In the previous episode of Chucky season 3, the aging Chucky doll (voiced by Brad Dourif) had just killed U.S. President Collins (Devon Sawa) and gotten hold of the nuclear codes. It’s a safe bet that whatever Chucky does next, he won’t be going to Disneyland.
Unaware of his father’s death, little Henry (Callum Vinson), who believes Chucky is the embodiment of his dead younger brother Joseph, tearfully worries that the ever-sicker doll is dying again. Chucky says that he’s learned that the important thing is to make a difference while you’re here.
Henry’s mom, First Lady Charlotte Collins (Lara Jean Chorostecki), is with White House fixer Warren Pryce (Gil Bellows) in Joseph’s old room, where the President’s bloody corpse is on the floor. There are ghosts in the White House besides Chucky, and Charlotte and Pryce are now reluctant believers in the supernatural. Bloody writing appears on the wall: “Chucky Did It.” Charlotte asks the obvious question. “Who the fuck is Chucky?”
The opening Chucky credits this time consist of an electronic map of the world with white detonations mushrooming all over it.
Charlotte, extremely upset, runs into the bedroom where Henry and his older brother Grant (Jackson Kelly) are sleeping. She wants them to leave with her, although she doesn’t tell them of their father’s death.
Jake (Zackary Arthur) and Devon (Björgvin Arnarson) finally get back to the hotel room they’re sharing with Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind). Lexy congratulates them on consummating their relationship but reminds them that they’ve still got to make Chucky tell them the whereabouts of her little sister Caroline (whom Chucky kidnapped in Season 2).
Pryce tries to stop the desperate Charlotte from exiting the White House. When appealing to her patriotism doesn’t work, he blackmails her with the recording of her saying they need to cover up the killings (now assumed by Charlotte and Pryce to be committed by ghosts, actually committed by Chucky). He promises that a paranormal expert is coming to investigate what’s happening.
Meanwhile, Charlotte needs to meet – the President’s double, Randall Jenkins, played by (who else?) Devon Sawa. At this juncture, Sawa is due for some kind of prize for playing the biggest number of different characters murdered by the same killer in a single scripted series. (C’mon, Chainsaw Awards, give this man his own category.) Charlotte is livid, but Pryce maintains that Presidential doubles are normal for abnormal circumstances, and Jenkins will stay away from the boys.
Grant has invited Lexy, Devon and Jake to the White House for the evening. Despite his previous gung-ho attitude, Jake has a bad feeling about this, but Devon gives him a hero pep talk.
As a storm rages outside, Lexy spots a grand piano and urges Grant to play something. Grant launches into a gentle acoustic rendition of “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” Lexy sings along. (For Supernatural fans, it’s a little like the girls-school rendition of “Carry On, My Wayward Son.”)
At dinner with the four teens, Charlotte is physically present, but slow to respond. To break the tension, Lexy asks where Henry is. Grant explains that Henry is taking care of his “dying” doll.
Chucky, held by Henry, is pretty surprised to see Jenkins, posing as the President, walk down the hall. (You think Chucky would be used to people who look like Devon Sawa by now.) At Chucky’s urging, Henry takes his dying doll to the President’s gun safe.
Charlotte leaves, and in the awkwardness at the dinner table, Lexy tells Grant the truth about Chucky and the danger he poses. Yes, she and her friends used Grant, but Lexy’s feelings for him are real. Lexy says as much in some meta dialogue; they skip over the teen drama movie moment of Grant being mad, and he takes the trio to find Henry.
Alone, Jenkins is thrown but tries to be fatherly when Henry, carrying Chucky, enters his quarters. Then Chucky pulls out the gun. When Henry, appalled, asks what “Joseph” is doing, Chucky finally says, “My name is fucking Chucky.”
Collins’ ghost appears to Charlotte. She apologizes to him. She tries to touch him, and his face changes to its post-mortem state, with eyes and flesh gouged out. Charlotte flees.
When the Secret Service agent accompanying Jenkins and Henry to the Situation Room tries to report the President’s position in the elevator (normal protocol), Chucky shoots him dead. The Secret Service agent outside the Situation Room realizes something is wrong. Chucky shoots this agent, too, then rams a pen into his eye.
Shortly thereafter, Lexy, Jake, Devon and Grant see the dead Secret Service agent on the elevator floor, and “Chucky Did It” scrawled in blood inside the door.
In the Situation Room, holding the dead Secret Service agent’s gun to Jenkins’ head, Chucky says, “Let’s start World War Three.” Jenkins begins authenticating the launch codes with NORAD. Step One is easy. Then it’s time for iris verification. Chucky, prepared, has kept the President’s eyeballs and holds one up to the scanner.
Standing on the electronic planetary map, Chucky quotes the gangster movie White Heat, declaring, “Top of the world, Ma!”
Chucky targets Moscow, Pyongyang, and the 90th Parallel North. When Jenkins asks why Chucky wants to nuke the North Pole, Chucky says it’s because he wants the kids who survive Armageddon to know there’s no such thing as Santa Claus. This is news to Henry.
Through the Situation Room window, Henry sees the quartet of teens approaching and lets them inside. Lexy doesn’t care about Chucky’s gun – she demands he tell her where Caroline is. Chucky can’t be bothered. With eight billion victims, he’ll be the biggest serial killer in history.
Then NORAD comes back on the speaker. The President has to order the launch. While Chucky coughs blood and is fractionally distracted, Jake lunges at him, knocking the gun across the table. Jenkins grabs it. Lexy tries to stop Jake from killing Chucky before he discloses Caroline’s whereabouts; Jake argues that Chucky is about to start World War Three.
Jenkins, not worried at all about Caroline, shoots Chucky. Simultaneously, Agent Coop (T.K. Collins) runs in with Charlotte and Pryce, and likewise shoots Chucky.
Jenkins is able to stop the strikes on Moscow and Pyongyang, but the dying Chucky lands on the button and nukes the North Pole. Chucky, you monster. Killing children and teenagers and nuns is one thing, but you nuked all those innocent polar bears and made global warming worse!
And then Chucky dissolves into smoke, leaving only his shoes behind.
Pryce assures “Mr. President” that it’s okay, this is officially an accidental detonation, while Devon promises Lexy that they will somehow find Caroline.
And out in the hallway, the lights flicker, and we see the ghost of Chucky’s erstwhile possessor, Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif).
What a joy to have Dourif on camera again in the CHUCKY-verse after all this time, and what a perfectly logical (within this framework) means to bring him back. It’s been swell, Doll, but let’s give a real guy a chance to play with the role.
And “Don’t Fear the Reaper” is always a sublime choice for any horror show.
Chucky Season 3: Part 2 premiered April 10. New episodes air Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST on USA and SYFY and stream the next day on Peacock. Catch up on our Chucky season 3 recaps, and keep an eye out for our interview with Brad and Fiona Dourif.
