"And I knew that if I could kill him, I could kill anybody. I mean, I might have even cared about him. That's why I let him see me for who I truly was."
--Ghostface, Scream (season three, episode six)
Season three of Scream replaces the utter mediocrity of the earlier two seasons with a new cast, strong acting, a more nuanced story, and greater emotional development of the characters. Just as importantly, it also has a far more intentional and explicit approach to the moral issues of racism and hypocrisy. As is usually the case with almost any philosophical themes in entertainment, there are characters who do make asinine assumptions when grappling with these vital subjects and forsake reason, but the skin color of Ghostface--and other characters--plays a significant role in the story. So does the deception involved in hypocrisy, even if that deception only involves lying to oneself or refusing to live consistently while thinking of oneself as rational.
Spoilers do await beyond this point, so avoid reading further if specific information about how the plot intertwines with the themes is unwanted. The reveal of Ghostface's identity in the final episode is intricately tied to some of the season's core themes thanks to the motives of the killer and what they are content to inflict on others. Beth, a young student who eventually says she has long been a sociopath (someone who lost their conscience, but perhaps Beth meant she never had one, in which case the term psychopath applies), metaphorically unmasks herself in front of her "final girl," saying that the difference between her and other masked murderers is that she is the same person when her Ghostface mask comes off--a crucial thing to note given that she targets people in part for hypocrisy, for appearing one way while concealing secret parts of their actual identity.
She at least understands that the philosophically problematic nature of hypocrisy is not something a seeker of truth can toss aside. If she did not understand this to some extent, there would be no reason for her to hate hypocrisy at all! At its worst, hypocrisy can so drive a person that they actually misunderstand their own motives and desires when their own minds are ever before them and do not have to be misunderstood at all. Instead of seeking truths other than ones of immediate personal interest, however, she acts as if her sociopathy somehow proves that she can express her true self as she pleases without reflecting on possible moral consequences instead of social ones.
At one point, this Ghostface who despises hypocrites admits that she will use potential racial and gender biases in favor of white women to make herself seem innocent of the murders she has committed. How ironic it is that someone who would rather murder than do nothing in the face of hypocrisy would play along with inconsistencies in how people are treated based on their gender and race! In this sense, Beth is one of the most insidious hypocrites in the entire story. Her selective concern for truth (at the expense of serious moral inquiry) and her willingness to take advantage of sexism against men and racism against blacks expose how inconsistent she truly is despite thinking she is the one standing on truth.
Far more than Beth's reveal in the final episode of Scream's third season either touches on racism or sets up the narrative seeds that come to fruition when Beth admits her hatred of hypocrisy. The Scream show weaves these themes into its story without indulging in the less abstract plot of the unrelated first two seasons (unrelated in that they address different characters). In doing so, it exemplifies how slasher horror can be made in ways that do not shy away from important philosophical topics that could affect anyone's life given the right circumstances. The only valid basis for opposing racism and hypocrisy in all their forms is nothing other than truth itself. Not every character in the third season cares about truth in any ultimate sense, and maybe none consistently care about truth, but the story unfolds with ideas that hinge on logical truths at the forefront.
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