Ruby, Kelly and Pablo attempt to free Ash from the asylum.
Review by Eric Hillis (@hilliseric)
One of the revelations of Ash Vs Evil Dead has been the work of Australian director Tony Tilse. Across five episodes of the show he's proven himself something of a master of action, and those installments directed by Tilse are the closest the show has gotten to replicating the unique visual style of Sam Raimi's original movies. This guy needs to make the jump to features, and we recommend you also check out his work on the small screen Wolf Creek spin-off.
Ashy Slashy gives Tilse an opportunity to work his magic, as it's one of the most action-packed episodes the show has offered so far, with Ruby (Lucy Lawless), Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) and Pablo (Ray Santiago) arriving at the asylum to free Ash (Bruce Campbell) and send the demon Baal (Joel Tobeck) back to hell.
Poor old Pablo just can't catch a break. As if having his flesh turned into a reprint of the Necronomicon wasn't enough to stress him out, now he discovers Lacey (Pepi Sonuga), with whom it seemed he was forming a cute romantic bond, has become a deadite. This kicks off the first of the episode's set-pieces, as the rotting Lacey runs amok, ripping her father's head, along with his spinal chord, right out of his body.
Writers Suzanne Keilly and Aaron Lam, making their debut on the show's writing staff, give Lacey some ghoulish lines that Freddy Kreuger would be proud of - "Turns out you have a backbone after all," after ripping Daddy's spinal chord out, and "Look Daddy, a unicorn!," following her embedding of a walkie-talkie in a security guard's head.
After dispatching Lacey with a well-aimed shotgun blast, Kelly moves on to an encounter with 'Ashy Slashy', Ash's puppet replica, which comes to life, attaching itself to Kelly's hand and spouting perverted one-liners - "Safe word, safe word!," it screams when Kelly gets a little too rough in her attempts to free her hand. Who doesn't love a good demonic puppet, and this set-piece was a comic delight. Who wants to buy their kids an Ashy Slashy doll this Christmas?
Joined by Linda (Michelle Hurd), who sucks up the deaths of her husband and daughter in a quest for vengeance, the gang track down Ash and Baal, learning that Ash's possession was a bluff designed to get Baal and Pablo in the same room. Pablo works his magic and gives Baal a one-way ticket out of their world, but it appears he's paid the ultimate price, his body collapsing to the floor in two halves. Is this the end of Pablo? I suspect not, but we'll have to wait until next week's penultimate episode to learn his true fate.
