1.10 The Dark One Should Ash have realised he was making a deal with the devil? Obviously. Nothing in Ruby’s behaviour made us think she was trustworthy. But after everything Ash has been through, doesn’t it make sense that he was looking for an easy escape that was never going to present itself? None of this is meant to justify the sheer idiocy of his final decision, but it does explain it and make him a believable, flawed hero worth investing in as we go forward into what is bound to be an explosive second season. But, prior to looking forward, there’s plenty to talk about from what proved to be a great finale to a great first season. Picking up from last week’s killer cliffhanger, the carnage, true to form, did not abate. We had the quick dispatching of Officer Fisher, Pablo being horrifyingly used to create weird creepy undead children, and Heather, who I had sort of hoped was going to stick around, literally exploding. Or being torn apart. Or something. Whatever it was it was horrifying, although it gave Kelly a very funny attempt at a badass moment with trying and failing to kick her severed head. Look, I had doubts about whether this series would work. Even as a fan of the Evil Dead movies who was quite happy to get more Ash Williams in any form, I couldn’t shake the concern that film and television are very different mediums and what worked in a classic horror trilogy might not work over the sustained narrative of an ongoing television series. But those doubts didn’t last long. Ash Vs Evil Dead delivered a fun, exciting, creepy first season that expanded on what we already knew about the world and Ash as a character all the while forging ahead with an original story that neither felt like a retread or a compromise of anything the series had done before. It’s actually staggering, the feat this series has achieved. Army Of Darkness came out almost twenty four years ago and while the remake certainly had its merits, it never really felt like part of the series. As the true belated follow up to the beloved originals, Ash Vs Evil Dead had some major expectations to contend with, and so easily could have been another disappointing continuation that left fans wishing the series had not been revived. Yet, by leaning into what made the original films great and subtly developing Ash as it went, the show satisfied and then some. It’s hard to imagine any fan of the franchise being unhappy with what we got over these last ten weeks. But above all, it’s been the characters that I would put forward as the biggest success of the series. Pablo and Kelly initially seemed like distractions from Ash, but before long we got to the point where losing either of them would really hurt and I’ll admit to breathing a sigh of relief when they were both still standing by the time the credits rolled. I’ve said over and over again how winning I find their dynamic, and it’s that above anything that I’m looking forward to more of when these guys get back to action later this year. Last note. Ash uses shoe polish on his hair. How perfect is that? Read Gabriel’s review of the previous episode, Bound In Flesh, here.
