Recap: Devon Sawa returns and an unlikely alliance revealed in 'Chucky' Season 2, Episode 2

Say your prayers! Episode 2 of Chucky's second season takes us deep within the halls of the Catholic School of the Incarnate Lord, where our young heroes have been sent to reflect on their "sins" following the events of the explosive premiere. Not that they did anything wrong, of course. All of this bloodshed can be pinned squarely on the shoulders of one Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) and every Good Guy Doll carrying a piece of his wicked soul. The new episode also presents the second coming — an apt choice of words, if we do say so ourselves — of Devon Sawa, who returns to the hit slasher series in a brand-new role after his two characters were killed off in Season 1.

“I just get attached to people very easily," creator, showrunner, and executive producer Don Mancini remarked at the show's New York Comic Con panel last week. "And if we have a good working relationship and then that turns into a personal relationship, it's like, ‘OK, you're gonna stay. You're a keeper.' We were all just like, 'He's pretty cool, maybe he's a keeper. We should bring him back.’”

**SPOILER WARNING! THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR CHUCKY SEASON 2, EPISODE 2, "THE SINNERS ARE MUCH MORE FUN"**

Episode 2 begins not at Incarnate Lord, but at the lavish Beverly Hills estate of Jennifer Tilly. In a little tribute to The Godfather, the Oscar-nominated actress (currently possessed by Chucky's on-again-off-again paramour, Tiffany Valentine) wakes up to find the bloody severed head of a Tiffany doll in her bed. Now that's an offer you can't refuse!

She immediately suspects foul play on the part of Chucky's soul inhabiting the body of Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif), who has been held hostage within the confines of the gated Southern California property over the last year. The only thing capable of poking a hole in this accusation is the fact that all Nica's limbs were hacked off in the Season 1 finale by Tiffany herself. So who cut off the head and left it under the sheets for the fake Ms. Tilly to discover? More on that below!

Over the past year, Nica has endured hours upon hours of Jennifer Tilly movie marathons (not a bad way to spend the day; after all, who doesn't love some Liar Liar?) and watched Tiffany blow through $100 million of the actress' "Simpsons money." Tiffany doesn't much care as she prepares for the birthday celebration of her children, Glen and Glenda, who should be arriving any day now. There's also a nosy Beverly Hills detective asking very suspicious questions about Jennifer Tilly's connection to the missing Nica Pierce (you may recall how a link between the two was forged in 2017's Cult of Chucky), who is wanted for questioning in the mass murder of mental hospital staff and patients.

Back east, Jake (Zackary Arthur), Devon (Björgvin Arnarson), and Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind) attend their first morning mass at Incarnate Lord, run by the sports metaphor-loving headmaster, Father Bryce (Devon Sawa), who looks a heck of a lot like Jake's late father. Jake even says as much in a little meta wink to the audience. Like most folks in the Child's Play franchise, Bryce refuses to entertain the idea of a killer doll and hopes our young heroes will instead place their belief in a higher power.

He better start believing in murderous toys real soon because Chucky — at least one version of him that survived the truck crash in last week's premiere — is on the loose within the halls of Incarnate Lord, giving nuns fatal heart attacks (poor Sister Elizabeth) and snapping pictures with an iPhone.

But when Chucky gets a prime opportunity to kill Jake in a locked room, the doll escapes up the chimney instead. Something fishy's going on here. The trio reluctantly settles in to their religious surroundings, ultimately making a new friend and anti-Chucky confidant in serial kleptomaniac, Nadine (Bella Higginbotham). Jake, who is wracked with profound guilt over the death of Gary, suggests that he and Devon hide their romance since "Catholics aren't exactly down with the gays." Devon replies: "F*** that."

"One of the main things I wanted to do was continue to follow the relationship between Jake and Devon," Mancini explained at NYCC. "As in any good drama, you have to create conflict. They can't just simply live happily ever after. There has to be stuff going on and so, I wanted to continue to draw on real life and my own experiences as a gay kid growing up Catholic ... the personification of that conflict is [Father Bryce]. One of the things I think has made the TV show work as well as it does is that it has this feeling of real life and real pain in it. Real issues that kids go through." 

Chucky causes a raucous on the first night and nearly kills Jake when Devon overpowers the living toy. Before Devon can stab Chucky with his own kitchen knife, Jake proposes a better idea, having worked out what this particular doll is up to. We learn that this version of Chucky is merely scouting the place, hence the picture-taking. The group, now aided and abetted by Nadine, decides to tie Chucky up for further questioning.

Back in Beverly Hills, the detective elicits a confession out of Tiffany, who graciously invites the detective into her home before promptly slitting the man's throat and spilling blood all over the floor of the entryway. She attempts to hastily clean up the evidence, but not before Glen and Glenda (both characters are played by Lachlan Watson) walk in on the carnage their mother has wrought.

Meanwhile, Nica spars with Chucky inside her own head, revealing that she and the murderer are actually working together! The cinematography and lighting in this scene go the extra mile to convey the inner struggle between the two personalities. In any case, their goals are aligned for once: Tiffany must die. Nica wants to get the hell out of captivity and Chucky wants revenge. It's a win-win for all parties involved. But how did Nica cut the head off the Tiffany doll without any arms? An explanation has yet to present itself.

New episodes of Chucky premiere on SYFY and USA Network every Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET. The complete first season is now streaming on Peacock. Click here to watch Episode 2 for free.