Anatomy of Crystal Lake: Episode 7: Friday....

It is typical for episodic television at some point during the season to take a detour of sorts by removing the audience from the current story for a narrative breather. It can help in some instances in order to get everyone ready for the rapid conclusion of a story that is on the horizon. In the case of Crystal Lake, we sort of experienced that already in Episode 2, but the true analepsis occurs when you need to fully reveal details of the main characters before that rapid conclusion begins.

SPOILERS...

In Episode 7: Friday.... the audience is transported back to 1959 as we are introduced to Pamela as a singer in New York who is making an appearing on television. She is pregnant and as she begins her performance, she experiences what could be a miscarriage. Rushed to a hospital by her boyfriend Elias Wittering, she is told by the doctor that she will lose her child. However, Elias mentions that his company Bellflower might be able to help with the use of an experimental drug.

Relocated to Texas, Pam begins treatment with Dr. Valentine under unusual circumstances as the company has an uneasy specter surrounding its intentions. One of the women Pam has befriended during this time, Trish, is also pregnant and on the same medication by the Bellflower company but is experiencing unusual emotional behavior and warns Pam of the drug treatments the company has provided her. It seems as though the treatments for the birth of her child produces psychotic side effects and require the mother to take their own medication to suppress the psychotic episodes. 

Later on, Pam learns that Trish herself miscarries and loses her child. While Pam is visiting Trish in the hospital, Trish kills herself in heartbreaking fashion. Pam faints after Trish's suicide and awakens to the news that Jason was born while she was unconscious. Jason has physical birth defects, seemingly from the medical treatments Pam was taking prior to his birth. One night, an exhausted Pam is giving her infant son Jason a bath and falls asleep. Her now husband Elias arrives home and finds Jason underwater. He grabs Jason from the water and awakens Pam. Jason is feared dead until he suddenly begins to scream and cry. Jason has survived a prolonged drowning!

As Jason grows older, we fast forward four years and he is taken for more frequent sessions at the Bellflower clinic for testing, whereas Pam grows more concerned. On Jason's fourth birthday, the neighborhood throws him a party at Pam's house, but Elias brings him to the party hours late from the clinic. While playing, the children at the party become scared as Jason begins bleeding from his head and is losing his hair.

After Jason is rushed to the clinic once again, Pam is irate and confronts Elias about what he has been doing with Jason at all of the sessions and treatments. Pam wants to see her child, but Elias insists he is fine and that she calms down. The couple continue fighting until Elias threatens to take Jason away and Pam will never see him again. This scene demonstrates how maniacal and driven Elias is to achieve his goal for the company, at any cost necessary. Actor Hamish Linklater is developing Elias into a great villain for the franchise, and I am sure we will see more of his deviance through to the concluding episode.

This episode culminates in what will become an extremely divisive reveal of why Jason can withstand so much punishment in the Friday The 13th films. Pamela and Elias attend an event at the Bellflower clinic where it is revealed that the company has created Project Argonaut where they have been working to develop a formula for a way that humans can withstand a nuclear attack from the Soviets. This new formula would be developed to mimic a cockroach's ability to withstand radiation poising, and Jason is part of that experiment. It is also disclosed that trauma placed upon a patient that contains this formula would actually make them stronger and grow at a faster rate. 

Pam steps away from the event before all of this is revealed so she can search for Jason in the lab located within the Bellflower facility. In doing so, she discovers the awful truth as within the lab there resides numerous infants that have been subjected to the chemical and are being experimented on. There are dozens of infants in various states of deformation and decay. Pamela finds Jason hooked up to a machine and begins detaching him. Before she can finish freeing Jason, Dr. Valentine intervenes and tries to persuade Pamela to stop what she is doing. In a maternal rage, Pam grabs a medical drill, turns it on, and shoves it right in the doctor's mouth. It is a particularly gnarly kill that produces lots of blood.

Pamela picks up Jason and the pair escape the lab for which they have been hiding from Bellflower ever since.