"Ash vs. Evil Dead" Recap: "The Dark One"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

"Well, aren't we the tricky little bitch."
- Ash

Wow! Wow! WOW! Ladies and gentlemen, there are season finales and then there are SEASON FINALES and last night Ash vs. Evil Dead gave us the latter of the two with a power house ending that basically delivered on everything. It was full of terrifying moments, buckets of blood and an ending/cliffhanger so perfect that it could only work on this particular show.  

Now, with it being the finale, I'll be perfectly honest, it was a little bit light on plot and I personally was okay with that. After all the big twist of Ruby being one of the Dark Ones was revealed at the end of last week and well, this was a forty minute showdown to save the world, so I expected nothing less than a gory feast filled to the brim with Deadite carvings and while I got exactly what I wanted, the show still managed to go above and beyond by holding nothing back in this absolutely stellar episode.

Plus, there were some genuinely creepy moments this go round. Especially once Ash got into the basement of the cabin as we quickly learned that Ruby had holed up in a tiny room and was using Pablo as a vessel to write some important new pages in the book and at the same time force Pablo to summon and give birth to some weird little demon kids that don't have eyes. Are they the Dark Ones reborn? Possibly, that part we never find out, but what we do discover is that these little monsters are more than happy to try and eat people since Ash has to square off with one in hilarious/horrific fashion before a final showdown with Ruby.  But before that happens, Kelly is still upstairs, kept away from her friends by the house and that's when the show gave us it's goriest moments. 

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It turns out that the cabin loves to feed off of fear and since Kelly was giving it none of that, it turned to Heather the reluctant hiker by throwing Kelly out and unleashing its fury by torturing the poor girl before literally chewing on her bones and spitting them out. Eventually Kelly figures out how to force the house to let her back in with a little kiss of fire and that's when the final showdown came to pass. Ash finally stormed into the room to save his friend and put Ruby down, but nothing ever quite goes as planned in his world since Pablo, lightly possessed by the Evil is more than happy to battle his old friend and despite laying the boomstick down on Ruby...it's revealed she can heal her wounds, which explains now how she survived the fire.

But in the heat of the battle, Kelly joins the fight, only to be overpowered by the Pablo monster, leaving Ash at the mercy of Ruby and right before it looks like things are about to go south...Ash manages to overpower Ruby with the Kandarian Dagger and has her right where he wants her...or so he thinks. Turns out Ruby has known for some time that Ash is a Jefe and her greatest foe, and earlier she snuck into Ash's mind and revealed her true intentions. She's not out to take over the world with the Evil, she merely wants to keep it under control, and she wants to give Ash his life back by letting him sneak off to Jacksonville. Ash initially rebuffs the deal, but with Pablo and Kelly's lives on the line and her pointing out that the book will continue its murderous ways once she's gone...she offers it up again and in shocking fashion...Ash freaking takes the deal. So that's where season one wraps up, with Ash and the shell shocked Ghost Beaters heading to Jacksonville. Ash seems pretty happy about his decision, but Pablo and Kelly do not, firmly believing that Ruby has worse plans for the world and with Emergency Alerts popping up about sinkholes appearing everywhere...they're probably right.  

But, while that ending seems stunning at first, it's in line with the kind of dumbass things only Ash would do and well...his greatest foe knew his only weakness, his value of human life. It's been a big deal for him to make sure everyone makes it out alive this time and his fear of seeing anyone else die or suffer that's close to him was all Ruby needed to get the deal she wanted. It's a good and bad thing because it means Ash is a better man than we have ever known, but the Evil is still out there and in the hands of one of its creators and oddly enough, Ash was right. Had Pablo, Kelly and Amanda stayed behind, there's a chance none of this would have happened. But either way, the world is still on the brink and despite Ash's foolish decision, we all know it's only a matter of time before El Jefe snaps out of his little fantasy and comes back to face the Evil and save the world once again. Until then...

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