Season 1, Episode 9: Bound in Flesh
SUMMARY: Pablo (Ray Santiago) and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) have to contend with not one, but two Ash’s (Bruce Campbell) and must decide which of them is bad and which is – well – if not good at least not evil.
REVIEW: Ash vs Evil Dead is on a roll baby. While the season has mostly been solid – save for a few filler episodes – the last two episodes have been terrific, with us firmly on the path towards an amazing season finale by the time the credits rolled at the end of this wicked twenty-seven minute episode. Feeling very much like the second half of last week’s episode (in fact, many of the thirty minute eps feel like hour-long installments cut in half) this picks up right where we left off with Good Ash battling Evil Ash for dominance. The way Kelly and Pablo are able to see through Evil Ash, by noticing how racist and lazy “Good” Ash is was pretty ingenious although Ash is maybe a little too callous with the now dead(ish) Amanda (Jill Marie Jones) who – naturally – winds up possessed by the Deadites and wreaks havoc.
There are lots of great bits here, from Ash hacking up his body to the strains of Grover Washington’s ‘Just the Two of Us’ to a return of the sexy New Zealand campers, with the cute blond one Pablo likes actually living out the episode (minus a brutal maiming). Lucy Lawless also finally gets to do something this week, with her true, nefarious nature being revealed after she tricks Ash into transferring the power of the Necronomicon onto her, paving the way for what’s bound to be a cool finale.
Like other episodes, this one is packed with gore, with the undead Amanda using two of the campers as hand puppets, while Amanda herself seems dead and gone for real, a surprising fact as it initially seemed she’d be a kind of co-lead. It’s actually pretty cool that Ash vs Evil Dead is so casual with killing off regulars as it means you’ll never know who’ll make it to the next episode. That said, I doubt the main trio, Ash, Kelly or Pablo will see any major harm come to them, even though Pablo is now semi-possessed by the book, with the skin-bound cover now attached to his face. Ewww.
Again, this was another rock-solid installment and with only thirty minutes to go, it can’t be denied this season has been a ton of fun and a really great continuation for a franchise many of us never thought would see the light of day again. I can’t wait to see how they wrap it up and pave the way for season two.