By George & Josh Bate
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for all 8 episodes of Peacock and A24’s Crystal Lake.
Nearly 20 years after Jason Voorhees last wrecked mayhem in the lives of sexually curious camp counselors, the Friday the 13th franchise finally returns in the form of a prequel series, now streaming in its entirety on Peacock.
Crystal Lake takes place before the events of the original Friday the 13th and centers on Pamela Voorhees (Linda Cardellini), a single mother whose life is shattered when her young, sickly son Jason (Callum Vinson) drowns at Camp Crystal Lake. Devastated by the loss, Pamela struggles to cope with her grief while two strangers from her past arrive and begin stirring up secrets she would seemingly rather leave buried. Their presence sets the stage for a story about Pamela’s history and the circumstances that will eventually lead to the events of the original movie.
In a manner similar to how Bates Motel revealed unexplored details of Norman Bates’ backstory and Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween revealed unexplored details of Michael Myer’s origins, Crystal Lake offers a number of fascinating insights into how Jason Voorhees became the hulking, masked slasher that terrorized movie theaters throughout the 1980s.
In fact, the case could be made that Crystal Lake goes even further than Bates Motel and Halloween (2007) in its reveals about an icon of the slasher genre. Whereas not much unexpected is gleaned of Bates and Myers in these respective projects, Brad Caleb Kane’s new series uncovers tons of secrets about Jason Voorhees, explains how he is so powerful and invulnerable, and completely reinterprets the events of the franchise, in particular the first film.
Jason Voorhees’s Full Origin Story Is Finally Revealed
The penultimate episode of Crystal Lake unfolds as a flashback that goes in depth into the backstory of Jason Voorhees more than ever before.
Pamela Voorhees was not always Pamela Voorhees. Her maiden name was Scott and, before migrating to Crystal Lake and raising young Jason, she was a singer at a nightclub in New York City.
During a performance, Pam suddenly starts bleeding down her leg and is immediatley taken to an emergency room in New York City. Alongside her partner Elias Wittering (Hamish Linklater), Pam is informed by the attending physician that she had a miscarriage and will be unable to conceive again.
Devastated by the news, Pam is given a lifeline when Elias informs her that doctors associated with the company he works for, Bellflower Chemical, may be able to help. Pam and Elias make the journey to Houston, Texas, where they meet Dr. Valentine and Dr. Landau. After performing initial tests on Pam, the doctors inform Pam that she is still pregnant.
Overjoyed by the news, Pam is brought back down to Earth as Dr. Valentine tells her that her unborn baby is still in a precarious situation due to an issue with the placenta. But there’s hope. Dr. Valentine offers Pam a position in an experimental clinical trial, which he says will increase the likelihood that the baby will survive. Participation in the trial will mean that Pam and Elias need to relocate from New York City to Houston.
With Elias’ insistence, Pam agrees to enroll in the program and move to Houston. There, she lives in a company home and is given specific frozen foods to eat by Bellflower. There’s a bit of a Stepford Wives vibe going on as other expecting moms are participating in the trial, including a woman named Trish, who appears anxious and hesitant about what the program entails.
Pam goes for her first procedure during the trial, which involves Dr. Valentine strapping her down, putting a leather belt in her mouth, and injecting a needle in her stomach. It is implied this is the first of many such procedures Pam will undergo as part of the trial.
Sometime after, Pam goes to the local emergency room as Trish had complications with her pregnancy. Trish gave birth to a stillborn and ominously states, “She wasn’t right.” Before Pam can do anything, Trish stabs herself in the neck and bleeds out before her eyes. The stress of Trish’s sudden suicide induces labor in Pam, who soon gives birth to the one and only Jason Voorhees…..
Jason Voorhees Becomes a Clinical Experiment for Bellflower
Pam wakes up in a hospital bed, where Elias greets her. He tells her that she had the baby and that the baby is a boy, but, because the baby is premature, he must be kept in the nursery for the time being. It is clear that Elias is hiding something, but Pam doesn’t know what.
Sometime later, Pam visits her baby Jason in the nursery, where she discovers that he is deformed.
Two months later, Pam and Elias bring Jason home. She comments that, as his mouth is not attached properly, she must feed him with a syringe.
At this point, Elias has ascended up the Bellflower hierarchy and now has his very own secretary.
One day, Pam is bathing Jason in the tub when she falls asleep. Sometime after, Elias comes in and discovers that Jason has drowned and is not breathing. Elias and a distraught Pam pull Jason out of the water and believe he has died, only to discover shortly after that he has somehow lived.
Pam then faces consequences for what she is told was negligent parental behavior. Dr. Valentine tells her that the lack of oxygen to the brain will not have lasting effects on Jason, but that he needs to go through a regular treatment moving forward. Mrs. Parsons, a registered nurse, moves in with the family to (allegedly) take care of Pam and Jason given the recent drowning incident.
Four years then pass and a birthday party is held for Jason. But Jason is nowhere to be seen, much to Pam’s dismay. Halfway through the party, Elias (who has now been promoted to Director of Operations at Bellflower) brings Jason with, saying that the doctors needed to run more tests on him. Immediately, Pam is concerned that Jason appears sick.
Shortly after, an intoxicated Dr. Landau stumbles through the party and apologizes to Pam “for everything.” Pam doesn’t have much time to think about Landau’s words as Jason emerges from their family home’s underground cellar with a bloody nose and holding a geiger counter. Pam rushes over to Jason as the whole party watches in shock. As the geiger counter starts acting erratically, Jason says, “Mommy, I don’t feel good.” His hair starts falling out and then he passes out in Pam’s arms.
After the dust settles from the birthday party, Pam comes to the conclusion that whatever treatments Bellflower are exposing Jason to are harming him. Although Pam threatens to take Jason away from Bellflower and Houston altogether, Elias threatens her, stating he will kick her out and cut off access to Jason, using the drowning incident as evidence pointing toward her poor parenting.
Pam retreats after Elias’ threat, although soon uncovers indisputable evidence that Bellflower is up to no good with her son. While taking a look through some of Jason’s drawings, Pam uncovers a number of disturbing sketches, including angry doctors, men in red suits, and all kinds of needles and wires going into him.
At this point, Pam comes to the conclusion that she needs to get Jason away from Bellflower and Elias. At a gala, Pam searches for Jason, who is still receiving treatment following the birthday party incident. She eventually stumbles into a lab filled with deformed babies and children, one of whom wears a black hood and acts like a vicious animal, in iron lung-type machines. Nearby, she finally finds Jason, detaches him from machines, and starts to take him away when Dr. Valentine appears and threatens her. Pam goes full Voorhees mode at this point, shoving an electric drill into Valentine’s face.
While Pam rescues Jason, the episode cuts back and forth to a speech Elias gives to his Bellflower colleagues – a speech that reveals so much about Jason Voorhees.
Jason Voorhees is Not a Supernatural Entity
Elias reveals that he is overseeing Project Argonaut at Bellflower Chemical. In Greek mythology, a person named Jason was the leader of the Argonauts on a voyage aboard the Argo to retrieve the Golden Fleece, often associated with healing, resurrection, and life. This is a clever double-entendre that ties directly into Jason’s abilities.
Project Argonaut came about in the 1960s and 1970s as nuclear power between the Soviet Union and the United States seemed inevitable. To fortify human bodies to survive an irradiated Earth, Bellflower commissioned a project that aimed to make humans resilient to a nuclear war.. Elias’ team replicated the cellular process of cockroaches to ensure that humans could survive radioactive fallout. Interestingly, Elias notes that the Project Argonaut procedure entails that trauma makes subjects stronger and can spur physical growth.
Let’s put all this into context for Jason Voorhees and the Friday the 13th franchise.
When Jason drowns in Crystal Lake, he does not actually die. The experiments conducted on him in Project Argonaut not only kept him alive, but they made him grow into a full man, explaining why Jason Voorhees appears as a fully grown man in the surrounding woods throughout the series.
This also explains why Jason Voorhees is so powerful and invulnerable. Every trauma he undergoes, physical or mental, strengthens him, meaning he becomes increasingly powerful with each movie.
All of this means that Jason Voorhees is not a supernatural entity, but the product of science. His powers are given a scientific, rather than supernatural, explanation.
Crystal Lake Entirely Changes Pamela Voorhees’ Role in Friday the 13th
In perhaps the most surprising development of the series, Pamela Voorhees’ role in the original film is greatly recontextualized in Crystal Lake.
Whereas the original Friday the 13th frames Pamela Voorhees as a vengeful mother intent on killing camp counselors as she holds them responsible for the death of her son, Crystal Lake makes it clear that Pam is fully aware that Jason did not drown and, instead, is very much alive. The series concludes with Pam acknowledging that the woods of Camp Crystal Lake are Jason’s to roam around in and that she will protect this sacred space for Jason.
The end of Crystal Lake implies that Jason and Pam Voorhees are a serial killer duo of sorts, who take it upon themselves to keep the area surrounding Camp Crystal Lake free of unwanted intruders. Given this revelation, Pam’s role in Friday the 13th vastly changes. She is not a grieving mother seeking revenge for the death of her son. Instead, she is a loving mother intent on killing anyone who disturbs the peaceful woods that her traumatized son inhabits. Her actions in the original film have nothing in particular to do with vengeful actions toward sex-addicted camp counselors (although Pam does inadvertently get her revenge against the two counselors who were having sex while they were meant to be keeping an eye on Jason, via the actions of a psychedelic-intoxicated young girl named Grace in a scene that completely reframes the opening POV sequence of Friday the 13th).
The expanded origin story of Jason Voorhees and the complete reframing of the original Friday the 13th forever change the way in which the iconic original film will be viewed. Some fans will likely enjoy the revelations and added context, while others will find issue with what they perceive to be over-explaining a mysterious character and unnecessarily changing our understanding of a classic film.
Nonetheless, it’s great to see the world of Crystal Lake and the Voorhees family finally back in live-action storytelling after such an extended absence. Hopefully this is the first of many new Friday the 13th stories to come.
Crystal Lake is now streaming on Peacock.