The Muddled History of Jason

In my (largely) spoiler free review of the first season of Crystal Lake we discussed the fact that the show very early on rewrites Jason’s backstory… by giving him a backstory. We already knew from the movies that Jason has some birth defects that altered his appearance and brought much ridicule on him from other kids. This led to him drowning in the lake while he was at camp, with the two camp counselors that should have been watching him off having sex instead. This in turn led Pamela Voorhees to go on a killing spree, taking out any camp counselors she could find.

For most people that was enough. We knew who Jason was before he drowned. We knew who Pam was enough to understand why she was killing. And when Jason came back from the dead in the second film of the franchise to pick up the bloody axe and continue where his mother started, we all assumed he was some kind of undead ghoul powered by a quest for revenge. This did not need explaining as it very easily explained itself. Say what you will about the Friday the 13thOne of the most famous Slasher film franchises, the Friday the 13th series saw multiple twists and turn before finally settling on the formula everyone knows and loves: Jason Voorhees killing campers 'round Camp Crystal Lake. films, they felt no need to overburden themselves with story.

Crystal Lake changes that, and for all the things that the show does get right (the look of the show, the costumes, the setting, the performances) the changes they make to Pam and Jason’s stories is enough to ruin the whole affair. So let’s get into the changes and discuss why they cut the legs out from under the show with a sharpened machete:

Pam Doesn’t Need an Explanation

In the first episode of the season it’s revealed that Pam is on the run, hiding out in the titular town in New Jersey under an assumed last name with her son. The reason why, we’re led to believe, is because she’s mentally unstable and also, likely, was experimented on by some shady mega-corporation. Whatever they did to her, we are led to believe, made her into a psychopathic killer.

But here’s the thing: Pam’s reasons for going after camp counselors was already understood. She loved her son, the counselors let her son die (purposefully or through negligence, either or), and all she can see is revenge. It doesn’t matter, in the moment, if Pam was mentally unstable before the incident or not. The death of her son drove her there. Trying to add an explanation that she was experimented on and driven insane by a corporation tries to make her more sympathetic in the eyes of the viewers but that is also unneeded. Her son died. She was already sympathetic.

I think that’s one of the key things about the first Friday the 13th that works so well for it. Normally you don’t want to explain a killer because the explanation takes something away from her. The first Friday the 13th, though, gave you just enough so that while you didn’t agree with her decisions, and certainly didn’t abide by her methods, you at least understood where Pam was coming from. Grief and tragedy were enough, and we didn’t need anything more.

But now everything Pam does isn’t on her. She was the victim of a corporation, so whatever she did after the fact isn’t really her fault. It’s the corporation that’s to blame. Except that doesn’t really jibe with the killing spree she goes on in the first movie (or the one she actually initiates in this season of television, ripping through a bunch of hippies) because if she’s blame free we can’t really revel in the fact that she dies at the end of the first movie. There’s a disconnect here that comes about because Crystal Lake tries to explain Pam when she doesn’t need further explanation.

And Jason’s Explanation is Even Worse

Explaining Pam is one thing. It’s stupid and unnecessary but, from a certain perspective I can understand why the creator of the show, Brad Caleb Kane, thought it was a good idea. Pam is the protagonist of the series, so they have to do more with the character (especially since she’s played by a solid actress, Linda Cardellini) than simply have her go through the motions of the first Friday the 13th film all over again. But when it comes to Jason it feels like the show goes right off the cliff.

Jason starts off the series as a 12 year old boy, much as you’d expect from the backstory for him we already knew. But after he dies, it’s slowly revealed that he wasn’t just a normal kid (albeit one with some known birth defects). No, everything about him was caused by that same shady corporation. They caused the birth defects with some sci-fi techno-babble treatment to aid Pam’s failing pregnancy, and those same treatments also turned him into a unkillable homicide machine (eventually).

Jason ends up getting his own treatments from about the age of four onwards. His dad is in charge of the corporation, and he signs off on the experiments. Jason then is enrolled in a big experiment, Project Argonaut (you know, because Jason and the Argonauts, and someone thought they were really clever with that), and they basically train Jason’s body to heal from any damage. The more he takes, the stronger he gets.

So Jason in the series (once he comes back) isn’t an undead, hulking freak. He’s a sci-fi experiment monster-turned-hulking freak. And I’m not sure why the creative team felt this was a good idea. To explain it all the series has to stop dead for its seventh episode, right as the show should be building to its climax, to go deep explaining all its lore. Pam, Jason, the experiments, the results. On and on for an entire episode to justify all these baffling decisions. All for a backstory we didn’t need about a character we already understood.

Because, bear in mind, this doesn’t actually change anything about Jason. Yes, it adds a lot of needless explanation and changes the reason why he is a hulking freak. But it doesn’t alter anything we know about him down the road. A sci-fi abomination that can heal from anything and won’t die isn’t fundamentally all that different from an undead abomination that can heal from anything and won’t die. You’ve changed the facts of his origin (and, frankly, done it in a sloppy fashion) all for an end result (even in the last episodes of this season) that feels the same.

It’s just plain stupid how the series handles it. Frankly it would have been better if all references to the corporation, the experiments, and Jason’s new origin story were removed. Swapping out fantasy for sci-fi adds nothing and actively ruins the mystique of a character we knew and liked. This new version of Jason is less interesting, overall, because of these changes.

Then the Rest of the Show Whiffs the Ending as Well

Beyond all of this, though, the show doesn’t even know how to wrap up anything it has going on. While Pam’s storyline is playing on through one thread of the story we also have the Chief of Police investigating the bodies of two hikers that were mauled by a bear (when in reality they were Pam’s victims and she got a bear to eat them to hide the evidence). We have a love story brewing between a constable and a local resident. We have a young girl that Pam befriends after Pam kills her mother. All of these plot threads are raised but none of them end up resolving themselves this season.

And I get the idea that many of these things will carry onwards if the show gets a second season. But that was a big if when the series was released. It wasn’t pitched as Crystal Lake: Season 1, but as a limited series simply called Crystal Lake. It still has yet to be renewed for a second season, and it’s hard to know if it even will. If it does come back, who knows how long we’ll have to wait between seasons and if all of the cast even comes back. Expecting all these hanging plot threads to resolve down the road feels like a big ask.

And considering all the changes they’ve actively made to the main characters, I’m not even certain if the show can actually tie into the original run of movies. At this point the series feels like its own, off-shoot continuity, familiar in feel but lacking the connective tissue to actually make it work, one-for-one. It’s like the 2009 reboot film, which retold the first film in its opening scenes before trying to do a new Jason story all its own. It doesn’t quite fit continuity, even if it feels like it should. That’s Crystal Lake, too: a series that billed itself as somehow connected when, in reality, it really can’t be no matter how hard you mash it against the films.

I’m left cold and confused by the series. There are parts of it I really appreciate, but so many decisions on this season are just plain baffling. It’s a show pitched for Friday the 13th fans, to give them a return to the lake they’ve been waiting close to two decades for. But this isn’t a show that’s going to please fans because it doesn’t actually stick to what made the source material work. Crystal Lake is a weird series and I don’t see how fans can enjoy it.