Crystal Lake ending explained: Blood-soaked finale broken down by showrunner Brad Caleb Kane and star Linda Cardellini

*Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Crystal Lake episode 8, which is currently out in the US – the full series will arrive in the UK on 19 October on Sky and NOW.*

If you’ve made it to the end of Crystal Lake, congratulations must be in order – you clearly have tough nerves and a stomach of steel.

The blood-soaked series has certainly not held back on the gore, with Linda Cardellini portraying Pam Voorhees, the grieving mother of hockey mask-wearing Jason – and a murderous menace in her own right.

Throughout the series, we’ve learnt so much more about Pam’s tragic backstory, and her motivations for the gruesome murders.

But the brutal finale wraps things up in a chilling way, revealing what exactly happened to Pam and Jason right before the events of the film franchise.

Joining us to break down the episode are showrunner Brad Caleb Kane and star Linda Cardellini – so let’s dive in!

Crystal Lake ending explained: What happened to Pam Voorhees?

Crystal Lake ends with Pam being reunited with Jason, and declaring that the woods now belong to her and her son, warning everyone to stay away from the lake and the camp.

Speaking exclusively to Radio Times, Cardellini said of that moment: “She's just thinking, ‘Run. Go. Be free. Don't let them catch you. You did it. You showed them all.’ She's elated, she's beyond. She's maniacally ecstatic about him being alive, and no matter what his condition."

Cardellini added: “She's somebody who's victimised by certain systems, and then as a result, it changes her. It almost changes her brain chemistry in a way, and she turns that around and becomes a villain, and I think, for her, she believes she's right, and she's still, in her mind, protecting Jason.”

But what led up to that?

The finale picks up right after Pam told her story to Levon Brooks (William Catlett) and his sister, Brianna (Devin Kessler) – and thankfully, they believe her. Meanwhile, Brianna tells Pam all about her near death experience – and Dr Landau's miserable fate, and Levon ultimately brings Pam into the station.

Elsewhere, Elias (Hamish Linklater) rocks up at Trudy’s diner, asking after Pam. It’s only so long before he and his goons visit the police station, with Pam and Brianna hiding downstairs. Meanwhile, Rita (Joy Suprano) is suspicious, and visits Dorf (Cameron Scoggins) to tell him she thinks Pam might be in trouble.

Elias spins a tale about Pam needing medication – but Levon doesn’t give Pam away. However, when Elias and his goons threaten Levon with pointed guns, Pam comes out of hiding and faces her husband – before quite literally stabbing him in the back.

Enter Dorf – who has a glorious redemption scene when he takes out one of Elias’s goons with his Japanese throwing star.

A gunfight ensues, with Levon getting shot, and allowing Elias to escape with Pam. Pam attempts to reason with Elias, telling him that Jason is “gone”.

But Elias isn’t so sure - and for good reason. A mysterious figure, with a bag covering their face, suddenly appears in the road, sending them veering off track. In the chaos, Pam escapes from the car and the goons follow her, only to stumble into the mysterious figure - Jason - in the woods.

Jason brutally kills one of them, before going after his parents in the cabin. Elias tries to justify his horrific actions to Pam and taunts her about Jason’s drowning, before Pam’s demeanour completely changes, as she sees her son in the doorway.

Elias removes the bag from Jason’s head to reveal his face, and asks if he remembers him. Seemingly, he does remember all the trauma his father put him through - and swiftly crushes his skull. He turns his attention towards Pam, who tearfully pleads with him and asks for forgiveness. He starts to strangle her but, seemingly remembering his childhood with her, stops and removes his hand from her throat.

But their time together is interrupted, as Ralph shoots at Jason with a shotgun - although he quickly disappears. As Ralph is left confused, Pam declares: “You can’t hurt him. None of you can. Not anymore.”

The series ends with Pam warning everyone to stay away from the lake and camp, because the woods now belong to her and Jason.

How did Jason grow so tall and what did Project Argonaut do to him?

Jason’s height, which actually increases over the Friday the 13th films, is a result of the experiments conducted on him at Bellflower Chemical as part of the Argonaut project, which aimed to create a human capable of surviving a nuclear blast. The experiments also go some way to explain Jason’s seeming immortality.

Speaking about the Jason reveal in the final episode, Kane told us: “You can't have a Friday the 13th show without Jason. And you can't have a Friday the 13th show without the Jason, or some version of the Jason that we know and that we've seen before – a larger Jason, preferably with a famous mask, maybe one that we haven't seen a lot of.

"So I really just wanted to give fans the dopamine hit that they're craving because I want it too. You want to see Jason do what he does best. It was important that this show be mainly about the relationship between Pam and the younger Jason, to be able to see him as a child, as an ordinary 11-year-old boy before he became the monster that we all know.

“But it's important to show the monster also, because people have been starved for Friday the 13th – I hate using this word – content for 17 plus years and people are craving Jason.

“We are doing a Pamela Voorhees prequel, I think that's important. I think that's interesting. I think it's a different way to enter this franchise. But you still gotta give fans the big Jason, and you gotta let him do what we want him to do, which is kill, and kill in very creative ways.

"And hopefully, in this show, kill in what people think will feel is an emotional way.”

What’s with the campfire scene?

The campfire scene, which shows one teenager warning his friends about going into the woods, appears to be a reference to a scene in Friday the 13th Part II.

He tells them all about the brutal murders in the woods, speculating on what actually happened to Jason – and the series ends with the ominous sound of a twig snapping, suggesting that Jason is only getting started with his kills…

All episodes of Crystal Lake will be available in the UK and Ireland on Sky and NOW on 19 October.

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