If there’s ever been a more appropriate place and time to tell you these are filled with spoilers, I wouldn’t know it. Seriously, perilous spoilers.
We start with a flashback kick-off to the first episode of the season with several Chuckys led by The Colonel pulling Andy from the wreckage of the van crash. And now, Andy is looking a lot like a Lieutenant Dan cosplay with his hair and beard. The Colonel’s torture session is interrupted when he argues with Doctor Mixter (complete with a terrible Brando impersonation the entire time, thank you Brad Dourif).
Mixter has known Charles for a long time and mentions she was his child therapist. She asks for the privilege of killing the Hackensack Gang, and he denies her that pleasure. Devon and Lexy attempt to rescue Andy as the Colonel and Mixter heads towards Incarnate Lord. The Colonel discovers a rogue Muscle Chucky being worshipped by Sister Ruth, and the rivalry is on.
Father Bryce locks the school down on account of the murders, manually locking all the students in their rooms. Lexy and Devon walk directly into Father Bryce with Andy in tow, and Andy fakes being homeless to stimulate Sister Catherine charity. The gang is reunited, but not before Mixter threatens them in a cold, cold performance that screams, “nobody will ever believe you.” This is a Dr. Mixter heavy episode; take a shot every time you read the name!
Back in the Glen/Glenda subplot, Glenda’s up from the other side of the nightmare shown in Episode 6 and gets a text from Glen showing them the doll. Nica, Kyle, and Glenda try to convene a meeting with Chucky to figure out where Andy is and how many dolls remain. In a tense standoff where Chucky mocks Kyle and snatches her gun, he tries to convince Glenda to kill her with it but fails miserably as the teen’s bleeding heart prevents them from firing. The news reports on Tiffany and the events of “Death on Denial” worry the trio about Valentine’s next move.
Jake tries to reconcile with Devon, but they’re cut off by Good Chucky beaming a fly with a fountain pen and seemingly starting to regrow his darker half. The suspicions don’t end there, as he offers Lexy a stashed bottle of pills to calm her nerves. I love the “Chucky as antihero” subplot this season, and it’s only made more fun by the questions this episode puts out there. Is Good Chucky’s brainwashing just glitching out his violent nature in a way even Nadine’s nurture can’t counteract? Or did it even work in the first place, and this is all just a ruse?
Sister Ruth tries to convert Father Bryce to the religion of Chuck’E’Jesus. Still, the suggestion that a toddler-sized block of vinyl doll meat is the Second Coming is understandably taken as sacrilege, and our pastor ends up putting a target on his back for the episode to come when he scolds her. Muscles and The Colonel then meet in the library to trade jabs, but before they can cross blades, it’s revealed that he poisoned Muscle Chucky with arsenic, and the scariest doll of the season is gone. Rest in peace, you massive unit.
Before The Colonel can show us how ruthless he is against the kids, Andy stabs The Colonel through the back of the head, temporarily ending his reign of terror and nonstop Kurtz references (the horror…the horror…) but becomes thoroughly displeased by the presence of Good Chucky.
Kyle, Nica, and… okay, I can’t keep typing that out. They’re Team Glenda from here on out. Team Glenda is contacted by, twist of twists, Doc Mixter, who warns them that there’s only one active Chucky doll left. Mixter then rolls up on the kids like James Bond with the silenced silver baller and traps them in the room, kidnapping Good Chucky in hopes of extracting his soul.
Mixter explains that Charles Lee Ray’s merciless sociopathy intrigued her when he was a boy and that she plans on reigniting that ember of evil. Sister Catherine gets grazed with a bullet, and Mixter is forced to retreat, but Andy tackles her down the stairs, and Chucky flees. While Catherine wants to call the cops, Bryce insists they must call the Vatican, now focused on exorcising the doll. Good Chucky runs up the bell tower of the Incarnate Lord, chased by a worried Nadine. And in what is sure to be the most shocking moment of the season…
Good Chucky throws her out of the Bell Tower. She dies instantly, and as Lexy cries for her friend, Nadine’s body is laid out in the arms of a Mary statue. Chucky looks upon his works and despairs. Just like that, the fan favorite of the season is gone.
Rest in peace, kleptomaniac queen.
VISUAL HIGHLIGHTS: Nadine might have plummeted straight to her death, but her demise soars as one of the most striking visuals of the episode and stands to be the most stunning shot of the season. I can’t think of a better way for her to have gone out; it was just the right amount of spectacle to give the character a sendoff as explosive as her rise in popularity.
PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS: Dr. Mixter started off feeling like a one-note villain with the limited screentime she had previously, but Rosemary Dunsmore’s excellent acting in this episode turned her into a genuinely threatening enemy of the gang, and a character that you want to know more about. Here’s to hoping she makes it to Season 3!
QUOTE OF THE EPISODE:
“You’re going to have to leave this body Charlie, to make way for a better part of you. The best part of you.”
“Leave my body? Where will I go?”
“I’m a psychologist, not a theologian.”
– Dr. Mixter and Good Chucky, on the intersection of philosophy & science
RATING: 9 (Fallen Angels)/10. With only two episodes left, “He is Risen Indeed” gives us a little insight into how this will all end and flails with a bit of its humor, but it’s still an elite episode of the show so far. The final ten minutes are genuinely a rollercoaster ride where you’re on the edge of your seat, wondering who will survive. It swings for the fences with an ending and a kill that makes the whole episode a must-watch.