2022) as the second and third inappropriate killer couples with each adult (Piper, Jamal, and Richie) dating a teenager (Kieran, Beth, and Amber).
  • Piper died just like her father; she was shot on the dock at Wren Lake and fell into the lake. The only difference is Piper was shot twice.
    • However, it was later confirmed in The Vanishing that Brandon James, Piper's father had survived the shooting.
      • Initially, it was assumed that Piper was unaware of the fact that her father, survived his shooting when she was still alive.
      • However, according to an interview with the former showrunners, Richard Register and Michael Gans, it was confirmed that she and Kieran believed that Brandon survived the event.[1]
    • Piper being the daughter of a (supposed, due to someone using his mask) serial killer father, who started an infamous killing spree in his hometown and who would be killed and his daughter, who would return to avenge and continue the killing spree, would be loosely referenced and used for the first time in the franchise almost 6 years later in-universe, more directly.
      • Due to the existence of Samantha Carpenter in Scream (2022), who was the result of an affair between actual serial killer and the first known Ghostface killer, Billy Loomis, and his fling (Sam's mom), Christina Carpenter.
      • Both Piper and Samantha's mothers, were in an affair with the serial killer men and dating their younger half-sisters future fathers and true lovers (Piper to Emma, to Maggie and Kevin Duval; Sam with Tara, to Christina and Mr. Carpenter).
      • Both are the older half-sisters of younger half-sisters (Piper to Emma, Sam to Tara)., who would become targeted by their older half-sisters secrets, more so the former than the latter due to Piper being a killer.
      • This makes Piper a faux-shadowing in this aspect and more an homage to Roman Bridger and the death of her father, Brandon James, similar to Maureen Prescott instead, albeit the differences in each, respectively, in the origins of both town's infamous murder sprees.[1]
  • Emma shooting Piper in the forehead is reminiscent of how Sidney killed Billy and Nancy Loomis.
  • She shares the same amount of murders as her father.
  • She appeared as a hallucination to Emma in Psycho.
  • It was revealed in Jeepers Creepers that Audrey is the main reason Piper was in town, as Audrey had invited and exchanged letters with Piper, asking her to come and investigate about Brandon James and Lakewood's bloody history.
  • Prior to The Orphanage, Piper's body was never been found. In The Orphanage, it was revealed that her corpse was kept by her accomplice.
  • It was revealed in The Orphanage that her and Kristen Lang, were foster sisters at the Blessed Sisters Children's Home.
  • In The Vanishing, Piper's autopsy, which was done by Maggie Duval, revealed the killer had refrigerated her corpse and surgically implanted a pig's heart inside.
  • In The Vanishing is stated that Piper died on March 21st, 2015 at 1:31 AM.
    • This is considered to be false, due to the fact that she was killed on Halloween night.
    • It is also stated that Piper was in her mid 20s when she died, however this is considered to be false as well since she was born sometime after the 1994 Lakewood murders, so she would have to have been around 20 or 21.
      • According to a police file prop used for unknown episodes, Piper's date of birth was given as 8th July, 1995, which is consistent with the timeline of the story. [2]
  • In When a Stranger Calls, it has been revealed that Piper had a secret relationship with Kieran Wilcox, her accomplice, long before they came to Lakewood.
  • It is shown Piper is willing to betray her accomplice so she can get away with murder. She told Emma that Kieran was her half brother while the killings were happening. Kieran was unaware of this.
  • Aside from motivation, Piper has other similarities to Roman Bridger from Scream 3
    • Both wear glasses and take them off once they reveal themselves as the killer
    • Both are able to avoid any suspicion of them being the killers:
      • Piper faked being attacked by the Lakewood Slasher (Kieran Wilcox) While Roman faked his own death to make it look like he had been killed by Ghostface.
    • Both have connections to other killers:
      • Roman was the mastermind of his mother's murder Maureen Prescott and convinced Billy Loomis and Stu Macher to kill her and they eventually went on their killing spree afterwards.
      • Piper was the lover of Kieran Wilcox who was revealed to be the 2nd Lakewood Slasher.
    • Both are shot in the chest before being finished off with a bullet to the head.

Video Clips

Character Guide

  1. ↑ https://bloody-disgusting.com/exclusives/3707709/scream-the-tv-series-showrunners-slash-into-the-unmade-3rd-and-4th-seasons-exclusive/
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