Theory: Multiple Timelines

[teacherpeter]

I remember years ago at a comic-con someone in the crowd asked Bruce why they chose to make Evil Dead 2 a remake of the original. Bruce said that they never thought of it as a remake but as a direct sequel. In the commentary for Evil Dead 2 Bruce says something like: "Is Ash stupid enough to take another girlfriend to the same cabin, and the answer is of course he is. But that's a story for another time."

How could this be true? Well, here's my theory on how Evil Dead 1 is connected to Evil Dead 2.

The Popular Theory: 
Most people interpret the first 20 minutes or so of Evil Dead 2 as a sort of recap of the events of Evil Dead 1. The part where Bruce is attacked by the force is also the ending of Evil Dead 1, and it's where Evil Dead 2 starts to pick up its main storyline. This makes sense, except that it doesn't really at all. Everything that happens in Evil Dead 1 is different from what happens in Evil Dead 2's first Act. Dramatically different. Obviously these two continuities cannot coexist, and yet it's a sequel, not a remake.

My Theory:
It's 1981, and the events of Evil Dead 1 occur. At the end, when Ash is attacked by the Evil Force, he doesn't die or become possessed as many assume. Remember, the Force is all but dead itself. The book was burned, the demons are all exorcised and have died in spectacular fashion. The Evil Dead used its last energy to send Ash back in time. We do not see these events play out, but we can reason that Ash saved the world from a Deadite plague and his story is written into the book. He is dubbed "the Chosen One" for his efforts. History continues to progress. Hundreds of years later we find ourselves in the year 1987.

The world has mostly progressed the same, but through some "butterfly effect" differences in the timeline, Ash is a slightly different version of himself, and he's dating another girlfriend, also named Linda. This time he and Linda are visiting the cabin alone, not with friends. They find the book of the dead, yadda yadda yadda, Ash sees the book's depiction of the Chosen One. The book is a relic of history, with a historical account of him saving the world hundreds of years ago after he's plunged into the past following the events of Evil Dead 1. This time, Ash and Annie Knowby manage to send the Evil back in time with its own magic used against it, but Ash is dragged back with it, repeating history yet again.

Ash lands in medieval times and the events of Army of Darkness unfold. He is immediately recognized as the Chosen One because of the passage in the book, perhaps because this is not the first time he's been sent back in time. If it's not for this reason, then we have no explanation for the passage being in the book in the first place. 

Anyway, Army of Darkness wraps up, and Ash goes back to his own time through the book's magic. He lives as a recluse until the events of Ash vs. Evil Dead, but all the time travel he's done has muddled his memory of the three movies' events and spliced them together. This is why he explains to Pablo that he went to the cabin with "some friends" and not just a girlfriend, why he is missing his hand but he doesn't still use the prosthetic from Army of Darkness, and indeed, why he apparently forgot about most of the events of Army of Darkness but still retains love for the word "Boomstick".

As for the remake, it almost certainly takes place in a version of the same universe as Evil Dead 1. The exterior of the cabin is almost completely identical to Evil Dead 1, the Oldsmobile is there in disrepair, and the opening scene of the movie serves as a thesis statement that the Necronomicon has claimed many lives in this cabin and it has been there for a long time. Mia and her friends won't be the first victims of the book, nor will they be the last. It could also be interpreted as what might have happened if Ash were never born, which somehow could've happened after Ash's second temporal disturbance and visit to the past and major ripple in history caused by Army of Darkness.

Anyway, that's my theory!

 

[Sutter Cane]

The Popular Theory: 
Most people interpret the first 20 minutes or so of Evil Dead 2 as a sort of recap of the events of Evil Dead 1. The part where Bruce is attacked by the force is also the ending of Evil Dead 1, and it's where Evil Dead 2 starts to pick up its main storyline. This makes sense, except that it doesn't really at all. Everything that happens in Evil Dead 1 is different from what happens in Evil Dead 2's first Act. Dramatically different. Obviously these two continuities cannot coexist, and yet it's a sequel, not a remake.

All recaps tells different stories at some point.  Most of them are told by the same man (Ash) except on Evil Dead 2.  According to an interview with Bruce Campbell :  




[font=proxima-nova, sans-serif]"So what has Ash been up to for the past two decades? “Not much!” says Campbell. “He was perfectly happy doing basically nothing: telling lies about how he lost his hand in bars late at night."[/font]



[font=proxima-nova, sans-serif]One theory could be Ash tells the story differently each time.  It's not the same exact events but basically it's the same story.  Remember the words? [/font]

 

[MaidOfKandar]

And it's arguable that everything that happens in the AOD prologue happens differently from the point where Ash lops off his own hand (he pins it with his own knee instead of a knife; he reads the passage himself and there's no Annie, etc, which I think teacherpeter pointed out in another thread).

To add on to Sutter Cane's post, you could theorize that Ash has ptsd (which will apparently be canon in the series) and his trauma forces him to block out chunks of the story depending on what day he's telling it on.

 

[Sutter Cane]

And it's arguable that everything that happens in the AOD prologue happens differently from the point where Ash lops off his own hand (he pins it with his own knee instead of a knife; he reads the passage himself and there's no Annie, etc, which I think teacherpeter pointed out in another thread).

To add on to Sutter Cane's post, you could theorize that Ash has ptsd (which will apparently be canon in the series) and his trauma forces him to block out chunks of the story depending on what day he's telling it on.

I like the idea that Ash as ptsd.  If they want to expand the character psychologically for a series, I think they need to go in this direction.  At some point, someone could confront him about the story and what really happened.  This could bring the character to another level.

I like also the theory of Teacherpeter because it explain a lot of things and it could be very logical, but I'm not sure they should go with a multiple timeline story. I think this sound something similiar to The One with Jet Li or Star Wars parallel universe.  I don't think this should belong to the Evil Dead.  Could be complicated to explain for someone who saw the movies but don't remember every tiny details.  They need to come with something easy to understand to satisfy the average fans but also to please the die hard fans.  No offense this is only my opinion.  

Anyway, I hope the serie will help to clear this out. It's the perfect time to give us more explanation and beyond what we already know.  

 

[MaidOfKandar]

We will see, this series is supposed to knit everything together.  But eh, I accept the loopholes.