‘Chucky’: Episode 4 Reveals a Further Look Into Charles Lee Ray’s Teenage Years
Chucky horror creator Don Mancini once again gives fans even more insight into the killer doll. The Chucky TV series aired its fourth episode on Nov. 2 and showcased a new side of Charles Lee Ray that has never been seen before. The infamous killer was always better known by his murderous doll persona in the movie franchise. Chucky episode 4 takes fans back to Lee Ray as a young teen continuing his killer ways.
Fans of the series and the horror movie character got their first taste of Lee Ray’s childhood in episode 3. The show answered the biggest question of them all. Lee Ray was born a killer, but the new tidbits into his teenage years show how much his past affected him growing up.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers about Chucky.]
‘Chucky’ episode 4 takes fans to Charles Lee Ray’s foster home
In episode 3, the main characters were almost killed by Chucky (Brad Dourif) in a deadly fire. Chucky episode 4, “Just Let Go” takes place at the local hospital. Devon Evans (Björgvin Arnarson) sits in his hospital bed and decides to find answers to who or what Chucky is. His Google search leads him to Charles Lee Ray and his backstory.
The scene cuts to 1972 at the Burlington County Home for Wayward Boys. At this point, Lee Ray is a young teenager. To everyone else and the foster mother, Lee Ray is the sweetest and kindest boy. He is in the living room reading “Peter Pan” to the other boys. As he goes to talk to the foster mother, he accidentally steps on the wet floor the janitor just cleaned.
This is the common story of the mean foster worker who hates kids. He provokes Lee Ray by wetting his only pair of shoes. Later that day, Lee Ray tells the kids they are going on an adventure like Peter Pan in the woods. He reveals the janitor with a slit throat covered in maggots. His hand is cut off and replaced with a hook.
Charles Lee Ray sparks a foster kids possible morbid interests
One of the big takeaways of the flashback is not just Lee Ray’s continuous murder interest but the foster child who stays to look at the body. When Lee Ray reveals the dead body to the children, two of them run away screaming. But, one child stays and grabs a stick to poke at the maggots on the rotting corpse. Fans might have worried the Tv series would not be gory enough, but Mancini cleverly interweaves it into the flashbacks.
The flashback also gives insight into how much killing his mother as a child and his interaction with the Hackensack killer affected him. He tells the foster child that stuck around, “You got guts, kid.” They were the same words the killer told Lee Ray after his first kill.
“That Charles wanted to pay forward that spark of inspiration from a young age is a smart way to add to Chucky’s backstory in a way that’s still relevant to Jake in the present,” said IGN. Chucky now sees the opportunity to try and mentor Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur) the same way he hoped to have done with the foster child. The flashback ends with Lee Ray leaving the janitor’s hand as a gift to the child.
‘Chucky’ episode 4 paid homage to the movie franchise
As previously mentioned, Devon Google searched for information about Chucky. His search brings up many related articles to the lore of the killer doll and his path of murder. To understand the easter eggs that appear in his search, fans would have to be familiar with the Child’s Play movie franchise.
One of the article headlines is Chucky’s known accomplice, Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly). Fans of Bride of Chucky would have spotted the article using a snapshot of Tiffany in the movie. The search also brings up Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif). The headline says she escaped the psychiatric hospital like in Cult of Chucky. The Chucky series trailers answer fans’ questions about what happened to Jennifer. She is will return to Hackensack, New Jersey.
According to Distractify, Nica is said to appear in episode 5, titled “Little Little Lies.” Chucky episode 4 worked as a nice little segway to tease fans that the franchise characters will return for the series.
