'Ash vs. Evil Dead' Recap: 'Ashy Slashy'

​Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

It's been quite the interesting second season for Ash vs. Evil Dead simply due to the fact that the tone and design of the show has managed to evolve as the season has progressed. What started out as a lighthearted and silly Evil Dead II type of story has quickly shifted gears, reverting to the darkest corners of the saga and playing more on our fears.  

A fine example of this was last week's episode, where Baal made Ash question his sanity in order to finally break the Jefe and this week took every dark and dreary element that episode had to offer and ran with it further because 'Ashy Slashy' was a tour de force of horror one that evoked memories of classic horror films left and right, saw Kelly rise to impromptu leadership in a time of crisis while also providing us with one powerhouse twist filled ending that completely changes everything for the show going forward.

But before we get to that, let's take a quick moment and talk about the scares for a moment because wow, this episode felt like an old school slasher film and kudos to the series for trying out something new once again and to Bruce Campbell for another fine performance by transforming into a madman stalking his own friends. However, while all of that was fun and creepy, slasher films can only take you so far substance wise and the show is fully aware of that fact which is why Kelly took the center stage in this story, serving as the group's impromptu leader as both Ruby and Pablo expressed their doubts about being able to complete the mission and send Baal back to Hell. But in addition to stepping up when the team needed her most, she also served as the story's outright badass, battling Deadites left and right in between searching for Ash.

However, the ending is what looms large over this episode because two incredible things took place. For one, we learned that Ash was pulling the wool over Baal's eyes all along. He was never broken, never bought into his lies. He simply knew the only way out of this mess was to play along to get Baal and Pablo (a,k.a. Necronomicon 2.0) in the same room together to get Pablo to fire off the incantation and send Baal back where he belongs. It was a genius stroke storytelling wise but it also led to the darkest moment in the series to date because despite the fact that Pablo was able to successfully banish Baal to the darkness beyond and in essence save the day, the manipulative demon had one last trick up his sleeve, striking Pablo with his flesh cutting finger mere moments before he was banished from our world...to ensure that Ash, Ruby, Kelly and Linda would be forced to watch poor Pablo die right in front of them.

Just like that...the episode was over, leaving us with that shocking image burned into our minds and a day later...I'm still in shock. Pablo's gone and while I get that death is part of this show and we've seen plenty of good souls depart in this series, it's the first time we've seen a Ghostbeater suffer that ultimate fate and it will most certainly change the landscape of the show as we venture toward the season finale, especially when it comes to Ash. After all, this was what he feared the most, and no doubt this will rattle him to his core, and to make matters worse, it's clear that Ash's work still isn't done. The Evil is still roaming about because of what Ruby unleashed and well, I'm not sure that Ash is going to be able to continue on because of Pablo's passing. Either way, it's shaping up to be a somber finish to season two and here's to hoping Ash can find the strength to put an end to all of this before it gets out of hand. Until next time.

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