The team is fully formed as we head toward the end of the season, so let’s take a look at what happened in this week’s episode of Ash vs. Evil Dead, “Fire in the Hole.”
The episode opens as Ash, Pablo, Kelly, and Amanda park the car and start the path to the cabin. There’s some fun small talk along the trail, which includes another subtle reference by Ash to the events from the films. As we found out last week, the path also includes going through an area full of survivalists to find Ash’s friend, and the gang runs across them before too long. It turns out that the guy they were looking for has been turned into a Deadite, putting a little bit of a kink into their plans.
As a member of the militia recognizes Amanda as a police officer, there is a small attack that results in Ash and Amanda being trapped as Pablo and Kelly manage to get away. Ash and Amanda are forced to work together to get out of their predicament, resulting in the first real time that we’ve gotten to spend with Fisher in weeks. The chemistry and rapport between Bruce Campbell and Jill Marie Jones is established immediately, and it’s clear that this development is going to be a lot of fun for the audience. As Amanda tells Ash about her recent history, we also learn that Lucy Lawless’s Ruby isn’t quite as deceased as we were led to believe during last week’s episode. Her mission in life is proving to be much more complex than expected, and this should be fun to watch play out.
Pablo and Kelly, split up from the other two, get more good scenes together, and I’m still loving the relationship that’s developing between these two. Dana DeLorenzo and Ray Santiago have been fantastic as these two characters all season, allowing the characters to develop naturally (especially when you consider what they’ve had to go through). For much of the season, they’ve been the “straight men” to the antics that Ash has caused, and it’s never been ambiguous what role these two will serve on the series.
The comedy in “Fire in the Hole” was a little more understated than it’s been throughout most of the season, but that worked in the episode’s favor as it proves the story is still incredibly interesting when comedy isn’t at the forefront. That’s not to say that the episode was without humor, though, because it definitely had its fair share. The scenes with Kelly and Pablo obtaining a gas mask were some of my favorite parts of the entire episode.
As usual, this episode felt like one issue of a comic book in the middle of a long-running arc, as the events of the episode took place in a singular location, had a strict structure, and progressed the story only a single step. Unlike many serialized shows, the structure on Ash vs. Evil Dead allows it to keep progressing the story in a wholly unique way.
“Fire in the Hole” was no better or worse than any other episode of this season of Ash vs. Evil Dead, but I mean that in an entirely positive way. This series has already managed to become one of the best comedies on television in just a few episodes, and I can’t wait to see the continuation of the story through the rest of this season and into the next.
What did you think of “Fire in the Hole”? What do you think will happen in the final three episodes of the season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!
[Photo via Starz]
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