“Crystal Lake” recreates an iconic “Friday the 13th” sequence, but puts a surprising twist on the murders of Claudette and Barry. In the franchise’s first film, the young couple meets up at a barn for a makeout session, only for Pam Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) to stab them both to death. In the Peacock series starring Linda Cardellini, however, Pam isn’t the only one responsible for killing the pair.
The prequel revisits Jason Voorhees’ (Callum Vinson) accident at Camp Crystal Lake, with his only friend Grace (Gwendolyn Sundstrom) accidentally catching camp counselors Claudette and Barry (Danielle Kotch and Phoenix Parnevik) in the act. As Jason struggles to keep himself from drowning, the couple is too distracted to notice, and Grace holds a grudge against them from then on.
Throughout Season 1, Grace wants to join Claudette and Barry’s friend group, but isn’t welcomed. When she tells Claudette she knows what the couple was doing when Jason disappeared, their mentor-mentee relationship grows strained.
In the twist that bridges Episodes 5 and 6, Grace takes revenge on the couple by following them to the boathouse and stabbing them in a sequence reminiscent of the original “Friday the 13th.” When Pam arrives, she finishes what Grace started, ensuring that the pair pays for failing to protect her son.
Crystal Lake also gives Jason Voorhees a new backstory
According to Danielle Kotch, this “Friday the 13th” throwback allowed audiences to revisit a familiar scene while giving it a new spin. “For us, it was so exciting because that’s almost a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where you get to recreate something from an original franchise that’s huge, let alone in anything, as opposed to just doing fully a prequel or just something after the fact. This fully blends it,” the actor shared on the “Coming-of-Screen Podcast.”
This isn’t the only time the prequel deviates from the original films. “Crystal Lake” also changes the franchise’s timeline, moving Jason’s accident from 1957 to the 1970s. Jason’s medical history gets an unexpected addition, too. Although he was born with hydrocephalus, “Crystal Lake” reveals that he was also subjected to experimental treatments during the Cold War that had lasting effects on his body.
Episode 7 includes an extensive flashback spanning 1959 to the early ’60s, when Pam undergoes experimental treatment to save her unborn son. She later uncovers that the doctors conducting the tests were actually using Jason to test humans’ capacity to survive a nuclear war. This change offers an explanation for Jason’s apparent invulnerability. Showrunner Brad Caleb Kane told USA Today that the backstory explains the “Jason we know today” by grounding his origins “in actual things that were happening” during the Cold War.