Tommy first appeared in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. When Jason Voorhees brings his blood bath to the Jarvis cabin, Tommy is forced to fight back and shaves his head to make himself appear as Jason was when he himself was young. Tommy later kills Jason, first with a fatal blow to the skull with a machete, then repeatedly hacking at Jason when the killer shows some signs of life.

This traumatic event has an effect on Tommy's mind where he is put in an institution three years later until he is a young man. He is then put in a halfway house, but unfortunately, at this time, a series of murders begin nearby with Jason Voorhees being tied to the killings. Tommy's mind continues to slip again, seeing images of Jason haunting him. Tommy manages to confront Jason, believing him to be another hallucination. But he is real and attacks Tommy, finally forcing him to take his life - only for it to turn out that the killer was a copycat called Roy Burns.Tommy puts on the hockey mask and attempts to assume Jason's mantle, but he is apparently stopped and treated before things go too far.