Ash vs Evil Dead
Episode 3.1 “Family”
Directed by Mark Beesley
Written by Mark Verheiden
Created by Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, Tom Spezialy
Starring Bruce Campbell, Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo, Lucy Lawless, Joel Tobeck, Katrina Hobbs, Lindsay Farris, Arielle Carver-O’Neill
Starz
Air date: Sunday, February 25, 2018

Warning: Ash vs Evil Dead spoilers below…

After what felt like forever to Evil Dead fans, Ash is back! It took more than a year but Sunday night marked the return of everyone’s favorite chainsaw armed, boomstick blasting lothario, Ashley J. Williams (Bruce Campbell). I got to interview the cast during NYCC back in October, and they were all very excited about the twists and turns that this season will feature. Season 3 of the hit STARZ series picks up right from where season 2 ended, with Ash and the Ghost Beaters victorious over evil, and rewriting Ash’s legacy in his hometown of Elk’s Grove, Michigan. But c’mon, this is Ash and evil never stays dead for long.

“You can call me Dad, unless you’re a deadite then you can go fuck yourself!”

Ash is not slashing demons any more, but rather slashing prices at his new hardware store and sex toy emporium! Pablo (Ray Santiago) is as always standing by his jefe while Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) is off working at a local bar beating up the cheapskates. Both had a pretty brutal season 2, with Pablo literally becoming the Necronomicon and then get split in half by big bad Baal (Joel Tobeck). Kelly formed an uneasy alliance with old enemy Ruby (Lucy Lawless) and had to fight through grief after Pablo’s death to help destroy evil in typical kickass Kelly fashion. Normal day-job life doesn’t do a Ghost Beater much good though and you can tell something’s missing. While Ash has successfully gone from “Ashy Slashy” to local hero, not everyone is happy to see him; for instance old flame Candace “Candy” Barr (Katrina Hobbs).

Things go south in a hurry as the Necronomicon shows up on a cable antique show and the historian decides to promptly read passage from the book aloud and well, you know. Meanwhile, two seemingly innocuous teenage girls are scrubbing high school lockers of graffiti when they’re attacked by a blood spewing school mascot. The effect is super cool and creepy as Hell. Turns out one of those girls happens to be Candy Barr’s daughter Brandy Barr (Arielle Carver-O’Neill)… Yep! And you’ll never believe who Brandy’s absentee father is!

Soon the Ghost Beater gang is back together at the high school and kickin’ evil’s ass. As has become the norm, Dana DeLorenzo manages to steal both the spotlight and one-liners from Campbell. The episode takes little time regrouping our heroes and introducing the new important characters, such as Brandy and Dalton (Lindsay Farris). There are some surprisingly emotional moments as well as the Ash vs. Evil Dead speciality; buckets of blood, laughs, and instantly quotable one-liners. If this was any indication, Season 3 is going to be the best yet!

Season 3 of Ash vs Evil Dead kicked off Sunday at 9:00pm ET on STARZ. Download the STARZ App and you watch now and get the first 7-days of STARZ free. After the episode stay tuned for a behind the scenes look at the episode with EP Rob Tapert.

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