One of the main downsides of streaming giants choosing to release full seasons of their shows all at once is the fact that viewers run the risk of encountering major spoilers online if they aren’t able to binge-watch the episodes fast enough. That’s why we decided to give folks some extra time to properly digest the release of Peacock’s Crystal Lake series, the first official Friday the 13th project in seventeen years!
However, now that the dust has settled and our readers have likely had the chance to watch all eight episodes of the prequel show, let’s explore the most controversial element of showrunner Brad Caleb Kane’s latest entry in the long-running franchise: Jason Voorhees’ sci-fi-inspired origin story as the only successful subject of Bellflower Chemical’s “Project Argonaut”.
Before we dive in, it’s worth mentioning that Jason’s backstory has never made much sense to begin with. Whether it’s the inconsistencies surrounding his tragic drowning in the first movie and inexplicable reappearance as a grown man in Friday the 13th: Part II or even the reasoning behind the bolt of lightning that revives him in Part VI: Jason Lives, filmmakers have always played fast and loose with the franchise’s established mythology in order to produce entertaining standalone movies.
Historically, this approach tends to work because slasher films are uniquely well-suited for formulaic campfire stories with details that shift according to the needs of the storyteller. However, a made-for-TV prequel with nearly eight hours of runtime (and possible future seasons to contend with) doesn’t have the luxury of dancing around information that our characters would surely have by now. That’s why it’s understandable that Brad would decide to pick a lane and come up with a definitive answer to the problem of Jason Voorhees.
What Crystal Lake ultimately reveals is that the Voorhees name itself is a sham, with Pamela Wittering (Linda Cardellini) and her son (Callum Vinson) actually being fugitives on the run from the insidious Bellflower Chemical, a secretive corporation that was conducting human experiments during the Cold War. According to the seventh episode, Jason is actually the only successful subject of the cleverly-named Project Argonaut, a research program meant to develop enhanced humans capable of withstanding the inevitable nuclear holocaust of World War III.
In the first live-action appearance of a character that the franchise has been teasing for decades, Jason’s father and Director of Operations at Bellflower, Elias Wittering (Hamish Linklater), claims that the project is attempting to emulate the cockroach’s uncanny resistance to radiation. In practice, what the company’s cruel research ultimately achieved was the creation of a preternaturally strong child that only grows stronger and develops faster after being exposed to trauma, a conclusion that the company reached after poking and prodding at Jason and even subjecting him to insane amounts of radiation.
In theory, these powers would explain Jason’s apparent immunity to all forms of serious bodily harm, with Bellflower’s fascination with the child even harkening back to David Cronenberg’s character from Jason X. While some dissatisfied fans are now referring to this incarnation of the iconic character as “Cockroach Jason”, it’s never actually implied that Bellflower is literally injecting arthropod DNA into fetuses – especially since the whole spiel about cockroaches being nuclear-resistant is a scientifically discredited myth.
That being said, the final episode of the show, cheekily titled “The Final Chapter”, adds an interesting caveat to Jason’s abilities, as his watery resurrection in Crystal Lake appears to have come with unfortunate side effects. The eleven-year-old may have come back bigger with enhanced strength and durability, but he also lost much of his humanity in the process. By the end of the episode, he very nearly murders Pamela before recognizing her as his doting mother and fleeing into the woods to continue life as a serial-killing woodsman.
This added detail explains why Pamela would still be grief-stricken about what happened at the lake despite Jason having technically survived, and it even factors in how each subsequent Friday the 13th sequel depicts the iconic Slasher as more of a monster after each “death”. The sci-fi shenanigans also open the door for more Bellflower experiments to show up further down the line, something that could even be used to explain the telekinetic Tina Shepard from New Blood – or maybe Kane could give Jason another unkillable slasher to fight!
While I personally would have preferred not to know exactly how Jason keeps coming back for more punishment, as I’ve always interpreted the curse surrounding Crystal Lake and the Voorhees family to be an actual supernatural force instead of anything explainable by science, Peacock’s show technically takes place in an alternate continuity where Jason drowned in 1971 instead of 1957, and the initial camp counselor murders weren’t even committed by Pamela. That’s why I don’t think this new take on the character harms the existing mythology, even if it’s not exactly the story I would have chosen to tell.
Besides, no matter what backstory Kane had gone with, the fan backlash would likely have been the same because he’s still dealing with millions of genre enthusiasts who each have their own theories about the Voorhees mythos and what makes the character tick. Since I’m of the opinion that Stranger Things doesn’t have a monopoly on the concept of super-powered youngsters who were abused by MK Ultra-adjacent programs —the Duffer brothers actually borrowed that idea from Stephen King’s Firestarter, which was in turn based on real-life experiments and conspiracy theories— I actually have no qualms with “Cockroach Jason.”
As the Joker once said: “If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice.” If you ask me, I think there are worse possible origins for Jason than the ones we got from Crystal Lake.
