*This Review Contains Full Spoilers*

Fan-favorite characters begin to resurface in this week’s episode of Chucky, but their reentry along with some character development is a total mess.

As I said back in the premiere, this series is NOT a reboot, but actually a continuation of Don Mancini’s Chucky films so characters like Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) and Nica (Fiona Dourif) were set to make a big return and bring the franchise’s confounding, soul-splitting lore with them. Personally, I’ve been a little nervous to see how the show was going to tie them in since a lot happens in Curse and Cult of Chucky and it isn’t exactly the easiest to explain. Unfortunately, this episode proves that in the messy way that Tiffany and Fiona are re-introduced.

Frankly, their reemergence in the franchise doesn’t have the gravitas or spark that it should – especially for franchise veteran Jennifer Tilly. We just kind of see Tiffany and Nica, who is still possessed by Charles Lee Ray, hooking up after killing someone and holding another man captive. Tiffany barely gets any sort of real introduction and Nica just kind of does a big exposition dump when she’s able to take control of her body again. There’s no doubt that Fiona Dourif is the true highlight of this episode since her split personality performance is a total blast to watch and it’s pretty cool to see her play a younger version of her father in some of the flashbacks. However, the big exposition dump that she’s given to catch newcomers up on what happened in Curse and Cult is painfully uncreative and glosses over big plot details way too fast.

The big worry with this series was that it wouldn’t be able to introduce all its lore properly to bring newcomers in and the mostly empty reintroduction of two important franchise characters doesn’t do enough to tie things together. The flashbacks to Curse and Cult are basically just kill montages and really aren’t enough to make longtime fans feel vindicated to see legacy characters return.  Frankly, the flashbacks, in general, feel lackluster and this episode really feels the need to explain things that don’t need to be explained. The flashbacks to Charles Lee Ray’s upbringing had been interesting to see mainly because of how it expands on his character. However, the flashbacks here simply just come with a generic 80s style that’s kind of bummer since last week’s episode killed it with kind of Sinister homage and unnecessary explanations of how Tiffany and Charles met.

This Tiffany/Charles introduction is just weak fan service that breaks some continuity. Charles’ comment about Tiffany going blonde doesn’t really make sense since she doesn’t go blonde until she’s a doll and her comment about being called Chucky doesn’t make sense either since the Chucky name is, I believe, derived from the original doll that Charles possessed. Regardless, the flashbacks here are completely pointless and the episode would’ve benefited more from them not being there at all.

There’s even a pointless flashback in the present showing Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) transferring his soul from the melty body to a new Good Guy doll even though it was totally obvious. It was pretty apparent that Chucky was just going to let Jake (Zackary Arthur), Devon (Bjorgvin Arnarson), and Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind) kick him to death, although it was funny to watch. It just feels like this episode is padding time with these flashbacks to make its thin writing more robust. It fails entirely to work and there’s a lot of the big character moments fall completely flat. The budding relationship between Jake and Devon happens, but it feels more forced and sudden than it should. Bree’s (Lexa Doig) secret is revealed to be that she has cancer, which is totally random and doesn’t suffice for her oddly wanting to kick Jake to the curb. Honestly, the adults take a nasty turn here as Logan’s (Devon Sawa) pushing of Junior (Teo Briones) to fit his ideals is getting annoying and Lexy’s mom is completely despisable.

Chucky hits a devastating low point this week as it completely botches the reintroduction of Tiffany and Nica as well as franchise lore and its weak writing and overuse of flashbacks makes the big character moments fall totally flat.

Watch the Trailer Here: