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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
In the aftermath of the Crosses’ mansion catching fire, Don Mancini’s Chucky returns to take a stab at the hospital setting. It proves that the show only gets crazier in terms of its narrative. The fourth episode of USA Network and SYFY’s hit horror slasher series is titled “Just Let Go”. Series producer Mallory Westfall serves as the co-writer of the episode alongside Kim Garland. This week, Leslie Libman sits on the director’s chair.
In this review, I will be discussing Chucky‘s fourth episode. There will be spoilers to follow, as the title of this article suggests. Please read ahead at your own discretion, or forever be doomed with revelations.
Plot Summary
Burlington County Home for Wayward Boys – South Jersey – 1972
Charles Lee Ray is sent to a boys’ home after the mysterious double homicide of his parents. Now aged 14 (Tyler Barish), he makes an influence on a few boys: Tootles (Ivano DiCardo), Curly (Mason Ward), and Nibs (Rain Janjua). As the leader of the boys, Charles pretends they are Peter Pan and the Lost Boys.
One day, he takes the boys into the woods, where they find the rotting body of the home’s janitor (Michael Scholar Jr.), a man who has been picking on Charles. He had persuaded Tootles into committing the crime. Later, Charles gifts him a box containing the janitor’s appendage, and it is revealed that Tootles’s name is Eddie Caputo.
Hackensack Hospital – Present
After the events of last week’s episode, Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur) walks into the town hospital. Mr. and Mrs. Hayden (Matthew Maenpaa and Elinor Price) are informed of their son Oliver’s death.
Jake checks in on his cousin, Junior Wheeler (Teo Briones), and his friend, Devon Evans (Björgvin Arnarson). Caroline Cross (Carina London Battrick) has been left in critical condition. Alexandra “Lexy” Cross (Alyvia Alyn Lind) confronts Jake and tells him that Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) is responsible for the fire. Jake tells her that the doll is responsible for his father’s death as well. Realizing that Jake gave the Chucky doll to the Crosses in the first place, Lexy holds him accountable and turns her back on him.
Detective Kim Evans (Rachelle Casseus) checks on her son, who apologizes for worrying her about his whereabouts earlier in the night. When asked, he tells her that the Chucky doll had been present at Lexy’s house party. Michelle Cross (Barbara Alyn Woods) and Mr. Cross (Michael Therriault) then berate Lexy for how Caroline ended up. Not realizing Lexy has had a change of hair due to her confrontation with Chucky, they tell her to stop picking on Jake.
Devon warns Jake of Oliver’s murder and that a killer is on the loose in town. The Wheeler parents – Logan Wheeler (Devon Sawa) and Bree Wheeler (Lexa Doig) – and the Cross parents get into a kerfuffle over which of their children is at fault for the events to have transpired. Detective Evans then informs them of Oliver’s cause of death, which is ruled a homicide.
Cross Mansion Ruins – Present
Lexy confronts Jake again, and they both resolve to investigate the Crosses’ home.
At the mansion, Jake takes an Effexor for his anxiety and depression. Making their way upstairs, he and Lexy then have another argument over who is culpable for what has happened. He tells her that her constant bullying was what made him want to kill her. She tells him that he could have just spoken to her. However, he says that she left him no other choice.
Jake pushes Lexy towards the edge – literally – where the latter nearly falls to her death. Chucky appears, disfigured from the fire, and tells the boy to make a choice: let go of Lexy or be a pussy. Jake says he would never be a killer like him, then helps Lexy up.
Detective Peyton (Travis Milne) shows up to hear the commotion. He takes the kids and a motionless Chucky back to the hospital.
Back at the Hackensack Hospital – Present
Before Junior gets his lungs examined, his father asks him if he’s only participating in the cross-country sport because he (his father) is pressuring him (Junior) into it. The boy lies and says he does it because he likes to run. Junior is then drugged as his parents leave. Fading into unconsciousness, he sees a fleeting image of a red-headed small person walking past his doorway outside in the hall.
Devon conducts research on the Chucky doll and its ties to Charles Lee Ray. Returning to the hospital, Jake is taken in by Detective Evans for questioning, while Lexy checks in on her sister.
Devon informs Lexy of what is wrong with the Chucky doll. They leave for Devon’s hospital room, where he tells her about Charles Lee Ray’s transferring his soul into the Good Guy doll. Meanwhile, Peyton takes Chucky to Caroline’s room. He sets the doll atop a counter by the window and eats powdered pastries left as recovery gifts to Caroline. As Peyton eats, their crumbs fall on Chucky. The detective continues to make a mess in front of the doll, and the doll throws a scalpel at the officer’s back, striking and paralyzing his spinal column. Chucky then drops from the counter and stabs a fallen Peyton with multiple discarded, infected, and toxic needles.
Before Evans can get a proper answer from Jake, Chucky unplugs Caroline’s life support and an alarm is sounded. The nurses and the Crosses rush into her room, where they also find Peyton’s dead body lying on the ground beside Caroline’s bed. Jake, Lexy, and Devon see the chaos through the glass window from outside the room. They see Chucky perched back on top of the counter. He slowly turns to them and shows them the middle finger.
Supporting Cast of This Week’s Chucky
Other actors appearing in this episode but not mentioned above include the following.
Sarah Evans plays the house mother.
David Bronfman plays a doctor, while Vanessa Mitchell and Mish Tam play nurses. Shem Joseph Maude plays a red-headed toddler, while Amber V. Cull plays a smiley woman, aka the child’s mother.
As always, Tony Gardner, Peter Chevako, Erik Beck, Pamela Iveta, Steve Newburn, and Gord Robertson act as puppeteers.
Discussion
“Just Let Go” makes a worthwhile story in its forty-minute runtime. I must commend the writers’ room – including Westfall and Garland – for its outstanding teleplay. Its callbacks to previous Child’s Play installments were fantastic, to say the least. Chucky’s disfigured face brings fans back to the conclusion of Child’s Play 3 (1991). Not only that, but the way he attacks his victims in the hospitals can be reminiscent of the concluding acts to both Seed of Chucky (2004) and Cult of Chucky (2017).
Allowing Charles Lee Ray to compare himself to Peter Pan is such a wild notion on the writers’ part. Both of these iconic characters stay young – or rather, immortal – by whatever magic is keeping them that way. Meanwhile, other characters are not as fortunate.
I also like the minimal location settings featured in this episode. We briefly see the boys’ home and the woods in the flashback scenes. Other than that, the episode primarily focuses on the Crosses’ mansion and the hospital. Hoult’s cinematography deserves the credit for how well-shot this episode has appeared.
Randy Bricker and Shiran Carolyn Amir serve as the episode’s editors. Summer Holmes serves as the episode’s set decorator, while François Dagenais (Y: The Last Man) deals in special effects make-up. Dagenais has done incredible work for horror in this department. He’s worked on series such as Hannibal and Clarice as well as films such as It: Chapter Two, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and the Saw installments (with the exception of the first one).
Performances and Character Developments
I loved the scene between the Wheeler parents and the Cross parents. Sawa and Woods give their all when their characters butt heads. Not just that, but Michelle Cross also blames Detective Evans for her son’s “Hackenslash” podcast, which should not be a huge concern for them at the moment. This scene strongly reminded me of a scene from James Wong’s Final Destination (2000), a film in which Sawa also stars. (I’m referring to the scene after Alex’s warning in the airplane, where he and the survivors are sitting at the gate. He and Carter get into a fight, and soon… Well, something bad happens.)
The teenagers have transformed greatly due to the house fire. Junior has suffered damage to his lungs. Here, we are shown the reason as to why he is an athlete. He doesn’t admit this to his father, but the audience understands all too well that the choice to do anything isn’t his.
Devon isn’t harmed physically by the preceding events. Although, his skills in researching true crime lead him to his discoveries about Chucky. He already knows too much about Charles Lee Ray, but to connect this to what is going on around him develops his knowledge even more. This will help him become a more vital character moving forward.
Most of all, I loved Arthur and Lind’s performances as Jake and Lexy together. This is a turning point in their character dynamic and will more than likely resolve their differences as enemies. From the moment Lexy puts the pieces together, I felt the change in her mindset and her overall outlook. I have high hopes for her, specifically.
Final Thoughts
If we have to look deeper into the matter, the fact that the mansion’s fire had damaged Junior’s lungs means that he will have difficulty running. This is obviously revealed in the episode, but what is worse is if this character needs to later outrun ominous figures such as a Good Guy doll. Does he, then, have any chance at making it out of this situation alive?
“Just Let Go” urges our characters to wrongfully give in to desires that aren’t theirs. Give in to your parents’ aspirations for your future, give in to a path of murder and sin, etc. Chucky has never had a bad episode, and it only gets better from here!
Chucky is on SYFY and USA Network!
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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
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