Recap of Ash vs. Evil Dead
Season 1, Episode 10:
The Dark One
- Ruby: Lay down your weapons and go back to your life. I am offering you the undo button you wanted. Take it.
Kelly attempts to rip the Necronomicon's face from Pablo's head, while Ash confronts Ruby. Heather tries to run away, but Deadite Amanda shows up at the cabin and faces off against Ash. He tries to get the chainsaw, but Amanda grabs it first and swings it at him. The Necronomicon's spirit takes over Pablo, and Ruby knocks Kelly out. Ash manages to wrestle the chainsaw back and kills Amanda, but Ruby and Pablo are nowhere to be seen, and the fruit cellar door is open, which brings back bad memories for Ash.
Ash and Kelly intend to head into the cellar while Heather stays behind, but the evil spirit crashes into the cabin and sends Ash tumbling down the stairs while the door closes behind him. He ends up back in his trailer with the same woman he's read the Necronomicon with, and she offers him to read the "poetry" to her. He thinks that maybe the entire ordeal is just a bad dream he's having, but still refuses to read the book. Ruby appears in the trailer and tells Ash that he was prophesized to be her enemy, but also that he can change everything and give her back control over all the evil on Earth. Ash relents and names everything he wants as a price for not standing in her way, and Ruby tempts him with Jacksonville. He still tries to kill her with the boomstick, but she sends him back into the cabin.
Ash tries to open the door, but it doesn't budge and the chainsaw runs out of gas. With no other way than forward, he attempts to venture forward, but an undead child scares him briefly. Kelly attempts to shoot off the lid, but her gun jams, so she tries to hack it open with an axe, and Heather tries to convince her to get out of the cabin. Prof. Knowby's tape starts playing, and Heather starts hallucinating bugs crawling over her body. Kelly snaps her out of it and notices an eye in the wall, smashing it with the axe. The cellar door opens and smashes her against the ceiling, while the spirit tosses her out of the cabin and locks the door.
Ash goes forward into the cabin's bowels and encounters the body of Jake, a local redneck who was killed by possessed Henrietta Knowby 30 years ago. Continuing on, he sees Ruby using Pablo's skin to write a new Necronomicon while Pablo himself regurgitates a demonic child that quickly grows into an early-teenage state and digs his way upwards into the cabin where he attacks Heather. She gets attacked by the cabin pelting her with nails and is dragged into the hallway where she is killed, and Kelly gets sprayed with her blood and mutilated remains. Heather's head taunts her, but Kelly remains determined.
Ash gets attacked by demonic child, but he manages to kill it, while Kelly douses the cabin in gasoline and sets it on fire. Ash fires several shots into Ruby and gets her down to finish off, but the possessed Pablo attacks him from behind. Pablo tries to fight the spirit, while Kelly gets into the cellar and encounters another child running out of the cabin. Pablo begs Ash to kill him while Ruby regenerates from her wounds and the gas in Ash's chainsaw runs out. He tries to kill Ash with the boomstick, but Kelly appears just in time to stop him. Ruby finishes writing the new Necronomicon and attempts to slice Ash's face off to make a new cover, but he distracts her with a question and snatch the dagger from her hand, while the possessed Pablo is strangling Kelly. Ruby tells him to take the deal to save his friends and humanity. Ash agrees to the terms, much to Pablo and Kelly's displeasure, but he still goes through with it. The Necronomicon's face detaches from Pablo and goes onto the book.
The trio go to Jacksonville, with Ash being proud of his choice and Pablo and Kelly are not sharing his happiness, and it seems like even Ash himself partly regrets his choice, with a large hole opening in the ground right behind their car.
Tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: Ash briefly forgets Pablo's name while claiming he'll save him.Ash: Don't worry, Pedro! I'm coming for ya... Pablo! I meant Pablo!
- Barehanded Blade Block: Ash blocks the chainsaw with his prosthetic hand and gets it back from Deadite Amanda.
- Bittersweet Ending: Sure, Ash gets to live his dream, but the world itself still remains in danger even with Ruby controlling the evil.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Ruby's children have their eye sockets filled with black gunge, while Ruby's own eyes become black when she displays her demonic powers.
- Deal with the Devil: Ruby offers Ash to say out of her way in return for saving his and his friends' lives, as well as giving him a chance to live a normal life. Initially he refuses, but after seeing his friends suffer, he takes the deal.
- Dye Hard: Ash, during his preparations, gets a second to dye his temple with a shoe polish.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: Kelly attempts to punt Heather's head away, but fails and lets it fall back to the ground.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Kelly quotes this trope verbatim while slapping Heather to snap her out of her hallucination, changing the last part to "woman".
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Ruby claims that if she's in control of the Deadites, she'll be able to keep them from wreaking havoc on Earth.
- Mister Seahorse: Ruby uses the Necronomicon-possessed Pablo to spawn her demonic "children".
- Oh, Crap!: Ash quotes the trope verbatim when he sees the fruit cellar door being open.
- Off with His Head!: Ash cuts off Deadite Amanda's head with the chainsaw.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Ash gets one before shoving his boomstick into a demonic child's mouth:Ash: Somebody needs to wash your mouth out, kid! (shoves the boomstick into the child's mouth and lifts him up) Fuck! And that someone is me.
