Crystal Lake's Jason Voorhees Origin Twist Will Leave Friday The 13th Fans Furious

This article contains major spoilers for "Crystal Lake" Season 1.

It's been a long time coming but the Voorhees family is finally back. For the first time since the 2009 "Friday the 13th" remake conquered the box office, we have a new, proper entry in the beloved horror franchise. "Crystal Lake" Season 1 has dropped on Peacock, offering a much better understanding of Pamela Voorhees, the mother of Jason Voorhees, the boy who becomes the machete-wielding killer for most of the series. This show offers a new twist on Jason's origin, one that is undoubtedly going to infuriate quite a few fans.

"Crystal Lake" gives us a bloody Jason Voorhees origin story that follows single mother Pam Voorhees (Linda Cardellini) who is grieving after her young son Jason drowned at Camp Crystal Lake. Strangers arrive at Pam's door digging into her past, setting a disturbing chain of events into motion. Those disturbing events eventually take us back to the late 1950s in Episode 7 of the series, entitled "Friday..." which finally digs into not only Pam's history, but Jason's as well. This is where things get very weird.

For much of the show, there is a mysterious entity known as Bell Flower that is a part of Pam's past. In Episode 6, we meet Elias (Hamish Linklater), who we come to find out in "Friday..." is actually Jason's dad. After nearly suffering a miscarriage, Pam is taken into the care of Bell Flower and takes part in an experimental treatment to ensure her baby will survive.

Survive he does, but not without complications. To help treat those complications, Pam and Elias stay in the care of Bell Flower for years as Elias continues to get promoted within the company. It all builds to one hell of a reveal.

After an incident at Jason's birthday party sees him losing his hair and bleeding from the head, Pam begins to question what is being done to her son at Bell Flower. Elias is cagey about the whole thing. During a presentation for investors, we find out why. Due to fears surrounding nuclear warfare, Bell Flower has been experimenting on Jason using cockroach DNA, turning him into a human mutant capable of surviving nuclear war. Yes, really.

In essence, "Crystal Lake" posits that Jason Voorhees is unkillable because he is a bioengineered mutant who has super cockroach-like abilities. Every version of Jason Voorhees without his mask reveals a terribly mutated, monster-like being. This cockroach business kind of explains that. Whether or not the explanation makes sense or gels with the journey the show took viewers on for its first six episodes is another question entirely, but it's a choice that is going to rile up a great many "Friday the 13th" fans."

To put my cards on the table, I'm one of those unhappy fans. Jason Voorhees is arguably the greatest horror movie slasher of them all, in no small part because there is a lot of mystery surrounding his supernatural abilities. How did he survive his drowning at the lake? Why can't he permanently be killed? It's not that an explanation wasn't warranted, but this is a wackadoo way to go about it, to put it lightly.

It also doesn't help that "Crystal Lake" Season 1 takes itself pretty seriously. It's about as far removed from the camp of "Jason X" or the wackiness of "Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood" as one can get.

For better or worse, this Jason/cockroach twist changes everything we thought we knew about "Friday the 13th." There was always a lot of mystery left behind by the movies themselves. Jason Voorhees never talks in the "Friday the 13th" movies. He's a silent killer and everything we've ever learned about him has been through the lens of other characters.

In the show, we get to see a young Jason, played by Callum Vinson, who does talk. He acts like a normal kid. He just wants to be accepted. Pam took him and ran away to Crystal Lake in an attempt to give him a normal life, cockroach DNA be damned. All of this goes a long way to try and humanize Jason, perhaps even make him a sympathetic character. Do fans of this franchise want to sympathize with the unkillable killing machine we've known since the '80s? That's something the fanbase will be reckoning with in the aftermath of this show.

There are a lot of other questions we're left with. A new "Friday the 13th" movie is happening and is currently being developed by the folks behind Jason Universe. Are they going to have to adhere to this newly established canon? Will they attempt to ignore it? What if "Crystal Lake" Season 2 happens? What more will we learn at that point that will recolor our understanding of these characters? Much to consider. Much to process. 

What's clear is that this insane twist is something fans will be debating for a long, long time. 

"Crystal Lake" is streaming now on Peacock.