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

MaidOfKandar

MaidOfKandar

I May Be Bad But I Feel...Good....
Staff member
Joined
Mar 31, 2013
Welcome to this week's Ash vs Evil Dead episode discussion thread! Some additional ground rules to the basic ones on the forum for those who want to participate:

1: This and all future threads will be a choose to warn experience; IE you will not need to use spoiler bars to talk about things that happened in this and previous episodes.

2: It is, however, advisable to use spoiler bars if you want to talk about spoilers for an unaired episode.

3: Please be respectful of the opinions of your fellow Deadites; some people may not love the episode as much as you do; some may love it more. Discussion and debate are good things.



LAST WEEK'S THREAD:

Here!



SUMMARY:

Ruby's house of horrors reveals her master plan as well as a little bundle of joy that terrorizes Ash; Pablo's Brujo ties bring him back to the path he needs to take.


TRAILER:




Clips:




2 (WARNING: Clip number two spoils the entire front half of the episode, please be cautious when watching it)

Gallery:

@FarFarAway Site


Episode was directed by Daniel Netheim again, and was written by Luke Kalteaux. Luke's main writing credit is a looot of Daredevil episodes and he wrote episode 6 last year.

All news, spoilers, clips and reactions pertaining to the episode are welcome!
 
Last edited:
Episode was awesome as heck. Lots of "wrong" moments, lots of action and just overall a really fun episode. I am really loving this season and each episode is getting better and more faster paced. I remember there being a time I was worried about the season but in my opinion it's been really good. Also that "wrong" stuff was crazy and I can safely say that I never saw that done before. lol
 
All i have is two reaction's to this episode.

giphy.gif

and

giphy.gif


Settling down... *COUGH*

Anyways, that was a very intense episode, and judging by the next episode preview looks like we are about to get into the real good stuff. You can expect a very full review for this one from me.
 
Super quick thoughts - as always, longer stuff tomorrow!

Hmm - the episode felt super cartoony in tone to me - which isn't bad, we're talking Evil Dead after all - but a mite bit more slapsticky than we've had recently and a bit more over the top - yes, even more than Spider Jizz in episode 2. Kelly beating up her own leg made me giggle the most. Some kinda stiff lines and some really wooden even for Bruce delivery going on. The 'so wrong it's bad' stuff was funny because they had Ash acknowledge that it was wrong instead of making pathology picture jokes - there was a couple of times where one was left going 'yeah, y'did that already, show'. But really pretty funny overall!

Since when can being stabbed by the dagger do THAT to a Deadite?

And yeah Ash, we knew Ruby was chasing you for decades, she told you in season one.

Joe's OTP dies, it lives, it dies and it lives again! And they finally locked lips!

"Shit, where's Ash?" "...Okay!"

I really loved Natalie and i was pretty pissed they killed her off even though it was obviously coming but that's obviously The Wages of Horror At Work. I was like 'shoot a window out, sis!'

Actual thoughts after the airing tomorrow!
 
@MaidOfKandar

I'm gonna say pablo's case is different since his caught between both worlds, evil and good. I'm gonna guess it triggered the ritual with his soul since they needed the dagger. But oh my god, that whole sequence with pablo was FANTASTIC !

The boiling point for pablo and kelly was great, and they still managed to work in pablo's nerdy nature into the scene. Ahh, i loved it

I'm gonna say knowing how ash's mind works in this show, it slipped his mind or his that shocked to see the lengths she went in watching him.

I kinda figured Natalie was gonna bite it because of her misunderstanding ash and connecting the wrong dots which ended up costing her, though it wasn't entirely her fault as she didn't know who to trust in that whole ordeal. At least she went down swinging the poor gal.

Can i just say, seeing brandy get in on the action and driving off in the delta with her father was a great character development moment for her at the end !
 
I pretty much thought of you when it happened!

I wonder if they'll try to tie it all to the whole rift plot.

Brandy remains a highlight, and I love what they did with her mentorship with Kelly.

I'm guessing Ruby throws the prom to win Brandy back to her side.
 
The action choreography, camerawork, makeup and practical effects were great and thank goodness all the trying to convince Brandy that evil is real and Ms. Prevett nonsense is finally over. That final moment between Brandy and Ash was good.

And that's pretty much all the positives I have for this week.

Dialogue on this episode was atrocious and Bruce's delivery of most of his lines was terrible. He really seemed to be phoning it in on this episode. The constant cross cutting between scenes at random moments really didn't work and kinda ruined the pacing. Nearly every attempt at humor on this episode fell flat to me. The "wrong" stuff was just that. Wrong. In every sense of the word. Ash continues to act like an ineffective moron, coming up with baffling idiotic plans and acting surprised to discover things he already knows. I still don't give a crap about the Brujo stuff and I thought that scene was really poorly written and executed, so none of that worked for me. Things that happen to these characters continue to have no weight or consequence, so everything feels kinda predictable and pointless. At least there seemed to be an actual turning point in this episode and they're apparently finally done with a lot of things that were already starting to annoy me, so hopefully the second half of the season will seem a bit more purposeful and actually lead to something a bit more worthwhile. At the moment, I'm taking back some of the compliments I made at the beginning of the season about it being "the best the show has ever been". It showed promise and improvement for exactly one and a half episodes. The rest of it has been pretty much on par with season 2 so far. Crossing my fingers they will find that groove from the first couple of episodes again.
 
Last edited:
Couldn't agree more with @DyD about this episode. All the setting made in previous episode destroyed by the cartoonish flavor. It's ok, but don't start something seriously if you turn it into a joke. This is another big flaw. The inconsistency between directors. One want to give more a serious Evil dead tone. The next one want that AoD vibe. I don't have nothing more to say. A few good moments. That's it.

The Hitchhiker scene with little Ash inside her body is seriously inspired by Brain Dead. I must admit I did enjoyed that part
 
And here's my assorted thoughts:

The Good

The pacing was pretty good this time out.

I adored Natalie. Loved her. Always love seeing cool, proactive characters going down swinging (and aside from one joke, I'm glad they kept the weight jokes to a minimum).

Brandy and Ash running off into the sunset together after she called him dad. Narrative, Ash isn't a bad father, he's just an awkward one, as anyone would be upon becoming a father to a teenager out of the blue at almost sixty.

It was nice to see Hamenky again as Pablo's Uncle.

The 'DEAD BY DAWN' esque chant that Pablo and Kelly's mini-Pablo had.

Ruby's kid is amusingly devious, but he needs a name!

Ray's interpretation of Deaditehood was hilarious.

The pay-off to the Pablo/Kelly stuff was nice, and I know several of you have been waiting for that! It finally brought some more depth out of Dana's portrayal of Kelly.


The Meh

...But again, they needed way more build-up in season 2. I still feel like they wasted half the season futzing around and the parts that worked could've been transplanted into something bigger.

The tone of the episode was super cartoony. I accept it since we've had part of that established tone since Evil Dead 2, but this felt noteworthy for its tone shift.


The Bad

Bruce's acting for most of the episode. There's over the top Bruce acting, and there's him delivering lines with such horrible insincerity that I made actual note of it.

My winged appaloosa comments: the Kandarian Dagger Doing That re Pablo. That's not how it worked in the first movie.

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?

Pablo bites Kelly and Kelly...doesn't rot and go possessed?

The whole bit with the baby emerging from Natalie's vagina was mildly funny the first time. The second time, groanworthy.

The Final Verdict: Overall it was an okay episode; not the strongest and not bad. Right down the middle of the line for me but most of it was fun.
 
Last edited:
MaidOfKandar said:
The 'DEAD BY DAWN' esque chant that Pablo and Kelly's mini-Pablo had.
Click to expand...

That was, in fact, lovely to see. One of the things they've been consistently doing right this season is deadite shenanigans. It's pretty clear they're making an effort to get it right this time around. It's something that was always kinda off in the first two seasons.

MaidOfKandar said:
Bruce's acting for most of the episode. There's over the top Bruce acting, and there's him delivering lines with such horrible insincerity that I made actual note of it.
Click to expand...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who had that impression.
 
Last edited:
MaidOfKandar said:
And here's my assorted thoughts:
That he baptized himself in his own blood?
Click to expand...

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.
 
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?
 
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?
Click to expand...

I just think Bruce need a good director to make him shine. He's good, but need someone to show him the way. You can be a good director on a technical point of view, but bad to directing actors. Maybe the director wanted a goofy acting, so Bruce gave him what he wanted. That's all.
 
Last edited:
Sutter Cane said:
I just think Bruce need a good director to make him shine. He's good, but need someone to show him the way. You can be a good director on a technical point of view, but bad to directing actors. Maybe the director wanted a goofy acting, so Bruce gave him what he wanted. That's all.
Click to expand...

The guy got some very good performances out of dana,arielle and ray so i wouldn't say it's the directors fault here. I'm wondering if bruce just treated the fight scene with the baby like business as usual, he did however have good reactions to when brandy came along and his reactions to brandy driving the car were good as well, he also had great chemistry with Samantha in the previous episode and this one. I'm gonna jog this situation down to bruce not having a lot to do this episode and treated the fight scene material as "business as usual" until he got up to scene with his daughter. He seems to perk up/act his ass off every time his on screen with her so far

I don't think he was used to the guy who was directing these two episodes as he was new to the show, so who knows.
 
Last edited:
Joem1k said:
The guy got some very good performances out of dana,arielle and ray so i wouldn't say it's the directors fault here. I'm wondering if bruce just treated the fight scene with the baby like business as usual, he did however have good reactions to when brandy came along and his reactions to brandy driving the car were good as well, he also had great chemistry with Samantha in the previous episode and this one. I'm gonna jog this situation down to bruce not having a lot to do this episode and treated the fight scene material as "business as usual" until he got up to scene with his daughter. He seems to perk up/act his ass off every time his on screen with her so far

I don't think he was used to the guy who was directing these two episodes as he was new to the show, so who knows.
Click to expand...


My post was pure speculation. The reason why Bruce was on automatic pilot on this episode could be anything. You're right, most of the cast did a decent performance at some point. It might be Bruce fault. But it might be something else. Did the director put so much emphasize on Bruce that it turn into a bad performance? (You know when you try too much) Did Bruce didn't felt groovy this day? Maybe. I just wanted to point out that many factors could lead a bad performance by an actor. The actor must take most of the credit for a bad performance, but sometime the rest of the crew need to take it too. Anyway, I also agree with your comment. it could it be that.
 
Last edited:
At first glance Baby Proof further reinforces that Brandy is the best thing to happen to the show, but the rest of this episode was chock full of meh aside from the ending with Ash and Brandy driving off. I wish we had gotten more of Pablo and the Brujo, but think the thing that slowed this episode down was working with a kid which clearly had some challenges... and it took away from Natalie's earlier performance by having the demon spawn take over her body Krang style by crawling up into her hooha. Not to mention the bowling ball.
 
so, a guy with a history of killing people drives up, opens the trunk of his car, showing a baby covered in blood, and the cop's reaction is to...put her hands on her hips and look at him sternly? really? I was at least tolerant of the silliness up til then, but that was just the last straw. then the cop stands in the street and flails her arms helplessly as he drives away? really? cop doesn't have a car? good lord...fun is fun and we all gotta suspend disbelief to some extent, but come on.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DyD
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom