When horror fans think about the pantheon of slasher villains, Jason Voorhees is almost certainly on the list. The Friday the 13th franchise is massive with over a dozen films, countless merchandise, games, comics, and so much more under its mask. The entire look of Jason himself, from his hockey mask to his massive machete, is instantly recognizable by pretty much anyone born before the 2000s, even if they aren’t a horror fan. But, Jason’s mother Pamela Voorhees truly set everything in action. And, until now, we’ve known very little about her life and origins. Peacock’s Crystal Lake series takes us back to Jason’s childhood to explore both his and Pamela’s backstory, which is twisted, heartbreaking, and quite powerful. Let’s get into what we learn about Jason and Pamela Voorhees in Crystal Lake.
Pamela and Jason’s Real Last Name Isn’t Voorhees After All
From the show’s first episode, we learn that Jason and Pamela’s actual last name is not Voorhees at all. Pam tells two men who pretend to be police officers that Voorhees is a family name, but we never get confirmation if that’s true or if she’s not being truthful. It could have been her mother’s maiden name. All we know is that she’s referred to as Pamela Wittering and that someone dangerous is looking for her.
Things finally come together when Pamela opens up to Chief Brooks and his sister, an investigative reporter, about her past. We go back in time from 1972 to 1959 to learn more about Pamela and Jason Voorhees’ backstory.
Pamela Goes From New York City to Houston to Save Baby Jason in 1959
In episode seven, we go back to New York City in 1959. Pamela, who was using her maiden name Scott, makes her big TV debut after performing in clubs and cabarets. Her performance takes a sad turn when she begins to experience pain and bleeding onstage. She’s rushed to the hospital and, to our surprise, the man from Bellflower who threatened Brianna Brooks at the boardwalk is by her side. Bellflower sells household products normally but, as Brianna discovered, they have something more covert going on as well.
We find out that he is Pamela’s significant other, Elias. A doctor callously tells Pamela that she’s having a miscarriage and needs a procedure but Elias insists that Bellflower has a state of the art medical facility that could help save their baby. Pamela is hesitant for good reason considering this is an experimental treatment, but she goes along with it after Elias proposes to her. She gets married and becomes Pamela Wittering.
They move to Houston and she lives in a neighborhood with other women who are a part of the same mysterious treatment plan. Pam is eating weird meals and has some suspicions, but continues to go along with it. She even befriends a woman who is quite obviously sad and disturbed by her treatments and medicines.
A few months later, Pam visits the woman after she gave birth to a stillborn, and sadly witnesses this woman’s death by suicide. The shock of seeing such horror sends Pamela into labor on Friday the 13th, and when she wakes up, she’s no longer pregnant. Their son Jason is alive but he has a physical deformity among other possible health diagnoses that are completely clear. Like any new mom, she’s surprised but she loves her baby deeply.
Elias Moves Up the Bellflower Ladder, Jason Shows Immortality and Starts Going in for “Treatments”
After a stint in the hospital, Pamela and Elias bring baby Jason home. She finds out that her husband has gotten a big promotion and must go away for work for a while, leaving her alone with a newborn. Baby Jason cries A LOT, leading to Pamela becoming completely exhausted. She discovers that a running bath is the only thing that will calm him, and she accidentally falls asleep as the water keeps running. Elias comes home from his “work trip” and discovers this, and they think that a submerged Jason is dead.
To their shock, he starts breathing again, which explains why Jason is unkillable in this franchise. This incident leads to Pamela being put on a powerful psychiatric medication, which we later surmise was behind her increased propensity towards violence. A nurse comes in to “help her,” and Pamela essentially loses her agency as a mom. When the nurse isn’t helping, Elias is constantly taking their son in for treatments.
This lasts for four years until Pamela has had enough. Jason is late for his own fourth birthday party because of a treatment, which upsets her. And things really go awry when Jason goes into the family bomb shelter with kids his age. He’s registering radiation energy that’s off the charts and, when Pam touches his hair, it falls out and he has some bleeding from his head.
Elias gets very upset when she confronts him about it, saying that he’s gotten yet another promotion and that Bellflower is helping their son. He also points out that she cannot simply take Jason away because he’s the man with the stable career and she’s a stay-at-home mom whose on psychiatric meds. It’s sad to witness, especially knowing that women had very limited rights during this time.
Pamela Takes Her Son Jason and Has Her (Presumable) First Kill Before Escaping, Elias Explains His Experiments on His Son
She arrives at an event with Elias, who says that this gathering will explain everything. She lifts keys from Doctor Landau, who is always looking both guilty and drunk. Pam goes to seek her son while Elias does his speech, which reveals the dark truth about what he’s been doing to his own son. He says that two years prior, the US was at the precipice of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Elias says that Bellflower asked itself about how to prepare for a war that feels inevitable, and he says there’s only one creature on Earth that can withstand an atomic blast: a cockroach.
The audience laughs but Elias says that Bellflower wondered if there was a way for humans to fortify themselves to survive something like this. He says the team has done “research” to replicate the cellular process that allows cockroaches to live through just about anything. People are shocked and skeptical, but he says that their phase one subject is far beyond normal thresholds. Of course, that test subject J is Jason, whom Elias says becomes stronger and has accelerated growth through trauma. That explains why, as we later see, Jason does not drown and instead becomes essentially immortal.
Elias and company want to harvest Jason’s DNA and says in three years they can replicate those results in others. It’s incredibly sad to see Elias use his own son in such cruel and exhausting experiments. And Bellflower is gaining new test subjects (read: pregnant moms and fetuses) each day to “gain new data.” Meanwhile, Pamela finds the testing area and sees deformed and mutilated bodies of babies. It’s pretty horrifying to witness. She finds Jason and attempts to free him, but Dr. Valentine intervenes.
Pamela cannot be bullied into anything, so she finds a nearby tool and drills his head so she can save her son. We love a protective mother! Elias’ assistant helps them escape using her car and they get away from Bellflower. Back in these days, it was much easier to fall off the radar and find somewhere else to hide. We don’t get any further indication of why nor how she ends up in Crystal Lake specifically, but it is very far from Texas.
Jason Kills Elias in Crystal Lake Finale and Pamela Is Happy to See Her Son Again
Elias closes in on Pamela, leading to an intense shootout at the police station. Elias and his remaining men take Pamela, but their plans are derailed when a masked person appears in the street and causes a crash. Pamela ends up at the cabin where Jason and Grace used to hang out and, for the first time, she sees her son. Elias shows up and tries to appeal to Jason, but his now bigger and silent son crushes his head like a grape. He nearly kills Pamela too until he remembers how much his mother loved him. She’s delirious and seemingly happy that her boy is so strong, saying the woods belong to them now. Crazy as hell, I know.
Crystal Lake seems to be hinting at another season. We didn’t get a resolution with Grace nor the sheriff and there’s still some years left before the events of the original movie. How is Pamela able to live in the woods undetected? Who will stop Bellflower’s horrific experiments? We’d need those answers in another season. And maybe it would give us even more context to the sad and bizarre origin story of Jason and Pamela Wittering (Voorhees).