'Chucky': What exactly happened to Nica Pierce at the mental hospital?

A full five years after its initial release, Cult of Chucky came back into play in last night's episode of the hit Chucky TV series on SYFY and USA Network. 

To say that Nica Pierce (played by Fiona Dourif, daughter of Brad Dourif, who has voiced the killer doll since the very start of the franchise) has not had an easy go of it, would be the grossest understatement of the century. She was framed for the murder of her entire family, committed to a mental institution, sexually abused by her psychiatrist, possessed by Charles Lee Ray, and is now being held captive by Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly). Of all the hands to be dealt out of the deck, Nica holds the crappiest one imaginable.

With the events of Cult re-entering the blood-soaked picture, here's a quick explainer of how Nica ended up in this situation.

RELATED: Who is Nica Pierce, and will she ever regain her soul from Chucky's grasp?

**SPOILER WARNING! THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR CHUCKY SEASON 2, EPISODE 2, "THE SINNERS ARE MUCH MORE FUN"**

Following the horrific massacre in Curse of Chucky, Cult finds Nica committed to a medium-security mental hospital, where she is thoroughly convinced that the idea of a living doll with an insatiable bloodlust was nothing more than a manifestation of schizophrenic tendencies. It was really Nica who killed her family and Chucky was simply a way to offset the terrible blame and guilt. At least that's the bill of goods sold to her by the sleazy Dr. Foley (Michael Therriault), who enjoys taking advantage of his patients.

When other patients start croaking in horrific ways — slit wrists and decapitation — Nica is made to wonder whether she has relapsed. Of course, it turns out she was right all along: Chucky's alive and coming for her, as well as anyone else who gets in his way. Cult ends with Chucky taking over Nica's body, his voodoo magic allowing him to make use of the woman's paralyzed legs, and escapes with Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly). Season 1 of the TV show, which takes place after Cult, revealed that Nica can sometimes regain control of her mind, prompting Ms. Valentine to hack off her limbs in the finale.

A full year later, Nica spends her days at the lavish Beverly Hills estate of one Jennifer Tilly (whose body is currently possessed by Tiffany), forced to endure hours upon hours of Tilly-based movie marathons. That part's not so bad, though. After all, who doesn't love some Bound? The tenuous hostage situation becomes threatened when a suspicious detective comes around the house, asking pointed questions about Nica's whereabouts, given that Tilly was seen at the mental hospital shortly before Nica "killed" everyone inside (framed for the second time) and vanished without a trace. The cop ultimately gets a confession out of Tiffany, but pays for his snooping with a slit throat.

As it turns out, he wasn't Nica's only shot at freedom. She and Chucky are now working together in the hopes of giving Tiffany exactly what she deserves.

To date, Cult of Chucky remains the most recent cinematic entry in the Child's Play franchise overseen by longtime writer/director/producer/curator Don Mancini, who remains just as committed to the feature side of things as he is to the world of television. "I want to do both," the showrunner said at New York Comic Con last week. "That's my biggest dream, is to be able to have it like Marvel. To have the television series going on, movies happening, maybe other TV spinoffs happening. I mean, who wouldn't want that? But that's all up to you guys, so please watch the show, so that [Chucky] can take over our lives even more."

New episodes of Chucky premiere on SYFY and USA Network every Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET. The complete first season is now streaming on Peacock along with Cult of Chucky.  Click here to watch Episode 2 for free.