*This Review Contains Full Spoilers*

After letting its titular killer doll start fires and nab a kill, Chucky slows things down in the aftermath to explore more of its mythos and force two enemies to become adversaries.

The end of last week’s episode was probably one of the coolest moments for Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif). His successful home invasion led to an epic fiery fight with Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind) and has caused everyone in Hackensack to turn on each other. Lexy’s parents have another spat with Jake’s aunt and uncle where Logan (Devon Sawa) questions if Lexy’s parents have no control over her and Michelle (Barbara Alyn Woods) chastises Logan for pressuring Junior (Teo Briones). Caroline (Carina Battrick) is now in the ICU and Junior is unable to continue his cross-country season because of lung damage he suffered from the fire. People are even starting to question Devon’s (Bjorgvin Arnarson) love for crime as Oliver’s (Avery Esteves) death is ruled as a homicide. All fingers are still pointed at Jake (Zackary Arthur) though which means that Chucky is still flying under the radar, but he does make one crucial mistake.

Since Chucky couldn’t kill Lexy before everyone was rescued, she now knows that Chucky is alive but that doesn’t mean that her and Jake are ready to bury the hatchet. With Lexy being furious at Jake for telling Chucky he wanted her dead and Jake blowing up at Lexy for her behavior, this new partnership isn’t without its kinks and sadly isn’t that fun to watch. It’s easy to appreciate this series for trying to have a real conversation about non-violent approaches to conflict, but it struggles to leave a real impact or conjure real answers in the moment. Jake certainly should’ve been more open about his feelings, but that doesn’t give Lexy the pass to do the horrible things she’s done. Also, Lexy still doesn’t show any remorse or take any personal responsibility and while I get that maybe that will come with time, at the moment, she’s still frustratingly unlikeable. Thus, it’s hard to take their perspectives to heart and since most of the episode is surrounding Lexy and Jake’s team-up, it’s pretty uneventful.

However, there’s some good stuff surrounding Chucky and franchise lore that’s pretty fun. Although I’m still waiting for this series to really dig into the big players and stories that are eventually going to intertwine, there are some hints that these connections are coming soon as Devon’s research on Charles Lee Ray gives us flashes of Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) and Nica (Fiona Dourif).

More glimpses into Charles Lee Ray’s past in a halfway home also contains a nod to a character from the original Child’s Play. Charles’ time at a halfway home has some strong Sinister vibes with the old film aesthetic to it and Charles acts a more vocal Bagul leading kids to his murderous work in the hopes of recruiting them. Although most of the kids run in terror at the sight of a janitor Charles killed, one kid appreciates his handywork. That kid ends up being a younger Eddie Caputo, Charles’ partner who he kills in Child’s Play. Overall, it’s an incidental reveal since the character is dead, but a nice nod otherwise.

More importantly, Chucky is given a horrifying new form with a melty face and scores another bloody kill. Chucky is essentially cosplaying Two-Face with how half of his face is melted, but it’s more than likely that he won’t always look like this. Remember, back in Cult of Chucky, Charles soul was split between different dolls and Junior’s hallucination of a non-melty Chucky could signify that there’s more than one Chucky running around. It’s also great that the kills are sort of signified in how the title looks at the syringes come back in Chucky killing a guard. It’s a kill that brings the blood and is followed up with one of the darkest acts Chucky’s ever done in unplugging Caroline’s life support leaving everyone on edge as the episode ends.

Chucky slows things down after last week’s explosive finale and although it struggles to make Lexy and Jake’s feud coming to a head more compelling, the solid lore building around franchise favorites returning and Charles’ backstory could signal greater things on the horizon.

Watch the Trailer Here: