The story threads converge in “Panic Room,” the sixth episode of “Chucky“ Season 3. In the previous episode, a death row-bound Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) demanded that a dying Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) “go down in a blaze of glory and take as many with you on your way out.” Considering the last episode also ended with the gruesome eye gouging of President James Collins (Devon Sawa), “Panic Room” plunges the White House into chaos and terror as Chucky lays the groundwork for his most ambitious plan yet.

Warren Pryce (Gil Bellows) continues to reveal his true colors, giving First Lady Charlotte Collins (Lara Jean Chorostecki) no room to grieve, let alone process what’s happened, before he enlists a clean-up crew to cover up the President’s death. Charlotte attempts to shield her children from the truth, even as she can barely hold it together, but finds herself plagued by ghosts in more ways than one. Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur), Devon (Bjorgvin Arnarson), and Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind) return to the White House once more under a scheduled playdate with Grant (Jackson Kelly), just in time for Chucky’s bid for White House control.

CHUCKY — “Death Becomes Her” Episode 305 — Pictured in this screengrab: Devon Sawa as James Collins — (Photo by: SYFY)

“Panic Room” emphasizes Charlotte’s dire plight to effectively establish the stakes that go beyond Chucky. Chorostecki gives a rousing physical performance as a woman caught between duty, family, and her own agency. As if that’s not enough, the supernatural confrontations continue, ramping up the horror and the worldbuilding thanks to the highly haunted White House. Charlotte isn’t coping well with any of it, and the arrival of a familiar face threatens to send her over the edge.

With so many of Warren Pryce’s minions about, Chucky has plenty of fodder to cull in delightfully gory ways, once again showcasing the series’ fantastic puppetry and SFX work. The aged doll design is exquisitely detailed, down to thinning silver hair and age spots, evoking an eerie uncanny valley between Good Guy toy and a real geriatric human. Brad Dourif’s spirited, reliable voiceover work further sells the effect, and continues to demonstrate that there are always new facets to the horror icon to discover.

CHUCKY — “Panic Room” Episode 306 — Pictured in this screengrab: Lara Jean Chorostecki as Charlotte Collins — (Photo by: SYFY)

Jake, Devon, and Lexy are tenacious in their bid to thwart Chucky and retrieve Lexy’s sister, but they’re consistently multiple steps behind the pint-sized killer. “Panic Room” and the back half of Season 3 drive home why: there are no rules when it comes to Chucky. The highly adaptable killer may have a twisted moral code of his own- a gun lecture amidst a murder spree is so very Chucky. But he has no interest in predictability or authority. That extends to the voodoo that landed a dying killer in a doll’s body, one that’s now corrupted by Christian magic from a botched exorcism.

That development, along with the White House’s unique setting, means that anything can happen. There’s a thrill in the “anything goes” attitude and in the darkly funny ways that the series’ characters react to new developments.

The episode operates almost entirely on tension from Charlotte’s plight and Chucky’s maniacal machinations, clicking the moving parts into place and carefully maneuvering its players together for the final two episodes of the season. It builds to an insane conclusion with massive consequences for the final two episodes of the season. That forward momentum is thrilling but more exciting is what’s yet to come, thanks to the episode’s intriguing final frame.

“Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on USA & SYFY.