“Things get hairy, use your bottle.”
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Ash vs Evil Dead kept the crimson flowing and the guts spraying this week with “Bait,” which saw Pablo trick Ash into helping Kelly out with a serious “Deadite in the family” problem.
With Jill Marie Jones’ ex-statey Amanda still trying to makes heads or tails of the horror she experienced back in the pilot, and Lucy Lawless’ character still nowhere in sight (aside from her brief premiere appearance), “Bait” felt a lot like the second half of the pilot. That is, if it’d been conceived as an hour-long story.
Because Ash started out the episode still with no intention of hanging onto Pablo and Kelly as his sidekicks. Kelly too wanted nothing to do with either of them. So some more “bonding” was in order here to bring this trio together. Bonding in the form of chainsawing Kelly’s mother’s head clean off, shooting blood all over Kelly and Pablo.
Yes, in order to compete with/top the evil granny from last week’s series opener, The X-Files’ Mimi Rogers was brought in as Suzy Maxwell – a Deadite in Kelly’s mom skin, trying to pass herself off as a woman who’d simply been missing due to amnesia. And what a fun and icky role for Rogers to play. As far as I know, I don’t think Rogers has ever done anything with Evil Dead creators Sam Raimi or Rob Tapert so to see her come in, as sort of an outsider/pinch hitter, was really cool.
Anyhow, Suzy did her darnedest to try and trick Kelly into thinking she was human. All to lure in Ash and get the drop on him. Fortunately, Ash never fell for her lies. Not for one second. Making for some very funny and awkward family dinner chit chat. And then a huge punch right to Suzy’s face.
We want to hear it.
I liked that “Bait” sort of saddled up to the theme of Ash being known for – well – getting his ass kicked a lot. He’s an iconic horror movie hero, but he’s also a rather resilient punching bag. And here, during a gory and crazy car ride (featuring more Deep Purple and the evisceration of Ash’s boss, Mr. Roper), Ash actually explained that he actually needs to get thrashed for a little while at the outset of a fight. “Once you get jacked in the face, it’ll all click,” he insisted. Right before Roper tried to gut them both.
We want to hear it.
The episode also ended with one of my new favorite Ash traits (which began back in the pilot, but was never directly called out because the review I wrote for the pilot was advance/non spoiler-y). Namely, Ash instantly trying to make someone else feel bad whenever he makes an insensitive mistake. As in, it’s their fault they didn’t explain everything out to him fully because they should know that he’s likely to make an asinine presumption. Both times now, it’s been with Kelly, regarding her mother. Though, thinking this through, nothing’s probably as bad as decapitating her mom in front of her, so perhaps he’s got a point about choosing one’s battles.
“Bait” was pretty much the grand experiment as far as the Evil Dead-verse goes. As the first-ever Ash adventure not directed by Sam Raimi (who did the pilot, but Michael J. Bassett took the reins here), the show proved that the blockhead character and over-the-top tone could endure a changing of the guard. The next test ahead will be an episode not written by Raimi.
“Bait” also gave us one of the most defined Deadites to date in Mimi Rogers’ Suzy, making me wonder if a “boss” type demon might do well on a show like this. Army of Darkness dabbled with it by using the “Deadite Captain” – aka Bad Ash back from the grave – so perhaps this element should return.
