diff --git a/libraries/entities-renderer/src/EntityTreeRenderer.cpp b/libraries/entities-renderer/src/EntityTreeRenderer.cpp
index 7643e446ec..d7f9f1343b 100644
--- a/libraries/entities-renderer/src/EntityTreeRenderer.cpp
+++ b/libraries/entities-renderer/src/EntityTreeRenderer.cpp
@@ -88,16 +88,13 @@ void EntityTreeRenderer::resetEntitiesScriptEngine() {
         public:
             WaitRunnable(ScriptEngine* engine) : _engine(engine) {}
             virtual void run() override {
-                _engine->wait();
+                _engine->waitTillDoneRunning();
                 _engine->deleteLater();
             }
 
         private:
             ScriptEngine* _engine;
         };
-
-        engine->unloadAllEntityScripts();
-        engine->stop();
         // Wait for the scripting thread from the thread pool to avoid hanging the main thread
         QThreadPool::globalInstance()->start(new WaitRunnable(engine));
     });
@@ -110,6 +107,13 @@ void EntityTreeRenderer::resetEntitiesScriptEngine() {
 void EntityTreeRenderer::clear() {
     leaveAllEntities();
 
+    if (_entitiesScriptEngine) {
+        // Unload and stop the engine here (instead of in its deleter) to
+        // avoid marshalling unload signals back to this thread
+        _entitiesScriptEngine->unloadAllEntityScripts();
+        _entitiesScriptEngine->stop();
+    }
+
     if (_wantScripts && !_shuttingDown) {
         resetEntitiesScriptEngine();
     }
diff --git a/libraries/script-engine/src/ScriptEngine.cpp b/libraries/script-engine/src/ScriptEngine.cpp
index 6ed7f7f684..843d714973 100644
--- a/libraries/script-engine/src/ScriptEngine.cpp
+++ b/libraries/script-engine/src/ScriptEngine.cpp
@@ -284,7 +284,7 @@ void ScriptEngine::runInThread() {
     workerThread->start();
 }
 
-void ScriptEngine::wait() {
+void ScriptEngine::waitTillDoneRunning() {
     auto workerThread = thread();
 
     if (_isThreaded && workerThread) {
@@ -303,8 +303,9 @@ void ScriptEngine::wait() {
             // Process events for the main application thread, allowing invokeMethod calls to pass between threads.
             QCoreApplication::processEvents();
 
-            // If the final evaluation takes too long, then tell the script engine to stop evaluating
+            // If the final evaluation takes too long, then tell the script engine to stop running
             auto elapsedUsecs = usecTimestampNow() - startedWaiting;
+            static const auto MAX_SCRIPT_EVALUATION_TIME = USECS_PER_SECOND;
             if (elapsedUsecs > MAX_SCRIPT_EVALUATION_TIME) {
                 workerThread->quit();
 
diff --git a/libraries/script-engine/src/ScriptEngine.h b/libraries/script-engine/src/ScriptEngine.h
index b107e741f4..789958d57a 100644
--- a/libraries/script-engine/src/ScriptEngine.h
+++ b/libraries/script-engine/src/ScriptEngine.h
@@ -67,10 +67,7 @@ public:
 class ScriptEngine : public QScriptEngine, public ScriptUser, public EntitiesScriptEngineProvider {
     Q_OBJECT
 public:
-    static const auto MAX_SCRIPT_EVALUATION_TIME = USECS_PER_SECOND;
-
     ScriptEngine(const QString& scriptContents = NO_SCRIPT, const QString& fileNameString = QString(""));
-
     ~ScriptEngine();
 
     /// run the script in a dedicated thread. This will have the side effect of evalulating
@@ -88,7 +85,7 @@ public:
     Q_INVOKABLE void stop();
 
     // Stop any evaluating scripts and wait for the scripting thread to finish.
-    void wait();
+    void waitTillDoneRunning();
 
     ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
     // NOTE - these are NOT intended to be public interfaces available to scripts, the are only Q_INVOKABLE so we can
@@ -169,7 +166,6 @@ public:
 public slots:
     void callAnimationStateHandler(QScriptValue callback, AnimVariantMap parameters, QStringList names, bool useNames, AnimVariantResultHandler resultHandler);
     void updateMemoryCost(const qint64&);
-    void abort() { abortEvaluation(); }
 
 signals:
     void scriptLoaded(const QString& scriptFilename);
diff --git a/libraries/script-engine/src/ScriptEngines.cpp b/libraries/script-engine/src/ScriptEngines.cpp
index 6e7c2bb839..b31c7ac07b 100644
--- a/libraries/script-engine/src/ScriptEngines.cpp
+++ b/libraries/script-engine/src/ScriptEngines.cpp
@@ -158,9 +158,6 @@ void ScriptEngines::shutdownScripting() {
             // and stop. We can safely short circuit this because we know we're in the "quitting" process
             scriptEngine->disconnect(this);
 
-            // If this is an entity script, we need to unload any entities
-            scriptEngine->unloadAllEntityScripts();
-
             // Gracefully stop the engine's scripting thread
             scriptEngine->stop();
 
@@ -168,7 +165,7 @@ void ScriptEngines::shutdownScripting() {
             // want any of the scripts final "scriptEnding()" or pending "update()" methods from accessing
             // any application state after we leave this stopAllScripts() method
             qCDebug(scriptengine) << "waiting on script:" << scriptName;
-            scriptEngine->wait();
+            scriptEngine->waitTillDoneRunning();
             qCDebug(scriptengine) << "done waiting on script:" << scriptName;
 
             scriptEngine->deleteLater();