Ash vs Evil Dead S03E07: Twist and Shout Discussion [SPOILERS]

[MaidOfKandar]

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 latest creation is her most diabolical plan yet to turn Brandy against Ash; Pablo suspects something isn't right with Kelly when she meets him and Ash at the school; chaos ensues when evil shows up at the dance.


TRAILER:

Clips:

1, 2-4 (or if you prefer not to give Bloody Disgusting your business, 2, 3, 4)


Gallery:

@FarFarAway Site


Episode was written by Caitlin Meares who wrote a lot of animation-related things, an episode of the Santa Clarita Diet, and is the head writer for that brand new live-action Velma and Daphne movie, and was directed by our old friend Mark Beesley.

All news, spoilers, clips and reactions pertaining to the episode are welcome!

 

[Nick el Ass]

A new clip from Rotten Tomatoes TV.

 

[Joem1k]

The episode is now up for viewing on the app, enjoy the watch everyone !

 

[Joem1k]

Fucking hell, that episode was stressful/tense and dare i say pretty emotional. This is probably a first for this show to make me feel very empty and cold after a episode. And i mean that in a good way, this whole episode had serious ed1 vibes and i loved every minute of it, especially that ending. AND THEY FINALLY USED THE SONG I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR !

As for that evil ash. I don't know if i would even call him a clone of ash, all i got from him was just his image. He acted way more like ruby and childlike then anything, if i had to name this specific version, i think i'm just gonna call him "Rash" he was nothing like the previous evil ashes who while still evil, still maintained a sense of it being a clone ash this one however, didn't.

Rash was more menacing,psychotic and just downright creepy to watch, i remember you guys saying you wanted to see a psychotic ash williams last season, well. I think you got your wish with Rash, closest your going to get to a real version of ashy slashy and boy did they deliver.

One last thing to note.

Pablo is really starting to shine as his own hero, this episode really showed he can take care of himself and his proving to be quite the key player to the team.

 

[Surtur]

Holy hell, clone Ash in the dance was dark. This was maybe the most horrific the show has been yet and I loved it.

 

[Joem1k]

Another important thing to note is that they confirm the KOS members in the last episode were bull headed and weren't prepared at all for that situation. While still somewhat red-shirts, at least the remaining survivor confirmed to pablo that they were in fact not their ancestors. I thought that was a really nice bit of character development for that knight.

 

[MaidOfKandar]

This was a good one; credible tension, good gore, nice character moments. That's the best onscreen crying Bruce has done in ages and Ash felt much more well-rounded. The parts that needed to be good (Arielle, Bruce and Ray's acting) were all in place, so my quibbles are gonna be minor or general. I actually found the Ash clone to be very sympathetic in the beginning when he was chopping off his hand while Ruby didn't give a damn about her own kid (Ruby's up-and-down characterization until she finally expressed her annoyance with the situation was one of the episode's flaws, but I'll get to that later); the Ash clone from season one felt more menacing/cold/evil to me. His sense of morality was interesting, then it abruptly segued into amorality and one-liners. I do have some problems with him dying so quickly when they could've milled more out of the tension between he and Ruby (Imagine him figuring out that the woman didn't really give a damn about him!). But this was fun, and I'll have some finished thoughts tomorrow!

AND THEY FINALLY USED THE SONG I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR !

Between this and you FINALLY getting some pay-off on the Pablo/Kelly relationship I've been so happy for you this season! I've been generally enjoying Pablo's development this season. Kelly's almost on her way to being rounded too but she needs a little more work.

 

[Surtur]

That would be something to see, Clone Ash turning on Ruby and joining Ash for the final fight.

Part of me wanted to see him stick around and develop but at the same time he was an important piece in the plot that eventually got Brandy killed, which will drive Ash into the rift so I suppose I’m fine that he’s dead.

 

[MaidOfKandar]

Part of me wanted to see him stick around and develop but at the same time he was an important piece in the plot that eventually got Brandy killed, which will drive Ash into the rift so I suppose I’m fine that he’s dead.

*nods* I think I mostly want to see him stick around more 'cause we had some interesting hints that won't develop with him gone. He did need to die so Ruby could have her speech and then throw the dagger, and the only other answer would've been killing off Brandy in an arbitrary way which would've been a worse decision.

@Nick el Ass , Got that clip all set in the top post!

 

[Joem1k]

@MaidOfKandar

God, pablo's realization to kelly's death was quite tragic, and the scene between him and kaya was pretty tense as well, and i was not expecting him to cold cock her in the head, that really surprised me, though it officially confirmed for me that nerdy/scared value stop clerk we saw in s1 has wisen up to his surroundings, his fight with rash was pretty good as well !

I hope we get to see him reunited with kelly before this season ends. If that should happen, that kiss is gonna have some serious weight to it.

I'm gonna say Rash was doing what his mom was telling him to do, impersonate ash. And that's exactly what he did. One liners and everything.

That opening scene with him was truly sad to watch, it reminded me of norman bates and his mother and the abusive relationship they had. Well he died doing his mothers bidding, at least he had that going for him.

And one more thing, Ruby is a terrible event planner. The one thing i very much enjoyed seeing was seeing her plans and cold facade crack and crumble. her getting pissed off at her plan almost working and then being crumbled was very satisfactory to watch BUT that brief victory was met with ruby's last laugh.

 

[MaidOfKandar]

I hope we get to see him reunited with kelly before this season ends. If that should happen, that kiss is gonna have some serious weight to it.

Spoiler: Spoiler for the season's trailer/promo shots!

I THINK there's a scene where they're lying down together kissing somewhere in the season trailer, and they do at least see each other in some form in episode 10 with the infamous tank picture. So they should see each other in the flesh again at some point.

 

[Joem1k]

Spoiler: Spoiler for the season's trailer/promo shots!

I THINK there's a scene where they're lying down together kissing somewhere in the season trailer, and they do at least see each other in some form in episode 10 with the infamous tank picture. So they should see each other in the flesh again at some point.

Spoiler

that was actually the episode 5 kiss, and i don't know they've been throwing curve balls this season, not gonna get my hopes up but fingers crossed!

This is gonna be quite the journey for all of these characters for these final episodes if this is the tone we are going with heading forward.

 

[MaidOfKandar]

Spoiler: Spoiler to Joe

Huh! I could've sworn there was another where they're out of doors!

 

[Joem1k]

@MaidOfKandar

To follow up on your statement about kelly, it was very awesome to hear kelly admitting to her mistake "i fucked up" and was really grateful in seeing pablo again.

I was really hopeful last week for them to play on kelly's mistake and her owning up to it, so it's nice to see my prediction about them rounding her character out for these final episodes seems to be coming true !

 

[Guy]

Whilst I could do without yet ANOTHER Evil Ash (at least regenerate one of the previous Evil Ashes as an ongoing antoginist if you want to keep bringing back the TV trope 'evil twin') that was a hell of an episode.

I wonder if we're expecting to see any other dead guest stars in the evil realm? So far, in theory, everyone to die in the franchise should be in there somewhere?

 

[waifugenerator]

We stranger things now bois

 

[Joem1k]

We stranger things now bois

Yeah i got a ST vibe at the end in a good way but i feel like concept of this world is vastly different from usd.

It feels more like a Limbo stasis for someone's soul. And whatever the black thing was that is chasing kelly/brandy is the reaper of that realm coming to collect their souls.

@Guy

I'm gonna say no/yes, yes to recent deaths (kelly/brandy/dalton) and no to the past deaths who've died a long time ago which im gonna assume they had their souls consumed a long time ago by that black reaper looking thing.

Now that we know this realm exists. i wonder what must've became of those in the films and the past two seasons to those who've died up to this point and had to exist in that spiritual realm to either be taken by that reaper or endlessly wander/run until someone set them free or pass on.

 

[Guy]

@Guy

I'm gonna say no/yes, yes to recent deaths (kelly/brandy/dalton) and no to the past deaths who've died a long time ago which im gonna assume they had their souls consumed a long time ago by that black reaper looking thing.

Now that we know this realm exists. i wonder what must've became of those in the films and the past two seasons to those who've died up to this point and had to exist in that spiritual realm to either be taken by that reaper or endlessly wander/run until someone set them free or pass on.

Maybe we'll find out when someone inevitably picks up the comic book rights once the show is off air..

 

[MaidOfKandar]

I'm gonna say no/yes, yes to recent deaths (kelly/brandy/dalton) and no to the past deaths who've died a long time ago which im gonna assume they had their souls consumed a long time ago by that black reaper looking thing.

Well, since Cheryl's soul survived over thirty years in stasis, it's possible that everyone else is crafty enough to have stayed unswallowed. I say this because I want Linda to have her happy ending too, durnit!

 

[Sutter Cane]

Well, I will go straight to the point. There's still many things that still annoy me but I will not comment on this.

Pro :

-Everything from the technical point of view was very well done. Director did a good job.
-Acting from the whole team. We got great dramatic moments. More in this episode than any others.
-We finally know what was the plan of Ruby
-Suspense
-Gore

Con :

-Build up to Evil Ash that ends up abruptly. (I expected way more than this)
-That cheap underworld à la Strangers Things (I know ST borrow many things from other movies, but common, follow your own footstep not the one of your popular friend. It's just lame. Sorry)
-Comedic elements didn't work that well
-The song "ding dong you're dead" in the dance scene. (Appropriate you will tell me, but totally broke the atmosphere of the scene)

Conclusion : It was a "better" but not "awesome" episode. They bring many elements that the series was lacking since day one : More dramatic, more suspenseful & more human. A good improvement was done in this episode but it still carry it bag of cheap jokes and cut corners story wise.