Recap of Ash vs. Evil Dead
Season 1, Episode 3:
Books from Beyond
- Ash: Listen to me! Every time I've faced evil, it had the jump on me. Now, we know exactly where it is, and I'm ready. We call the shots in here.
A red Dodge Viper drives up to the Maxwell house, and the same mysterious woman that Amanda had met in the diner steps out of it. She walks across the land and comes up to two fresh graves, one of them starts moving with its cross falling down. As the woman crouches down to prop it up, an arm grabs her from the ground, but she manages to free herself and pulls Kelly's father who's turned Deadite out of his grave, asking him if Ash was here. When the Deadite taunts her, she impales him on another grave's cross and starts flicking the fork stuck in his eye, much to his annoyance. Another insult makes the woman produce the Kandarian Dagger, reducing the undead man to begging for mercy and making a cut around his face that inflicts unbearable pain.
Ash and his friends pull up to the place where Books from Beyond is located, and the older man warns Pablo and Kelly not to make eye contact and not to talk to him. Pablo says that he's said that everything will be over so soon and he's come up with a name for their group: the Ghost Beaters, which Kelly and Ash instantly mock. Ash talks about his "alone wolf" mindset, and Pablo questions him on it. Ash doesn't say that he regrets it and enters the shop.
Inside, Ash calls up Lionel, who says that he's been dealing with some legal problems beyond his control. Amanda comes from the back and sees Ash before quickly leaving. Lionel gets the Necronomicon and examines it, confirming that it's genuine. Amanda calls one of her friends from the police and asks for the police sketch, confirming that it's Ash.
As Lionel opens the book, the woman in the red Dodge feels it and speeds up, while Pablo attempts to make some awkward moves on Kelly. They see Amanda arming herself and enter the store, deciding to follow her. She tells Ash to get on his knees, but Pablo knocks her out with a large bone, realizing she's a cop. The others handcuff her, and Lionel gets to translating. He explains to Ash and Pablo that the Necronomicon is a gateway to hell and that it was written by the Dark Ones, beings that were neither demon nor fully human. Ash asks him to find an annulment spell, and he finds a page where it says it is "in the origin of man", making the older man question the correctness of the translation. Pablo makes an offhand quip that he could just summon an answer, and that gives Ash an idea to summon a being that would tell them how to undo it. He tells Lionel to find a spell that would summon the weakest demon in the book, while Pablo is startled by how his words were misinterpreted.
Amanda comes to, but Kelly holds her at gunpoint. She tries to explain to Kelly that Ash is behind a lot of bad things and tells her to think what she really knows about him. Meanwhile, Lionel creates a summoning sigil for the demon and tries to start the ritual, telling others not to disrupt the circle. Pablo is less than enthused about this, and Ash gives him a brief pep talk about how this time they're calling the shots, not evil. Lionel finds a summoning ritual for the demon Eligos, said to be the weakest one in the Necronomicon and a demon of the mindscape who Ash calls a total nerd.
Amanda explains to Kelly that she had to kill her father, and Kelly says it happened to her parents, but she still believes that Ash is trying to save everyone. The ritual is underway, and everything around goes flying and changing. Amanda tries to convince Kelly to let her go, and Eligos finally appears in the circle, taunting Ash who tells Lionel to send him back to Hell. Amanda barges into the room and tells everyone to get to the ground, shooting at Ash so that he flinches and erases a part of the circle with his foot. The demon pulls Ash in and begins torturing him, then attacks Amanda when she shoots at him. Eligos kills Lionel with broken pieces of glass and goes back to tormenting Ash. Pablo grabs the gun and tries to help his friend, but ends up getting tortured as well, with Eligos' power damaging their brains. Kelly takes initiative and smashes the demon with the Necronomicon, seemingly sending him back to hell. Ash tries to tell Amanda his side of the story only to get handcuffed, but unfortunately for her, it's his prosthetic hand in the handcuffs and he slips out of them, leaving his hand there with a chained Amanda.
As the trio get into the Delta, Kelly tells that Amanda said she'd be helping, but she lied, and questions Ash on why he was trying to summon a demon. The only clue they have is that the answer lies "inside" of Ash, and Pablo tells him that El Brujo may be able to explain it better, so they leave to meet him, while Amanda is stuck in the store with Deadite Lionel.
Tropes:
- Collector of the Strange: Lionel's store is filled with various weird things and paraphernalia.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Ruby impales the undead Mr. Maxwell on a cross before getting to torture him for information.
- Like Brother and Sister: Kelly tells that she sees Pablo as a little brother.
- Malaproper: Ash calls himself "an alone wolf", which Kelly corrects.
- Mind over Matter: Eligos uses telekinetic powers to attack and torture people.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Amanda's self-righteous attempt at arresting Ash ends up releasing Eligos and causing Lionel's death.
- Noodle Incident: Ash and Lionel's first meeting happened when the former was looking for an authentic Viking helmet to impress a biker girl he was dating.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Pablo, just after knocking Amanda out, realizes she's a police officer and briefly freaks out, claiming that what he did was in self-defense.
- Everyone freaks out when they realize Eligos' circle has been broken.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Ash occasionally says non-PC things to Pablo not out of maliciousness, such as calling him "smooth brown Einstein" and "Tex Mex".
- Throw the Book at Them: Kelly hits Eligos with the Necronomicon and sends him back to Hell.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Zig-zagged. Normal methods of torture only make Deadites laugh, but the Kandarian Dagger is the best tool for this job.
