It’s been two weeks since we last checked in with Ash, and
as we get close to the end of the season, it’s clear that this show won’t be
holding back. The episode opens with the core group of Deadite-hunters grieving
Pablo’s death in their own unique ways: Ruby and Kelly talking through their
anguish at losing their friend, while Ash drunkenly spins his car around a
parking lot with Pablo’s corpse duct-taped to the passenger seat. Smoking
god-only-knows-what, Ash has a vision of Pablo explaining to him a simple solution
to his problems: just go back in time and stop it all from happening. Having
previously traveled through time before (shout-out to Army of Darkness!) Ash is
confident this plan can work. He crams Ruby and Kelly into the backseat, reads
aloud a spell etched on Pablo’s body, and Back to the Future-style drives the
car back in time to 1982 (the year the original film series is set) to stop
himself from ever reading the book in the first place, therefore saving Pablo
and ridding the world of Deadites once and for all.
Once they arrive in the hilariously recreated 80’s (Journey playing
on the radio, big hair, so much neon) the group heads straight into the forest
to find the cabin and stop past-Ash. Of course, everything goes wrong, as the three
time-travelers are promptly separated in the woods.
Lost, Kelly and Ruby wander through the iconic spooky forest
in search of Ash and the cabin. The two women are suddenly attacked and
entangled by the vines of a possessed tree (an homage to the infamous scene in
the original Evil Dead), eventually stabbing and killing the demonic foliage
with one of its own branches. The two then continue on their journey.
Meanwhile, back at the cabin from the original trilogy, Ash
is alone, trying to hunt down the book and stop himself from ever finding it.
Being the eternal screw-up that he is, he manages to cut his foot on a nail,
exposing his leg to the demonic entity in the cellar. Unable to bring himself
to amputate another limb, Ash instead attempts to fight the demon out from his
body in a scene of brilliant, episode-stealing slapstick. Once the demon has
been squashed, Ash moves downstairs to find the book.
In the cellar, Ash is confronted by Henrietta, the
Deadite-possessed wife of the professor who discovered the Necronomicon, last
seen in Evil Dead II. She pleads with Ash to unchain her from the wall,
swearing that his memory of fighting her Deadite form in the past is wrong and
she’s not possessed. Ash believes her and sets her free. Of course, he’s dead
wrong, and everything soon falls apart.
Meanwhile, the professor returns to his cabin along with one
of his young students, prepared to trap her in the cellar too and transfer the
demon spirits from his wife’s body to hers. The Deadite Henrietta lashes out
and attacks everyone in the cellar. Fearing her unleashed power, the professor
escapes upstairs and locks the door behind him, trapping Ash and his student in
the basement to face his undead wife.
Overall, this episode was pretty awesome. The time-travel plot
was rather unexpected, but thoroughly entertaining. The references and homages to
the original trilogy come fast and frequently, much to the excitement of my
little nerd heart, and the jokes are campy and hilarious. The showrunners have
really turned things around from the previous episodes, as this week’s show is
not only much better, but very well might have been the best episode of the
season so far.
