'Ash vs. Evil Dead' Recap: 'Trapped Inside'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

As the second season of Ash vs. Evil Dead continues to unfold, it's becoming obvious now that this series is about something more than just a good old fashioned splatter tale about a loveable loser battling demons from beyond. This is a flat out origin story for a true hero and protector of mankind in Ashley J. Williams. Granted, it's taken him thirty years to even remotely get close to that point, but hey...baby steps. What matters more is that last night's episode, 'Trapped Inside' brought this unexpected surprise into the light and that the Evil is struggling with the fact that Ash is close to fulfilling his destiny.

After all, the events that transpired thirty years ago left Ash a broken man. One on the run from his own shadow as he drifted from place to place, haunted by his past and hoping to never have to deal with such matters ever again and that's what the Evil was hoping for. That the Jefe would stay scared and remain in the shadows so it could take over our planet and its people. But alas, despite the fact that the Evil has thrown just about everything it can at Ash, he just keeps coming and now...he's finding strength in what he does, he's starting to accept his role as the Jefe and this revelation is forcing the Evil to try harder to defeat Ash on a fundamental level and last night...it went all out to do so, resurrecting his dead sister Cheryl, in the hopes of finally shattering him at his core.  

But, what made this little twist all the more impressive, is the fact that the powers that be behind the scenes, actually managed to cast the original actor to play Cheryl, Ellen Sandweiss; and she did an outright phenomenal job reprising the role. She can still play a Deadite in proper fashion and that's important because for the story's sake, Cheryl 2.0 managed to be far more lethal than she was thirty years ago. She teased and tormented Ash, all in the hopes of breaking him, even going as far as to kill Chet to force him to make a mistake. But the Jefe never wavered. He was steadfast in putting down this abomination and his resolve paid off in spades. Because as it turns out, the town had come to 'greet' Ash and the gang at his father's house, where the Ghostbeaters went to lick their wounds, in the hopes of dragging him off to jail and at long last Ash was able to show the world, or rather...his home town, that this Evil does indeed exist and that he's here to protect us all.

As Ash dealt with his dead sister...again, Ruby and Pablo had to find a way to save the young man from the fact that he was merging with the Necronomicon, because once the merger was complete, Pablo would simply become the book...something no one in the group was cool with so Ruby came up with a plan to accelerate the book's growth just far enough to gather the spell to send back Baal...and while Ruby's plan is a success, the night turns out to be a costly one for the group. After all, Pablo's transformation into the book is further along than anyone would like. Ruby is badly wounded and revealed her immortality is gone forever and well...despite Ash saving the day, the idiot Sheriff is under Baal's influence and helped the ancient demon to capture El Jefe and at this point...Ash's future and fate is unknown.  

But despite the downer ending this episode finishes with, there's a lot to celebrate from this story. The fact that Ash is no longer haunted by his past is a huge deal and it's incredible that he was finally able to put to rest the whole Ashy Slashy legend by revealing to Elk Grove that he was telling the truth all along, because all of that means he is far too strong for the Evil to control now and for proof, look no further than the fact that Baal had to use the Sheriff to bring Ash in. This ancient demon knows that directly confronting Ash will be a waste of time and he will see right through Baal's tricks. Either way, this was a top notch episode from the series last night. I loved the throwback, and the heavy dose of horror it helped deliver and it's wonderful to see the Jefe finally come into his own...and he's going to need that strength because I think it's fairly obvious that Baal is going to make one more push to try and break Ash once and for all. Until next time.

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