Syfy’s Chucky series gives us something new from the iconic possessed doll every season, taking us from a torturous middle school to a horrific Catholic boarding school, and in the third season, Chucky’s gone to D.C. Having infiltrated the White House as a toy belonging to the First Family, Chucky shows that the only game dirtier than serial killing is politics.
Chucky in the White House
Chucky is no stranger to politics: One of the main characters of the show, redeemed mean girl Lexi Cross, is the daughter of the mayor of Hackensack, New Jersey. Ever since introducing the character, the show has poked fun at politicians’ ability to deflect blame and pretend that everything is fine, even when there’s an active serial killer on the loose.
Still, going from killing former Mayors to attempting to kill the active President of the United States is a big step up. Chucky has also stepped up his manipulation tactics, naming himself after the President’s deceased son and systematically killing the most trusted White House staff in hopes of isolating the family even further. Even worse, Chucky is getting the U.S. government to help him in his dirty work.
The Chucky cover-up
The fascinating thing about President Collins is that he was an independent president elected on a platform of transparency. At first, I thought making the President independent was simply a way of skirting party politics, but the series has handled it well by showing how the election of an independent President has heralded a new era of cooperation and unity after the country was divided by party politics. That means the characters are willing to go to extreme lengths to maintain the image of the president and his transparency. After all, the president can only be transparent about what he knows.
After calling in a special agent to investigate the murder of a secret service agent, agent Warren Price proceeds to communicate only with the president’s wife, Mrs. Collins, keeping the president out of the loop under the guise of helping the president maintain his campaign promises. However, it’s quickly revealed that the agent’s true goals were to exert control over the White House. When Mrs. Collins finally decides to call the police and bring the situation to public attention, agent Price reveals that he has pictures of her husband’s affair (implied to have taken place before the election) and threatens to leak them to the press unless they continue to cover up the murders in the White House.
Chucky may not know about the exact actions being taken to cover up his crimes, but he knows that the president’s wife is helping conceal them, even going so far as to call her and taunt her over the matter. It’s a brutal hostage situation with no easy answer. If Mrs. Collins reveals Chucky’s crimes (and, by extension, her husband’s affair), she opens her family up to public critique and spells the end of her husband’s career. If she stays silent, she is complicit in Chucky’s murders, not allowing his victims and their families true justice.
It is the best possible use of the setting, showing that the actions of politicians literally mean life or death for average Americans. Chucky strangling Mrs. Fairchild, a school teacher and foster mother to some of the main teenage characters, with an American flag in the White House, only to get away with it because of White House politics, is horrific and about as political as the show has ever gotten.
That’s not to say the show’s sense of humor is dead and buried. The first episode has the President’s eldest son wonder what his parents would think of him smoking weed in the White House, only to transition to a scene of President and Mrs. Collins taking hits from a bong. Sublime editing.
Add in the fact that both President Collins and his vice president are played by Devon Sawa and Michael Therriault, who have both been killed by Chucky in previous seasons in other roles, heightens my anticipation for the kills to come.
(featured image: Syfy)
