Chucky #5: Little Little Lies

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. The Ticketmaster

Well, my "Charles Lee Ray knew voodoo as a child" theory has been officially debunked. As of last week's episode, we saw Tyler Barrish playing a teenaged Charles Lee Ray, and the once and future killer's grooming of Child's Play loose end, Eddie Caputo, during their time at a home for wayward youths. Add in Charles Lee Ray's fascination with J.M. Barre's favorite youth conservationist (Google wouldn't provide me with the correct "-cide" for the murder of those who reach puberty, so I went the euphemistic route), and it's not only canonically impossible, but psychologically out of character for him, at any age, to consider taking the body of another adult. The appeal he finds in hiding his sinister nature behind an innocent face, the fact that what friends he claims to have call him Chucky, his targeting of children as new host bodies in the first three films, the fact that the majority of his murder victims have been adults, his fixation on toys, and the prankish, attention-grabbing nature of his kills all point to a Peter Pan-based psychology (literally, as it turns out). Of course, there are outliers, like when Chucky and Tiffany planned to possess the young adult couple in Bride Of Chucky, or when Chucky possessed Nica Pierce in Cult, but Chucky is also chaotic, so I guess that fits his character evolution or something?

Yes, I see the irony of my negative take on over-psychoanalyzing fictional killers (which was...poorly received) in my second episode review. Even in the amended version I released later, that opinion stands with respect to horror movie franchises trying too hard to expand their lore in the wrong ways or outright treating their audience like morons. But as analysis is part of my "job," and I needed an intro, I technically never said that I shouldn't do any analysis.

I do apologize for the minor spoilers above, if you haven't been watching Chucky. If you feel possessed to do so, go catch up with the series at the app of your choice (USA Network or SyFy Channel) or through your local provider. SyFy was doing some weird things last week because I kept pausing and switching apps to take notes, so apologies for the very last-minute upload of the fourth episode review. Speaking of which, you can find that article and all of my other Chucky-related coverage at the links below:

Welcome to the Dead Parade #12: Chucky Gets Chyerminaydit (Child's Play 1-3, Bride, and Seed)
Just the Ticket #69: Breaking The Curse of Chucky, Sequel-itis Cured? (Curse) NICE!
Welcome To the Dead Parade #14: Chucky's Cult Following (Cult)

Episode 1: Chucky #1: Deth By Misadventure

Episode 2:

Chucky #2: Give Me Something Good to Eat, and

Chucky #2.5: The Coming Of Rage

Episode 3: Chucky #3: I Like To Be Hugged

Episode 4: Chucky #4: Just Let Go

Also, prepare yourselves to not like me again. Here's the break.

The title of this week's episode is "Little Little Lies," a reference to the teen drama series, Big Little Lies. But to me, it was the episode of moments that were supposed to be moments, but ended up being ruined in some way.

First of all, we open with a flashback to the 1980s, where Charles Lee Ray looks more like his appearance from the opening scene of Child's Play. Which immediately made me think of Tommy Wiseau crossed with John Travolta from Pulp Fiction. But this is neither the awesome part, nor the ruination thereof. The awesome part, as revealed in the "Extended Episode" material, is that 80s Charles Lee Ray is played by the original actor's daughter, Fiona Dourif (who also plays Nica and Chucky-possessed Nica in the franchise, but more on them later), wearing facial prosthetics and adopting the character's mannerisms ("I don't talk or move the way I used to," said Brad Dourif of a session with his daughter. "Don't try to be me; go watch [Child's Play] and study Charles Lee Ray"). The ruination of this awesomeness, and of the entire "how Chucky and Tiffany first met" story that comprises the flashbacks, is that both characters' dialogue is poorly--and distractingly--dubbed in with line-reads by Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly (information that was left out of the same Extended content). And it's just your basic fakeout of "you think he's going to kill the one woman, but she likes death so much that he decides to kill the other one instead." I've seen it before, and the detached dub-reads don't help the scene in the slightest.

Back in the present, Caroline has a new room, and her "I want Chucky!" tantrums have become increasingly grating, despite how much I love the absurdity of her dynamic with Chucky. But things change when she sees the new, melted design, and screams for her dad to get rid of it.

So First Dad throws Chucky down the waste disposal chute, whereupon Chucky lands in a medical waste bin and, because comic relief and nigh-immortality, he gets high on karmic irony for what he did to Officer Donut Hole last episode. A prick for a prick? For a prick?

And in reference to the twisted romance angle of the flashbacks, and Tiffany's last name, the title sequence is made of hearts (of both the human and Valentine varieties).

When the episode resumes, Jake, Lexy, and Devon head to the basement to finish Chucky, but there are three more episodes, so after some gross-out suspense and comedy centered around them deciding who should rummage through the giant bin of IV bags and used needles, they come to the conclusion that the killer doll has escaped.

The next day, in what has so far been the only classroom in use at PMS, the only teacher at PMS (Biology teacher, Miss Fairchild, whom fans have theorized is secretly Glen/da Ray) is in the process of explaining the "plot-relevant class lecture" trope via the ironic biological difference between living and non-living things.

Meanwhile, our main trio are text-plotting to track down and kill Chucky. As this goes on, Jake and Devon notice Junior becoming increasingly more jealous and suspicious of Lexy's uncharacteristic alliance with them, and suggest that she bring Junior in on the truth about Chucky. But Lexy declines, stating that Junior lacks the imagination to accept "social outcast's doll has been voodoo-possessed by dead serial killer."

This isn't Junior's only source of strife, however, as his compromised future as a cross-country runner is bringing out a Lucas-like anger in his father.

On a good note with solid, emotional impact, Jake and Devon visit a memorial shrine to Oliver that the students organized, and end up taking their relationship to the hand-holding stage. I hesitate to ruin the moment (one of the few in this episode that doesn't end up getting ruined), but in anime terms, they've basically just had sex in public.

As for the actual next ruined moment, we'll get to it later, but the ruination is in the setup, so let's talk about that now: in an effort to distract Caroline from the white privilege inconvenience of not being able to sleep in her own room because murder fire, her dad surprises her with a Good Guy doll. Named Tommy. Which Lexy thinks is Chucky, so she attacks it and takes a picture of it before running out of frame like a lunatic. It isn't Chucky, of course, but do you even Child's Play 2, bro? I mean, the doll's name is Tommy, and they even do the thing where First Dad finds Burn Chucky lying next to Tommy and Caroline, thinks nothing of it, and throws it in the trash. We've seen this already, and yet we're supposed to get in on the audience knowledge suspense of watching the kids curb-stomp the empty shell that was Burn Chucky and think they've won? But I've said already that we've seen it already, and because of that, the big, literally theatrical "twist" that we get later just doesn't work.

Another moment that doesn't moment like it should (in part because we know the celebratory aspect of it was just rendered prematurely anticlimactic) is when Jake and Devon first kiss. Yes, it's tentative, and it's awkward, and it's the culmination of four and a half episodes of tentative, awkward, angsty buildup, and (according to the Extended interviews) it's Don Mancini putting substance to the first kiss he wished he'd had at Jake's age. But then they immediately go into a second kiss...and almost fall on their asses because they've forgotten that riding bikes requires balance. It feels like Mancini wanted another take, kept rolling, ended up with a blooper, and just left it in, totally undercutting the significance of the moment that should have been left well enough alone.

Thankfully, we get a couple of good scenes before the big anti-climax rolls its ugly head. The first involves Junior's mother in the middle of a therapy session, discussing her feelings about Junior, her husband's recent abusive behavior, and the big reveal that she has been hiding a Stage Four cancer diagnosis from her family. The cancer reveal is like something out of MadLibs: Soap Opera Edition, but I forgave that for the amazing swerve that the scene sets up. In a nod to one scene from Cult Of Chucky, the camera focuses on Mrs. Wheeler, keeping the therapist's identity a mystery and leading franchise fans to believe that the camera will pan slowly over to reveal that she has been talking to Tiffany the whole time. But this turns out not to be the case, as it is just an unnamed therapist played by Rosemary Dunsmore (Orphan Black). This is how you use fan expectation to build suspense successfully.

The second great scene catches up with Tiffany and Nica-Chucky, who are "having fun" (in multiple senses of the word) at a hotel sometime after the events of Cult Of Chucky. Having killed one male victim and tied up another (to serve as a witness to their sexual and homicidal brands of fun), the twisted pair get in a food-related argument and Tiffany storms off, leaving the chair-bound man alone with Nica-Chucky. Upon looking at the bloody knife in hx hand, Nica somehow regains consciousness and tries to free the man despite no longer having the use of her legs. With one hand free, the man smacks Nica unconscious and tries to escape, but Chucky regains control of Nica's body and reveals that he is aware of the "Nica bullshit" that just happened, before slicing the man's throat for his trouble. It's great to see the legacy cast finally making a return. Alex Vincent did make a voice-only cameo in the first episode when Andy called Jake to tell him about the batteries, but now we're getting to actually see some recognizable faces in the show other than Chucky. And the Nica breakthrough, with the all-is-lost moment that followed it, was perfectly suspenseful as a simple but multi-layered ticking clock sequence.

But then we get to the "big finale:" a school assembly led by Mayor Cross (Lexy's mother) and Detective Evans. Apparently, if you're in charge of a small town and your daughter's classmate gets stabbed to death in a fire at a silent rave at your house, your approval rating among the parental demographic goes in the toilet. Avoid generic, press-friendly platitudes at all costs. Or just be a selfish politician and get booed offstage. Your choice.

Also, out in the audience, Lexy feels bad about excluding Junior and word-vomits about Chucky, only to prove her earlier point about his lack of imagination. Also, Caroline tells her father that Tommy ran away, to the tune of our concerted muttering of, "no shit, Caroline."

With Mayor Cross having elected to get herself booed offstage, Detective Evans takes the mic to announce a curfew and reassure the attendees that a large-scale investigation is underway, before calling out Principal McVay (different spelling, but I couldn't help be reminded of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, as the pronunciation is the same, and Mancini has already shown a tendency to name characters after notorious killers--Chucky being inspired by Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, and James Earl Ray, and Eddie Caputo possibly inspired by Ed Gein and Ricardo Caputo).

But "surprise?" The Principal misses her cue! I wonder why? Could it be for reasons that any Chucky fan would've seen coming from the word "Tommy?" Sure, the principal's severed head rolling out onstage and the theatrical reveal of her staged and headless body fit Chucky to the letter (aside from the ludicrous impracticality of a doll-sized person beheading and posing a full-grown adult body, especially after he complained about how hard it is to strangle someone a few episodes ago). But then they go and ruin the impact of even that by having our three leads stand up and announce their disbelief, and then close the episode by showing what we already know happened in unnecessarily excruciating detail. I like a good, sound and fury "Damballah" scene as much as the next Chucky fan, but this would have been put to better use if it were shown earlier in the episode, in another episode altogether, or just not used at all. The clues are already there in the Good Guy's name and when Mr. Cross finds the burned Chucky doll in Caroline's room later. Treating the fans like morons is not a good way to end an already problematically executed episode.

Here's hoping we don't end up taking multiple rake handles to the face when "Cape Queer" airs this coming Tuesday at 9PM PST. Stay tuned, don't fuck with the Chuck, and

Ticketmaster,

out.