In 2016, Kappa Kappa Tau has been rebuilt from the ground up as a much better sorority, thanks to the efforts of president Zayday, vice-president Grace, and treasurer Hester. Dean Munsch is now a best-selling feminist author (despite hiring a ghost writer) and is in a serious relationship with Wes, who trusts that Grace will be safe while the couple is on vacation. Chad sets up a foundation honoring his dead friends and ends his short-lived relationship with Denise, who is excelling as Chief of Police. Hester reveals that she was the Red Devil and got away with all of her crimes. Having grown up in the asylum with Gigi and Boone, Hester soon became obsessed with exacting revenge on the people who took away her mother, and faked her scoliosis to distract people from her plans. She describes herself as the brains of the operation, and Boone as the muscle who actually committed all of the murders.
When Munsch realises that Hester is the murderer, she agrees to not talk about it and let everything stay well. Back in December 2015, Hester survives the stiletto stabbing, having inflicted it on herself, manages to convince Denise that the three Chanels are all killers, and they are arrested. During their trial, Chanel offends the jurors (who originally marked the girls as innocent) with her arrogance and rudeness so much so that they find the girls guilty of all charges, and the trio are sentenced to life in the mental asylum that formerly housed Gigi, Boone, and Hester. There, the Chanels surprisingly enjoy their experience; Chanel is unanimously "voted asylum president", Chanel #3 embraces her lesbianism and begins a relationship with one of the female nurses, and Chanel #5 is placed on a series of medications that completely transform her personality into someone Chanel actually likes. One night, Chanel is awoken in the middle of the night by a knife-wielding Red Devil.