It’s Halloween in this episode of Chucky and the fun doesn’t wait ’til it’s dark. As Devon (Bjorgvin Arnarson, The Seventh Day) said in the intro of his podcast, Hackensack celebrates Halloween the entire day, and they truly make the most of it, so much happening in less than 24 hours to the point where it’s almost ridiculous, but, then again, lots of slasher movies take place over the course of one night, so this episode is no different; in fact, it’s actually one of the better installments of the genre.

It starts off with young Charles Lee Ray (David Kohlsmith, Shazam) finding a razor blade—or a mini circle saw—in an apple he got amongst his candy. Rather than throwing it away or telling his mother or even killing someone with it, he opts to take a bite out of the apple, bloodying his mouth with a smile; at least he let everyone know what he was like from the beginning.

Cut to present day on Jake’s (Zackary Arthur, Transparent) first day back at school where his uncle, Logan (Devon Sawa, Somewhere Between) tries to buy Jake’s trust and affection by giving him money for lunch in the same breath that he micromanages his son’s diet to the point where the boy weighs himself every morning and reports back; for a boy Junior’s (Teo Briones, Ratched) height, 105 lbs is bordering on underweight, as if there wasn’t already a huge problem with their dynamic.

Jake’s return gets mixed reviews, with Oliver (Avery Esteves, The Oak Room) turning over a clearly fake new leaf and apologizing for all the times he was horrible to Jake—which would be great and deserved, if he actually meant it—then inviting Jake to his Halloween party; a party hosted by a 14-year-old 8th grader because his parents left him home alone to go to London for the weekend, because that makes sense.

Meanwhile, Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind, The Young and the Restless) doesn’t even try to hide the fact she’s yet to develop a sense of empathy and makes an insensitive comment about Jake’s father, as well as her typical complaints about the boy in question, which earns the ire of Junior who reminds her that, not only were other people called out during Chucky’s (Brad Dourif, Halloween) performance, but his uncle’s passing was actually really sad considering his alcoholism which was believed to have caused the accident; to no one’s surprise, Lexy doesn’t take his words to heart.

Jake’s return did garner one generally positive response in the form of Devon who offered his condolences and support, as he had also lost his father and knows what that kind of loss can do to a person. This entire interaction is just Devon unknowingly hitting the nail right on the head multiple times over, from explaining why Luke (Devon Sawa, Somewhere Between) distanced himself so much from Jake after his wife died, to saying Jake and Chucky “killed the other night,” which was a line that had to happen, but was still so fun to actually see executed.

Of course, since Hackensack doesn’t wait until dark to start their celebrations, Chucky didn’t waste any time to take his next victim, the housekeeper Annie (Erica Wood, The Knight Before Christmas), which resulted in a subsequent investigation by Devon’s mother, Detective Evans (Rachelle Casseus, Running with Violet), who did a fairly better job than her partner of raising the concern that Jake could be the murderer, a suspicion that would only grow as day turned to night.

This installment of the franchise specifically stands out, not just as a mini series rather than a singular film, but because it takes advantage of the format in order to develop their characters and give them far more depth and nuance than could have been possible in under two hours.

As seen in the previous episode, Junior is far more nuanced than Jake gives him credit for, and is a very interesting character. He’s not nice to Jake, that much is clear, but he doesn’t hate him; in fact, it seems he hates how little pressure Luke put on him, as Logan towers over him to the point where his mother, Bree (Alexandra Doig, Arrow), feels the need to step in, while Junior goes so far as to dress as his dad for Halloween, basking in the precious seconds of unconditional approval his choice earns him.

His relationship with Lexy seems to be along the same vein. He seems to constantly be at odds with her choices, reluctantly going along with her sadistic plans and giving her whatever information she needs because she’s his girlfriend and has a level of power over him that he can’t counter; he even tells her that he doesn’t think she would be there for him if something goes wrong, and she doesn’t disagree, he’s more than aware that he’s far more committed to her than she is to him. He does try to reel her back in whenever she’s begun to cross the line, which means not all hope is lost that he may inevitably choose Jake over her when it comes down to the wire, as he was visibly disturbed by Lexy’s Halloween costume.

The best part about Junior is that he actually seems like an eighth grader. This show, like so many others, doesn’t quite have a full grasp on the age group they’re depicting, as it seems to oscillate between middle school and high school, which is what the transitional period of eighth grade and freshman year are. That was one of the major issues about Oliver’s Halloween party as a whole: it was the kind of party that would be thrown by a sixteen year old, not an eighth grader—who somehow had access to beer?!—and it almost ruined the entire episode.

Almost, because it was thanks to Junior that there was some hope of salvaging the paper thin realism they so desperately wanted to craft when it came to the middle schoolers; and it came just in time, because the start of the scene was nearly the final straw.

While it is expected of slasher to have a gratuitous sex scene where the characters either die or have a close call when fooling around, watching a pair of middle schoolers try to get hot and heavy is the last thing anyone with any morals ever wants to see, especially for the typical runtime usually found in the genre.

Fortunately, it wasn’t that long—though the fact it existed at all made it far longer than it ever needed to be—but what truly saved the episode was Junior. Their sexual activities were virtually nonexistent, a fact that took up the majority of the near kill scene, as Lexy complained and shamed Junior the whole time. While it could have been depicted as him being a meathead who can’t please a woman, or something else completely inappropriate and non-applicable to children of their age, the episode chose to take the more realistic, correct route: Junior wasn’t “doing it right” because he didn’t know what he was even doing.

He’s in the eighth grade, of course he wouldn’t be an expert, and it makes Lexy’s complaints and comments seem less justified, as she tells Junior that he should just know what he’s doing since he’s the guy, which acknowledges how toxic masculinity is harmful for men along with women, as it placed too high standards onto a kid just discovering sexuality in the first place. It established that Lexy’s personality is very separate from the rest of her peers because of her own situation, and her actions and expectations aren’t indicative of others in her year, which absolves them of the strange limbo between middle school and high school that the show depicts her in.

Lexy’s own nuance and layers are actually interesting, not because it makes her redeemable in any way, but because she seems to be a foil of Jake, and possibly even Junior.

The main takeaway of Lexy’s layered life is that, while she makes many great points, she’s still the worst.

When she and Junior were discussing their Halloween costumes, she makes a great point that she doesn’t need his approval to wear what she wants to wear, which is true; girls and women don’t need the approval from the men in their lives—or from anyone, really—when it comes to decisions they make about their bodies if they didn’t ask for it or require it for legal reasons. When she’s with her family, it’s quickly revealed that they aren’t good parents and her resentment of her sister comes from how her parents compare them, her mother feeling far too comfortable insulting her on a whim. Not only that, but when she tries to point out that Jake and Chucky publicly humiliated her, her dad tried to minimize her experience and told her to be flattered instead of upset, yet another thing told to women to discredit their experiences, and Lexy is understandably upset.

She made good points. She shouldn’t have to get Junior’s approval to wear what she wants, and bullying shouldn’t be taken lightly. The problem, however, she completely counteracts any positive aspect about her points because she’s absolutely unaware and, frankly, the worst. She didn’t want to show Junior her costume because she knew he wasn’t going to approve and try to talk her out of it. She was right that Chucky bullied her, but she forgot the bit where she had literally set up the entire talent show to target and humiliate Jake for his crush on Devon, which is definitely bullying.

Meanwhile, Jake was also mistreated by his parent and made to feel worthless, and was also humiliated in front of everyone at school, but he wasn’t ruthless in his terrorizing of Lexy; in fact, that was the first time he ever fought back, and she had already mocked him for his socioeconomic status, not to mention all she had done to him before the start of the show. While pain shouldn’t be compared, it’s important to point out that not everyone who was bullied and had bad parents dressed up and pantomimed the death of their classmate’s dad.

The argument in defense of serial killers can actually be applied to how Lexy views herself; she was bullied and had a bad upbringing, it’s not their fault they killed those people. It can actually also be applied to Chucky’s argument when trying to convince Jake that he’s earned the right to hurt other people and get even, which just goes to show how important Jake’s decisions and choices really are; he didn’t have to try and protect Lexy from Chucky, but he did, which says something about him as a person, not about his upbringing.

This kind of specificity, nuance, and commentary wouldn’t have been explored to this extent if this show were just a movie.

It also gives them the opportunity to explore Chucky as a character and how deep his evil goes beyond just stealing butcher knives to stab unsuspecting humans. This show specifically focuses on Chucky’s ability to manipulate people, and how he can get into people’s heads, establishing to the audience that he is an actual threat. Jake even scoffs when Chucky first tries to get in his head, asserting that he’s not six. While this was a great Andy Barclay roast, as it had been his sixth birthday when he got Chucky in Child’s Play, this is also the way the show acknowledges that it may seem as though Chucky only manages to trick people because they’re either kids or people who don’t have the “typical” rationale of the general audience. This show wants to prove that the power of manipulation shouldn’t be underestimated, and how horrible it is that Chucky takes advantage of the vulnerable to achieve his murderous goals.

We see this all throughout the episode, and it’s one of the best aspects of the episode, though not necessarily in a positive way.

While his main target is Jake, it was interesting to see him reconnect with Lexy’s little sister Caroline (Carina Battrick, Impulse), who had been dazzled by Chucky at the talent show. It was interesting to see him interact with her, preying not only on her naivety as a child, but also on her combative relationship with her sister, and it will be interesting to see if he somehow deputizes her to help him with his killer plans. Something else interesting was how naturally and intentionally he slipped into the role of friend. Of course, his line is “I’m Chucky, and I’m your friend to the end,” but he isn’t always nice and friendly, even when trying to keep his cards close, as was seen when he was trick-or-treating and asking for directions to Oliver’s house and wasn’t particularly kind to the woman, threatening her and ultimately handing over an apple with a hidden razor blade, which was a great callback.

While that was obviously different as she was an adult and also of no more use to him, Chucky never once does anything to make Caroline feel afraid or uneasy. He does swear and say dark things that she may disagree with, but he doesn’t threaten her and continues to play video games, establishing himself to be her friend, which isn’t surprising given that he is possessing a doll targeted towards children, but it’s still key to note.

Of course, what’s even more key is to note how he adapted to make himself amenable to middle schoolers, by far the most volatile and difficult age group to deal with. While Jake is definitely not the worst kid, he’s also not a walk in the park, but it’s, unfortunately, no surprise that Chucky was able to win Jake’s trust while others, like Logan, could not.

As mentioned, Chucky has been trying to win Jake over from day one, trying to convince him that he’s the only person on his side, and while Jake had initially scoffed at the line, as per that aforementioned Andy Barclay roast, the point still stands that he’s a kid in desperate need of a friend or, at the very least, an ally. Chucky forces Jake to take stock of his life and acknowledge just how mistreated he is, showing that he has Jake’s best interests in mind and can see the injustice that so many others try to sweep under the rug or minimize in order to get out of actually having to do something. He puts himself in the position of guardian angel, hearing Jake’s pain and taking care of him, tapping into the part of Jake—and people in general—that wants to get even and lash out.

The talent show scene of the premiere was a scene that, as Lexy said, was bullying and it wasn’t right of Chucky to do that, but after all the humiliation and cruelty Jake’s had to endure, it makes Chucky’s actions feel like justice and the right thing to do. Chucky is, essentially, taking advantage of a victimized boy in desperate need of help in order to control him into doing whatever Chucky wants to; he’s biding his time by asserting that he only kills people who deserve it, and maybe he believes that, but he could also just be appealing to Jake’s sense of justice until he knows he has all the control.

The most distinct way Chucky manipulated Jake’s perception and experience was in this episode, when he referenced his genderfluid child from Seed of Chucky who now inhabited the bodies of a pair of twins, Jake immediately asking if he was okay with it, to which Chucky replied, “I’m not a monster.” While great commentary about Luke, and also a great way to not only reference Chucky’s kid, but also retcon the problematic humor of the gender identity crisis Chucky’s child has into something more valid than initially intended, which, while not fixing it by any means, but still a nice way to acknowledge it while also providing more representation.

But that wasn’t the only reference to Chucky’s past, and this late runtime twist won the “Best Franchise Reference” award hands down, and undid all the preconceptions viewers may have had when it came to what Chucky said and did.

In Cult of Chucky, it was revealed that Chucky had found a spell that let him separate his soul into multiple hosts, though by the end of the movie there was no surviving intact Good Guy doll, save for the one Andy had been sent and was torturing in his house, so the question had always been how a Chucky-possessed Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif, The Blacklist), the protagonist of Curse of Chucky, and Chucky/Charles Lee Ray’s ex-girlfriend Tiffany, both in her possessed human form and doll form, were going to cause problems for Jake and the other residents of Hackensack, as the only Good Guy doll left had only one arm and was at the mental institution with Andy Barclay, so there weren’t any Good Guys on the loose.

However, it seemed that Chucky had been busy while Jake was at school, somehow managing to get his plastic hands on at least one other Good Guy doll that he split his soul into, if not more. This was a clever way of making his, “I didn’t kill the housekeeper,” stance the truth, as that particular Chucky doll hadn’t been the one to push her, but was the other one that Jake has yet to meet.

Unless, of course, he’s been interacting with two interchangeably, though that seems like a bit of a stretch, though it would be an interesting angle to explain why Chucky was so adamant about killing Luke as he was physically abusing Jake, only for him to then hit Jake himself, promising never to do it again in a way that seemed as though he hadn’t actually been the one to hit him. This may all just be coincidence, but perhaps Chucky is taking notes from Christopher Nolan’s Prestige, though only more time with the other Chucky doll will tell.

The episode stayed strong from start to finish, the end being particularly strong, though it did raise some questions. While Lexy’s insensitive—and borderline psychopathic—Halloween costume was more than enough fuel for Jake to want her to be hurt, or possibly die, his actions between her sick performance and the final scene in his room made him seem more conflicted than needed for him to be able to truly side with Chucky.

Of course, he had said he wasn’t sure if he could do it, but he had seemed to believe that Chucky was the only person truly looking out for him and on his side, which wasn’t necessarily the case, as a large portion of this episode was his and Devon’s growing relationship. Devon spends the majority of the episode trying to convince Jake that he does actually care about him—possibly more than he even realizes yet?—and was on Jake’s side against all the targeted harassment; he even wonders why Jake would care enough about Lexy to want her to be safe, because she certainly didn’t deserve even the most basic of his kindness.

Then again, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Jake takes his words to heart, and considering he thinks Junior is fully Team Lexy, it makes sense that he would feel isolated, regardless of the new attention he’s getting from his crush. It wouldn’t be a surprise, especially since he had told his father he found that friends ultimately leave in the end, and Chucky had given him the validation and support of his sexuality and no one, especially his father, ever did, which was a sleazy way to win the trust and affection of an abused and harassed child, but such is the way of murderous dolls, it seems.

Ultimately, this episode was very well done, and with Jake turning to the dark side, it will be interesting to see if Chucky fully indoctrinates him to the serial killer life—he doesn’t seem inclined to possess him in any way, as he had ditched that goal back in Seed of Chucky—or if the few allies Jake has left manage to save him before he does something drastic.

Either way, the thrills and kills will only progress, and only time will tell how this game plays out.

Rating: 9/10