Oh wow.
Season two is not holding back!
Sunday night’s episode, appropriately titled “Morgue,”
continued (and in many ways upped) the no-holds-barred splatterfest that has
been the latest season of Starz’s horror-comedy series Ash vs Evil Dead.
Continuing the story from where we last left off, the episode picks up with Ash
bringing Pablo, Kelly, and Ruby back to his childhood bedroom to plan out how
they’ll retrieve the hidden Necronomicon. Still not convinced of her turn from
the dark side, Pablo insists on interrogating Ruby about her true intentions
with the group. Almost immediately, she confides in them where she hid the
elusive book of the dead: inside a corpse.
This series never lets me down.
Ash and Kelly head to the titular mortuary to retrieve the
book before Ruby’s demon children return, leaving Pablo behind to continue his
interrogation of Ruby at evil-demon-magic-knifepoint.
It’s then that the episode hits its high point, as Ash
chainsaws through every single corpse he finds in the morgue before finally
finding it lodged in the stomach of the last body left. Of course, the inside
of this random man’s dead body has now made direct contact with the
Necronomicon, and is therefore a host to its evil. In what is unequivocally the
most gross, graphic, and brilliant piece of slapstick I think I’ve ever seen,
Ash then battles the dead man’s reanimated, demon intestines, eventually being…
sucked… all the way through…
Where is Bruce Campbell’s EMMY?
Legit though, Mr. Campbell goes so hard for this gag, giving
it everything he has and it pays off brilliantly. Evil Dead II is personally my
favorite film in the series in large part due to the film’s blend of horror
gore and campy slapstick – dubbed “splatstick” by Campbell and company. I
appreciated “Morgue” not only going back to those roots, but trying to top
them. It’s exactly what you would want to be the centerpiece of an episode of
the Evil Dead show.
During our hero’s prolonged fight against the undead colon,
(which is probably my favorite sentence I’ve ever written, by the way) Kelly
stands guard outside the hospital door, drawing attention away from Ash’s
battle for the book. She goes so far as to cold knock out the police officer
who’s been hot on the group’s trail since they arrived in Elk Grove. Proud of
Kelly’s fighting skills, and with the evil book in hand, Ash thinks the mission
is accomplished.
Unfortunately, all is not as well as it seems, they
discover, as they find the marked body of Lillian Pendergrass, Ash’s former
teacher and his father’s current girlfriend, has been replaced by the
Deadite-slaughtered corpse of the morgue’s coroner. Piecing together that the
Deadite spirit is now inside Ms. Pendergrass and headed for his house, Ash
rushes Kelly back home to save Pablo and Ruby from attack.
Meanwhile, Pablo has been having struggles of his own. His
interrogation of Ruby has not gone as planned. While he wanted information
about the horrible visions he’s been having, she wants details about what they
say.
Their fight climaxes with Ruby stringing Pablo up from the
ceiling and slashing his throat with a razor sharp finger…
Or so it would seem.
This was just another of Pablo’s waking nightmares, or
premonitions as Ruby calls them. She assures him that she doesn’t want to hurt
him, and can decipher what her demons are planning to do based on what he’s
seen. He finally confides in her, describing his own graphic murder by her
hand. True to her word, Ruby realizes what it all must mean – the book has
bonded itself to Pablo as a messenger for evil forces, and the demons she once
created want the Necronomicon to conjure to life her demonic counterpart, their
father.
The episode then reaches its climax as Ash and Kelly show up
just in time for the Deadite Ms. Pendergrass to attack. We’re then treated to
the bloody demon battle we expect from Evil Dead, this time with Ruby joining
in on the fight- a real treat for us Lucy Lawless fans, happy to see her return
to epic action scenes.
In the end, the Deadite is killed, the book retrieved and
“safely stowed away” in Ash’s iconic car, and it seems as if finally our heroes
are all on the right track to set things right… until the car is stolen with
the Necronomicon inside.
Overall, I once again loved this episode. Ash vs Evil Dead
consistently delivers on its promise of laughs and blood, this episode in
particular. “Morgue” is their most over-the-top episode yet, and I love it.
