[rating=8.00] “Ashes to Ashes”
Watching this week’s episode of Ash vs. Evil Dead, “Ashes to Ashes”, it occurred to me that I’ve been looking at Ash the wrong way this entire series. I’ve made some remarks regarding Ash’s general stupidity and tone-deafness over the last few weeks but, in light of the revelations from this week, that’s not really the full story.
Ash’s bumbling idiocy, it seems, is the result of unchecked PTSD—his state of perpetual youth, which is said now for a man in his 50s, is a symptom of his never dealing with the trauma he endured at the cabin in Evil Dead 1 and 2 (to say nothing of Army of Darkness, but if the show is willing to ignore it, then so am I). Of fucking course he’s sad and pathetic and trying like hell to live like he’s still 20. He never got the chance to move on with his life.
This insight casts an entirely new light on Ash and his character, changing him from a helpless buffoon into a tragic hero. He’s made several statements over the course of this series about how he’s been trying to hide from the deadites for the last three decades, but it wasn’t the deadites he was hiding from. Rather, it was his own demons (which, granted, were birthed by the deadites).
Luckily, he got the chance to confront them head on this week, as he finally made his way back to the cabin where all of this first started. The episode recalled the kinds of narrative beats and moments that first made Evil Dead a hit among fans, and truly managed to set itself up as a worthy sequel to the originals.
Consider, for instance, the scene in the woodshed. Ash’s life has forever been shadowed over following the death of Linda. In another world, the two of them would probably still be together today, happily in love and raising and, at this point, maybe even have a grandkid or two. While it’s never good to dwell on the could haves that life tends to throw at us, I imagine that having to cut off your true love’s head and leave it in a vise would be a bit emotionally stunting for a person. This scene, then, is particularly poignant on a metaphorical level.
Ash is trapped in the woodshed by powers beyond his comprehension in much the same way that he’s trapped in a state of perpetual immaturity by those same powers. Linda’s skull cruelly comes back to life by the deadite presence, taunting him, chastising him, and forcing him, probably for the first time in thirty years, to confront the life he always wanted but never got the chance to live. His confrontation with Linda, then, wasn’t just another battle with another deadite, it was a reckoning between past lives and present realities. He got the chance to say goodbye, in his own way, and to make the steps towards coming to terms with the trauma of his existence.
This is perfectly illustrated once again back in the cabin, where Fisher has shown up despite being left in the dust at the end of last episode. While Ash was locked in the woodshed, Fisher has been confronted by Ash’s hand, which, powered by whatever evil still dwells within the cabin, has grown a new Ash. This Ash, perhaps, is representative of the kind of Ash that Ash might’ve been had he not been stunted in youth (although, you know, evil). He’s confident, self-assured, not clumsy, suave, and basically all the things Ash has tried and failed to be for three decades.
Of course it doesn’t go well for Fisher, who quickly discovers that this Ash is not her Ash, and is impaled upon the antlers of the infamous deer head from Evil Dead 2, mirroring the death of her partner back in the first episode (which did not go unmentioned). Once again, Ash is heartbroken as Fisher, with her dying breath, proclaims that she and Ash (actual Ash, not new evil Ash) would’ve been great together. It’s at this moment that Pablo and Kelly come rushing into the cabin, thanks to a little help from some random New Zealand hikers because, hey, why the fuck not?
Rightfully pissed, Ash forces a confrontation with his doppelganger, each of them exchanging blows while calling out their mutual weaknesses, leading to both of them using their one remaining hand to choke the other, which is where we leave them as the credits begin to roll.
Somehow, someway, they’ve managed to bring out something poignant and meaningful within the confines of an Evil Dead story. For the first time ever, Ash is literally staring himself in the face and fighting off what he doesn’t like (which is decidedly different from the time he fought himself in Army of Darkness because that was played as Looney Tunes slapstick and little else…I really fucking hate that movie, guys). Fisher death provided an element of tragedy that has been missing from the series, despite the fact that it all happened so damn quick. And while I’m sure that Pablo and Kelly will rush in to save Ash from his evil twin, who’s to say they save the right Ash? There’s nothing to distinguish them from each other, nothing that might give them away. No, it’s just Ash vs. Ash, full throttle and no stop.
I’ve been asking for something more from this series for weeks now, and they’re really delivering on that front. There’s just two episodes left in the inaugural season, and there’s no telling where they’re going to go from here.
