The following contains spoilers for Chucky Season 2, Episode 8, "Chucky Actually," which premiered Nov. 23 on Syfy.
Chucky's Season 2 ended with the demonic doll decking the halls with blood. Still reeling from the death of their friend Nadine, the penultimate episode found Jake, Devon, and Lexy recruiting Father Bryce to perform an exorcism. The goal to expel Charles Lee Ray's evil spirit from the Good Guy doll backfired, and Father Bryce exploded. Dr. Mixter's opportunity to grab Chucky and make a run for it was cut short when Andy repeatedly shot Chucky. With his reign of terror finally over, the young heroes returned to their normal lives.
The Season 2 finale, "Chucky Actually," took place a few weeks after those disturbing events. Lexy had invited Jake and Devon to spend Christmas at her house, but Chucky clearly wasn't finished with them. Ray had managed to swap bodies with Mixter, and when she returned to her office, he once again transferred his soul into another Chucky doll. Out for vengeance, Chucky climbed down the Cross family's chimney on Christmas Eve with the intention of slaughtering everyone. Jake, Devon, and Lexy united to send him packing, but Lexy's brainwashed younger sister, Caroline, also chose to accompany Chucky rather than stay. Showrunner Don Mancini recently spoke with CBR about bloodshed, the Christmas setting, the fate of Caroline, Season 3, and Jason Voorhees.
CBR: Copious amounts of bodily fluids gushed and squirted in the last two episodes. Were even you surprised by how much fake blood was required?
Don Mancini: Was I surprised? No, that's exactly what I wanted. I wanted to get extreme towards the end of the season. Specifically, with Father Bryce's death -- that was an homage to Brian De Palma's movie, The Fury. I've seen a few people who thought it was Scanners, and I am like, "Noooo… The Fury did it first. It's not just a head exploding. It's a whole-body detonation." That was super fun to do. Then, of course, the chainsawing of Mayor Michelle on Christmas Eve was something we were really looking forward to doing. God knows she had it coming.
What was the thought process behind setting this brutal showdown during the Christmas holiday?
In Season 1, we had a Halloween episode, and that went really well. It seemed that people really enjoyed seeing Chucky plugged into that holiday, so we did it a little bit again. I thought it would be fun to bookend the season with those two holidays... start with Halloween and end with Christmas. Doing a Chucky Christmas thing was something I always wanted to do. I dipped my toe into it with one little scene in Seed of Chucky, where we saw Chucky and Tiffany kill Santa in the film within the film Jennifer Tilly was making. I wanted to do it on a bigger scale, so we just thought, "Oh, we've got to do that this year and end with the Christmas episode."
In terms of the narrative structure, I was very interested in playing with audience expectations by hooking everything to a boil in Episode 7. That allows the characters to take a breath and relax, yet we know that should be the last thing they should be doing. We are going, "Oh no, it's not quite yet time to deal with your relationship issues. Jake and Devon, we want you to kiss and make up, but you have something you have to do." That's what I wanted to do was dramatically put those characters in a relaxed situation so that we would get the suspense of knowing that, "Noooo… Don't relax. He's still coming for you."
Chucky is more than happy to slay these little brats on his naughty list. How prepared are they for his return?
I think they are more prepared than we expected. They have that conversation where they are going, "Oh, Chucky is dead," and Lexy says, "So I have heard. We don't want to end up like Andy and Kyle, but bad things are always going to happen." They have matured. Even in our own goofy metaphorical way, I think that those characters have learned something. They've learned to always keep knives ready, which they did, as it turns out. Turns out they were ready for Tiffany. I'm sure they don't necessarily think that Chucky is dead, but they know their enemies are multifold.
The first season culminated with Chucky on this killing spree in a movie theater. How did you go about topping that carnage in this finale?
It wasn't so much a matter of topping it. I just wanted to do something different. Since we ended Season 1 with that big, public movie theater massacre, I wanted to do something more intimate for the finale this time -- set it in a single home and look at the coziness and look more at the emotional fallout of certain relationship things that had happened up until this point. It wasn't about surpassing it, rather than doing it in a different way.
Sweet, little innocent Caroline is turning out to be one big bad seed. What did you want to say about Chucky's influence on kids and where Caroline is heading?
She is the latest, and it remains to be seen what becomes of her, but innocent kids are vulnerable to Chucky's influence. That's how he makes his way in the world. He presents this loveable face that is catnip to little kids. We set it up very deliberately in Episode 1, in the scene with the therapist, Dr. Mixter, where she says, "But Chucky lies. He said he was my friend 'til the end," only to find out at the end that she's just been pretending all along at Chucky's instruction. Chucky has been poisoning her since Season 1.
That's another thing I wanted to do with the finale, with this stuff and Dr. Mixter. Finding out that many of the events from Season 1... Suddenly we have to look at all those events in a new light. We find out in the finale of Season 2 that Dr. Mixter was helping to orchestrate all of this. In Season 1, for all we knew, she was just the friendly family therapist, but no, she's been helping the big bad. It turns out that Caroline has been influenced by Chucky. Lexy says, "No, Caroline. Don't you remember? He lies. He has been lying to you. I am your sister." She says, "Nope. Goodbye." It was an interesting place to leave all those characters on an interesting cliffhanger. That's the answer to the question. Caroline is the latest kid to fall victim to Chucky's poisonous influence.
There's another big twist in the finale. How much groundwork are you actually laying for Season 3? Do you have a clear vision of where you want to go?
Yes. Lots of groundwork has been laid, though hopefully, you are not aware of it other than the obvious. Season 3, if we are lucky to get it, is all laid out.
Lastly, your Hannibal collaborator Bryan Fuller is developing a Friday the 13th prequel TV series. As a horror fan, how much would you like to become involved in that? What about Jason Voorhees gives you nightmares?
Camping is a nightmare for me. Just the idea of sleeping in tents and cabins in the woods, it's nothing that was ever a favorite part of my childhood. That alone is a little terrifying to me, but the relentlessness, the facelessness, and in a way, the characterlessness of a slasher like Jason or Michael Myers are frightening in a different way than Chucky or Freddy... villains who can talk. Something about their abstract nature is the source of their creepiness. I am super excited [about] what Bryan is going to do with it. I know some of what Bryan has planned because I am his friend. He's been talking about it for years. If I wasn't busy on my own show, I would love to work on that.
All of Chucky Season 2 is now available to watch.