Check out our episode here! Clown In a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives by Adam Cesare
The Baypen Massacre was a little over one year ago. Quinn, one of the heroes and survivors of the attack, has moved away from Missouri and back to her hometown of Philadelphia for college. Her roommate, Dev, has a group of friends over in their dorm room and they're all watching a fake documentary on YouTube about what "actually happened" during the Frendo murders. This documentary claims that Quinn was the mastermind behind the massacre and convinced two gay boys to go along with her as they murder pretty much everyone in town and blame it on the adults. Yeah ... That's not what happened. Quinn unexpectedly enters the room, tells them there are better and more believable documentaries they could watch instead, grabs a pillow and leaves for a private study room elsewhere in her building.
When she gets to the study rooms, Quinn thinks about the death threats and attacks she's prepared herself for. She and Rust trained together pretty much every day since the attacks until she left for college. She's got a baton in her backpack and can put her phone in emergency mode without even looking at it. She decides to send a message to the boys, Rust and Cole, to see where they are on their road trip to come see her. They tell her they'll see her tomorrow, and then Quinn hears heavy footsteps and a dragging sound coming down the hallway. She reaches for her baton but puts it away when she realizes it's just a maintenance man with a vacuum. He recognizes her and is about to say something, but is interrupted by Dev who has come to apologize.
Rust and Cole are in a motel room in Pennsylvania on their way to meet up with Quinn. This is the farthest Rust has ever been from home in his life and he's a little nervous about it. He's never really been to a big city before, but Cole has, and because of his trust fund millionaire status and his social media popularity, Cole can handle anything. As they get out of bed and get ready to get back on the road, Rust puts lotion on his burn scars that he's been dealing with since the massacre. He's been dealing with a lot of stuff since then, but at least Cole's been by his side. Now, however, Cole has a secret smile on his face from a text that he just got, and it wasn't from Rust, his boyfriend who is standing right in front of him, or from Quinn, their best friend.
Jerri is sitting in the counselor's office at school. She keeps slipping back into the night of the massacre and reliving the moment where one of the Frendos shot her sister Dorothy in the face with a crossbow but miraculously let Jerri go. The unknown adult female Frendo told Jerri she was too young and told her to get, to run away into the field and not go back to the barns. The counselor snaps Jerri back into the present by asking her questions about her grades, her friends, and her gender, but Jerri's not dealing well with any of those things really. She keeps going back to that night.
Mayor Glenn Maybrook, Quinn's dad, is currently screaming. He's just seen the new murdersome clown billboard put up by Eli Duvall about the horror haunt and hayride he's put up at the Tillerson's field. Well, it's his field now. He bought it after the massacre and is now, according to the mayor, profiting off the horror of that night. Eli, a popular man in the Branson entertainment industry, refuses to take the billboard down, so now Mayor Maybrook might have to sue. He's terrified of the thought of Eli taking this Halloween attraction and creating a year-round museum of murder. Sheriff Marta Lee picks the mayor up and they head into town, jokingly plotting to cover Eli's car in parking tickets, but then something hits the windshield.
Jerri is gearing up for her evening shift at the theater. Tonight they'll be showing a spooky double feature, but ghosts and hauntings, definitely no slashers. As she stands outside waiting to open the doors, she watches some people from school, juniors to her freshman status, so they probably don't even know who she is. Soon Jerri is approached by a conspiracy theorist who wants to interview her about the Frendo murders, though he is probably one of the ones who believes that Quinn, Rust and Cole were behind the attacks instead of George Dunne, the former sheriff and Arthur Hill, the former mayor, and the rest of the adults in town. She tries to avoid him but he keeps questioning her until the three juniors come to her rescue. The girl puts her arm protectively around her while the boys stare down the conspiracy theorist. He freaks out and sprays them down with pepper spray then promptly backs into the street and into the sheriff's car. She arrests him for assaulting the minors while the mayor, now acting as doctor, helps them inside to wash out the spray.
Hunter Duvall, Eli's son, is walking the haunt and thinking about how much he likes what he's doing and how he might want to stay in Kettle Springs after Halloween is over. Not just for what he's doing, but for a person. Cole. Cole has a boyfriend, but it should be Hunter! As he walks between attractions, he hears a cough. Then another, muffled. Then he hears a sticky sound. He sees where the noises are coming from. A person in a vintage Frendo mask painting FRENDO LIVES in blood on the barn wall. As Hunter calls the police, the clown disappears into the cornfield, leaving a horrible stench behind him.
Rust and Cole have finally arrived in Philadelphia and Quinn is taking them to get all the best food. First up? Philly cheese steak. As they're eating, they realize that pretty much every person in the room knows who they are. Then a touristy mother approaches and tells Cole thank you for what he's done on TV. He's been interviewed by several news outlets and the one she's referring to is about his sexuality. She thanks him for his work and for helping her with her queer daughter (who is also at the table, almost 30, and completely embarrassed). After she leaves, three buzz cut men approach, and Quinn and Rust get nervous. They ask if it's true what happened to them, if they took out the Frendos. They say some is true and some is not, but then the buzzcuts ask for a selfie and the situation diffuses. Then an old man starts yelling about it being a hoax and so they leave. They had plans to eat more food and tour more places, but now that's over. They decide to go back to the dorm instead. And there they walk into a costume party where everyone was waiting on them.
Jerri's feeling a little stressed about the incident with the pepper spray, and how worked up she got at school earlier, but it was nice to have been comforted by Sandra, so that was good. Ms. Izzy Reyes, her boss, comes by to let Jerri know she can go in and watch the second movie of the double-feature because they probably aren't going to sell anymore tickets, but Jerri declines and stays behind the register. Then Hunter Duvall comes to the window asking to come in. Jerri refuses to let him in for free and makes him pay for a ticket, but he's not too happy about that. He says he's looking for his friends, but as far as Jerri knows, he doesn't have any. She watches as he walks into the end of The Haunting and back out again, but she doesn't notice that Frendo has just walked through the lobby.
Quinn, Rust and Cole get through the party goers and into Quinn's room to hide. Dev comes in and apologizes profusely, which seems like all she can do, but then Cole suggests they stop hiding and go to the party. Nothing's happened to them in more than a year. Nothing happened on the anniversary. His missing dad didn't show up and try to kill him again. Rust seems uneasy but they all agree, then Dev helps them make construction paper masks and they leave the room for the party. Unfortunately, just a few songs and drinks in, the elevator door opens and Frendo steps out. The drunken college kids boo him and tell him his costume is in poor taste and try to push him back into the elevator, but then he pulls out a gun and shoots a guy in the leg. Oh shit. The party-goers scatter but Rust shouts Form up! He and Quinn practiced for this moment nearly every day since the attack until Quinn went to college. As Quinn whips out her baton and walks toward the guy, another group of teens tackle him. Quinn gets to him and bashes him in the head and pulls off his mask.
While all this was happening in Philadelphia, something was also happening back in Kettle Springs. Quinn realizes she's missed several calls from her dad and finally answers, but it's not Mayor Maybrook on the line. It's his girlfriend, Ms. Reyes. She tells Quinn through sobs that she needs to come home, now. At the exact same time as the college party attack, Quinn's dad was attacked by the Frendo that passed unseen through the lobby of the theater. Jerri heard the attack and ran out to his rescue, but wasn't quite in time. Glenn Maybrook was stabbed and slashed with a safety knife and is now in the hospital in critical condition. Meanwhile, as Quinn, Rust and Cole are flying to Missouri and Dev is driving Cole's car back to Missouri, police in Philadelphia are interviewing Brad, the college party Frendo, but they don't get any information from him, other than the fact that he supposedly bought his vintage mask on ebay, because he eats a cigarette that had poison hidden inside.
At the hospital, Quinn gets to see her Dad while Rust and Cole are left in the waiting room. The Sheriff suggests that they find a ride home, or they can wait for her to get a deputy, but while they were still in Philadelphia, Cole texted Hunter, so now he's on the way. Rust is understandably upset about this, but instead of telling Cole he's incredibly jealous of this other boy who obviously is interested in his boyfriend, he says they shouldn't get involved with Hunter because they don't really know him and his family is profiting off their misery, which is definitely true. Cole disagrees and tells Rust that he never even thought of cheating on him but when he acts like this... Rust gets upset, but Cole tells him he's acting like his bodyguard instead of his boyfriend, and then he leaves with Hunter, and gives Jerri a ride, too, because the police couldn't get in touch with her mother. ((I just gotta say, I feel a little gaslighted on Rust's behalf.))
The ride is awkward for Jerri, who's pretty sure that maybe Rust and Cole just broke up. She's also pretty sure that Hunter and Cole are flirting, and she's literally right in the middle of it in the truck. Hunter works up the nerve to ask Cole if he ever had a feeling that his dad was planning the massacre, but Cole doesn't answer and tells Hunter that sounds like a reporter question. Then they see a billboard for the haunt and Hunter offers tickets to Jerri if she can guess her classmate that was on the sign. She guesses correctly but then starts crying, swooped back to that night in the field. Cole suggests they drop her off first and then he and Hunter can go back to his place for a beer.
Eli is working on his anger issues and is currently trying to not break the coffee pot in the house he and his family are renting for a few more days before going back to Branson. He sees his wife sleeping on the couch, which she's done almost the entire time they've been in Kettle Springs, and worries about her. Her couch sleeping started out with her working on something on her laptop late into the night, but then she stopped getting dressed and leaving the living room, then she tacked up sheets to create herself a little hideout almost. He tells his wife he loves her through the sheet and heads out to the car to go to work. It smells terrible inside the car, but he doesn't have time to do anything about that. There's a Frendo in the backseat who uses razor wire to cut through Eli's throat.
Jerri walks in the front door of her house and sees her mom on the couch watching the news. She's got the house phone right next to her, so why didn't she answer when Jerri called? Oh, Jerri notices the phone is on, so none of her calls would have gotten through. Jerri's mom yells at her not to leave the house and to go to her room because something crazy is happening, so she didn't even realize that Jerri didn't come home last night and was a witness to a violent attack. Her mom hasn't been right since the massacre and the loss of Jerri's older sister, so Jerri's used to being ignored. She goes upstairs for a little while before sneaking out of the window and heading to the theater. Since they all left in a rush the night before, she decides to go by and lock up, but instead of leaving, she locks herself inside. She sits in her favorite seat and browses her phone for a while, but then she realizes she's not alone. She ducks down on the floor but is soon confronted by a very large man with a gun.
Rust also goes by the theater and finds Jerri outside with a police officer. He purposely misgenders Jerri and tells Rust to head home to his partner at his mansion, but no way. Rust is not putting up with that. The officer gets a call on his radio and so Rust and Jerri decide to leave and go get tacos.
Quinn wakes up in her dad's hospital room and hey, her dad is awake, too! He's still in pain, but he's alive and will survive. He sends Quinn home with the sheriff, but before she leaves, she gives her baton to Izzy to keep her and her dad safe. On the drive, Quinn asks the sheriff if there are any leads on her dad's attacker, but, even if she knew anything, it's not like Sheriff Lee can tell Quinn anything. They drive on until they see a stalled vehicle and some men on the side of the road. The Sheriff is smart, though, and barely puts her window down when a seemingly drunk skeleton comes over asking for help. Unfortunately, the skeleton man is faking and he manages to get his arm through the window and stabs the sheriff to death. Quinn is freaked out, but grabs Sheriff Lee's gun and shoots at the man and his friends as they run off into the cornfield. Undeterred, Quinn follows.
At Cole's mansion, he's drunk, shirtless and rummaging through the refrigerator. But wait. Why isn't he wearing a shirt? Oh shit. Did he... do something with Hunter? Oh shit. He thinks back and remembers that they were in the basement, then Hunter asked about a bad smell and then he showed Hunter the indoor pool and spa area and then he stripped off his shirt and was about to get into the pool when he realized, oh shit, I don't need to be shirtless in a pool with this guy when I have a boyfriend, so then he went upstairs for more beers. Now here he is, but the smell from downstairs seems to have come with him and he realizes he’s smelled it around the house for a while. Cole gets a text from Hunter, but then he hears someone behind him, and it's not Hunter. It's Frendo. Frendo chases him around the house like he's been there before. They run upstairs, and then Cole goes over the railing on the second floor and plummets to the marble below.
Rust and Jerri enjoy their tacos but then they hear something outside. A riot. There are Frendos of all makes and models storming through the streets looking for The Three, meaning Quinn, Cole and Rust. As a trashcan comes flying through the window, Rust and Jerri sneak out a back door with plans to run to Rust's house where he's got plenty of guns and ways to keep them safe. They don't make it, though they see a mob get to Rust's front door. Rust's dad is a veteran and doomsday prepper, so he's not troubled by the mob at all, and has in fact rigged an explosive to his front door. When a Frendo bashes the door in, he gets blown up instead. Rust and Jerri make it to his truck and drive toward Cole's house.
Quinn follows the skeletons into the corn, but she realizes she's at the same field where everyone died last year. The same field that is now a horror attraction. She shoots at a skeleton, but it's actually a teen leading a group through the Duvall's haunted maze. Quinn manages to convince the group of teens that she's not going to shoot them, or shoot them anymore, when they start checking their phones to call 911. Then one shouts that there's a riot going on and that Quinn is the reason for it. She killed a cop and now she's going to kill them. As she tries to explain, she's knocked out from behind.
Rust and Jerri have to drive a different, longer way to Cole's house, Jerri checking her phone the entire drive. She's watching videos of Quinn killing the sheriff, but they both know that's not real. As they're driving through a neighborhood, they realize they've come across the same group of rioters that were outside Rust's house, and of course they recognize Rust's truck. A lady Frendo wearing a clown-painted pantyhose mask and house slippers gets into the back of Rust's truck with a crowbar. Rust asks Jerri to lift the backseat of his truck and get out a gun, but the pantyhose Frendo bashes through the back window and catches Jerri with her crowbar. Rust gets her free and makes her take over driving as he climbs into the backseat and grabs a gun, then points it at the Frendo. She starts shouting that she's got them, but Rust somehow convinces her to take off her mask and have a conversation. This pantyhose Frendo is Jane Duvall, Hunter's mom, and she says she hates this town and found her husband dead in his car, and assumes that Rust killed him because she tried to kill the mayor. Uh. No. Then they arrive at Cole's mansion.
Hunter wanders through the basement, embarrassed about taking off his shirt and freaking Cole out enough to make him leave the room. He notices a light coming from the sauna nearby and then sees a shadow pass by and smells an awful smell. The shadow and the smell are coming from the Frendo, who heads upstairs toward Cole. Hunter sends a text and hears Cole get it, then he decides he's going to go upstairs too, either to help Cole or to get the hell out. By the time he makes it upstairs, it's to see Cole splattered on the floor, arms akimbo. Luckily he's still alive somehow, but the Frendo is standing over him, holding a rusty knife, so he's probably not going to survive much longer. Hunter grabs an iron skillet from the kitchen and smashes it into the Frendo's jaw at the same time the Frendo stabs him in the belly with the knife. While this is happening, there's someone outside trying to break the door down. Hunter gets to Cole who tells him to open the door because Rust is out there trying to get in. Rust shouts that he's going to shoot the door open but Hunter, who is shambling over, can't get out of the way in time.
When Quinn comes to, she's zip-tied and tries to explain to the teen that the cop who is there now and helping him is a bad guy who killed the sheriff and that you can still see the skeleton makeup he was wearing. The cop tells the teen, named Tyler, that he should take the others and find his partner while he walks Quinn through the corn and back to his car. The cop leads Quinn through the maze and plans to shoot her, telling her about how he grew up in this town and thought George Dunne, former sheriff, was a hero and that most everybody else who is in town rioting is a useful idiot. Just as he's about to shoot Quinn, who has just told the cop that he is, in fact, a useful idiot, Tyler tackles him. Thank goodness he realized something was off and believed Quinn. While they scramble, Quinn gets her zip-tied wrists around the cop's throat and strangles him to death.
Rust, Jerri and Jane Duvall enter the Hill Mansion, Rust immediately rushing to Cole as Jane rushes to Hunter. Rust checks on Cole, gives supplies to Jane for Hunter, and instructs Jerri to make sure no one else is in the house. Cole asks where he is, and Rust assumes he means Hunter who he thinks is as bad as his mother, but no. That's not who Cole is talking about. He's talking about his dad. Oh shit.
Arthur Hill is upstairs in his own house, though he wishes he were back in the basement sauna where he's been hiding out for weeks. It took him a long time to make it back into the country and to amass his internet Frendos, but he's done it. He regrets hiring the idiot he sent to Philadelphia to kill his son and not doing it himself, but now, he's back home and can take care of it. He hears Rust coming after him and then shuts off the power, but that just means Rust knows exactly where he is. He knows where the breaker box is because he's been in this house so often and starts following. He also knows where Frendo is because he can track the awful smell that he’s noticed the past few times he’s been to the house. Meanwhile, the rioters arrive outside and set fire to the house. Jerri convinces Jane to go outside and explain to them that Rust, Cole and Quinn aren't bad, but instead she tells them that Rust and Cole are inside and they killed her son. Oh shit.
Out in the cornfield, Quinn and Tyler get to the second cop who is calling for the one she just killed on a walkie talkie. She sneaks up behind him, tells him she just killed his friend and handcuffs him. She then manages to convince Tyler and several others that she is not the bad guy and that she didn't kill Sheriff Lee, but this cop and one of his friends did, and the rioters, who they've all seen videos of destroying their town, are actually bad, and they aren't going to kill all the teens in town, just her and her friends. One of the teens holds up her phone to show Quinn a live video of a Frendo riding in the bed of a truck singing Two Out of Three Ain't Bad, then showing Rust and Cole tied up. Quinn looks around at the teens in the field, most of whom are dressed as clowns from working the haunt, and hatches a plan.
Glenn Maybrook wakes up in the hospital from a dream where all his girls, Quinn, Izzy, Marta Lee and even his late wife Sam were standing around his bed. He feels better and safe, then notices there's something resting on his bed. He reaches and finds Quinn's baton wrapped in a piece of paper with a note written on it. The note isn't from Quinn, but from Izzy, and in it, she mentions how, if Quinn knew her at all, she wouldn't have given her a weapon. She already has one that she keeps in the theater. And she's used it. And she's sorry about it. Glenn realizes that there's only one thing involving weapons someone from Kettle Springs would apologize for. Izzy was involved in the massacre.
Arthur Hill jumps out of his burning house to the ground below and other Frendos come to his rescue, getting him to a vehicle so they can all go downtown for some kind of trial. Jerri's also in a vehicle, the same one with Rust and Cole. She doesn't know how she's going to be treated though. Rust and Cole are obviously the ones all the Frendos want, and Hunter seems to be thought of as some kind of hero because his mom is one of the Frendos. They get downtown and Jerri realizes the lights of the theater are on, but they don't come on automatically, so someone must be in there. Across the street from the theater is the municipal building where a mass of Frendos have gathered. They drag Rust and Cole up in the center and a Frendo with a megaphone calling herself Red Nosed Trixie gets everyone's attention. The Frendos are going to have a trial before a public execution.
Quinn, dressed as a Frendo, looks out at the crowd surrounding the municipal building. There are so many Frendos. Most are drunken revelers, a few are the teens she gathered to help, and some appear to be soldiers under their masks. She spots one that is very important though, the executioner with the AR-15. As soon as she's able, she's going to take him out. As she watches, waiting for the perfect opportunity, a horrible smell passes her and a Frendo walks up the stairs of the municipal building.
Arthur Hill pushes past all the Frendos he's brought together and takes the megaphone from Red Nosed Trixie, who suggests other Frendos hose him down because he smells so bad. He announces to everyone that he is Arthur Hill, though his jaw is broken and no one can understand him. Then he gets hit with a beer can. The Frendos have no idea who he is. He looks around and sees signs for George Dunne, but he's the one who is responsible for all this. He removes his mask, and still, no one recognizes him. Well, Cole does, and he's ecstatic that no one knows who he is. It's so perfect for the self-important, stuck up jackass. Someone else recognizes him though, and then a crossbow bolt flies through his neck. He dies and literally no one cares.
Izzy Reyes is up on the roof of the theater. She's been keeping an eye on Jerri and Cole and Rust, ready to protect them, but then Arthur Hill walks up in front of everyone, so she takes the opportunity to kill him. She knows things are going to go badly after this and that she's not going to survive, but Arthur Hill is responsible for everything and she has to do something about it. He ruined her life.
Quinn takes aim at the Executioner Frendo and shoots out his eyeball, but he sprays bullets as he falls. Luckily no one we care about is hit. Another Frendo saw Quinn shoot the Executioner, so he attacks her, but she shoots him, too. A lady Frendo saw, too, and recognized her as Quinn, then tried to get others to help her, but then she gets smashed in the head with a beer bottle by one of the Haunt Teens. Quinn then grabs the AR-15 from the Executioner and walks up the stairs of the Municipal Building to her friends.
Jerri, who was in the back of the truck near the Executioner, gets out as the bullets fly. A Shirtless Frendo grabs her and she fights back, which he doesn’t like, and then he calls her little man, which she doesn’t like, and neither does Sandra, the junior girl Jerri kind of has a crush on. She swings a bat at Shirtless Frendo and takes him down. Jerri and Sandra then make their way to the theater and Sandra gives Jerri a kiss before Jerri goes inside to help Ms. Reyes. She finds her behind the snack bar, shot and dying. As she passes away, Ms. Reyes apologizes to Jerri for what she did to her, and to her sister, Dorothy, the night of the massacre. Even though she’s angry and Ms. Reyes deserves to die for what she’s done, Jerri sits with her until she’s gone.
Quinn, Rust and Cole are preparing to make a last stand on the steps of the Municipal Building. They sit, guns ready, for a long time, then somebody finally comes for them. It’s the second cop she handcuffed in the corn field. Damn. He comes toward them and Rust prepares to take a bullet for his friends, but then, out of nowhere, a car comes flying down the street and plows him down. It’s Cole’s car. The one he asked Dev to drive back to Missouri, but she’s not driving, Rust’s dad is. Behind him are police, ambulances and fire trucks. It’s finally over.
Well, not quite. Three months later, Quinn is in Maryland, ordering crab cakes at a diner. Rust and Cole, along with Rust’s parents, have moved away from Missouri to a big ranch. Glenn Maybrook is finishing up his term as Mayor and Jerri is there to help him when he needs it. Most everything has been wrapped up. But Quinn is on a mission. She’s shaved her head and dyed her hair and is now out looking for the internet Frendos that got away. She’s found one here, at this diner. It’s Red Nose Trixie, though her name tag says Allison. As she brings Quinn’s food, Quinn says thank you, but to Trixie, then pulls out her baton, takes her down, and leaves the diner. There are a lot more Frendos on her list.