For those of us hardwired to love the Friday The 13th universe, there’s been a sense that Crystal Lake has been holding back ever so slightly when it comes to dealing out the bloody murders the franchise has become famous for. That’s not to say that the show has been chickening out over the actual violent content – the deaths that have occured so far have been nice and juicy – but when you consider that both Pamela Voorhees and her son Jason are renowned for racking up eight or more kills in a 24 hour period, Crystal Lake has been pacing itself somewhat.
Well, it’s not pacing itself any more, because with “Kill Them, Mommy”, we finally find the show letting Pam slip her chain and go on the type of kill-crazy rampage that put the F13 franchise on the map. But beyond the bloodshed, the conspiracy plot is now also threatening to kick into high gear to deliver some sort of wild explanation for everything. Prepare to experience a good old bout of frenzied mass murder – Pamela Voorhees style.
I don’t mean to make a late bid to win the 2026 Understatement Of The Year awards, but things have gotten somewhat stressed within the outwardly simple life of Pamela Voorhees. After trying to protect young local, Grace, from the collection of infuriating hippies that are currently staying at Camp Crystal Lake, the girl ended up ingesting a sizable dose of hallucinogens and stabbed her two teen bullies, Claudette and Barry in a drugged up haze. But after being discovered by Pam, we find that the enterprising Ms. Voorhees isn’t about to lose Grace to the police system and finishes Claudette off in order to dispose of the bodies.
However, while her mothering instincts are firing on all cylinders, Pam’s sanity has been fraying of late and while she attempts to hide the fresh corpses, a vision of her drowned son, Jason, instructs her to continue her formidable kill streak to frame the hippies by killing them all. And kill them she does, but during this orgy of stabbing and slicing, two odd things occur – the first is that Harmony manages to escape Pamela’s wrath, and the second is that the unluckier Plato is killed by a machete to the face by persons unknown. But while Pam is puzzled by this outside interference, she starts to suspect that her son isn’t as dead as everyone thinks and is currently living in the woods like some sort of animal.
Meanwhile, while the hippy massacre seems to exonerate Crazy Ralph, Briana Brooks seems on the verge of cracking the conspiracy behind Bellflower Chemical, when a file she’s handed gives her everything she needs to know – including the fact that a Pamela Wittering was involved and has since faked her death and changed her name to Voorhees. After a run in with some Bellflower goons who kill her source, Briana flees to get aid from her brother, Sheriff Levon; but after both confront Pamela with evidence of her past, it’s time for her to relate her mysterious origin story.
Obviously, we don’t get that origin story in this episode, but that doesn’t stop “Kill Them, Mommy” from bring the most wildly fun installment since that cracking first episode. Not only do we get some sizable plot progression that finally pushes the Bellflower conspiracy to the forefront, and introduces Hamish (Midnight Mass, Widow’s Bay) Linklater’s big fish, but Pamela’s state of mind is rapidly approaching that which we’re most familiar with thanks to the 1980s movie. Anyone thinking that a random conspiracy plot showing up in the middle of a Friday The 13th story is off-brand may need to check their sources, mainly because the 1970s (when the show is set) was actually rotten with real-life political scandals and paranoia thrillers in the cinema. Similarly, Jason himself was a victim of shadowy suits (led by David Cronenberg, no less) trying to harness his power of invulnerablily at the start of Jason X, so showrunner Brad Caleb Kane is still managing to colour within the lines of established lore.
However, while the conspiracy stuff is merely a tease for the big reveal we’re bound to get in the next episode, it’s Pamela’s mental state and that big, slasher blowout that garners the most attention. In the case of Pamela’s sanity, it seems that she’s teetering on being split three ways – her renewed belief that Jason’s alive and living in the woods, her psychotic visions of her young son urging her to kill, and her desire to protect Grace like a surrogate child at any cost. Watching Pamela bounce between the three gives Linda Cardellini a thrilling acting workout as she’s requires to switch between a mourning mother, a caring parent and an absolutely deranged, knife waving animal in a blue, cable-knit sweater. It’s a genuine coup that the former Velma Dinkley can obliterate a cadre of hippies one minute and tug the heartstrings as she waits at that remote shack for signs that Jason is still alive.
However, it’s the plunge into classic, F13 carnage that really gears things up, and while the show has been giving us incredibly memorable kills thus far, it’s here that we finally watch Crystal Lake finally fully embraces the aesthetic of an 80s slasher. While Pam hasn’t got time to get fully creative other than stabbing Shutterbug in the face through his camera, watching the show open itself up to both mass killing and sex and nudity (all reliable F13 cornerstones) is a wonderous experience. It also helps that the hippies, while technically, innocent, fulfill.all the obnoxious requirements necessary to make their messy demises awesomely fun. However, it feels like the show is offering us a cheeky bait and switch, doling out classic Voorhees slaughter in order to sweeten some major deviations that’ll no doubt pop up in that imminent flashback episode.
Still, before Crystal Lake rocks our world by demanding that we once again unlearn all we think we know about the history of the Voorhees, it’s real good to spend time with Pam as she unleashes her inner maniac with such devestating effect. A slashed throat here, a machete in the face there, and even the sight of some breasts may sound a bit lowbrow, especially for a A24 production, but to the initiated, that’s exactly the stuff we’ve all been waiting for. In fact, despite the obvious (and understandable) lack of a hockey mask, Crystal Lake has to be commended for being able to accurately replicate the classic, pre-Jason world of Friday The 13th while still being able to keep one, disfigured eye on the basic needs of a television show. Everything may change during the next episode, but for right now, “Kill Them, Mommy” almost matches the first episode for textbook Friday The 13th goodness.
Finally giving us the Pamela-led, hippy bloodbath we’ve all been waiting for (I have nothing against hippies in general, BTW, but these guys were just fuckin’ asking for it), Crystal Lake gives us a big, juicy slay-a-thon that totally hits the spot. With the addition of other, classic lore, such as Pam envisioning little Jason telling her to kill, it’ll be interesting to see where the final two episodes take us; but in the event of a massive, climactic rug pull, it’s great that the basics got nailed just as well as those hippies.
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Where to watch Crystal Lake – Season 1, Episode 6: Kill Them, Mommy: