The Lakewood killer was finally revealed on Tuesday, and our theory on his, or her, identity may or may not have been completely right (definitely 100% right).

We last left Emma at the school Halloween dance, where monitors turned on to show a bloodied and bound Sheriff Hudson. Maggie fills Emma in on Mr. Branson’s escape, which the police believe looks too staged (duh). Piper shows up to make sure Maggie and Emma are okay. After offering to go to the police station to find out more about what’s going on, she eerily tells Emma not to trust anyone. She forgot to mention that that includes her, but anyway…

We then find Kieran sulking in his car about Emma not trusting him. He loads some bullets into a gun and ignores Emma’s call, because MTV wants us to think he might be the murderer, but we know better. After trying to call Kieran to tell him about his dad, Emma goes to Noah. The two quickly realize that Audrey and Brooke aren’t at the dance. Emma tries to contact them to let them know what’s going on, but it’s no use. The killer hacked everyone’s phones to cut out communication.

But of course the killer can still reach Emma. The masked murderer promises Emma the “finale” will be gut wrenching, (which it literally is). Unless Emma puts the pieces together quickly, the murderer is going to break Daisy’s heart, which obviously means killing Clark Hudson.

Maggie goes to the station, and discovers the cop that was killed during Branson’s escape had a locket jammed down this throat, a locket that Brandon had made for Daisy. Emma suggests Sheriff Hudson might be where Brandon used to leave Daisy gifts.

Meanwhile, completely unaware of everything that’s happening, Audrey goes to Brooke’s party. Audrey fills Brooke in on her suspicions about Kieran, to which Brooke replied, “Kieran can’t be the killer; He’s too pretty.” Thank you Brooke for stating what we’ve been thinking all along!

Emma was right about Sheriff Hudson’s location. Maggie and Emma find the sheriff tied to the tree where Brandon used to leave gifts for Daisy. Maggie rushes to help him and untie him, not knowing that the rope was keeping his insides, well, in. As she unties him, his guts pour out, leaving his death equally disgusting and like the killer promised, gut wrenching.

Piper of course shows up to report on the death, and tells Emma she wants to help in any way she can. She offers to go to Brooke’s to check on her. Thinking her friends would be safe with Piper’s check up, Emma goes to the police station with her mom. Noah call her to tell her what he’s discovered: malware has cut everyone off from each other, but he located where it’s coming from. 1221 Sparrow Drive, which Emma quickly realizes is Brooke’s house (who memorizes people’s addresses?). Emma immediately gets a text saying, “No cops, or they will all be headline news.”

Noah and Emma decide to go to Brooke’s themselves. Noah goes off on one of his slasher movie rants, saying the the killer is going to murder all of Emma’s friends one by one until it’s just her left. He tells her, “…you’re the survivor girl, which make me the know it all sidekick. Aw crap I’m going to die.” Emma reassures him, “Tonight, we change the ending.”

While all this happening, Brooke gets jealous over Jake when she sees him making out with some girl. Two can play that game though, so she grabs a random guy to make out with. Brooke’s game worked, and Jake quickly follows her inside the house. He admits that he was spying on her, but that he was looking out for her. He had seen that the spyware was deleted and then put back on the computer, so he was trying to figure out who did it.

Outside, the drunk girl Jake was making out with begins to look for him. Instead of finding Jake, she find a dead guy in a closet- the same random guy Brooke kissed. Understandably so, the girl shrieks and everyone runs away as they see the dead body. Audrey goes toward the body, only to be met with the killer. Audrey taunts the killer as she’s held with a knife to her, “What are you waiting for?”

Brooke comes back outside to an empty house, but instead of thinking something was wrong, she cried, “They ditched me!” She hears a noise and runs back inside. Branson shows up and tries to explain to Brooke that he was set up. Of course he was! The killer stabbed the cop and let Branson out, but he has no idea who it was. He pours his heart out to her, saying that she’s special, what they have is special, etc etc. (Eye roll, eye roll). The lights suddenly cut out and Branson disappears as the Brandon James mask appears.

Brooke runs and hides in the freezer, because that’s smart. The killer locks her in and starts stabbing the freezer. She gets hit a few times, and just when she thought it was over, the killer plugs in the freezer.

Emma and Noah show up to Brooke’s and find Kieran holding up a gun. Emma and Noah don’t try to hide their distrust, not even a little. Emma tells Kieran what Piper told her about him visiting Brandon’s mom, and his reaction is much like ours was, “And you believer her??” Kieran defends himself and assures them that Clark Hudson is his dad, 100%. Emma breaks the news to Kieran about his dad. He yells at Emma, “And you still think that this psychopath is me?!”

This convinces Emma and Noah, and the three go inside Brooke’s to find her and Audrey. Jake eventually shows up, startling Kieran and Emma. He runs straight to the freezer after telling the gang that he had heard banging coming from the garage. The rescue Brooke, who is somehow still alive, just very cold, and Jake assures her, “I’ll keep you safe.”

Noah finds Audrey, who miraculously was spared by the killer. He wonders why the killer let her get away (I smell some foreshadowing…). Emma goes to look for the land line to call for help since their phones aren’t working. But she gets a call instead. I wonder who it could be!

The murderer tells her, ” “It’s not just you that I want… can’t have one without the other.” Emma understands what he means- the murderer has her mom. Because Emma is a super genius and figures out clues like Sherlock Holmes, she knows her mom is at the dock where Brandon James was killed.

Emma runs to the dock alone, after the murderer warned her not to bring anyone, where surprise! she does find her mom. It doesn’t take long for the murderer to show up. And finally, the murderer reveals himself- except its a girl, and it’s… PIPER.

“Hey sis,” she says to Emma. The dad that Piper had told Emma about was in fact, Brandon James. She admits that she wants revenge for Maggie’s mistakes- including hurting Emma any way she could. She then fills them in about her plan to frame Branson, who is tied up in her car.

Emma tries to attack Piper, but fails. Maggie, who had been tied up, escapes from her chair and tries to help Emma. The three start fighting for control. When it seems like Piper might actually kill Maggie and Emma, she gets shot instead. She falls into the water, just like her dad did, and we see that Audrey, who saw Emma running into the woods, was the one that fired the gun. But the shot didn’t kill her, and she tries to come back on the dock. Emma grabs the gun, and shoots her in the face like a bad ass.

All seems perfect the next morning. Noah takes over Piper’s podcast, Kieran and Emma make up, Brooke and Jake seem cuddly and lovey, and Branson is free. But is all really fine in Lakewood? The season ends with Audrey looking at letters from Piper and stolen papers from the Lakewood Municipal Building. We guessed that whoever the killer was, was likely not working alone. Was Audrey helping Piper? Was her “saving” Emma part of the plan all along or did she feel regret?

We’ll have to wait until next season to find out!

We’re almost to the end of the season, where we’ll hopefully figure out who the masked killer is. “The Dance” beings with footage from a year prior of someone breaking in to Lakewood County Municipal Records building to steal Brandon James’ mask from his evidence box. The scene then cuts to present day Lakewood getting ready for Halloween, with a voice over from Piper’s podcast wondering what the connection between Branson and Brandon James could possibly be. (There is none, because he’s not the killer, duh).

After interrogating Branson, who revealed nothing incriminating, Sheriff Hudson announces to the town that the Halloween high school dance would still be taking place, but no trick or treating and no masks. Believing that the murderer is behind bars, he feels confident that nothing would happen to the teens. Piper confronts the sheriff about how safe this possibly be, but he dismisses her worries and says, “I’m just trying to protect the peace, what are you doing?” Ouch.

Meanwhile, Brooke tells Emma she’s not convinced that Branson is the murderer. Although she’s obviously a bit biased since she, well, was close with him, she believes he couldn’t kill. Brooke doesn’t have it easy right now with her mom in rehab, dad and “boyfriend” in jail. Emma takes Brooke to stay with Jake for a while. It’s quite clear that Jake has some sort of feelings for Brooke, whether or not it’s romantic isn’t at obvious. He goes out of his way to make Brooke feel comfortable and at home, in a way a good friend would do. He cares for her, and he slightly becomes less “doosh”-y every time he shows that.

Emma wasn’t convinced with Brooke’s claim that she only wanted the murderer to be Branson so that someone could be held accountable. Emma asks her mom and Sheriff Hudson to see Branson. If her theory is correct, that the child her mother gave up is behind the murders and that that person is Branson, surely he’d have some sort of reaction to seeing her. By the way, the theory makes zero sense considering Branson sees Emma everyday at school. But anyway. Branson continues to play it cool when he sees Emma. Upon seeing her he says, “Hello Emma,” exactly the way the murderer has been saying that in phone calls. But he’s convincingly innocent throughout their exchange. Emma brings up her mother, which confuses Branson. “She’s… nice. You look a lot like her,” is all he can say about Maggie.

Emma reveals her half brother murderer theory to Noah and Audrey. Noah decides that Branson is a clever name because of how much it sounds like “Brandon’s Son.” Audrey doesn’t understand what connection Branson would have to Rachel, though. Why kill her? This continues to eat away at Audrey, and later she decides, with Noah’s help, to go through Rachel’s old tapes. Apparently, she video taped everything in her life, so maybe she caught Branson doing something wrong?

During Audrey and Noah’s Rachel movie fest, Piper goes to Emma with some news: She’s found Brandon’s mother, Cassie James. Piper’s visit lead to nowhere since Cassie was incoherent, but the two decide to go together. Upon seeing Emma, Cassie says, “Your mom was Daisy… now I see the resemblance. Eventually, Cassie’s old age takes over and she starts believing that Emma actually is Daisy. She becomes a bit angry and tells her, “You got him killed.”

Cassie begins singing the “Daisy” song, and mentions how much Brandon loved that song, “and so did his boy.” Cassie mentions that his boy had just visited, but she couldn’t remember his name. Emma asks, “Was it Seth?” (Branson’s first name.) Cassie confirms that yes, his name was Seth, and that he wanted to know all about his daddy. The whole exchange seems weird. Why couldn’t Piper get any information alone? Also, why had nobody else thought to go to Cassie? It seems as though Mr. Branson is being framed. Is he just the easiest target, or does the masked murderer have a personal vendetta against him?

Although Jake seemed very sincere when he was welcoming Brooke into his home, she blames him when she discovers that someone hacked into her computer and turned the webcam on while she was undressing to get in the shower. She feels uncomfortable and heads back to her empty house where she decides to have a party. Sounds like a great idea while there’s potentially still a murderer at large.

Sheriff Hudson discovers that the phone found in Branson’s classroom traced back to a tower far from Branson’s house and the school. He takes initiative, and goes to the house to see if witnesses could place Branson there. The house seems to be empty, so he enters, only to find a computer streaming live videos, including one from Lakewood County Jail. Surprise, surprise, the killer is there! The masked killer strikes Sheriff Hudson. This could mean the murderer is clearly not Branson, but it could also go back to the team theory.

While searching Rachel’s archives, Noah and Audrey find something odd, though it has nothing to do with Mr. Branson. The two find a video of Kieran leaving a bar with a drunk Nina, the night before she was murdered.

Jake sits in his car outside the dance for a while, watching live video of Brooke’s house. If he’s hacked her security footage, was he the one who hacked her computer? Or is he worried about his friend being in a big house alone? His past makes me lean towards creep, but something about his affection for Brooke makes me second guess myself.

Emma goes to the dance dressed as Mia Wallace from “Pulp Fiction.” She tells her mom, who is chaperoning, that her and Kieran were supposed to meet at the dance because he had something to do beforehand. Maggie is worried that she hasn’t heard from Sheriff Hudson. Could Kieran’s “something to do” mean “murdering my dad”? I am still not convinced that Kieran is the murderer.

Kieran finally arrives to the dance dressed as Vincent Vega, just in time to do the famous “Pulp Fiction” dance with Emma. As soon as the two separate, Audrey swoops in on Emma to show her the video of Kieran and Nina. Although Audrey is convinced that this makes Kieran a top suspect, Emma doesn’t completely buy it. Didn’t Audrey just have an incriminating video that wasn’t as it seemed? Why should Emma treat Kieran’s situation differently?

Emma asks Kieran about the video. He admits that he knew Nina, but that she had lied about her name and so didn’t realize he knew “Nina” as first. He says that he met her that night, and drove her home after seeing how drunk she was. He swears he didn’t go inside her house, and left right away. It’s obvious that Emma doesn’t trust Kieran, though, and he tells her that “Branson won, even from jail.”

Of course, Piper shows up. I wonder how a stranger is allowed to go to a high school dance? Piper tells Emma that she went back to Cassie’s after something she said didn’t sit right with her (How convenient). When showing pictures from the yearbook, Cassie pointed out that “Seth” was actually Kieran, not Mr. Branson. But how did Kieran have a picture in the yearbook if this was his first year at the school? This might be an oversight by the writers, but could also be a key to Piper’s lies.

Suddenly, the lights go out, and a video screen projects a very wounded, bloody Sheriff Hudson. We then quickly hear that there’s an APB for Seth Branson, who had escaped jail. The scene shows a dead officer in front of an empty cell. Could we have done it? Did the killer get him out to murder him?

TOP SUSPECT: Piper. Piper. Piper. Although there is no way she’s working alone.
NEXT TO DIE: Since the finale is next week, I have a feeling there’s going to be lots of bloodshed before the identity of the killer is announced. Emma, Brooke, and Noah are high on my survival list.