ive been a fan of the evil dead since the beginning of the movies, but the end of season 2 really left me unsatisfied and confused. can someone please explain these confusing points and plot holes?
1) baal and ash made a blood pact, with certain conditions as to the loser/winner consequences, for their fight. baal lost, but ruby and the book did NOT go to hell. why not?
2) we SAW the book fall thru the floor, into hell...but then there it is later out by knowby's vw. how did it get there?
3) when baal said to ruby, "what have you done?", did she say "honor the deal" meaning he had to go to hell like he agreed, or did she say "altered the deal", meaning he was going to hell but she wasn't? it was hard to tell what she said but I think it was the first one.
4) if baal and ash made a blood pact with the book, how could ruby change it later?
5) how did ash's dad just show up in the cabin for no reason, and how did his body change into a chainsaw after he drowned?
6) pretty sure a chainsaw wouldn't run, especially on the first pull, after being submerged in water.
7) were they in 1980s elk grove at the end, or back in their correct time? either way, why would everyone assume he was some big hero?
8) going back in time and avoiding the whole thing made everyone come back to life...so where was the sheriff?
9) presumably Kelly's dad is alive again, as well as Pablo's uncle. no mention of them yet. and why isn't ash's dad, sister, and buddy chet back to life? and his old girlfriend, and all the people from that first cabin trip, should all be alive again. but no word of them. makes NO sense.
10) not once but TWICE ash's dad tried to impart vital knowledge just before he died, both times unsuccessfully. so we're left hanging on what that info could be.
11) how could they get back to the future without the book?
12) how could ruby get back to the future, since we SAW the book go to hell, so she couldn't use it to cast a time spell?
Thanks.
I know I'm really late in replying to this (you're probably dead by now), but I'll give it a go.
The series has finished at 3 seasons and I'd like to talk about it:
1) Ruby removed herself from the deal because she wasn't going to risk everything for some macho-contest of egos. The book may have went to Hell, as it fell through the cracks into the fire, but it does return in 2013.
2) "The book works in mysterious ways." (my dig on religion). The book comes back because it was either written out of the deal (like Ruby herself) and simply fell into the ground and rooted its way up for those 30 years, or it needed to come back to fulfill the prophecy/destiny that is written within. I think there is more than one version of the book. When Pablo throws it into Hell in 2013, another version rises up to take it's place (I theorize). So in this new timeline created, Pablo is (in every timeline) destined to throw the book of the dead into Hell, causing another version to take it's place. Whatever version of the book was used in this new timeline is now in Hell and perhaps pushes the other book (that went to Hell in 1982) back to Earth. The other book being from the cabin in Tennessee that Ash and friends go to since the cabin in Michigan burned down in this timeline. In the first The Evil Dead film, they are in Tennessee. It's unknown if it's still in Tennessee or Michigan in the sequels (though we do see Linda reading a Detroit, Michigan map in Evil Dead II), but it's for sure in Michigan in Ash Vs Evil Dead. Burn that one down and the kids take a detour for their getaway vacation. Destiny unfolds (a little differently, but similar enough to hit all the familiar notes).
3) She said "honored the deal". She did but simply removed herself from the deal.
4) "I wrote this book" (Ruby). They were never going to honor the deal in the first place. Baal was shocked when Ash outwitted him and he felt his essence being sucked into Hell. Right before that he told Ash, "Did you really think I was going to honor the deal?" But Ruby did honor it (mostly). Both Baal and Ruby are tricksters.
5) I think "Brock" was just an illusion of Baal derived from what's inside Ash's mind. The chainsaw was just Baal giving Ash a "fair fight" because Baal had one for himself. Fist to fist, chainsaw to chainsaw. Baal was having some fun.
6) The magic of Bill. And it was in that bathtub water for like 2 or 3 seconds before Ash grabbed it.
7) They were back in their time (2013). They saw Ash as a hero because he killed that deadite sister of his. I'm sure Linda had to explain to everyone how her husband (the sheriff) was now dead (including her daughter) in the fight that Ash won to stop this demon, Baal (in the asylum). They believed her, of course, after what everyone saw outside Ashy Slashy's house.
8) Them going back in time didn't bring anyone back to life (not that we're aware of). There's a destiny and Fate to all of this. Prophecies and such. They can burn the cabin down, but younger Ash and his friends will just go to that other cabin in Tennessee where everything will play out in a similar fashion.
9) Remember that drunk guy that blamed Ash for ruining his life at the beginning of Season 2? That implies this all already happened before. Just like how Ash in Evil Dead II saw his picture in the book, documentation of the past where he helped the primitive screw heads. Because it all happened in the last timeline, and a new parallel timeline is created every time somebody goes back to the past. That's why all the films are slightly different but we continue the narrative from the last, because we are witnessing Ash's Fate in parallel timelines. Slightly different, but they all play out the same.
So in this new timeline where the cabin burns in Michigan, Ash and friends go to the cabin in Tennessee, where they unleash the Evil from a version of the book, Ash survives as a colleague, of the archeologist that brought the book there, brings the missing pages, helping Ash send the Evil through a rift in space and time, taking Ash with it to around 1300 A.D. where he helps some people, goes forward in time, grabs the book from the cabin (likely while his other self is asleep in a puddle all day after the Evil rushed him) so no one else can read from it, and works at Value Stops for the next 30 years, running from his traumatic past, then meeting Kelly and Pablo, unleashing Evil from the book that somehow leads him back to his hometown, where everyone still dies, including Pablo, which leads to Ash going back in time (and giving that guy some booze) resulting in the possible burning down of the Tennessee cabin. So things happen differently but ultimately result in the same fates for everyone. It's unknown if Ruby still plays an active part in this timeline, though we do know she watched Ash for those 30 years, so maybe she does all the same things Ruby did in the timeline we witnessed, trying to get the book back and failing, while trying not to make the same "mistakes" her former self (that she killed) had done (like birthing those "useless kids" as Ash called them). This Evil Ruby likely realized that those kids would be destined to betray her, so she keeps her immortality intact and never has to become the good mortal Ruby that learned of humility and fragility of life.
This also is supported by the Evil telling Amanda (in season 1) "We know who you are." It knew (from past timelines, aka Destiny) that Amanda would help Ash.
10) I think it was really once and Baal was playing in Ash's mind that second time with Ash knowing "you're not real, you're not my father".
11) Pablo's tattoo was how they went into the past. Thus, it could bring them back. He could read from it.
12) I used to think that Ruby just followed them into the portal to go into the future, but in Season 3, we learn that Ruby was watching Ash (pictures of him in his trailer, conceiving Brandy which would have been in the late 90's, and working at ValueStop) for 30 years. So Ruby stayed behind, I think. Waiting. Planning. Knowing that she cannot kill Ash, that only an offspring can kill Ash according to the prophecy. So what does she do? Wait for one of Ash's many potential offspring to pop up. Become a school counselor, gain the trust of one (or all) of these offspring and counsel them when they are destined to find out the truth of their father. Then turn that offspring against their newfound father. Then she will rule.
