RE: Ash vs Evil Dead S01 E08: Ashes to Ashes Discussion [SPOILERS]
In-Depth review
This review is going to be fairly short and as the observation's will be taking up most of my time for this one, let's get right into it.
Pro's
-The amount of effort and time that was put into the cabin and it's surrounding area was quite awe inspiring to see, every little detail or object is there to, it would take awhile to go through these last three episode's frame by frame to spot all the subtle references or object's from the past are still there, the prop and set designer's really deserve all the praise there getting for this.
- The director and writer should really pat themselves on the back for going all out for this episode, i still can't believe they managed to pull this off, if i hadn't know it was tony directing this i would have mistaken it for a sam raimi episode.
- The tone and overall feel for this episode was really refreshing to see and basically makes the other episodes pale in comparison, i really hope we get more episodes like this because it just felt right for this show.
-Evil Ash, this character is just menacing disturbing and cunning, probably the most dangerous entity or demon to come out of this show, when he first appeared i was immediately sent into paranoia and fear when he first appeared on my first viewing, then his fight scene with Amanda was just terrifying to watch play out. Just the way he continues to berate her and watch her die slowly really sold me on this main villain, this version of evil ash really makes AoD evil ash look like a joke in comparison.
-Bruce Campbell and Jill Marie Jones performances in this episode were really well done and made up big time from the last episode.
-Linda and Ash scenes overall, plus i really loved the actress they got to play linda, she looks and talks almost exactly like the actress who played linda from ed2.
-Seeing ash breaking down both mentally and emotionally in this episode was quite heartbreaking to see. (i will explore this topic more in my observation's and theory's section down below)
-Ash vs Ash, what a great way to cap off the episode and leave us hanging for more.
Middle's
- I really wish i could have been fully into amanda's character and her relationship with ash in this episode but they had to piss it away during the early episodes, the scene was done well and was well acted by both partys, but when i'm not fully invested in the character or her relationship with the main character it just won't have the same effect, no matter how well acted the scene is.
-The Redshirt's have arrived at the cabin, beam me up scotty. - Captain Kirk *insane laughter*
*No cons for this week's episode*
Observation's and Theory's
"A broken man"
(This is basically my thought's of ash's character in this series so far and how's his progressed as a character leading up to this episode.)
Ash is a very broken man both mentally and emotionally, over the past 30 years he never grew out of his shell or matured as a person simply because of what transpired that night at the cabin and him not wanting to get over Linda in general, in the first episode he really comes off as desperate man in a mid life crisis and really reached the bottom of the barrel in term's of being that guy we once knew him as in the movies, but as this series has progressed his grown some what back into that man we used to know from the films and has started to let the people his most comfortable with into his life (Pablo,Kelly and Amanda), but by ep 7 he manned up to what he has to do to stop the evil and doesn't want the people around him to be killed, so he gives them a subtle heartfelt goodbye and heads off towards the cabin to face his own personal demons and end the evil by himself.
What he didn't anticipate when he arrived at the cabin was amanda finding him, he is very adamant about her leaving him alone with the cabin in this scene but he makes the mistake of letting his blinding love her overtake his sensible side and let's her help him, when he starts to talk about linda again his very awkward about it and is trying to get through the subject fairly quickly by recapping the event's in a way he can only articulate, through a wall of sleazy jokes and overall just being a smartass. On his way to the workshed his repressed memory's of linda start flooding back in and you can tell his trying his best to keep it together, he enter's the workshed wanting to get out of there fairly quickly but the cabin has other plan's and shut's him in with his own personal nightmare Linda.
bad memory ? that's what this cabin does...she's a cruel cruel bitch - Ash
In these scenes we see ash just get ripped apart and tortured emotional by linda, but we also finally got to see him finally move on and put the nightmare that's been haunting him for year's to bed, but linda and the cabin will ultimately be getting the last laugh in the end.
Your gonna be alone forever, we'll make sure of that ! - Linda
When returning to the cabin he find's amanda slowly dieing, and he just completely breaks down in this scene and basically meet's his breaking point in this series and when evil ash comes back and basically rubs salt in the wound, the look on ash's face says it all, his out for blood and after his quick conversation with a very shocked and confused pablo and kelly, we see that epic showdown between the two.
welp, better to have loved and lost, and boy did you lose HAHAHA - Evil Ash
I can't wait to see how ash will be acting moving forward through these final episodes and into the second season.
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i'll post some more theory's and thing's i noticed later on in the week to add onto this post since this breakdown of ash's character pretty much took me till last night to really put this whole thing together, so yeah that's my thought's on this episode will be back for more on references and theory's later in the week
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