‘Chucky’ Season 1 Episode 7 Spoiler Review – “Twice The Grieving, Double The Loss”

You don’t know how much it hurts to get beat by Chucky. The penultimate episode to Season 1 of Don Mancini’s hit USA Network and SYFY horror slasher series is titled “Twice the Grieving, Double the Loss”. Series producer Mallory Westfall co-writes the teleplay alongside Isabella Gutierrez, while Samir Rehem returns to the director’s chair.

In this review, I will be discussing and deconstructing Chucky‘s seventh 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 some revelations.

Plot Summary

Wake at the Wheelers’ – Hackensack – Present

At Bree Wheeler (Lexa Doig)‘s wake at the Wheeler mansion, Junior Wheeler (Teo Briones) mourns the loss of his mother.  Mayor Michelle Cross (Barbara Alyn Woods) and her husband Nathan Cross (Michael Therriault) express their condolences to  Logan Wheeler (Devon Sawa). Although, this is all that Michelle can do as she tells her family that she has business matters to attend to, as she has a meeting downtown.

Devon Evans (Björgvin Arnarson) comes over to the Wheeler property. At the front of the house, he tells Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur) and Alexandra “Lexy” Cross (Alyvia Alyn Lind) that he is staying with his aunt following the murder of his mother. Jake suggests that they make their next move, however, Lexy says her parents put her on lockdown as a result of the most recent deaths in town.

Devon surmises Chucky was the one who had called his mother to go into the Wheeler house the other night. The teenagers wonder why the doll is killing off their parents. Devon then suggests that they do nothing and split up in order to survive, believing that they are no good when together.

Jake walks out to the front of the house, where he causes a scene. He is irate and blames Jake for the mysterious murders in town. He punches his cousin; Logan sees this and scolds him.  Tiffany Valentine/ Jennifer Tilly (Jennifer Tilly) arrives at the Wheeler property, where she expresses her condolences to Logan and kisses him on the lips, which Junior witnesses.

Chicago – 1988 – Flashback

Young Tiffany Valentine (Blaise Crocker; voiced by Tilly) and Charles “Chucky” Lee Ray (Fiona Dourif; voiced by Brad Dourif) find a home for themselves. Although, it is revealed that there are dead bodies outside of a bedroom.

One evening, Tiffany comes home with a brown paper bag of groceries, including Swedish meatballs. In the bedroom, she finds Chucky killing without her. They have an argument as a result, ending with Chucky leaving.

On the Road – Present

After six hours on the road, Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) and his foster sister Kyle (Christine Elise) discuss refueling their car and how Andy is a bad driver. They stop at a gas station, where Kyle buys herself a pack of cigarettes and gives her foster brother the keys to the car. Andy tells her smoking will kill her, then gets into the driver’s seat, locks Kyle out, and drives off.

The Crosses

Lexy tries to bond with her sister, Caroline Cross (Carina London Battrick), by breaking heads off plastic dolls together.

Michelle later appears before the press to announce that the local police department has caught a culprit they believe is behind the murders of teenager Oliver Hayden, Perry Middle School principal Megan McVey, and Detective Sean Peyton. A news reporter named James (Kabir Bageria) asks her if the PD may have arrested the wrong woman. Michelle then assures him and the press that Hackensack is still in good hands.

She then announces a screening of the Universal classic film, Frankenstein; purchased tickets will supposedly be donated to charity. In addition to this, she asserts that “a very special celebrity guest” will join the townsfolk to host an auction prior to the screening.

When a member of the press speaks to Caroline, she reveals that Chucky told her to kill her family.

Evans Estate

In his bedroom, Devon packs his personal belongings into boxes and bags. He takes down his Hackensack true crime news clippings from his cork bulletin board. He holds onto one – an online article printout reporting on Charles Lee Ray’s childhood home.

Jake visits to check up on Devon, who tells him he is only living with his aunt for a week. Since he is an orphan, he says he will be sent to a foster home. He tells Jake he could run away if he wanted to. Jake tries to empathize with Devon’s loss by bringing up his own mother’s death. However, Devon says that Jake’s presence only reminds him of his mother being murdered; he states, “Being around you hurts”.

Later, Devon crumples the article printout. He walks to the serial killer’s household, where he breaks in through an upstairs window. He hears Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif) calling out to him. Devon frees her from her restraints, but she takes his taser and reveals herself as Chucky.

Back at the Wheelers’

Logan gets drunk by the mansion’s fireplace. Junior comes into the room to ask about the blonde woman who kissed him (Logan) at Bree’s wake. Logan leaves the property, and the boy goes upstairs to find Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) sitting in his bedroom.

Logan eventually drunk drives back home. Chucky persuades Junior into killing his father for being an asshole. He offers the same advice that he gave Jake: “Some people just deserve to die”. Meanwhile, Jake quietly packs his belongings into a bag, then goes downstairs to take cash from his uncle’s wallet. The boy runs away from the home, while his cousin watches in secret with a knife in hand.

Junior finds the blonde woman – Jennifer Tilly – parked at the front of the mansion. She gives the boy Swedish meatballs and asks about his cousin’s whereabouts. She provokes him further by lying about having an affair with his father; before she leaves the property, she tells him not to tell anyone that she came over.

Close Encounter of the Bus Kind

While walking to a bus station, Jake listens to the “Hackenslash” podcast, where Devon narrates that his mother was a saint watching over him.

At the bus station, the boy finds a courier (Kevin Finn) entering with a package containing a Good Guy doll. Suspicious, Jake follows him, then pays the man $350 USD and a tip. The courier gives him the address where the doll is to be delivered. He throws the doll around, albeit without much effort.

Jake finds Lexy at her home, where he puts the Good Guy doll on the kitchen island. She says her family went to the Plaza. She realizes that he was going to run away from Hackensack. Lexy tells him she finds it selfish that he chose to leave his family behind; she refers to herself and Devon as “the family [he] chose”. Lexy finds the address that the courier gave Jake, while Jake searches through social media to find Devon’s current location; they discover that he is at Charles Lee Ray’s childhood home.

Seeds of His Evil Deeds

At the Wheeler residence, Logan drunkenly walks upstairs to Junior’s bedroom. He initially tries to console his son, who is perched atop his bed with Chucky. However, the doll turns his head to speak to Logan in his Good Guy voice (Nick Fisher) and provokes him. Logan believes this is his son puppeteering the doll as if a ventriloquist. Stepping back into the hallway, he tells Junior that both he (his son) and Bree are quitters.

Junior pushes Logan to the wall, and the man falls to the floor. The boy then bludgeons his father to death with the head of the Chucky doll (similar to Jennifer Tilly beating the nanny at the end of Seed of Chucky).

As this happens, Devon awakes in the Ray household to find himself held hostage – and a hoard of Chucky dolls present in the room with him. They all come alive and turn their heads toward him.

As this happens, Lexy tells Jake what Caroline revealed at the press conference. The Good Guy doll in her kitchen comes alive and removes a knife from its rack.

Back at the Wheeler mansion, Junior hides his father’s body in his bedroom wardrobe. Chucky prepares the boy for the main event, and Andy arrives at the front of the house.

Discussion

“Twice the Grieving, Double the Loss” is an awfully terrifying episode of Chucky. Last week, I had doubts that that episode could be topped, and now, I’ve been proven wrong. The episode is essentially tremendous in its endeavors in all elements, from the cast to the writers and the director, to the other crew members of the series.

Ken Ramos and Thom Newell return as the editor and assistant editor of the series, respectively. For an episode that is roughly ten minutes shorter than last week’s, the pacing is remarkable. The narrative feels like it inserts you into all the terror and trauma, and by the end, there’s some type of feeling, but it’s not that of shock. Then again, the episode’s title sums that up in six words. Nevertheless, I was left speechless.

The tombstone title sequence was a neat addition to the episode; I found this revolting, and for all the right reasons. Along with Ramos and Newell are Nick Zigler and Sarah Acosta’s story editing along with Pete Von Sholly’s storyboard artistry. I would love to see how everyone put this episode together because it is emotionally difficult for me to watch events unfold for Mancini’s characters.

Let’s not forget about Sid Armour’s work on the make-up, Samantha Terry’s on hair, and François Dagenais’s special effects make-up. I mean, by the end of the episode, once you see the kill scene of the week, you can tell why I needed to mention them.

Performances and Character Developments

The performances and the character developments of this week’s episode Chucky are all over the place, so I think it best to just discuss the highlights.

Jake and Devon’s dynamic as friends-turned-partners was hurtful, although I cannot blame the latter character. Björgvin Arnarson has done so well for the series, and I don’t think he gets enough credit for his role and what it means to fans such as myself. Conversely, I love Jake’s dynamic with Lexy; they started the series as victim and bully, and now, as the latter suggests, they’ve grown as a family.

Devon Sawa. Oh, my… I did not need to see Devon Sawa be killed off the series a second time, but I guess we were running out of recurring adult characters to further accomplish such feats. I guess you either die a hero – actually, Lucas and Logan Wheeler were both harsh, and Sawa did a mighty fine job at portraying two abusive fathers.

Alex Vincent and Jennifer Tilly elevate as polar opposites in this episode. Vincent’s sibling chemistry with Christine Elise truly brings fans back to Child’s Play 2; it’s like watching a reunion happen in the Star Wars sequel films. Tilly is a gem as the fictional antagonistic version of herself; she is just enticing as her character(s). The same can be said for Fiona Dourif.

Moreover, Teo Briones is a menace, Dourif’s Chucky as a grand rhetorician. Initially, I thought differently about Junior turning to the dark side, but as the series progressed, I predicted this would happen. Especially with his lung damage, it seems this teenager can’t be too kinetic.

Final Thoughts

I cannot commend the writers and crew artists enough for their work on this episode. The story appealed to the modes of pathos and of perhaps ethos that I ended watching the credits in repugnance. There are many American Gothic layers to peel away that a larger analysis is required.

Chucky has evolved since its pilot, and the improvements have shown as the overall narrative continued to convey new events. Now, I would say that this episode cannot be topped, but like last week’s episode, those words would be a lie. If Episode 106 was shocking and 107 is stunning, I know my expectations will be blown away and I will surely be knocked down. To this, I say to Mancini and his cast and crew: take your best shot; I’m waiting…

Chucky is on SYFY and USA Network!

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