Full spoilers for Chucky’s season finale, “An Affair to Dismember,” ahead! For more, check out what we thought of last week’s episode.
Chucky may have stumbled in getting us here, with back-to-back episodes that get mired in the setup, but “An Affair to Dismember” caps the show’s first season with a bombastic finale. With (retroactively) obviously named apprentice Junior at his side, Chucky is ready to unleash his legion of… himself on unsuspecting kids around the country. The killer’s attempt at his master stroke offers Chucky the chance to demonstrate its strong command of tone, ably shifting between camp, violence, comedy, and drama. Though it doesn’t always serve its characters well, “An Affair to Dismember” is the bloody beating heart of what makes Chucky tick.
The interminable Mayor Cross (Barbara Alyn Woods) continues to suck at reading the room, pushing ahead with a charity screening of Frankenstein that opens the finale up to a number of memorable kills. You may find yourself wondering just how hard someone needs to get stabbed in the ass to instantly die, but it hardly matters in light of how fun it is to watch Chucky (Brad Dourif) crawl around on all fours ripping his way through unsuspecting filmgoers. But if that’s too violent, maybe the more artful “dead Mr. Cross bleeds into his popcorn, an unaware Mayor Cross takes a bite” will be more your speed. Not violent enough? How about Jake squeezing Chucky so hard that his eyes explode out of his head? Chucky’s always had a fun variety of viscera, and “An Affair to Dismember” has plenty to spare.
The chaos taking place in all corners of the episode sets the stage for one of Brad Dourif’s strongest performances yet, as he’s got room to knock both one-liners and sinister threats out of the park. The finale gets a lot of mileage out of Chucky’s soul-splitting ability, giving us multiple opportunities to see the doll die in gruesome fashion, but also allowing for some very meta jokes as the Chuckys (Chuckies?) debate the ethics of baby murder. Where that Chucky clone army is heading at the end of the episode is a tantalizing open question heading into next season.
That’s not to say that Chucky sticks the landing across the board. Continuing a trend of the last few episodes, the finale keeps Jake and Lexy at arm’s length for much of the action, but the show goes about it a little more deftly this time. Kyle (Christine Elise) sedating the teens to keep them out of harm’s way made sense for the constant babysitter, but it still feels like we’re missing valuable time with our leads making an active impact on the story so close to the end of the season. Zackary Arthur’s ferocious performance once Jake and Chucky go toe-to-toe makes the overall lack of Jake time hurt that much more.
Junior’s (Teo Briones) villain turn feels even less believable as the teen’s shocked silence gives way to a brainwashed glee that feels forced. Junior sacrifices himself for redemption by the end, but how emotionally scattered he’s been leaves that redemption feeling weightless, especially for a character who was never sympathetic to begin with. Kyle also gets short shrifted, seemingly killed by a bomb left by Tiffany in Charles Lee Ray’s childhood home. Kyle already felt underserved compared to Andy (Alex Vincent), and closing out her involvement in the season by having a bomb blow up in her face didn’t feel like the best use of the character. Of course, “no body, no death,” so Kyle may get a second chance, something that seems more likely when you consider that Andy made it out of the explosion with just a couple of scratches. Though he’s got more to do than Kyle, Andy doesn’t leave much of an impression on the action this week after he saves Devon (Björgvin Arnarson) from Tiffany and Chucky’s clutches.
Chucky saves its most savage conclusion for the long-suffering Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif), whose ability to overcome Chucky’s voodoo possession has been a thorn in he and Tiffany’s side since they set their sights on Hackensack. For all the slapstick gore that the series traffics in, the image of the already paraplegic Nica having had her legs and still-functioning arms fully removed by Tiffany was stark and horrifying, a brutal reminder of just how twisted the villains are underneath their zany surfaces. Nica, one of the few truly good people in the franchise, has spent her entire life plagued by Chucky’s evil, and knowing that it’s only going to get worse for her gives the show (and that moment) stakes that feel grounded and immediate.
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/3G3NQhX
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