Chucky Review: "Jennifer's Body"

Wow! So much to drink in after this episode, but I have to do this recap thing first. Rules are rules.

So the beginning of this episode takes us all the way back to the exact scene where Season 2 ended: with Chucky revealed as being the Belle doll in disguise, which thwarted Tiffany's plan to get back in the very doll she had inhabited before. Before Chucky could enact his murderous revenge on his longtime beau, the police enter and arrest Tiffany, who is Jennifer Tilly to the rest of the world. Chucky leaves with Caroline, who we see for the first time following her surprise betrayal, but she is pursued by Nica Pierce--who is also making her first appearance since the Season 2 finale.

Nica's chase is thwarted when Caroline walks downstairs with Chucky, and the pair catch a cab--whose driver is played by none other than Kenan Thompson. Kenan's time on screen is shortened when Chucky, having enough of his ranting, stuffs an umbrella in his mouth and opens it. As we all know, it's bad luck to open an umbrella inside someone's body.

Elsewhere, Lexy is still looking for Caroline, and she actually visits Tiffany in jail for answers. Tiffany claims not to know where Caroline is, only informing Lexy that her little sister was with Chucky, who Lexy thought to have killed. Tiffany revealed that the Belle doll was another Chucky in disguise, and that doll is the only one left. Meanwhile, as Chucky hides out with Caroline (which includes a dream about finally killing Andy Barclay), he notices something strange happening to him. His hair is starting to fall out, and he's getting wrinkles. Now, I know Chucky is mostly human due to being in that doll for so long, but seeing this had me asking a question I never thought I'd ask in all my years of watching the Chucky series (films and all): "Is Chucky aging?!"

According to the Voodoo for Dummies book: yes.

The same book states that if the vessel starts aging, he has to find another one, so he attempts to possess an sleeping Caroline. One problem: no matter how much Chucky has begged for the power, he doesn't have it. Caroline wakes up and reveals that she knows what's happening to him, and he needs to see a doctor. My first thought regarding Chucky aging was about how wrong he ended up being in his rant in Seed. My all time favorite moment was Chucky's epiphany in the climax of that film; he finally decided (after 16 years) that becoming human was too much trouble and he would rather just stick it out as a possessed doll. Part of his rant included this following statement:

"What's so great about being human, anyway? You get sick, you get old, you can't get it up anymore."

Apparently, even plastic dolls age.

Elsewhere, Tiffany's held on trial, but again, for all intents and purposes, it's Jennifer Tilly on trial for murder. Nica takes the stand and angrily denounces Tiffany as a murderous psychopath, while Jake, Lexy, and Devon all give their own damning testimonies as well (with Jake's "That voice!" being another callback to Seed). Finally, Tiffany's lawyer calls her client to the stand, and it's followed by Tiffany revealing her true identity and her entire history with Chucky, and I mean all of it--the backstory, the events from Bride, Seed, and everything else from that point on. This was a clear attempt at an insanity plea, with her lawyer stating that it was a case of Jennifer Tilly being too deep in character, even comparing the situation to Austin Butler's inability to drop the Elvis voice (that part is true, he still had it when he hosted SNL).

As for Chucky, he visits a doctor who specializes in voodoo and all else, and after a checkup, it's revealed that Chucky has been infected with Christian magic--specifically Catholicism--due to his participation in an exorcism during Season 2. The effects are advanced, and regarding any plans to jump into another body, that's kaput, as after 40 years, Damballa has abandoned him. Imagine being ghosted by Damballa. So Chucky's on his last plastic legs, and the vessel he's in is it. His only way is for Chucky to commit an evil that even he can't comprehend, though Chucky is never one to back out of a challenge.

We later see Chucky and Caroline at the infamous Amityville house, and that's when the plan is revealed: he has to sacrifice six souls to Damballa inside a house of great evil. His first stop: the infamous Amityville house, and Chucky gets his (many) pounds of flesh, but the sacrifice doesn't work. Chucky's conclusion: the house isn't evil enough, so that leads him to the highest office in the land. Why the White House? Because, as Chucky pointed out, "millions of people have died because of decisions made inside those walls." Unfortunately, Caroline cannot accompany Chucky in this mission, and it leads to quite a touching moment where Chucky shows a bit of fatherly compassion for Caroline; a moment that nearly made this longtime Chucky fan cry.

Chucky was placed at the funeral for the Collins family's youngest member, Joseph, and introduced himself to young Henry Collins as Joseph, resulting in Henry having a new "friend to the end." As for Tiffany, despite her true, yet insane story, the insanity plan doesn't work, and she's convicted and sentenced to death. She berates and fires her lawyer, but not before ordering her to find Tiffany's Voodoo for Dummies book. Nica later informed Tiffany that she's getting what she deserves, and also revealed that she had been speaking to GG, Tiffany and Chucky's offspring, adding that they were safe from their parents, while boasting that she would happily watch Tiffany get executed.

I just want to wish my fellow Chucky fans a belated Happy (Tiffany) Valentine's Day! This past Monday marked the 25th anniversary of the theatrical release of Bride of Chucky, the film that debuted Jennifer Tilly as Tiffany Valentine, Chucky's longtime accomplice and girlfriend, later wife. At the time, Tilly had just appeared in a pair of notable films: Bound and Liar Liar, but when Bride started casting, it was Tilly's Bound co-star/BFF Gina Gershon who urged her to take the role, and the rest is horror history. The episode aired right on time, as Tiffany detailing everything she had done in the events of the films and the TV series was a perfect way to celebrate 25 years of this amazing character and villainess.

I literally beamed when I saw Lisa Berry playing Tiffany's lawyer in this episode. We SPN fans know Lisa Berry as Billie, who debuted as a reaper during Season 11, known for her belief that what dies should stay deceased, and being dismayed by the rules being bent for the Winchesters, though she still helped them out. She became the new Grim Reaper after Death was slain; however, Billie turned heel during the show's final season, as she had her sights set on becoming the new God and killing those who had been resurrected beforehand, leading to her demise. Berry's appearance as Tiffany/Tilly's lawyer has me hoping that she'll return in the next episode as a villainess in league (somehow) with Tiffany, though that's a long shot. She's done the villainess thing before; Berry played evil cult leader Desiree Holt in Lifetime's Secrets of the Sisterhood.

I have to talk about Caroline Cross. The last young girl to encounter Chucky in this overall franchise was Alice Pierce in Curse. Let's face it, though; Caroline is much worse than Alice. Alice's fate was revealed in Cult: she ended up possessed by Chucky and killed many people before being killed herself by a potential victim. So Alice's evil was due to an outside force beyond her control. Caroline, on the other hand, willingly chose this path, and as we saw, she is completely all in. Now, the easy excuse is to blame her mother. It's also an excuse that has merit, I mean, calling Michelle Cross "mother of the year" is like calling the Minnesota Vikings a Super Bowl contender. However, Lexy had that same bad mother in Michelle, and all that happened to her was that she became an alpha bitch, but she redeemed herself. Caroline, as of this point, is all in on the dark side, so again, she chose this. I see her redeeming herself, though--at least, I hope she does.

Episode 3.03, "Jennifer's Body," aired on USA and SyFy on October 18, 2023. Next week is the midseason finale, and it looks like it'll be quite an explosive one. As I mentioned before, Season 3 is split into two halves with four episodes each, and after next week, the bottom four episodes will air sometime in 2024.

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