Part 0 (Ghostbusters)
And all the way back around, here we are at....
Ash vs Evil Dead (2016)
Same as last time, I'll review the episodes here in comments, then I'll do a full season review, and retro-link it back here, and in "80's slashers".
And once again, we begin with episode one....
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Episode 1, Home.
Pretty good so far.
*Spoilers for last season*
So, we pick up where we left off, Ruby secretly rules the world, Ash has his paradise in Jacksonville Florida, and then Ruby gets her ass kicked by the grown-up version of the demon puke-babies from last year, and recites the spell on the Ash page of the Necronomicon for help. A vortex opens over Jacksonville.
Two chicks become Deadites, and Ash, Kelly, and Pablo dispatch them.
One of the Deadites taunts Ash with a rhyme about "Ashy slashy", and he recieves that as a clue to go back to his home town, Elk Grove Michigan, to look for Ruby.
They go to Ash's old house, and meet his father, Brock Williams (played by Lee Majors, and yes, they do work in a "Six Million Dollar Man", reference), and after some exposition ending with Brock telling them to fuck off, Ash goes to a bar where the townsfolk congregate, faces their prejudices (they think he's a serial killer, and "Ashy slashy", is their nickname (why he wasn't jailed or lynched is anyone's guess)) tells them off, and then Pablo has a vision that leads them to the crematorium where Ruby is hiding.
The puke-babies now have the power to turn into shadows, sprout claws, and regenerate from anything less than the Kandarian dagger.
After much fighting, they dispatch one shadow-thing (which I'll call them until they get a real name), scare off the other two, and make an alliance with Ruby, setting the stage for the rest of the season.
Trivia-
Ash's full name of Ashley J. Williams finally gets said in canon.
Also, Ash's speech to the bar patrons mirrors the one in "Army Of Darkness", and the word "boomstick", is finally said for the first time (outside of video games) since '93.
Also-also, Ruby says she fought alongside Ghengis Khan and Attila The Hun, so she is an immortal. Still no word on how she connects to the Knowbys.
Good ep, but a review I saw on a site says episode two (critics got a sneak peek) has a revelation about Ash's backstory that will piss fans off.
We'll see....
Ben Affleck's solo Batman reboot is now officially just titled "The Batman."
Yep, and Wolverine 3 is "Logan", and Bladerunner 2 is "Bladerunner 2049".
Episode 2, The Morgue.
"No! Not the asshole!!".
Ash, Pablo, Kelly, and Ruby go back to Brock's house, and Ruby tells them she hid the Necronomicon in a corpse back at the morgue.
Ash and Kelly go to get it, while Pablo stays to watch over Ruby.
He fails at this utterly.
Meanwhile, Ash finds the Necronomicon, only to be attacked by the corpse's animated entrails, and his face gets sucked up into its asshole with its cock under his chin.
Blood and poop everywhere!
Yep, this scene is going down in Evil Dead history.
We're only two episodes in, I have no idea how they can top this!
Meanwhile, Kelly runs afoul of, and knocks out the cop husband of Ash's high school girlfriend.
Kelly and a poo covered Ash head back to Brock's, where another ex of Ash has seduced Brock, and turns out to be a Deadite.
Ruby dispatches her, and Pablo has another premonition, and Ruby interprets it that The Children (I guess this is what we're going to call them now) are going to try to raise their father who must be some other demon.
(I've had it spoiled who this is, but I'll wait)
Finally, some jerkwad teenagers steal Ash's car with the Necronomicon still in it, and that's where we leave off.
Trivia-
We see the door to Cheryl's room, with Evil Dead 1 flashbacks projected onto it.
So, the people that call ED2 a remake can finally shut up now, 1 and 2 are canon.
We see a lot of "Shemp's Beer", ads and cans. "Shemps", being what grips and interns were called on the first 3 movies.
We get another Bionic Man reference.
Brock calls Ruby "Bigfoot".
Steve Austin fought an android Bigfoot.
I don't see what was supposed to be offensive to Ash's backstory.
Ash's references bullying the cop as a kid, but that was already hinted at in episode 1.
I dunno.
Whatever.
Critics are pussies.
Nothing was as shocking as Ash vs Ass.
Great episode.
Fun as Hell.
I've missed horror comedy that goes all the way like this since...well, the 80's.
Thank you, Starz!
And please do all 5 seasons!
Next week, Ash finally meets up with Ted Raimi's character.
Episode 3, Last Call.
Ash goes to the bar with a ketamine infused drink recipe, and has his bartender buddy, Chet (Ted Raimi), whip up several gallons to start a wild party to lure in the teens who stole the Delta.
Meanwhile, the Delta gets possesed, and esentially becomes Christine, and bumps the teens off one by one.
Meanwhile, back at the bar, Ash and Brock have it out, compete via a mechanical bull, and Brock finally sees Ash kill a Deadite, and admits he was wrong about him.
Meanwhile-meanwhile, Ruby manipulates Kelly into going off with her to go look for the book.
Finally, *major spoilers* just as Brock says he's proud of Ash, and is about to reveal some big family secret, the demonic Delta roars by, and squashes Brock.
So, we lose Lee Majors.
And, cliffhanger for next week!
Trivia-
We see a bunch of flashbacks to the Delta via clips from ED1 & ED2.
Up to and including Ash going back to medieval times.
So, that's as good as we're going to get for onscreen confirmation that "Army Of Darkness", is canon.
I'll take it.
Ash and Brock finally address the elephant in the room of Cheryl.
Aside from the Delta stuff for our gore fix, this was a "slow it down", episode to get some character development in.
So far, this season is better than last year, we're three in, and haven't hit any clunkers. It's all good stuff.
So far.
Can't wait for next week.
Episode 4, D.U.I.
We're almost halfway there!
Thin plot, heavy action this episode.
Picking right up from the death of Brock, Pablo gets kidnapped by the possessed Delta (snared by animated seatbelts), and Ash uses Chet's car to chase after it.
Meanwhile, Ruby and Kelly acquire some weapons from Ash's trailer, and go to hunt and kill The Children.
But not before Ruby gives backstory on Baal.
Meanwhile, Pablo has another vision of his death by Stop sign impalement.
Meanwhile, Ash let's Chet in on what's really going on, and he believes, and offers to help, but Ash leaves him behind to protect him, and we get the origin of the Delta, that Brock won it in a demolition derby, and now the possessed Delta is going back here as some poetic symmetry thing.
Meanwhile, Kelly and Ruby finish off The Children.
Meanwhile, Ash damages the Delta enough to stop it, the book spits out a scrap of page with one word on it that it persuades Pablo to read because it'll end everything.
The Delta stops, and the trunk turns into a portal to Hell.
Pablo tosses the Necronomicon into Hell, the portal vanishes, and everything seems okay.
Ash and Pablo walk off victorious with plans to rebuild the Delta good as new.
Just then, a demon flies out of the trunk, and we're left to assume it's Baal.
Trivia-
Ash finally calls the Delta "the classic", in canon.
That's Sam Raimi's name for it that he's said in commentaries and interviews.
Episode 5, Confinement.
Baal appears as a naked human guy with hair like the guy from "The Room", and skins a female cop alive with his finger claw after Dracula hypnotizing her.
Ash gets arrested by the cop guy from episode 2.
Pablo, Kelly, and Ruby meet back up, and go to the jail to free Ash.
The black girl who was stuck in the car with Pablo last episode (forgot to mention her, she seemed like she was going to be a generic victim) turns out to be the daughter of the cop, and Ash's old girlfriend, the other Linda.
Ash gets let out by the female cop from the beginning of this episode, and it's obviously Baal in her skin.
Baal abandons her skin, and leaves it behind as a clue that he's there, and then swipes the skin of a black female cop, and then tries to seduce Ruby.
Meanwhile, all throughout, our heroes (and the asshole cop) squabble among each other.
Also, Pablo has a strange pulsating rash and welts growing on his chest.
Baal turns the skinless corpse of the black lady cop into a Deadite, and Ash dispatches her in front of Linda, proving he's a monster slayer.
The asshole cop becomes unhinged and abusive, and Linda tells him "we're through".
So, I'm thinking asshole cop has to die next week, and Ash and Linda get together.
Anyhoo, episode ends with Pablo's rash growing into runes and stitching patterns of the Necronomicon.
(Kinda like when Freddy absorbed the book in "Freddy vs Jason vs Ash")
So, with the old Necronomicon gone, looks like Pablo will be the new Necronomicon for defeating Baal.
Trivia-
New Linda has the same name as the Linda that died in Evil Dead 1 & 2, so Ash has a thing for Lindas, I guess.
Guess this is the writers way of reuniting him with a Linda for a happier ending.
I hope. Ash's girlfriends tend not to make it.
Although Sheila from AoD survived, so....
But, it'd be cool if Ash could get a ready made family, and they all became monster busters together.
I've seen character posters to that effect.
Fuck! Forgot to do last week's cuz of election shit!
All right...
Episode 6, Trapped Inside.
Ash, Pablo, Kelly, and Ruby go back to Ash's house.
Ruby tries to accelerate Pablo's convergence with the Necronomicon so that the spell to banish Baal will appear on his chest.
Linda's dickhead husband falls more under the sway of Baal, and gets together an angry mob outside Ash's house.
Kelly holds them at bay with gunfire.
Ash catches Chet rifling around in Cheryl's room, and we're left to think Chet loved Cheryl.
A Drafter spirit enters a photo of Cheryl, and makes it bleed, then the blood goes into Cheryl's clothes, and makes a clone, which then turns into a Deadite.
Deadite Cheryl and Ash fight again, and Chet is killed in the process.
Ash and Cheryl fight their way outside, and the town witnesses Ash killing her, and finally know he's a demon slayer, not a serial killer.
Baal shows up in a disguise, and in altered time so no one can see, and knocks Ash out.
Trivia-
Cheryl is indeed played by Ellen Sandweiss again, and she still looks the same!
It's really her!
Ah, there! NOW I'm ready for tonight's!
Episode 7, Delusion.
Ash awakens in an insane asylum, and in this alternate reality, the first two films were a delusion, and Ash serial-killed his friends after all.
They kind of already played this angle in the first level of "Evil Dead: Regeneration", the video game.
Except there, the world thought he was crazy, but he still knew the Deadites were real.
Here, it's Baal fucking with his head, making him doubt, and breaking him down.
And succeeding.
Along the way, Ash sees an inmate version of Kelly, a nurse version of Ruby, and an orderly version of Pablo.
Also, an Ash therapy puppet on his hand that communicates independently of his control called Ashy-slashy.
Betting that becomes merchandise.
Ultimately, Ash accepts the reality Ball is presenting, and now Baal plans to use him as his henchman against the rest of the team.
OR, is Ash playing along, and he has something up his sleeve?
We'll find out next week!
Three more episodes to go!
Episode 8, Ashy Slashy.
Pablo, Kelly, and Ruby show up at the asylum (we saw them show up last week, but it wasn't clear if they were a delusion), and Linda is there, and not a delusion, and Baaal forced her to aid in Ash's mind-fuck in order to save her daughter.
Anyhoo, brainwashed Ash is hunting the team, Ruby and Pablo are hiding from him, Linda is looking for her daughter, Ashy-Slashy puppet is fighting and mind-fucking with Kelly, and Linda's daughter is a Deadite, and kills her dad, asshole cop (finally!).
Kelly kills Linda's daughter, and Linda doesn't know yet.
Kelly kills Ashy-Slashy, in a fight sequence reminiscent of Ash's possessed hand in ED2.
Pablo and Ruby finally get brought before Baal by Ash, Ash reveals he was indeed doing the triple-cross, and turns on Baal, and Pablo gets to do his spell to kill/dispel Baal.
But Pablo falls dead, cut in half by Baal's thumb claw.
So, we lost Pablo and Amanda (Linda's daughter) this week. :(
Can't think of any trivia stuff for this one....
Two to go!!
Fuck! No Ash this week! :(
Final two are December 4th and 11th.
Episode 9, Home Again.
Ash uses the time travel spell (on Pablo's chest, since the original Necronomicon is toast) to go back to 1982 to prevent the whole Evil Dead saga to bring Pablo back to life.
They head back to the cabin in the woods, and Ash, Kelly, and Ruby get split up, and Ash gets back to the cabin, and Kelly and Ruby are lost in the woods, and being followed by some mysterious figure.
(My theory? Past-Ruby)
Ash steps on a nail, his foot gets infected like Linda in ED1, but instead of lopping off his foot, he sucks out the poison, but swallows it, and another Evil Ash tries to clone in him, but he drives it out this time as a mutated fetus, and squashes it with a frying pan.
He goes into the fruit cellar to get the book, but finds Henrietta, still human, chained to the wall.
He's arrived not only before his younger self, but when Raymond Knowby was playing around with the book.
Ash refuses to free Henrietta, knowing what she was like last time, and Raymond comes home with a female student, Tanya, and lures her downstairs, and lets her step on a bear trap.
Ash sees Raymond as an asshole, and frees Henrietta.
Just as Raymond explains that he plans to lure the demon out of Henrietta, and into Tanya.
One wonders how this went down in the original timeline.
Henrietta morphs into her full-on Evil Dead 2 self, and they fight again.
Raymond seals Ash and Tanya up in the cellar, and we cliffhang at another big Henrietta fight about to take place.
Also, while all that went down, Kelly and Ruby almost got eaten by a tree.
Ruby says "it could have been worse".
Tree rape reference!
Trivia-
When they arrive in 1982, there's a "Hills Have Eyes", poster up at the movie theater as a callback to the one in Evil Dead 1.
When Ash gets to the cabin, he can't remember if he found the book on Raymond's desk, or in the cellar with Scotty.
That's a joking reference to the continuity conflict between ED1 and the beginning of ED2.
So, we're left to assume the conflicts in the whole original trilogy were just faulty memories on Ash's part.
Ted Raimi plays monster-Henrietta again!!!
It's like having Robert Englund Freddy back!!
Fucking sweet 80's soundtrack this episode.
Episode 10, Second Coming.
We pick up where we left off last week, with Ash and Tanya in the cellar.
Raymond Knowby escapes to his car, but something splatters him.
Ash fights Henrietta again, Henrieta liquifies Tanya like she did Jake in ED2, Henrietta morphs into Super Henrietta like in ED2, and Ash chops Henrietta's head off with the chainsaw again.
Just as Ash crawls out of the cellar victorious, (my prediction from last week turns out to be right) and 80's Ruby shows up.
She has the book, so she killed Raymond.
Shortly after, modern Ruby and Kelly show up.
Ash tells 80's Ruby her future, and she doesn't like it, and mortally wounds modern Ruby with the Kandarian dagger.
Ash and Kelly escape with the Necronomicon, and Ash grows his original hand back, proving they've changed history.
They open the trunk of the Delta, and Pablo is alive again.
Ash, Pablo, and Kelly start to escape from the woods, but Pablo starts acting funny, then skins himself, and reveals himself to be Baal.
Baal reveals that at the very last minute, he put his spirit into Pablo just before both of them died, and he waited in Pablo's corpse until Ash changed history.
80's Ruby catches up to them carrying modern Ruby's severed head, and knocks Ash out.
Ash awakens back in the cabin with Ruby rebirthing her children out of the Necronomicon.
Ash makes a deal with Baal that if Baal fights him without his powers and loses, Baal, Ruby, the Children, and the Necronomicon have to go back to Hell, and they get Pablo back.
If Ash loses, evil conqueres the world, and The Children get to do awful things to Kelly.
The deal is sealed, and they fight.
80's Ruby realizes Baal can't be trusted if he's willing to risk it all for ego, and plans her own double cross.
Kelly repeatedly tries and fails to kill Ruby with the Kandarian dagger.
Baal, true to form, uses his powers, and cheats, and takes on the forms of Chet, Cheryl, and Brock, and as Chet, cuts Ash's hand off again.
The hand Deadite-ifies, and runs off again.
Ash gets thrown into the living room where Kelly has been beaten by The Children, and Ash admits defeat, but as a last request before Baal kills him, he asks to know what Ruby was like in the sack.
This distracts Baal for a split second, allowing Ash to gut him with his own claw.
This sends pain into Ruby, The Children, and the Necronomicon, makes Baal shed his skin showing his true form, and makes the cabin floor open up to Hell, and Baal and the Necronomicon fall in.
Ash and Kelly escape, and they watch the cabin burn, and cave in on itself.
Suddenly, Pablo bursts out of the earth where the cabin used to be, restored from Hell, and they explain everything that happened to him again.
They go back home as heroes, Ash gives the town a clumsy speech of gratitude, makes out with Linda "Army Of Darkness", style, and sees the ghosts of Brock, Cheryl, and Chet "Return Of The Jedi", style.
80's Ruby shows up in the crowd, and there's our cliffhanger for season 3.
Then, there's an after credits stinger with the rusted and rotted 2016 version of the VW Raymond died in, a breeze blows dirt away from the Necronomicon, and a female hand grabs it, while a female voice says "hey, look what I found!".
Trivia-
The movie projector and record player from ED1 play during the Henrietta fight, and the record player song plays during the credits.
Next up, the bingewatch of the whole season, and then the full season review!!!
And here's the full season review!
http://dickynoo.blogspot.com/2016/12/big-winter-movies-part-2-part-15.html
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