Ash vs Evil Dead: "Fire in the Hole" Review

Ash vs Evil Dead: "Fire in the Hole" Review

Ash vs Evil Dead / 12 Dec 2015

By Matt Fowler

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

Still aided greatly by director Michael Hurst (who helmed last week's "The Killer of Killers") and his skill for action pieces, "Fire in the Hole" started out somewhat meandering, but then pulled things together nicely for a bloody great finish.

As soon as Ash mentioned last week that the original Evil Dead cabin would be where he needed to make his last stand, that sort of became all that mattered going forward. But we were still two episodes away from the season finale so that meant something else needed to happen first. Another detour. Like Kelly's house, the book store, Pablo's Uncle's ranch, and the diner. Only this time, it would happen with us knowing where Ash really needed to go to face down the big evil.

So that made Ash's little excursion to the militia/separatist camp a little laggy. And wonky efforts to brand Lem as the "fire" Deadite, along with Pablo seriously wondering what weapon was the best fit for him, didn't bode well for this chapter either.

But things started to pick up nicely about ten minutes in. Ash began cornily courting Amanda, with whom he shared a pair of handcuffs and a dark, dangerous bunker containing a demon out for blood. And Kelly and Pablo faced down a weekend warrior Deadite in a gas mask. One of the coolest action pieces on the series to date, as Pablo crushed it with a pickup truck and then Kelly riddled it with bullets. Like, shot it to shreds. Almost hitting Pablo in the process. Very fun.

Likewise, Ash and Amanda fought like a well-oiled machine during their final bout with Lem, despite being connected at the wrist. And Ash's (slightly toned down) advances seemed to serve him well here as his former enemy was willing to give up a kiss right at the end. And not only that, but she stood side by side with Kelly and Pablo during the final minutes to triple team an advancing Deadite - making for one hell of a badass group shot.

And so now Ash found himself with a tight knit crew of capable killers. Just in time to.leave them behind. It was a nice character beat for him to both admit his feelings for all of them (he can't stay a louse forever, I suppose) and then quickly leave off-screen. Perhaps it sets up a predictable penultimate episode where he attempts to go at it alone and then fails, but it still worked.

Ruby though. I'm not sure what the payoff's going to be with her. She survived getting sucked into that bonfire, but that's all we really know about the situation. Briefly here, we witnessed her rising from the ashes, naked, and - seemingly - fine. Is she the same as before (not that we knew her all that well) or has she now come back possessed? Hard to tell. Could be that she's just immortal somehow.

Like last week's chapter, "Fire in the Hole" had some great, gory action. The show is struggling a little bit to find Ash's new balance between caring and cretin, but the final moment here - where Ash left his new friends behind - worked really well.

Ash and his Ghostbeaters crew ran into trouble while trying to gear up at a backwoods survivalist camp. Pablo and Kelly vs. Gas Mask DeaditeAsh and AmandaAsh leaving his crewStumbling start, given that we now know the cabin is the endgame.

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