#Chucky Episode 3 Review (TV Series, 2021)
content warning: blood, gore, violence against children, drug use
Episode three of Chucky picks up right where episode two left off. Chucky is trying to convince Jake to kill Lexy after Lexy dressed up as Jake’s dead father and reenacted his death in front of the big Halloween party. Meanwhile, Devon’s mother is still pursuing Jake as the suspect in the deaths of his father and the housekeeper while Devon I still trying to build a relationship with him. Everyone is suddenly really focused on Jake, giving him a taste of popularity for all the wrong reasons.
This episode gives us a really interesting look into the mind of Chucky. He’s training Jake to be a killer on his own. There’s voiceover narration explaining how Chucky picks his victims, plots their deaths, and chooses the right moment to act. It’s the voice of the writer coming through to open up the series in interesting ways.
Chucky shares his first murder in a flashback to his childhood. We saw in episode two that he’s always had violent instincts. This time, we see young Charles Lee Ray revel in the more violent parts of his birthday party—breaking a piñata, cutting a cake, etc.. A radio broadcast reveals a serial killer is on the loose in Hackensack and people should stay indoors. It’s the perfect embodiment of the series’ approach to horror. There are so many potential victims, and the show is promising that the time will be right eventually. “You’ll know,” Chucky says. It’s a promise.
This brings us to Lexy. The show is opening up a few characters at a time, and Lexy gets her moment this episode. She is a teenager obsessed with popularity and success at all costs. The only compassion she’ll show unprompted is to her sister Caroline. Caroline becomes obsessed with Chucky after the talent show and even befriends him at the Halloween party. Lexy is not meant to be a likeable character, but she puts her own reputation on the line to apologize to Jake and ask if Caroline can have Chucky. In a different world, in a different story, she could earn a true redemption, but Chucky is not a story that will reward a bully.
The aesthetics of Chucky are on another level. This series looks good. Everything is planned to perfection. The flashbacks are cropped to a 4:3 aspect ratio and look faded compared to the modern footage. They’re filled with loving homages to iconic horror films, letting you know straight away that nothing about Chucky’s life has ever been normal.
The houses of the various characters give you insight into their personalities. Jake’s room is filled with repeated patterns—specifically, that Twin Peaks’ Red Room chevron as the wallpaper—and the supplies for his newest sculpture of dolls, built from dolls he tore apart. Devon’s room is a dark studio for his true crime podcast, complete with a crime map of pins and strings on the walls, though it’s becoming clear that his police detective mother might not be too happy with his hobby. Lexy’s house is the mayor’s house, pretty much giving her free rein to do whatever she wants without consequence wherever she goes. The school hallways are always packed with students, but the science classroom we keep returning to is the only truly ordered and rule-driven setting in the series. Nothing is too small to matter in the storytelling on this show.
The series keeps raising the stakes every week. As we learn more about the characters and Chucky’s plans, we fall further and further into a world where no one is safe and disaster can strike at any moment. This is the scariest episode yet and we’ve barely seen any of the events teased in the trailer for the series. Chucky has the potential to be one of the best narrative horror TV series to come around in a long time.
New episodes of Chucky premiere on Syfy and USA Network at 10PM on Tuesday nights.
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