Just when you thought that you may have seen everything you could possibly see in the Evil Dead Universe, Ash vs Evil Dead proved you wrong. Episode 2 of the second season, saw our heroes begin their quest to retrieve the Necronomicon, with some zany, disgusting, and hilarious mishaps along the way.
The episode entitled “The Morgue” immediately left off right where the last episode began with Ash and company attempting to obtain the Necronomicon. Unfortunately, Ruby hid it in the body of a corpse that’s currently in the town’s morgue. Well, they make a plan: Ash and Kelly will go to the morgue, while Pablo stays behind to watch Ruby.
While Ash and Kelly leave, Pablo attempts to get answers from Ruby as to what’s been happening to him. Ruby turns the tides on him and interrogates him, discovering that he has been having premonitions since his encounter with the Necronomicon.
As for Ash and Kelly, they make it to the morgue. While Kelly acts as look out, Ash begins to brutally disect the many corpses looking for the book. Finally realizing it’s in the very last corpse, Ash attempts to retrieve the book. However, the body’s intestines refuse to let go. In one of the all time greatest scenes in Evil Dead History, Ash battles with this snake/worm like intestines monster that literally pulls Ash up in the, (and I apologize for the language), ass of the of the corpse. Then hilarity ensues as Ash battles the the monster while stuck up the corpse’s ass. Ultimately, Ash wins, gets the Necronomicon, and rejoins Kelly.
Back at the house, Ruby forces the truth out of Pablo in a vision and discovers that a demon known as Baal is coming. The interrogation is brief as they are interrupted by the deadite impersonation Ash’s Dad’s girlfriend. Ash and Kelly arrive just in time to see Ruby and Pablo defeat the deadite imposter. With the deadite dead and the Necronomicon retrieved, Ash and company celebrate. The party doesn’t last long. Ash’s car is stolen by some teenagers, with the Necronomicon in the trunk.
Overall, I had some mixed emotions with the episode. I totally agree that the slapstick humor was top notch. the scene with Ash being shoved up the corpse’s ass was hilarious, but it felt like the episode was mainly fluff, just to set up for the scene. With the show being only a half hour long, you need to make the most of time and I felt it was used to make one epic joke.
It begs the question, what’s next? Where does the show go next with its comedy? The morgue scene was a whole new level of slapstick, but how do you top it? My fear is it peaked too soon and we might be seeing the end of the series before it even gets there. I mean, we still learned a lot and the dialogue is still great. Still, the physical comedy has always been an important part of Evil Dead. My hope is that I’m overreacting. The episode was still enjoyable, hilarious, but I do see cause to worry. Let’s hope this Sunday’s episode will put our doubts to rest.
Ash vs Evil Dead airs sundays on Starz. Check your local listings for times and channels.
(All photos from Starz.)
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