Scream 6 surprised the audience with the reveal of three people behind the Ghostface murders in New York City, and one small detail made this twist even more satisfying. The Scream franchise is enjoying the trend of reboots/requels and successfully came back to life with the legacy sequel Scream in 2022. The fifth Scream movie marked the beginning of a reboot trilogy that continued with Scream 6, which marked a couple of firsts in the franchise, such as not starring Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott and having more than two Ghostface killers.
Following the events of the 2022 Woodsboro murders, new Final Girls Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega), along with Tara’s friends, moved to New York City to start a new chapter in their lives. Unfortunately, there were more people looking for revenge against them, and a new wave of murders began. Scream 6 introduced Detective Wayne Bailey (Dermot Mulroney), who started as an ally to Sam and Tara as they were friends with his daughter, Quinn (Liana Liberato), but he was actually one of the Ghostface killers along with Quinn and his son, Ethan (Jack Champion). There are a couple of clues to the identity of the killers in Scream 6, but one, in particular, wouldn’t have been noticed had Mulroney not shared it himself.
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Scream 6 Hinted At Its Ghostface Twist During Its Bailey Fakeout
One subtle detail gave Bailey’s role in Scream 6 away
As mentioned above, Detective Bailey started as an ally as he investigated the new Ghostface murders in New York and saw a connection between them and Sam and Tara. Like in every Scream movie so far, there’s a moment when pretty much everyone is a suspect, so in order to divert suspicions, Bailey, Ethan, and Quinn faked the latter’s death. Quinn was supposedly stabbed to death at her, Sam, and Tara’s apartment, with Sam’s boyfriend, Danny, witnessing the murder from his apartment. The following morning, Detective Bailey arrived at the crime scene, with Sam and Tara consoling him after he saw Quinn’s body.
While with Sam and Tara, Bailey wipes his face with his hand and leaves it there for a couple of seconds, and after that, tears begin to roll. This is a subtle detail added by Mulroney, and it’s a subtle but huge hint at Bailey’s real role in Scream 6. Mulroney told Screen Rant that he put a bit of Tiger Balm on the cuff of his sleeve to better give the impression that he was crying. Not only was this helpful to Mulroney but also to Bailey, who would have needed some extra help to cry, as he had to sell the idea that Quinn was dead, with Mulroney calling it “fake on top of fake”.
After Quinn’s “death”, Bailey was dropped from the investigation of the Ghostface murders, which gave him more time to plan the rest of the murders. In the third act of Scream 6, Sam, Tara, Chad, and Kirby arrive at the theater where a shrine to the Ghostface murders was built, and there they learn the real identities of the killers and that Quinn’s death was fake. Quinn’s “death” was a key step in the Baileys’ plan, and Wayne Bailey went to lengths to make sure it all seemed believable.
The Sequel’s Attention To Detail Makes Its Ending Reveal Even More Satisfying
Scream 6 paid off all those hints
Mulroney deciding to put Tiger Balm on his sleeve to cry during the scene of Quinn’s fake death speaks highly of Mulroney’s commitment and understanding of the character and makes the reveal of the Bailey family being the new Ghostface killers a lot more satisfying. Few Ghostface killers have gone as far as the Baileys did to keep their cover and kill the Final Girl(s), and Bailey’s pain had to be believable for both the audience and the characters. Scream 6 paid off its small details, teases, and pieces of foreshadowing, yet it still surprised the audience with the reveal of there being not two Ghostfaces as was tradition, but three.
This Isn’t The First Time A Scream Movie Teased Its Ending Early
The Scream saga is full of small details
The Scream saga is known for dropping hints throughout its movies about the identity of the Ghostface killer/killers, and some were more subtle than others. In the first Scream, in the opening kill, Casey Becker seems to recognize the killer when she removes their mask, and it’s later revealed that Stu was Casey’s ex-boyfriend. Billy also lets his cover slip a couple of times throughout the movie, while Stu insists a bit too much on Sidney’s father possibly being the killer. In Scream 2, Cici becomes a victim after she argues with Mickey in film class, and he seeds Sidney’s suspicions about her new boyfriend being the killer.
In Scream 3, Roman knows the secret rooms and passageways that Ghostface later uses to get around, and he’s also “killed”, though it happens off-screen. In Scream 4, Jill and Charlie are the only characters who never get a call from Ghostface when they’re alone, and Jill has a history of sneaking out. Scream 2022 has more obvious hints, with Amber’s phone being used to mess with Tara and Richie’s complete ignorance about all things Stab is suspicious. Scream 6 pulled some of those old tricks too with a fake death and texts from another phone (in this case Richie’s), and Bailey is the only one who could have had access to all the Ghostface objects in the shrine.
