‘Chucky’ Season 3: The Story So Far

Written by Theron Reynolds

CHUCKY -- “Murder at 1600” Episode 301 -- Pictured: Chucky -- (Photo by: SYFY)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the first half of Season 3 of ‘Chucky’.
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After carrying out a massacre in his hometown and upping the blood & carnage at a Catholic school, the Chucky TV show has made it clear that this big screen menace is just as sick and twisted in his small screen presentation. As the 2nd part of Season 3 prepares to premiere simultaneously on USA and SyFy, let’s see where the Good Guy Doll’s book of blood left us last time.

Season 2 finished things up on a number of cliffhangers as The Good Guy Trio (Jake, Devon, and Lexy played by Zackary Arthur, Bjorgvin Arnarson, & Alyvia Alyn Lind) were left in the care of their former teacher Ms. Fairchild after Chucky kills the last remaining parent (Mayor Cross), in an effort to save Glen’s life, Glen along with twin Glenda are transported back into their doll body renamed as G.G. and decide to travel England, Tiffany Valentine is framed and arrested for the murder of Mayor Cross, ultimately leaving Chucky on the run with Lexy’s younger sister Caroline. Season 2 gave us a lot more time with Tiffany, Glen & Glenda, and the various alter Chuckys. It kept the somewhat overabundant amount of storylines in season 1 to a small amount that allowed every character to shine while giving us some bloody kills and great character exposition. It also continued to shine in some of the areas that creator Don Mancini and his writing team have been terrific with in showing how these kids respond to these traumatic situations and deal with their grief, loss, and growing identity issues. Chucky at its core may be a show about a killer doll murdering dozens of people, but it hasn’t cut its heart out with all the carnage.

Season 3 was always going to be in a bit of a battle as even with some of the previous season’s cliffhangers, Chucky’s core story felt mostly complete. Sure, there are still some core characters from Chucky’s past that we hope are going to show up at some point (Detective Norris, Karen Barclay, DeSilva, the Kincaids), but in a weird comparison, Chucky feels a bit like the end of the Stephen Spielberg classic, Hook. He’s been on so many adventures that at this point, just to live is as exciting as it’s likely going to get. That doesn’t mean that Chucky needs to wrap it up anytime soon, especially as Mancini has recently said he’s working on another film in the franchise (theatrically, hopefully) and that he still has more ideas for the show, it just likely means that folks need to temper their expectations for where these stories will take our under 3ft killer in the future. Whether that means Space, versus another killer doll (Hello M3GAN), or… to the White House.

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CHUCKY -- “Jennifer’s Body” Episode 303 -- Pictured in this screengrab: Chucky -- (Photo by: SYFY)

Season 3 plants us firmly at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Chucky currently masquerading as the doll “Joseph” is firmly planted with the First Family at the White House but is facing his toughest battle yet, as his god Damballa has apparently abandoned him, and after decades of moving body to body, human to doll, Chucky not only is growing old but dying. It’s honestly one of the more interesting storylines Mancini could take this, as the prior 2 seasons have already explored Chucky’s various foes facing off against him, Glen/Glenda coming & going, and more of the on again/off again relationship with Tiffany, we’ve been seeing more and more of Chucky’s power thru Damballa so getting to explore more of that seemed the most interesting path to go down. Chucky becoming more human isn’t completely a new thread though as the original 3 Child’s Play movies established the longer, he was in the doll’s body the more human he would become, so the idea that without Damballa’s power he would begin to naturally age makes a lot of sense. This storyline manages to provide one of the franchise’s best scenes ever where Chucky goes to see a doctor about his condition. We’ve seen some absolute hilarity from this franchise, but that scene is going to be hard to beat.
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Our story this season focuses on Chucky looking to carry out a string of murders that would put him back in the good graces of Damballa and hopefully stop whatever is going on with these changes. The Good Guy Trio, hot on Chucky’s trail, manage to find a way in after Lexy is able to connect with the President’s older son, but fail to stop their foe, resulting in the murder of Ms. Fairchild amongst others. It’s an interesting thread for Chucky to return to as the Good Guy Trio across the show have always had at least one adult they could fall back to, as the three all approach 18, they may have lost the guardian who could possibly look out for them. This season feels different as the Good Guy Trio seems almost as supporting characters this time around, and with Chucky’s screentime not going up too much more, there’s a bit of a weird absence in the 4 episodes we’ve gotten thus far.

Disconnected from the main thread, Tiffany Valentine (in Jennifer Tilly’s body) has been arrested and charged with the murder of Lexy’s mother, Mayor Cross. Thanks to testimony from Nica Pearce & the Good Guy Trio, Tiffany is sentenced to death but through the use of a voodoo doll may be able to escape from prison. After being so directly involved in season 1 events, and eventually brought into the carnage of season 2, it’s hard not to feel like Tiffany’s storyline just doesn’t have any connection to Chucky’s. Given how their relationship has left off most recently with the two attempting to kill each other, you would think Tiffany would obviously stay out of Chucky’s path, but I have to imagine that once she gets wind of his ailing nature that’s likely what’s going to bring her right back to her mini monster.

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CHUCKY -- "Dressed to Kill" Episode 304 -- Pictured: (l-r) Björgvin Arnarson as Devon Evans, Alyvia Alyn Lind as Lexy Cross, Zackary Arthur as Jake Wheeler -- (Photo by: Shane Mahood/SYFY)

The various strikes from last year, definitely played a big part in the breakup of this season’s episodes, and I’m hoping that the 2nd batch really helps to fill that noticeable absence. Chucky clearly needs to do something even more outlandish than he can imagine, to find himself back in Damballa’s good graces, but it’s possible that that may not necessarily mean outlandish in terms of scope. The show so far has established that The Good Guy Trio and anyone of the previously established canon (Chucky, Tiffany, Glen/Glenda, Andy, Kyle, Nica) so far are off limits when it comes to death, anyone else can be killed off (sometimes numerous times, sometimes horrifically), but no one with too big of stakes (except Sarah Sherman, cause that one hurt me deep!) is biting the dust. Could it finally be time for Chucky to take a stab at one of its main players? They gave us a HORRIFYING fake-out with Alex Vincent’s Andy Barclay in the 3rd episode, but it’s possible that in order to properly appease Damballa, Mancini might have Chucky finally catch the number of his various foes in order to raise the stakes.
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The 2nd batch of episodes for Season 3 certainly have a lot of places they can go, with Tiffany possibly escaping from prison and Nica still out there somewhere, I have to expect that Chucky’s plot will undoubtedly bring those two back into in the fold. Chucky has to figure out something huge to save his life before time runs out, and with all the pieces moving into place, it may finally be time to play!

Lastly, I can’t leave things off without mentioning the absolute wonderful titles of Season 3’s episodes: “Murder at 1600”, “Let the Right One In”, “Jennifer’s Body”, “Dressed to Kill.” With the episodes “Death Becomes Her”, “Panic Room”, “There Will Be Blood”, and “Final Destination” remaining, it’s clear that the writer’s room is having an insane amount of fun with their stories this year!

‘Chucky’ Season 3 returns to air at 10pm EST Wednesday April 10th on USA & SyFy with new episodes available to stream the next day on Peacock.

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