Fuelled by a ruthless intensity that left England reeling, Gregor Townsend's side looked reborn. Written off in the build-up against opponents chasing a 13th consecutive win - and their first triumph in Edinburgh since 2020 - the Scots instead exploded out of the blocks.
Finn Russell's early penalty, followed by tries from Huw Jones, Jamie Ritchie and Ben White, powered Scotland into a 17-0 lead inside 25 minutes. England responded only through a converted Henry Arundell try and a George Ford penalty, but their task was made far harder by Arundell's nightmare afternoon.
The wing was yellow-carded twice in the first half, leaving England a man down for 30 minutes. Scotland made full use of the advantage, piling on 14 points during Arundell's first absence to carry a commanding 24-10 lead into the interval.
Ford trimmed the deficit with an early second-half penalty, but any hope of a comeback was swiftly extinguished. Matt Fagerson charged down a Ford drop-goal attempt, and Jones scooped up the loose ball to sprint 60 metres unchallenged for his second try.
Long criticised for losing focus with a lead, Scotland showed no such frailty this time. England enjoyed brief spells of pressure, but they were met with ferocious Scottish defence and authority in possession.
Ben Earl crossed late on to reduce the margin to 11 points, though it did little to dampen the celebrations as Murrayfield revelled in a famous, emphatic win.
Speaking after the game, Scotland skipper Sione Tuipulotu said: "I'm extremely proud. To go through what we went through last week really hurt and we understood because we deserved it. Ultimately Italy were better than us.
"We really felt like our backs were against the wall and we showed up today.
"I felt guilty. Head coaching is a hard job because when it is going well you get all the positives but when it is not going well you get all of the criticism.
"We got behind our coach this week. I'm proud of the boys for getting behind our coach and delivering a performance."
Scotland now head to Spain to recover before their third match of the championship against Wales next weekend.
Tuipulotu says they will do everything in their power to kick on from this impressive victory.
"I want to enjoy tonight with my team-mates but make no mistake we'll be all hands on deck," the Glasgow Warriors centre said.
"We'll prepare to the best of our abilities to back up this performance."
Head Coach Gregor Townsend confirmed there were injuries to three key players - Jack Dempsey (bicep), Jamie Dobie (shoulder) and Jamie Ritchie (knee). It's feared that Dempsey and Ritchie could miss the rest of the tournament, but Townsend is more optimistic over Dobie.