Con SuiteThe Reactor

Ash vs. Evil Dead – Episode 202

by NCDS

NYCC was the place to see episode two of the second season.  The crowd was full of people who had been up since the early hours in anticipation of the second episode and a Q&A with the cast.  The Q&A was first and after seeing the episode it became clear why.  The cast said they would be ramping up season two with some of their favorite scenes yet to come and that there would be lots of easter eggs to for the old fans and some “holy sh-t” moments in the season (a comment that was clearly an inside joke to them; again, after seeing episode 2, I understand why).

Episode two starts with the gang at Ash’s childhood home where Ash’s dad, Brock Williams, clearly doesn’t want them hanging around. Ash is brought back to his teenage angst while arguing with his father.  Brock tells everyone they can stay but to keep out of his way as he has a lady coming over, a factor that doesn’t prevent him from hitting on Ruby, whom he calls ‘bigfoot’.  Upstairs’ we hear Ash’s sister’s’ Cheryl Williams’, voice as Ash passes her door and is forced to remember her death at the cabin, decades ago.  Ash’s room is just as you would expect it with rock posters and playboy bunnies on the wall.  The gang is quick to get to business as they need to recover the book.

Meanwhile back at the crematorium, the book is creating havoc as only it knows how, taking over dead bodies.  Really Ruby? You hid it in a dead body.  Ruby explains that the dead body will disguise the smell of the Necronomicon and hide it from her spawn.  This is the thing about Ruby, she is smart and calculated, but she holds everything close to the vest, only revealing information on a need-to-know basis. The gang knows this and discusses their plan, while teasing Pablo at the same time; they have no problems multi-tasking.  Pablo volunteers to stay with Ruby while Ash and Kelly are off to recover the book. On their way out they see Ash’s old flame, Lillian Pendergrass, who is going to see his father. Unsurprisingly, this apparently isn’t the first time the two Williams men have shared a woman.

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A sh-t-covered Ash stands outside of his childhood home.

At the crematorium, Ash and Kelly head to the morgue, where Ash goes in and Kelly stands guard.  There are plenty of bodies out on tables and Ash has the responsibility to search each one to find the book.  Using his chainsaw, he begins opening them up, pulling out their intestines and throwing them on the floor while looking for the Necronomicon.  

As Ash searches for the book, making a bloody mess, we go back to Ruby and Pablo in Ash’s room. Pablo confronts Ruby on the changes that have been occurring within him since he wore the face of the book.  Pablo is too emotionally involved and Ruby quickly gains the upper hand.

At the morgue, Ash has come to the last body and we can clearly see the outline of the book in its chest cavity.  It seems as though the book has become one with the body and doesn’t want to leave, wrapping itself in the corpse’s intestines.  While Ash begins his battle for the book, Kelly is confronted with a soda machine that won’t give her soda, as well as the local sheriff, Thomas Emery, whom we learned last episode doesn’t like Ash. This sentiment clearly extends to Ash’s friends. Kudos to Kelly as she does not back down from the sheriff, and when it comes to fighting Kelly is the clearly the winner as she overpowers the man and knocks him out.

Ash, on the other hand, isn’t having as easy of a time due to the intestines of the body have become their own creature and are taking him for a ride.  The intestines grab ahold of Ash, pulling him up through the anus of the dead body it came from, which happens to be male (now we get the casts’ inside joke about “holy sh-t” moments).  This scene is not for weak stomachs. I have seen a lot of gore in my life and even I was grossed out.  Yet the scene has a lot to offer, and truly is the highlight of the episode. First, it gives fans an alternative to the usual horror scenes, second, it adds realism to the outrageous gore it offers by not having the anal cavity be empty (I’ll let you fill in the blanks on that yourself), third, the scene has equal nudity of both male and female parts, and fourth, it continues to give us the humour we expect from the show.  At NYCC, the audience was clearly grossed out, yet laughing at the same time, a reaction which is hard to achieve.

Once Ash gets the body off of him, he sees a corpse door with Lillian Pendergrass’ name on it, however we already know that Lillian is not in there, as we saw her earlier walking into Ash’s old house.  After retrieving the book, Ash helps Kelly with the passed-out officer by making it look like the sheriff peed his pants, and then they are off to save his dad.

Back at the house, Lillian is on the couch with Brock asking where Ash is, yet Brock clearly doesn’t care.  They are on the couch watching Spartacus (another Starz show that also happens to feature Lucy Lawless). Brock is ready for lovin, but Lillian excuses herself.

Pablo and Ruby are still upstairs, where Ruby clearly has the upper hand.

In the Delta, Kelly can’t keep her head in the car due to the extreme odor Ash is emitting after being covered in human feces during his encounter with the corpse’s intestines.  Yet a small run-in with two teenagers has them back in good spirits.

Meanwhile, we are back with Pablo who is tied up and hanging from the ceiling.  Ruby is explaining to him that he is having premonitions and when he asks to be let down, she grows a claw and slashes his throat.  A banging sound from the door brings Pablo back to reality, and he sees Ruby standing over him; he was having another vision.  They don’t have time to talk it out though, because Lillian is at the door in full demonite form! The resulting battle destroys Ash’s room (the opposite of what Ash wanted, when he earlier strongly hinted that he wanted people to ‘straighten up’ after him) and Ruby wins the battle, saving Pablo from the former Lillian Pendergrass.

Ruby is able to decipher Pablo’s vision and now knows what her children want with the book.  There’s just one problem. Remember those teenagers with whom Kelly and Ash had a small altercation?  Well the book was locked in the trunk of the Delta and now those teenagers have just run off with the car.

As Ash says at the end of the episode, “Yep, right up the pooper.”