“Just Let Go” is the creepiest episode yet, easily, and also moves so much of the story along in great ways. The fact that Don Mancini and company decided to embrace the fire which wrapped up the previous episode with long lasting or permanent repercussions, for pretty much everyone, is a big plus. So often on TV shows there’ll be things that should be a big deal with much aftermath, only for the characters and situation to reset to the status quo immediately. None of that here on Chucky, thankfully.

Previously On Chucky.

The biggest change going forward is that Jake suddenly has two allies to help with taking on Chucky, now that Lexy and Devon are in on the secret. I suspect Junior might find out what’s going on soon, also, if only because there’s so much overlap and they’ll have strength in numbers. Speaking of Junior, I’d venture a guess he’s not terribly bummed he has to put a pause on the cross country running. Based on that kind of threatening hospital chat I’d say his dad is still nuts about it, unfortunately for him.

As for Jake and Lexy hashing out their problems, I’m glad that all happened. It was very necessary in order for them to continue working together on this. From Lexy speaking her piece about Jake’s involvement in Oliver dying/the massive house fire to Jake finally telling her she’s an awful garbage person who deserved to die, lots of good stuff. I particularly enjoyed Jake screaming at her that he didn’t just want to kill some random person for the thrill of it, he wanted *her* dead for being a genuine detriment to his life for a long while. Lexy also got quite an earful from her parents about her bad choices and awful behavior. Well, she gets an earful from her mom while her dad mostly stands there.

Devon and Jake seem closer and closer to crossing the line from friends to more than friends, which I’m sure Jake could use some of right now. Between Chucky and Lexy, Jake hasn’t exactly been spending his time with people who enrich his life in any way. I like how Devon reacted to the news from his mother that Oliver was murdered. He doesn’t appear at all upset by that information, but rather interested. Also, I’m glad Devon mentioned that Charles Lee Ray being dubbed “The Lakeshore Strangler” is rather odd, considering he does quite a lot of mangling and stabbing-type stuff.

The police, Devon’s mom in particular, finally being aware there’s a murderer on the loose is another one of those big changes. Up to now it’s largely been Devon’s mom having a sinking suspicion that something’s going on, so now that she’s got two murders (one of them her partner) to keep her busy I look forward to that plot being able to finally get going.

Oh, and on the subject of Devon’s mom–was she just going to question a 14 year old about his possible involvement in a murder without any guardian present? I mean, even if he confessed having something to do with it I’d think a good, or even just okay, lawyer could make an argument against this interview being above board. This isn’t SVU, I understand, I’ll let it go now.

So, I’ve gone on this whole time without really talking about Chucky himself. For one thing, he’s mostly just a creepy presence on the outskirts of things most of the episode. I appreciate they had Chucky be a creepy figure again, for old time’s sake. While he’s only seen briefly with a quick glimpse here or there, there’s still a nice feeling of unease and dread to everything. The hospital being all unsettling blood red lights, dark colors, and sinister shadows certainly helped amp up the creep factor. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I couldn’t help but think of Halloween 2 (not the Rob Zombie one) pretty much whenever creepy hospital things were happening.

Once Chucky finally reappears in the burned out remains of Lexy’s home, another wonderfully creepy setting, and tries to convince Jake to just let Lexy go so he could murder her we get another of those changes in the form of Chucky’s half-burned face. It’s always fun when Mancini gives Chucky a makeover of some kind, and this one is appealingly freakish.

The Tiffany and Nica shout outs, when Devon’s doing Chucky research, are very welcome and I look forward to when everyone from the film series starts popping up. I think they’ve done well with all the new characters, too, don’t get me wrong. I’m just anticipating all these moving parts colliding. We got another little nod to the films from the flashbacks to Chucky’s teen years. The little boy who Chucky takes under his wing is Eddie Caputo, who you may remember as one of Chucky’s victims from the first Child’s Play movie.

This is a winner of an episode, all around. Bring on the next one!

9 out of 10 Mangling Stranglers