Ash vs Evil Dead S03E05: Baby Proof Discussion [SPOILERS]

If you think about it, the Brujo test kind of proved nothing. Pablo slit his palm and poured his own blood all over himself. Which proved that...his instincts weren't faulty, I guess? That he baptized himself in his own blood?

I agree 100%. I kept waiting for him to DO whatever it was he was required to do to figure out which bowl was the right one, but he just stood there yelling and holding the dagger over each bowl, then one bowl apparently exploded for no apparent reason, so I still don't know if that was the RIGHT bowl or the WRONG bowl, or what. were there supposed to be two WRONG bowls, like when ash first had to get the right book from the cemetery? so did he actually pick the RIGHT bowl? I have no idea. very silly, very confusing, no real sense of closure. he's ripped, though, for a little dude. gotta give him that. definitely been hitting the gym so good for him.
 
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We'll likely see what the test did in the next few episodes, but i'm going to say it has something to do with becoming a actual brujo and being able to do shit he hasn't previously done in the past two seasons, let's wait and see on this one.

And it's seemed to have gotten rid of the necronomicon writing/curse that's forsaken him for the past two seasons since he did mention before he left "i feel amazing" so the weight of that has probably been lifted and won't be a burden on him any longer. Plus it was mentioned in the last several episodes that ritual would save him from it, so there's that.

Plus it was foreshadowed in the last episode ash was going to bring pablo down into the basement and translate what was on the wall, so i'm willing to bet it has something to do with that.
 
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Muzzlehatch said:
I asked the very same question a few weeks ago: What's up with Bruce's acting? I love this man. His acting skills and talent are unarguable and judging from his interviews and social media activities he really cares for the show. But watching it I often can not help myself wondering why his line delivery is so often so bad. Did he you just forget how to play Ash or did he become lazy? Is the Budget too small to redo takes?
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could be he's just tired of the character and the silliness of the whole thing. could be his heart just isn't in it anymore. people change, and actors change too. what might have seemed like good silly fun in the first two or three movies might seem dumb and immature and pointless now. remember, the first evil dead movie came out in 1981...THIRTY-SEVEN years ago. each of you, ask yourself: whatever you did for silly fun 37 years ago, would you still do it publicly? or would it seem dumb and childish and something you'd rather forget? anyway, that's just one possibility.
 
Henrietta Knowby said:
could be he's just tired of the character and the silliness of the whole thing. could be his heart just isn't in it anymore. people change, and actors change too. what might have seemed like good silly fun in the first two or three movies might seem dumb and immature and pointless now. remember, the first evil dead movie came out in 1981...THIRTY-SEVEN years ago. each of you, ask yourself: whatever you did for silly fun 37 years ago, would you still do it publicly? or would it seem dumb and childish and something you'd rather forget? anyway, that's just one possibility.
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I'm gonna say he wasn't given much to do in this episode then the usual stuff his character is usually put through, though once he got back to interacting with brandy he seemed very perked up and lively again. I'm gonna write this down as bruce just working on autopilot through the baby fight scene.
 
Joem1k said:
Actually it was some type of mystical brujo blood he mixed in with his own. Which is probably why he came back healed up, if you think about it, it acts almost like the blood of Christ except it has much more of a effect then well healing him.

I think this is going to be a wait and see aspect to see what new powers he has. Just happy to have this part of the journey over for pablo.
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I can see that - but I can't remember for the life of me seeing him actually touch the stuff in the bowls or dunking the dagger into it. You and Guy are right in that he was definitely being manipulated toward it by his Uncle and the shamaness, the cross-cutting just kind of defeated them there.

@Joem1k and @Sutter Cane - Bruce tends to be a very self-directed kind of actor who adlibs a lot and has a fond if mild disdain for screenwriters, which tends to either be his bane or boon when he appears in a production. That's why his performances tend to be all over the map.
 
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In the past I complained about the heavy use of rock and pop music and wished for some tracks of original score. But this episode taught me to articulate my wishes a little more carefuly. Orchestral scores cheaply produced on a midi keyboard aren't much better either.

Beside that I really liked the chemistry between Bruce and the talented actress playing the hitchhiker girl. Also writingwise I liked it much better than most of ghostbeater's stuff where Kelly and Pablo often only play minor roles.
 
Muzzlehatch said:
In the past I complained about the heavy use of rock and pop music and wished for some tracks of original score. But this episode taught me to articulate my wishes a little more carefuly. Orchestral scores cheaply produced on a midi keyboard aren't much better either.
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See for me the use of pop music vs score has been very scattershot. When they get it right (The Crimson and Clover montage) they get it VERY right, but sometimes it feels weird or out of place. Jo's score has been pretty badass overall, I will add that.
 
I enjoyed the music choices in Season 1, but some of the placements were baffling and awful (placing a non-score piece over the first shot of the cabin was just criminal). As fun as the fights were in Season 1, any sense of drama was undercut by constant use of licensed tracks (cutting up the evil twin to 'Just The Two Of Us' didn't quite land they way they wanted it to; to be honest there should have been NO license music in those cabin episodes). Mainly the pop/rock music gave the scenes that 'hell yeah, here we go' kind of ass-kickery that people expect from Ash, but undercut the actual drama, horror and and possibility of our heroes losing or being concerned about events.

Season 2 got the balance a hell of a lot better, when Deadites and Evil were around it was all atmospheric score (pretty much to my recollection) and they save the Alice Cooper stuff for mecha-bull riding, delta rides and end credits. This season has kept the balance quite well I feel. I laughed at 'Take on Me' during the sperm bank fight, but the trailer made it look like that song might appear at
some kind of prom event?
which I felt would have given it so much better context than just randomly playing in the background of a fight scene. I'm hoping that's the only time we get non-diagetic pop music during a fight scene from here on out.
 
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Henrietta Knowby said:
and WHO keeps a wall-mounted display of THAT many bowling balls in their house? so silly...
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They did establish that by having the woman Ruby's impersonating being a huge bowling fan in the previous episode.

@Guy Good points! And yeah, I semi-felt like they wasted Take On Me and could have licensed something more fitting for the jizz fight.
 
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ok, I watched it again last night. when Pablo was doing the blood test thing, brujo did say there were two BAD bowls and one GOOD bowl, and Pablo did cut his hand and let some of his blood drip into one of the bowls, presumably the "good" bowl. never showed how he knew which one to go with, though, so still kind of murky and weird.
 
MaidOfKandar said:
They did establish that by having the woman Ruby's impersonating being a huge bowling fan in the previous episode.

being a bowling fan is one thing, but a whole wall-mounted display of balls? none of which are installed so they WONT fall if bumped? that's just silly. that's my point.
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Henrietta Knowby said:
ok, I watched it again last night. when Pablo was doing the blood test thing, brujo did say there were two BAD bowls and one GOOD bowl, and Pablo did cut his hand and let some of his blood drip into one of the bowls, presumably the "good" bowl. never showed how he knew which one to go with, though, so still kind of murky and weird.
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It looked to me as though the dagger might have helped play a role in which bowl Pablo picked as it was going back and forth between the two on the end in the last shot before Pablo cut himself and blood splattered everywhere.
 
Nick el Ass said:
It looked to me as though the dagger might have helped play a role in which bowl Pablo picked as it was going back and forth between the two on the end in the last shot before Pablo cut himself and blood splattered everywhere.
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im wondering if ANY of the blood bowls were BAD bowls. I'm thinking brujo was just testing him to see if he'd have the nards to cut himself and choose ANY of the bowls. the mere fact that he did finally cut himself and chose A bowl probably meant he passed the test, no matter which bowl he chose.
 

Not to nit pick here, but as a bowler myself, yes it is very common to have an obscene amount of bowling balls. Tournament bowlers will have different weights with various modifications to make the ball hook more or less depending on lane oil conditions and what works best. Then there’s all the different resins the balls are made from and combinations therein:) bowling is also quite big in towns like Elk Grove
 
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Surtur said:
Not to nit pick here, but as a bowler myself, yes it is very common to have an obscene amount of bowling balls. Tournament bowlers will have different weights with various modifications to make the ball hook more or less depending on lane oil conditions and what works best. Then there’s all the different resins the balls are made from and combinations therein:) bowling is also quite big in towns like Elk Grove
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I can also add to this as I come from a town that was a 15 min drive from a larger one with a decent bowling alley. There's still yearly tournaments and teams. A lot of people have it as a huge hobby and I've seen that myself.
 
That scene was certainly unsatisfying like a ripp off from the Last Crusade‘s choose the right grail scene. In the later it is a choice between vanity and humility when Indiana Jones picks the cup of a carpenter. But in Pablo‘s case there is no deeper logic or theme behind it, just mythology mambo jambo = lazy writing ...
 
Muzzlehatch said:
That scene was certainly unsatisfying like a ripp off from the Last Crusade‘s choose the right grail scene. In the later it is a choice between vanity and humility when Indiana Jones picks the cup of a carpenter. But in Pablo‘s case there is no deeper logic or theme behind it, just mythology mambo jambo = lazy writing ...
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I wouldn't say that, there is a deeper meaning to it then just him becoming a brujo, this episode was about pablo moving into the next stage or the final stage of his character and closing off the past threads established in the previous two seasons and paying off some seeds planted in those previous seasons and basically beating the evil within him and ridding himself of the curse that book placed on him in the s1 finale.

Remember back in s1 it's a well known fact before they went to tio's pablo's been running from his heritage/past and going forward after the brujo episodes, he wanted to find his purpose/place in the fight against evil going forward. This episode was paying off that arc that was sadly put on the back burner in s2 and also paying off his will they/won't they aspect with him and kelly finally which craig also put on the backburner.

If anything, this episode and the first half accomplished is basically paying off most of pablo's goals from the first two seasons.

1. His now a official brujo and from what tio told him his much stronger then him in his abilities. Hence the "Especial"

2. His relationship with kelly is now very much established

3. His conquered the evil within him and gotten rid of the curse that has been slowly killing him since the s1 finale

and finally and most importantly

4. He now know's his true purpose and what he has to do going forward.

We are now going to have a more confident and more heroic pablo heading into this second half, his no longer this nerdy/nervous kid working at value stop with ash. His now the hero his always wanted to be and has finally gotten the upper hand on evil for good this time.

What i'm loving about this season is that mark is giving the characters goals to meet and is paying off what's been previously established in the other two seasons and another thing as well. IT'S NOT FUCKING AIMLESS, we actually have clear cut goals for each character this season and a pretty solid direction going forth into this second half. If craig was still running this show, we would be about halfway through his original third season plan with a jealous pablo still not meeting his goals and likely still being evil's chew toy, ash doing his usual shtick and kelly being the damsel in distress for the season and more baal.

Mark may not have the best execution with some aspects, but at least the guy is actually trying to tell a story with a clear cut direction and having actual worthwhile goals for these characters to meet this season, i just wish the guy was hired on for the previous two seasons cause he actually understands the property his working on and has injected some much needed heart into the show that was sorely missing/lacking from the previous two seasons.

Now coming up in this next episode, i feel like were going to see the result of kelly's journey of getting her revenge on evil and possibly paying that off finally.
 
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