Warning: This article contains spoilers for Season Two, Episode Six of “Chucky.”
The second season of Don Mancini’s “Chucky” is rapidly approaching its finale, which means the pieces are slowly falling into place, and the characters’ paths are converging. It also means that the body count continues to rise as we near the end. This week’s episode, “He Is Risen Indeed,” delivered not one but three notable deaths worth paying tribute to.
Here’s who we lost this week, and why their deaths are important to the show.
Hulk Chucky
This first to fall this week was the heavily muscled Chucky variation, a brute force enforcer that found himself at the sharp end of the blade when confronted by Good Chucky.
“He Is Risen Indeed” sees him under the watch of Sister Ruth (Lara Jean Chorostecki), the devout worshipper who’s mistaken his sentience for divine intervention. That new alliance introduced the bulky Good Guy doll to a new snack addition in the form of communion wafers, which the brainy Colonel Chucky uses against him when he poisons them with arsenic.
As the Colonel points out, “mind over muscle, every time.”
Hulk Chucky’s demise via poisoning reduces the number of doll bodies available to Chucky Prime, and it enrages Sister Ruth. She leaves this episode with a vengeance in her heart.
The Colonel
Last week’s episode brought the discovery that Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) survived the crash that sent a truckload of Good Guy dolls to their doom, only to become the Colonel’s hostage. The Colonel, a bald and Marlon Brando-esque iteration of Chucky, kept Andy alive so that he could carve up pieces of flesh to eat and/or wear as trophies.
While receiving wound care from Sister Catherine (Andrea Carter), Andy sneaks a pair of scissors to keep as a weapon. This comes into play later in the episode when The Colonel sets out to destroy Jake (Zackary Arthur), Devon (Björgvin Arnarson), and Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind) after dispatching Hulk Chucky. The confrontation immediately confuses the teens; the Colonel begins spewing out-of-context quotes. He falls to the ground, revealing that Andy got the last laugh for his year of torture by driving the scissors deep into the back of the doll’s skull.
This death is notable for Andy’s return and effectively culls the collective Good Guy doll herd down to one. Dr. Mixter (Rosemary Dunsmore) calls Chucky Prime, who currently shares a body with Nica (Fiona Dourif), and implores him to hurry as he only has one body left to inhabit- the newly baptized Good Chucky.
Nadine
Which brings us to the death that stings the most this season. Bella Higginbotham’s Nadine quickly wormed her way into our hearts for her unflappable demeanor and charming quirks. In the last episode, she solidified her ranks as a team asset when her heart-to-heart with a vulnerable Lexy convinced the teen to kick her pill addiction. “He Is Risen Indeed” sees that streak continue when she carries Lexy to the boys’ room after lockdown.
Too bad neither Nadine nor Lexy were around to notice the clues that Good Chucky’s aversion to violence was slipping. In the episode’s final moments, Nadine rushes up the tower steps to retrieve her favorite doll, who throws her out of a window. She’s impaled below in the arms of an angel statue as Good Chucky slips into his old persona and cackles about defenestration as his favorite form of murder.
Not only does this death feel the most significant, especially for a devastated Lexy, but it’s one guaranteed to shape the final two episodes. Good Chucky has been a source of contention between Jake and Devon over multiple episodes, and this death will surely exacerbate the issue.
Even more intriguing is what it could mean for Chucky Prime as he races to Incarnate Lord with Kyle (Christine Elise) and Glenda (Lachlan Watson) in tow.
“He Is Risen Indeed” ends with multiple characters in peril still. Who will fall next?
Watch new episodes of “Chucky” on Wednesdays at 9/8c on SYFY and USA Network.