Ash vs Evil Dead: Judgment Day or the beginning of the end

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Ash vs Evil Dead – Judgment Day – Courtesy of STARZ

The Dark Ones are coming while Ash plans to take Ruby out. Pablo can’t shut the rift and Brandy wrestles with her cellphone.

“I’m seeing through the eyes of the Necronomicon.” – Pablo

SPOILER ALERT

One Way or Another

Ash vs Evil Dead – One Way or Another – Courtesy of STARZ

Wow. Things have been kicked up several notches with this episode. From the heart pounding opening to the WTF moment at the end, your adrenalin is going to be maxed out.

This is truly the beginning of the end for Ash and the Ghostbeaters. Ruby (Lucy Lawless) is a desperate woman working on borrowed time. The Dark Ones are coming and she is trying to rewrite the Necronomicon using Zoe (Emilia Burns), the last knight of Sumeria’s blood as ink.

I also need to mention that the page that Ruby needs actually comes from Zoe’s lower back. Ouch! The way she extracts it is pretty graphic. Of course, after that deed is done and Ruby and Kaya (Dana DeLorenzo) are distracted, Zoe tips over her chair and makes a run for the door.

But alas, she doesn’t make it outside because Kaya gouges her eyes out and leaves her for dead. Ash (Bruce Campbell) pulls up in the Delta in front of his house. He and Pablo (Ray Santiago) help a weakened Brandy (Arielle Carver-O’Neill) inside.

Coming back from the rift is rough so naturally Brandy is a bit sick. Ash on the other hand is pissed off and wants to handle Ruby once and for all. Pablo discovers that he has an added benefit of being El Brujo Especial when he loses his sight.

Panicking he sits down on the couch while a concerned Brandy and Ash look on. Seeing through the eyes of the Necronomicon, Pablo spies Kelly. However, he can see right through her to Kaya inhabiting her body. “Ruby is scared,” he tells Ash. The Dark Ones are on their way.

Off to War

Ash vs Evil Dead – Off to War – Courtesy of STARZ

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After some pointed questions about what the room looks like, Ash figures out that it is Ms. Prevett’s house. He gears up, hands his boomstick off to his daughter and tells Pablo to close the rift.

In a rather touching moment, Brandy looking scared at the prospect of her father going to face off with the demon bitch extraordinaire, rushes to him and hugs him hard. Ash doesn’t quite know how to respond. You can tell that he has grown to love her very much and that for a split second he is choked up.

This scene is a little gem. It is all about Ash’s journey and Bruce Campbell is keeping us riveted. At the hardware store, Pablo sees the storm clouds rolling in. The supernatural war is brewing and the Dark Ones are headed this way.

Pablo enters the basement only to find that the rift is open. The portal is very reminiscent of the closet in Poltergeist even down to the lighting. Try as he might to say the proper incantation the gateway is not closing.

Pulling out the lost Necronomicon pages he starts to look for the right passage when the Dark Ones appear very much like the Cenobites making their entrance in Hellraiser. When they spy Pablo, one of them latches onto Pablo’s heart and pries the pages from his hands. They toss him to the side and leave instead of killing him.

Cut to the Elk Lounge in downtown Elk Grove. It appears to be business as usual but because of the dream team of Evil, the regular patrons are turning into Deadites and it is a bloodbath. Pablo runs out into the street to hear the screaming.

Like Father, Like Daughter

Ash vs Evil Dead – Like Father Like Daughter – Courtesy of STARZ

At the house, Brandy becomes alarmed by all the outside noise. She peers out the window only to see a Deadite looking at her in the rain. Then there is a crash in the kitchen.

Grabbing her boomstick, she heads into the hallway to see who is there. Evil forces charge toward her and she runs up the stairs and jumps out her bedroom window. Landing on the pavement between the house and the garage, she quickly gets up and seeks sanctuary.

Once inside, the real fun begins. Her finger gets bitten off by her possessed cellphone. Then her arm goes bad. This entire scene is flush with callbacks to Evil Dead 2 and Ashes to Ashes S01 E08 right down to the sound effects. Of course, she grabs a saw and starts cutting off her hand a la Ash.

This action turns out to be a huge fake out. However, as if her thumb being severed isn’t enough, now she must fend off a Deadite cellphone creature. Yes, you saw that correctly.

Brandy even quotes her father by saying, “Come get some!” This is a delightful performance and O’Neill is serving up some vintage Groovy Bruce and doing a swell job of it.

While she pins the little monster with a screwdriver she tells it, “Who’s laughing now?” This line is taken directly from ED2. The way Brandy takes out the demon is pretty creative as well, death by plough.

After she narrowly escapes her death, she hears Pablo calling her name. She exits the garage and the two jump in his Gremlin to go find Ash.

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