“The New Blood”

I was surprised by this episode because I am not as familiar with the first Friday the 13th film as I should be. I was thinking that the death of Claudette and Barry would be something the series would build towards, perhaps to be a scene from Crystal Lake’s finale. However, it is episode 5 and they supposedly did a shot-for-shot recreation of the murders.

But the show had the highly drugged out Grace who stabbed the pair because she thought she was saving Jason from drowning by stabbing Claudette and Barry. Pam showed up right as the stabbings were done and she talked Grace down, taking the knife from her and finishing off Claudette herself. Claudette had confessed to Pam that she was having sex with Barry in the boathouse when Jason had died last summer. Pam creepily told the girl that Jason should have been watched at all times, as she plunged the knife into her side again.

Jason’s spirit seems to have already returned, and he was responsible for skinning the girl Willow, who Dorf had discovered last episode hanging in Crazy Ralph’s cabin. Ralph was as shocked as anyone when he saw the dead girl so he was clearly not the killer.

The camp reopened in this episode as a bunch of kids show up, only to find that there was not going to be much that they were allowed to do, causing several of them to complain noticeably. I know that whining from my own classroom. Of course, the mention of a nearby dead body was not the best way to handle that.

This series is making me want to revisit Friday the 13th and see how it compares. Linda Cardellini has been exceptional as Pam Voorhees and she almost makes you want to root for her… and not just when she is offing a long snake with a cleaver.