Ash vs Evil Dead S03E02: Booth Three 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 gives birth to a form of evil and disguises herself to bond with Brandy.


TRAILER:




Clips:

1, 2, 3


Gallery:

@FarFarAway Site


Episode is the second this season directed by Mark Beesley, and was written by Rob Fresco, who's both written a lot of genre television (Including some somewhat-reviled episodes of Heroes).

All news, spoilers, clips and reactions pertaining to the episode are welcome!
 
I laughed a couple of times during the first clips, and am amused by the super-intentional rubberyness of Ruby's infant.
 
MaidOfKandar said:
I laughed a couple of times during the first clips, and am amused by the super-intentional rubberyness of Ruby's infant.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i'm really loving ash's dialogue this season. I can't decide which clip i found funnier cause of bruce's delivery the 20% off scene or the multitasking scene.
I did like how he delivered this line.

"The hero, of elk fucking grove...." The amount of defeat in his voice is just priceless !

i do however find it awesome they have ash looking into and investigating stuff for himself this season, that's a aspect we really didn't see fully fleshed out in the previous two seasons.
 
Last edited:
New clip showcasing more of the brandy/ash dynamic. I'm sold for the rest of the season. Really happy to see they are taking this part of the story seriously. *Slight spoilers*



I love how ash tries to play it off like he usually does but you can tell his having a hard time adjusting to it. GAH, i love this !

EDIT

Found another clip. *Slight Spoilers*

"Brandy"

It's nice to see the dramatic bits are being fleshed out and improved upon this season. Really a breath of fresh air to see ash taking something seriously.
 
Last edited:
Quick Thoughts : Excellent follow up to the first episode, and holy shit,look at that. This episode was really character driven and we actually got some evil dead lore !

And that deadite fight scene was fucking out there man, good lord, the song selection was perfect for the moment, was cracking up through the whole thing. I will say, it wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be, i did love how they paced it out and played on your expectations with every moment, in my opinion that's what made the scene work in my eyes.

But overall, top notch second episode.
 
I enjoyed this quite a bit. The continued use of practical effects, the Deadites, music, sets. Show is a lot of fun still. Next weeks looks great as well.
 
Kevin said:
I enjoyed this quite a bit. The continued use of practical effects, the Deadites, music, sets. Show is a lot of fun still. Next weeks looks great as well.
Click to expand...

I'm just happy to see they are following what they've set out to do this season. characters and story first before the fight scenes. That was the big highlight to see in this episode. Plus the continuity between episodes is much better this year !
 
I must admit this was a much better episode. The setting was better and the characters seems more real. There were still cheesy moments but it was more focused. The major downside is the running time. I just felt they cut this episode halfway though. I don't know if the next one will be directed by the same director. Hope the next one will not destroy the set up of this episode.

I thought the sperm bank scene would suck bad but it was rather entertaining. Still juvenile but well done enough to be captivating.
 
yeah, the bank scene. i was worried with how it was going to turn out considering how the morgue scene was last season, i was not very optimistic.

But i ended up liking it more then i thought i would and i think i know why.

There was a good sense of balance with the scene and how it handled the gross out humor and it had some depth to it in the long run with the context provided of why ash was there and it wasn't simply for a book. plus it was just overall entertaining to watch the whole scene just spiral into chaos when the take on me starts to kick on !

I'm gonna say it was a lot more creative then what the morgue scene had to offer,i'll tell you that much.

And i'll just say this, i am very grateful for the evil force showing up when it did haha.
 
Last edited:
I got my power back just in time to enjoy today's episode.
 
One thing I will say RE the Brandy clip above

Thi sis the level of emotion I've been looking for from the show for a long time.

And now episode reactions:

The Good

Everything about the tenor of the Brandy/Ash relationship. He's actually trying his ass off to parent, which is so fucking refreshing after season 2.

Ash actually giving a shit about all of the kids he might have sired, and not rejecting the responsibility of them but getting super queasy at the idea of them all showing up and being targets o' evil.

Cheryl both using Ash as a model and generally being into collages and being an excellent artist; hey, my headcanon came true!

My favorite innovation of this spate of Ash one-liners: Ash unintentionally downing his own sexual performance. "I wasn't finished yet." "That's what they all say, baby."

So Dalton has a semi-purpose and might be descended from the people Ash helped in England. This could get interesting.

Much, much better dialogue. Actually memorable lines.

That rubbery baby. That beautiful, b-movie esque rubbery baby!


The Meh

The awkward sex stuff is awkward still, but delivered with attitude and a sense of humor. FINALLY. If you're going to have a technician at a sperm clinic shoot jizz at Ash as a Spider-Man reference, why not make it as campy and gory and ridiculous as possible? I don't know why they bothered to pay that much to license Take on Me for the scene, since it had nothing to do with anything surrounding them. Also please tell me that was a Jason X reference RE how the tech died.

Dana and Ray, as always, have great chemistry but season 2 needed way more Kelly/Pablo to make this a better payoff.

Is Pablo spiritually connected somehow to Ruby's baby through the Nec? Was he having sympathy labor pains before Kaya revealed herself? My opinion's up in the air as to how the Kelly/Dalton/Pablo part of things will resolve, but I'm interested.

It's sweet that Ash stationed Brandy in Cheryl's room yet after what happened t I'm surprised he was willing to let her sleep there I hope someone wiped up Chet's jizz....


The Bad

The timeline is still confusing me as to how Brandy already knows faux!Ruby. Mind alteration? False memories? How much time passed between the parade and the evil being re-released?

Cheryl didn't have her head cut off in either version of her death. Joe suggested that's to fit in with the Ashy Slashy stuff, but I don't know.

The thoughtline with Ruby is less muddled but still convoluted considering what we know of her. An even better question at this point: if this Ruby has had her memories and mistakes wiped away thanks to being previous Ruby, then why isn't she trying to rule the world again through her own might?

It's not the show's fault, but the sight of a bunch of kids at a high school mourning a tragic death is just...awkward thanks to awkward timing.


Questions & Observations:

Did they ever show any pictures of the kid who was in the Cougie coutume in the big memorial?

That's the second time they've gone from Ruby stomping someone's head in to wiping directly to the opening credits.

First appearance of Eli this season.


Final Verdict:

This knocked the Cheryl episode out of its slot as the best episode of the series for me.
 
Last edited:
Nick el Ass said:
Wow, I lost power multiple times before the episode came on last week... and if it happens to another person before the next episode it could mean this forum is haunted.
Click to expand...

To add on to the HUH quotient; I think it was the same front that got you got me.
 
FULL REVIEW TIME ! Pro's,Middle's and Con's (Bonus section for stuff i noticed and observations !)

Pro's
- The characters and the lore coming first before the fight scene. You certainly didn't see this kinda stuff in craig's run. (Which all of the character parts they presented in this episode were great to see!)

-Ash's dialogue was on point in this episode and he had some pretty memorable lines in this episode. Bruce is still giving it his all and tbqh this is probably going to be the season that i will point to the most in the future when it comes to the best moments with old ash, his killing it this season !

-Evil Ruby is again probably the best ruby we've gotten, it's a damn shame we are only getting 1 season of this version. Should've been in the first two. (Plus her explanation/bg story was better explained here then what Craig tried to accomplish in under 2 seasons. Major kudos to the writer of this episode getting the shit straight on this one in a clear and straight forward manner.)

- The Pablo and Kelly moments were a plenty. Can't wait for more ! (@MaidOfKandar Sadly, i'm gonna jog that down to kelly's "hero" arc and pablo's book possession arc getting in the way and their wasn't much room to fit in a romantic subplot in their for s2 and was put on the backburner. BUT, they still had some subtle moments in s2 that stood out. As the saying goes, better late then never i guess)

-Ash and Brandy's relationship being taken very seriously by the writers and ash actually trying his best to be a good father to brandy.

-The tension between dalton/kelly and pablo

-The sperm bank fight, i loved how it was built up to how it was executed. This in my opinion was way better handled/balanced/paced then how Craig paced the morgue scene. They knew when to get gross and when to pull back to let the scene just breath and just be bat shit insane with the concept without the need to overburden the scene with unnecessary shock/scat humor. Here it was very minimal and you can digest the scene while still being grossed out by it but also leave it laughing your ass off by what you've just seen. That in my opinion is a perfect evil dead fight in my book.

The use of take on me added onto the chaotic nature of it was just the cherry on top, it synced well with the action happening on screen.

Middle's
*none*

Con's
*none*

Overall : When i said we got the better end of the deal in the first episode thread, i was fully behind that statement. It's nice to see on the second episode the new showrunner/writing team and the previous director's pick up the slack and fleshed everything out/ improved on the foundation the first episode set in place, It's nice to see a lot of improvement's being made here in this third season, here's hoping they keep it up going forward !

Stuff i noticed and Observations.

- Cheryl's drawing of ed1 ash and a particular drawing of a skull flying towards a eyeball in her room (i wonder what this could've meant or what it's implying...)

- Ruby using the ashy slashy narrative of what happened to Cheryl to her advantage was such a low blow tactic on her part. (@MaidOfKandar, i mean if you think about it from Ruby's POV, she wants brandy to hate/despise/fear ash right ? she has a foundation to do that with the ashy slashy stories and narrative that's been made up by the towns folk. brandy mentioning her being in cheryl's room was basically brandy giving the gun to ruby to really nail ash to the wall with this remark. That's how i view it at least.)

- While Dalton appears to have a great background/character right now, i'm still having my doubts he will last long. (The preview for next week's episode really put the doubt right into me...)

-The Demon Baby Ash already having a chainsaw hand growing out of it's arm. (At this point, i'm really not even gonna question it.)

-Ash with his classic high pitched scream at the rear end of the sperm bank fight scene.

-Nice reference to the take on me music video.

*Will come back later on and point out stuff i missed*
 
Last edited:
Took some extra time before work to watch it.

My thoughts: Way better than most of S1 and 2 indeed. There are still sex jokes and Ash's lack of self awareness but now they often ARE funny. Everything that was sloppy about past Seasons now feels much smoother and well paced.

My personal wish: Give me a few deadite Scenes here and there with a classical score instead of 80s Pop and bubblegum rock!
 
maybe I just missed something, but ruby said to her new baby that he's part ash, right? HOW is he part ash? she spilled her own blood on the book, then swallowed some of that blood (so gross), and that's how she got pregnant, right? so how is the baby part ash?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom