Warning: SPOILERS for the Chucky season 1 finale.
Chucky episode 8, “An Affair to Dismember” addressed several long-term questions from the Child’s Play franchise - including why Charles Lee Ray has only inhabited Good Guy dolls. After being fatally shot in 1988, the infamous serial killer erroneously named the Lakeshore Strangler used voodoo to transfer his soul into a doll. As Brad Dourif’s titular monster later admitted, he was kind of surprised it actually worked. Though he initially strived to return to a human form, Chucky ultimately came to relish the mythical infamy of being a killer doll. As such, Chucky remained in that form to terrorize countless victims over multiple decades.
Following the ending of the Cult of Chucky movie, the killer doll returned to his hometown of Hackensack, New Jersey. With Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) and Kyle (Christine Elise McCarthy) hunting him and his other iterations down, Chucky rapidly sought to increase his numbers. To do this, he needed to corrupt an innocent by getting them to kill. After failing to lure Jake (Zackary Arthur) to the dark side, Chucky ultimately found a more willing protege in Junior (Teo Briones). With the twisted teen committing patricide, a horde of Chucky dolls was able to come to life and prepared to wage a stealthy war across the United States.
That move, however, also served to bring back the eternal Child’s Play question: Why does Chucky rely solely on Good Guy dolls? After all, with his level of mystical power, he should be able to inhabit any toy or even something with more substantial height like mannequins, thus taking his beloved element of surprise to new heights. That would surely be a lot less expensive than harvesting rare and vintage dolls — even with Tiffany having Jennifer Tilly’s wealth at their disposal. Of course, the obvious answer is that it has become as much of a brand for Chucky as it has for Universal and franchise creator Don Mancini. The Chucky season 1 finale ending, however, also relayed that the answer to the age-old Chucky question stemmed from the rigid rules at the heart of the voodoo that the killer doll taps into.
After Kyle dramatically saved Jake and Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind) from a new Chucky, she quickly brought them up to speed on the extent of the situation. “Wait, Chucky can splinter himself into other dolls?” Lexy asked. “Only other Good Guy dolls,” Kyle answered. Andy Barclay’s beloved foster sister then went on to elaborate that most of the voodoo rituals—such as the one Chucky used to activate his army—limit the practitioner to inhabiting identical vessels. Since Chucky is famously locked into his Good Guy form after a set amount of time, he, more often than not, has no choice but to rely on the classic 80s favorite. As such, the Chucky TV show explains why the majority of his various forms in the Child’s Play movies are slightly different iterations of the same.
As long-term Chucky and Child’s Play viewers will already know, however, there are certain spells and loopholes that allow him to jump into human bodies. If quick enough, he can take over the body of the first he revealed himself to. Tiffany also discovered a spell that allowed him to split a piece of his soul into a human — such as he did with the increasingly tragic hero Nica (Fiona Dourif). For the most part, however, lest a new spell is discovered, audiences will only ever see him in Good Guy mode. For many that will be a relief, since that’s the visage viewers have come to love. On the other hand, however, it’ll be a shame that the impressively inclusive Chucky TV show likely won’t depict him having brief fun in different toy forms—or even going hilariously full K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider.