#the soap opera where a 2 ft fall insult comic murders everyone

[thekimspoblog]

But ok here's the deal with "Good Chucky".

Season 1, we get some insight into Charles Lee Ray's backstory. And for the most part it does seem like he was just a bad seed. Which is good, because it's not like I wanted some sob story about how society is to blame anyway. But we do get the suggestion that maybe things would have turned out differently if he hadn't fallen into the care of Dr. Mixter. Because Dr. Mixter is a horrible pediatric psychiatrist, who is traumatizing her patients and giving them bad advice on purpose. She was the one who encouraged Charles's natural "gifts".

In Season 2, Jake Devon and Lexi manage to capture one of the dolls. And Jake (way too quickly, in my opinion) gets the bright idea to torture Chucky clockwork-orange style. As a result, the doll regresses to a child-like state and seemingly becomes friendly and helpful. Jake concludes that this means he managed to turn the doll good, but this hypothesis is disproven when the doll playfully manages to lure a character named Nadine up to a third story balcony and tosses her off.

In spite of all evidence to the contrary, in Season 3, Jake still insists on traveling to the spirit world to make contact with "Good Chucky" in the hopes of doing some Steven Universe "reach his heart" bullshit. This also backfires horribly just like the previous attempt. So clearly it's not like the narrative is SIDING WITH Jake. But I'm not clear on what this subplot is trying to say, if anything.

Devon has been telling Jake this entire time that he thinks this is stupid, but Devon's objections mostly center around the premise that Charles Lee Ray is pure evil and has no humanity to appeal to. None of the characters actually challenge whether - if a kernel of good in him exists - torture was the best method to reform him. And like... it can't be because Don Mancini unironically believes torture works, right?? I really hope not; when another character named Andy talks about torturing Chucky, it's rightfully depicted as a sign of Andy's deteriorating mental health. And it's not like Jake is necessarily SUPPOSED TO BE the most well-adjusted protagonist in the world. Jake talks about brainwashing his enemy so confidently and casually, there's no way the writers aren't aware how insane this character looks. Right?

I would have accepted this as a dumb plot point which got dropped, but if they keep bringing it up, I want to believe this is going somewhere. If this is building to a Holden Ford type arc where Jake loses his romantic partner because he was too preoccupied trying to understand a criminal mind, that could be pretty darkly funny. But we won't know until Season 4 whether he's going to keep screwing up like this.