…God, Muscle Chucky is freaky looking. That is all. Onto the recap & review.
We pick back up with Muscle Chucky going at Scout Chucky (now self-identified as Good Chucky). I know I made jokes about Mortal Kombat last time, but they start having it out in an honest to god wuxia fight where the titular doll-on-doll action happens. It’s reminiscent of the kung fu from Seed, replete with flying fists and throwing knife attacks that nearly hit Devon and Jake through the door. It is just as goofy as it sounds, and I love it.
Good Chucky prevails in the fight, but Devon is still suspicious of him (justifiably, on account of him crucifying Muscle Chucky with throwing blades in a particularly messed up fashion). Jake and Devon get into a brutal argument where he tells Jake that Gary isn’t coming back, no matter how he attempts to redeem himself. The two part ways, and while Jake is confronted with Chucky’s disconcerting and ominous belief that he’s finally found what he’s built for (justifiably, murder), Devon is caught red-handed by Father Bryce retrieving a mutilated Muscle Chucky from his office after hours.
Father Bryce calls an all-hands-on-deck meeting with Doctor Mitchell (who is totally acting normal and not suspect at all), Sister Ruth (at her usual level of weird), and Sister Catherine, who butts heads with the priest over letting the children express themselves. Ruth’s fixation on the Chucky doll-as-messiah delusion she has resumes, and she takes the Muscle Chucky to the trash at Father Bryce’s command. That Chucky, of course, gets up in front of her, officially cementing her crazy theory in her mind and netting the kids one more antagonist as she pledges fealty to Muscle Chucky.
Nadine uses some air freshener on that Trevor corpse while Lexy continues her painful withdrawal. Nadine confides in Lexy that her mother died at the whims of her own addiction and warns her that the only thing that will result from Lexy’s drugs is the same painful fate. It’s a great monologue by Higginbotham, who again proves why she’s a fan favorite. Lexy disposes of the last of her pills, but the temporary reversal of fortunes for the two teens changes with the disappearance of Trevor’s body.
Devon has an outburst aimed at Good Chucky during the crew’s next regroup, blaming him for everything and revealing to the brainwashed good apple that he was once a bad seed. Jake consoles Chucky and explains his origins to him. He and Nadine have a baptism for Good Chucky to absolve him of his evil, and…if you told me this series would take this direction when I was writing the recaps a year ago, I probably would have called you a complete idiot, but I apologize to the hypothetical you.
Back at Chez Tilly, Glen dreams of murders from Seed (let’s go reused footage!) and blames Glenda for it, before trying to deal with their mother’s addiction to carnage in another intervention alongside Aunt Meg. Tiffany retreats to meet up with a Tiffany Doll inside the house, who is (hold onto your seats) the original Tiffany doll from Seed of Chucky, inhabited by the real actual Jennifer Tilly! In a giant aviary bird cage and everything! It turns out she’s been down here doing all the boring chores of the rich and famous and being paid in chocolates. Tiffany tries to milk the real Jennifer Tilly for information but gets a dud out of the doll with a Wikipedia summary of The Blues Brothers in place of actual memories, which tips off Meg.
Glen and Meg then discover the existence of Doll Jennifer…Tiffany-Jennifer doll…Jen-Tiff? God, James was right; this is getting impossible to keep track of. Anyways, Tiffany kills Meg in front of Glen with her signature nailfile and belts out what is probably going to be her best line delivery of the season as she tells Glen that she is their real mother, and that their whole life is a lie.
Tiffany explains the cryptic dreams and who the twins’ father really is in a moment of tenderness, and you can almost feel pity for Tiffany with how weepy she gets over the prestige falling apart and her kids losing love for her. Tiffany gifts Glen their original doll body as an act of goodwill to try and provide her child with closure, which is surprisingly accepted. The two (accompanied by Doll Jennifer) embark on finding Glenda, Nica, and Kyle after burning down Chez Tilly to some badass synth music.
Devon and Lexy decide that Jakes lost touch with reality following the ceremony for Good Chucky and that they’ll have to strike out on their own to find the truth. The duo finds pictures on the phone confiscated from Good Chucky, indicating he’s been leaving a breadcrumb trail of body parts for himself to navigate back to his leader, the colonel.
The episode ends with Devon and Lexy following the trail of body parts to a cabin in the woods. The Colonel is revealed to be a Chucky named “Charlie”…a bald Colonel Kurtz look alike, under the control of Doc Mitchell and torturing a still alive Andy.
VISUAL HIGHLIGHTS: The set design on this episode was strikingly good in its final moments as Devon and Lexy approach the cabin, walking through a dire doll graveyard bedecked in dismembered plastic people and Good Guy heads on pikes; it’s as if Wrong Turn met the Chucky franchise, and I’m here for it. I will be sorely disappointed if this isn’t incorporated into the Chucky haunted house for Halloween Horror Nights 2023.
PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS: The MVP of the episode performance-wise has to be Lachlan Watson. Their take on Glen really got to shine this episode with them confronting Tiffany and getting a grip on the reality of things. Watson is phenomenal with distinguishing Glen from their more aggressive other half and knowing how much they contributed to the character from costuming to concept makes it better.
QUOTE OF THE EPISODE:
“SHUT UP WITH THE EXPOSITION JENNIFER!”
– Tiffany Valentine to Jennifer Tilly, on what to omit when recapping your hostage situation
RATING: 8 (Flashbacks to Series’ Most Polarizing Film)/10. While some characters like Devon and Sister Ruth have too little to do, and an abundance of lesser plot developments fill the runtime, it’s still the usual Childs Play fun. It spends its time wisely laying some solid character development groundwork and shifting the cast’s relationships, on top of having one very fun doll fight. Also, the Jennifer Tilly meta-humor is reaching critical mass; someone tell Don before it’s too late!