ASH VS EVIL DEAD SERIES OVERVIEW PART 2

On the 31st of October 2015 a legend returned when Ash Williams renewed his battle against the Deadites in the first season of Ash Vs Evil Dead.

The show was a massive success and in 2016 Ash and co. returned once more for a second season of gory slapstick Deadite killing fun.

The formula remained much the same as the previous season - a series of 10 half hour episodes starring Bruce Campbell as Ash, Ray Santiago and Dana DeLorenzo as Ash's trusty sidekicks Pablo and Kelly and Lucy Lawless as thier "frenemy" - the demon Ruby.

A few tweaks where made to the basic formula. The first season played out like a road movie - Ash and friends travelled from place to place, had adventures and ultimately found thier way back to the cabin that was the setting for the first two movies. This time round Ash, Pablo and Kelly arrive in Ash's home town - Elk Grove. Obviously this is a place that holds a lot of memories for Ash - some good, some bitter. As a result of this we learn probably more about Ash than we've ever known before. 

We learn that after arriving back in his own time Ash tried to tell people about what happened up at the cabin. Ash was blamed for the murders of his friends but due to lack of evidence (no bodies presumably) wasn't charged. He was instead run out of Elk Grove. In the process he gained the unflattering nickname "Ashy Slashy" and in the intervening years has become something of a "boogeyman/urban legend" used to frighten the local kids -"Be good or Ashy Slashy will come and get you". Naturally Ash is very pissed off about this. He tries to laugh it off with his usual bravado but you can tell that deep down this really cuts him close.

We get to meet Ash's dad Brock "you can call me cock" Williams (played by Lee Majors - a brilliant piece of casting). Brock is every bit as crude, obnoxious and strangely likeable as Ash (Ash is DEFINITELY his father's son). Yet the two are at loggerheads. Brock blames Ash for the death of his sister Cheryl (who was killed back at the cabin on that fateful night thirty years ago) and also thinks Ash is a coward for fleeing the town. Eventually Brock comes to appreciate his son, literally minutes before being run over and killed by Ash's demonically possessed car (don't ask).

We also get to meet Ash's old friend Chet (Ted Raimi), an alcoholic war veteran and party animal who had a thing for Cheryl. We keep mentioning Cheryl don't we ? There's a good reason for this...mid way through the series Cheryl returns from the grave.

Ash's long dead sister is back in full on Deadite mode. Played as she was in the original movie by a remarkably well preserved Ellen Sandweiss (when she's not in Deadite makeup she really doesn't look much different than she did way back in 1980). Cheryl is, of course, a very iconic character in the Evil Dead series - it was Cheryl who was the victim in the original movie's infamous "tree rape" scene (she was "branch banged" according to Ash - you've gotta love him), also Cheryl was the first person to get turned into a Deadite on-screen. So it's a pretty big deal seeing her turn up here. Ash being the grand respecter of tradition that he is promptly beheads her with his chainsaw. It's great to see her back though.

A quick word about the town of Elk Grove here. It's a nice backdrop for this second series. It seems to be permanently night-time there. The whole town is wreathed in darkness, fog, mist and autumn leaves. It's incredibly atmospheric and enhances the mood perfectly, ideal if (like me) you tend to watch this series every year around Halloween time.

It's not all just about Ash though. The other main characters all get expanded upon in this series. Pablo continues his journey to becoming a shaman. At the end of the first season the Necronomicon bonded with him. Pablo is haunted by this and starts to receive disturbing visions from the book. Pablo's mystical abilities become increasingly more powerful but it all comes with a massive cost for him.

Kelly starts to feel that she's outgrowing just blindly following Ash all the time. She forms a friendship with Ruby in this season, all of which seeds further storylines in season 3.

Ruby actually becomes a full fledged "good guy" in this season - her demon spawn children have betrayed her, she's lost her immortality and turns to Ash for help. 

As she becomes mortal Ruby starts to become increasingly "human" in her outlook (hence the understanding, respect and friendship that forms between her and Kelly). Sadly, this is all doomed. The gang travel back in time to 1982 (more on that later) and "good Ruby" is killed by her evil former self from that timeline. It's a great dual performance from Lucy Lawless. Season 2 is probably the strongest one for her out of the three.

Ash also gains a new arch enemy in season 2 in the shape of the demon Baal (Joel Tobek). Baal is one of the most powerful demons in creation (he also happens to be Ruby's ex-lover). He's built up quite a lot before we actually meet him and doesn't actually appear until roughly halfway through the season. He seems slightly disappointing at first - he's made out to be this big lord of Hell but when we see him he just looks like some middle-aged goth. However, don't let this put you off as Baal turns out to be a brilliant villain. Tobek plays him really well and Baal probably comes the closest to breaking Ash than any other villain has before or since. He definitely deserves his place in the pantheon of great Evil Dead villains...plus he has a hand to hand chainsaw duel with Ash for Christ's sake. It doesn't get much cooler than that.

This season has some excellent (and gross) set pieces. Best (and grossest) of all is the morgue scene where Ash battles a corpse's colon that's attacking him. This ends with Ash shoving his shotgun into the demonically possessed sphincter, uttering the immortal line "This town only has room for one asshole. That asshole...is ME !" Pulling the trigger and being drenched from head to toe in blood and shit. Only in the Evil Dead...

There's other memorable moments too - including a psychotic killer glove puppet version of Ash ("Get your hand outta my puppet pooper !"), a demonic killer car from Hell and more beheadings, chainsawings and acts of bodily dismemberment than you can shake a (very bloody) stick at.

As with the first series and the movies that spawned it, Ash Vs Evil Dead season 2 is heaps of sick and twisted fun. The cast are firing on all cylinders, the monsters are just as inventive as ever, it's atmospheric as hell, funny in all the right places and horrific when it needs to be as well. The only problem is with the ending...

As mentioned before - in the series finale Ash and friends travel back to 1982 in an attempt to save Pablo from dying and change history. This leads them back to the infamous cabin once more (this time several days before the events of the original movie). We finally get to meet Professor Knowby (the man who originally unleashed the evil) and - even better - we get a rematch ("pre-match" ???) between Ash and the Deadite Henrietta. As with Cheryl, Henrietta is another incredibly iconic Evil Dead character (she's basically the main Deadite in Evil Dead 2). Once again Deadite Henrietta is played by a heavily made up and unrecognisable Ted Raimi. Seeing Ash and Henrietta slug it out once more is great fan service and every bit as much fun to watch as you can imagine.

So far so good for the climax...the only problem is that once everything is resolved THE ENDING MAKES NO BLOODY SENSE !!!!!

Pablo is saved. History is changed. Effectively the events of the original movies NEVER HAPPEN.

And yet...Ash and co return back to the present day Elk Grove and everything is as they left it. Surely if history had been changed, and the events of the original trilogy, season 1 and ninety eight percent of season 2 now haven't happened then Elk Grove would be totally different ?...and yet everyone there seems to remember everything. Brock and Cheryl and Chet are all still dead (we see them as Star Wars style ghosts). LITERALLY NOTHING HAS CHANGED ! It's madness and does unfortunately take you out of the story a little.

This was apparently due to behind the scenes creative differences that necessitated a hasty rewrite - and unfortunately it shows. They really could have thought it out a bit better than that.

Never mind, despite dropping the ball in the last five minutes this still a REALLY strong season and a more than worthwhile continuation of the Evil Dead saga.

Next time - the third and final season (I know I said that this was going to be a two part article but there's just so much to unpack with this series and I love it so much that I want to do it justice, so please bear with me non-Evil Dead fans, we're about to enter the final leg of the marathon).