‘Ash vs. Evil Dead 3×07: Twist and Shout’ Review
With this season of Ash vs Evil Dead, I have constantly worried that there would be a plot point which would constantly be returned to, and that is the trust that Ash’s (Bruce Campbell) daughter has in him. This week we see my worries confirmed, that we’d go straight back to this theme. The question is does it ruin the story, or does it handle it better than expected.
Brandy (Arielle Carver-O’Neill) decides that she wants to go to the school dance and knowing that Ruby (Lucy Lawless) will be there, Ash decides to go too. With Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) to protect Brandy, Ash finds himself fighting the evil version of himself to protect Brandy. Pablo (Ray Santiago) makes a discovery about the Rift that reveals to him that Kelly is not all she seems.
With the real Kelly stuck beyond the Rift we know that Brandy is in danger, but the fact that Ruby goes back to creating distrust between father and daughter was something I’d hope we’d not go back to.How many times do we have to rehash the same thing in one season? Thankfully this is handled well, and the gore is more of a focus.
While it is handled well though, it does feel forced and the fact that it is predictable that we’d get to this point is somewhat annoying. The lengths that Ruby goes to feel somewhat stupid in story terms, and personally I’d have expected more from the Ruby character. Thankfully though we can get past this problem and get back to the importance of the Rift.
We are seeing the death of a few main characters this season, and in some way it feels a little fruitless. The fact we have a rift where the dead appear to be able to come back to the living world? Yep, it gives the show the ability to kill off anybody they want, but to have a plot device that can bring them back. I’m sure there will be a decision coming in the future as to who will “return” and this may be where we find that at least one death may be permanent. The question is, just who will the sacrifice be?
I’ve been enjoying this season of Ash vs Evil Dead, and now we’ve got to that moment which I was worried about, hopefully things will be less predictable. It does feel a little bit of a let down that the evil Ash seemed a little toothless in the end (yes, even with the slaughter) but he could have had more use. I do like the fact though that this is another nice throwback to Army of Darkness, which is something we’ve seen a lot this season.
This is arguably the weakest episode of the season, and even though I did feel annoyed that the story did go as I expected, the conclusion of the episode was handled much better than expected. Now to move onto the important stuff, and that includes getting Ash and Pablo through the rift to do some important work, because this is where we are now heading.
Now to see if the final three episodes of this season will deliver what the show needs. There is definitely potential in the story we’ve been presented with. Now the annoying part of the story has finally been handled, lets get back to the ass kicking and gore, because that is where the show is at its strongest.
**** 4/5
Ash vs Evil Dead is available on Virgin Media video on demand in the UK.
