Review by Eric Hillis (@hilliseric)
Over the previous two episodes, Ash Vs Evil Dead delivered a riff on John Carpenter's Christine, with Ash's (Bruce Campbell) pride and joy, his Delta Oldsmobile, running amok in Elk Grove while possessed by a demon. This week's episode owes a lot to another Carpenter movie, his remake of The Thing, with a paranoid standoff at the Elk Grove police station.
Last week, the Necronomicon fooled Ash into releasing the demon Baal from the Delta, and this week - played by actor Joel Tobeck, who seems to have graduated from the Brad Dourif school of acting - he began causing trouble by seducing a female police officer before peeling off her skin and wearing it like his Sunday best.
Arrested by his old nemesis, Sheriff Thomas Emery (Stephen Lovatt), Ash is jailed in the local cop shop before being released by Baal, clad in his human skin suit. Also arriving on the scene are the new rival demon hunting tag team of Ruby (Lucy Lawless) and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo), along with Pablo (Ray Santiago), Ash's old sweetheart and now wife of Emery, Linda (Michelle Hurd), her daughter, Lacey (Pepi Sonuga) and Ash's old buddy, Chet (Ted Raimi) and his 'date', a transgender hooker.
When Ash discovers the discarded skin of the female cop, no longer occupied by Baal, it becomes apparent the demon is now wearing the flesh of one of those present at the station. Thus begins a riff on The Thing, as the characters bicker over who is the most likely candidate.
Confinement is the highlight of this second season so far, and the first episode to truly exploit the comic potential of the Evil Dead world. The script comes from the hand of writer William Bromell, whose only previous credits are episodes of the very serious Homeland and The Borgias, but he proves a natural fit for this madcap show, giving Ash some classic lines and allowing Campbell to exercise his comic chops. "You're one of the only Lindas for me," gurns Ash, practicing potential chat-up lines for a reunion with the Sheriff's missus in a witty reference to franchise lore.
The laughs don't just come from the dialogue either, with some perfectly staged sight gags, none better than a moment involving a character running into trouble with prison cell bars.
If the early episodes of Season Two left us wondering if the show was in for a drop in quality in its 'difficult second season', the last three have won us over in some style.
