Recap of Ash vs. Evil Dead
Season 2, Episode 7:
Delusion
- "Dr. Peacock": You have to understand that my reality is reality, Ash.
After experiencing a nightmare about the events at the Knowby cabin, Ash wakes up screaming at an unknown extremely old hospital. He sees a sketch of the Necronomicon on the wall, and a doctor comes into the room, looking strangely familiar yet unknown to him. The doctor introduces himself as Dr. Peacock, a psychiatrist, and Ash notices his right hand has been replaced with a mitten. Dr. Peacock says that Ash has had a psychotic break and killed his friends at the cabin, creating a complex delusion to justify his actions as slaying demons, and the cure would be ridding himself of the thoughts about the book. Ash attacks the doctor and says that he's Baal, tormenting him so that he'd bring him the Necronomicon. But before he can strangle Peacock, he gets injected with a sedative and falls down, hitting his head and spitting out his false teeth.
Ash wakes up once again in his hospital bed, with Peacock sitting next to him. The psychiatrist says that Ash has been his hardest case so far, and that his reality is actual reality. A nurse that looks like Ruby walks in with an IV catheter, and Ash pleads her to help him, but she leaves. Peacock says that he's made the entire thing with Pablo, Kelly and the Necronomicon up so that he'd escape truth and justice for his crimes. After Ash refuses to accept this "truth", Peacock shows him the Ashy Slashy hand puppet. It ends up on Ash's hand and starts talking to him, saying that it's the part of him that realizes the truth and wants to admit that he's responsible for the murders, saying that they should get rid of the Necronomicon and that there is no Pablo, Kelly or Ruby. Peacock's face turns into Baal's real visage for a second, freaking Ash out, and the puppet urges him to give in. He manages to throw Ashy Slashy off of his hand and frees himself, crawling out of the room. In the hallway, he experiences hallucinations, like a hand keeping his arm in a wall, or gravity shifting, and gets into another room to escape from the doctor. In the room, he sees an insane woman that looks like Kelly who says that he's a murderer and starts shouting, then shows him numerous tally marks on the wall for over six years. She then starts breaking her fingers to scare Ash, and an orderly that looks like Pablo enters the room and restrains him.
Peacock takes him to the electric therapy chamber where Ash is tortured with electricity, but it barely affects him. The doctor once again turns on the machine and starts telling him that he's not the Jefe and that he should destroy the book. After a brief session ends, Ash sees Chet lying on a bed next to him, going through the same therapy. They both get electrocuted with maximum voltage, and Chet is burned to death.
Ash is put back into the hospital again, this time sitting in a wheelchair and watching TV, with Baal constantly whispering to him "Kill the book". He snaps out of his catatonia and gets to "Ruby", praising her for keeping her character, but she refuses to talk to him. "Kelly" shows up in front of him and tells him that they were locked up because they know the truth. Ash gets up and breaks the TV with a chair, and the other patients start wreaking havoc. The orderlies show up to stop the madness, but Ash overpowers one of them and is about to punch him when he notices the man's face has suddenly changed to Pablo's. He's beaten and brought back into his room, where Ashy Slashy again appears on his right hand. Ash tries to convince the puppet to go along with his escape plan, and they unlock "Kelly"'s cell with a keycard he stole from "Pablo". The three see "Pablo" guarding the hallway, and "Kelly" tosses her tablets to create some noise and distract him. The keycard doesn't work on a door, and an alarm is triggered. "Kelly", whose real name is Amanda, kills "Pablo", believing that he was a demon named Reg, and they start arguing about demons and Deadites. Other orderlies come in and see that Ash has also killed "Kelly", whose face is now completely different, and Ashy Slashy turns on him, and he gets electrocuted and sent back to his room.
Peacock shows the bound Ash the camera footage of him killing Reg and Amanda. The doctor says that he has to transfer Ash to a different facility, but first he has a visitor: Linda B. He refuses to believe she is real, but she doesn't leave and tries to comfort him, saying she's been visiting him for the last 30 years. Ash starts believing he's losing his mind and looks out the window where he sees Ruby, Kelly and Pablo in his Oldsmobile. He makes a tear-filled farewell to Linda, saying that he's accepted that he's a murderer. Peacock visits him and gets a confirmation that Ash has admitted to killing his sister and friends at the cabin, as well as Amanda and Reg. The doctor seems relieved at this admission and tells Ash to listen to him, ordering him to destroy the Necronomicon and releasing him from the straight jacket.
Tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: Ash once again calls Baal "Bill" before correcting himself.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Baal successfully dismantles Ash's psyche to make him his slave... or so it would seem.
- Bedlam House: Ash ends up in a hallucination of an asylum created by Baal where the line between real and imaginary is blurred.
- Catapult Nightmare: Ash wakes up with a scream after having a nightmare about the events from 30 years ago.
- Call-Back: Ash and Ashy Slashy call "Kelly" "filthy and fine", much like Brock did a few episodes ago.
- Dr. Jerk: Averted. Baal as "Dr. Peacock" acts like a rather professional psychiatrist, and the only really vile thing he does is subjecting Ash and "Chet" to electric therapy.
- Electroconvulsive Therapy Is Torture: Ash is committed to electric therapy by Dr. Peacock and shrugs most of it off, while "Chet" gets fried by a powerful current.
- Fingore: "Kelly" breaks fingers on her left hand to scare Ash into think he's gone completely insane.
- Gaslighting: The entire episode is one big attempt by Baal to gaslight Ash into going insane and destroying the Necronomicon.
- Glamour Failure: When Ash fights Ashy Slashy, he briefly sees Baal's true visage instead of his "Dr. Peacock" persona. Later on, he also sees people's faces changing, like when a nurse's face changes to Ruby and so on.
- High-Voltage Death: Peacock kills "Chet" by electrocuting him, leaving him with numerous burns.
- Perverse Puppet: Ashy Slashy is used to torment Ash by driving him insane.
- Tally Marks on the Prison Wall: "Kelly"'s hospital room walls are covered in numerous marks, indicating that's she's been here for over six years.
