*Spoilers Ahead*
I suppose it was bound to happen eventually. No show can really maintain the frantic pace that Ash vs. Evil Dead had in it’s first two episodes and “Books from Beyond” slows things down a bit but it also leads to the weakest episode so far.
The slower story this go around isn’t what makes this week’s episode a misstep, at least not on it’s own. After two weeks of build up, the owner of the titular bookstore that Ash and friends find themselves in is revealed and he’s really not that interesting. He’s really into the Necronomicon and that seems to be it.
Meanwhile, Ash finally encounters Amanda and she doesn’t seem willing to believe anything Ash says about his role in the return of the Deadites. She eventually gets knocked out by Pablo, who is unaware she is a police officer and spends a good portion of the episode trying to appeal to Kelly about how little they actually know about Ash. The problem here is that Amanda is still not very interesting as a character. I have faith that the show will turn this around but she just doesn’t work for me as the character who is going to keep getting in Ash’s way. Especially when Lucy Lawless is on her way to cause even more trouble.
Eventually, Ash has the amazingly terrible idea to summon a demon from the book to ask how to undo all the evil that has been let out. Naturally, this doesn’t work and while it sort of scans as something Ash would do it feels a bit too transparent as a way to get a demon into the proceedings where there, otherwise, might not be one. The demon itself is interesting as it presents a challenge that Ash is not used to facing as it attacks the minds of it’s opponents.
The demon also presents the most interesting direction in the whole episode as in addition to the pace slowing down the direction takes a step back as well. Outside of a few parting shots of the Dead cam, it’s standard fare behind the camera this week which is disappointing after the stellar work done in the first two episodes to craft a vision for this show that was unique.
Eventually, Ash gets the drop on Amanda when she makes the mistake of handcuffing his fake hand and he’s able to cuff her and make his getaway with his pals. There’s a slight theme in the episode revolving around Ash’s insistence that he works better as an “alone wolf” and while, naturally, by the episode’s end he agrees to keep the group going it doesn’t really feel completely earned. That said it’s still nice to see a bit of a softer side to the hyper-masculine Ash.
Still, while the trip to the bookstore doesn’t give any real answers to our hero’s problems it does solidify the current group as here to stay for the time being and Ash is going to need all the help he can get if he wants to find any way of undoing this mess.
Bits ‘n Pieces
- I’m calling it now, Lucy Lawless’ character is going to show up in the nick of time to save Amanda.
- No Deep Purple this week but we do get some of The Stooges at the end.
- “Sounds like a lot of yappenin’ and not a lot of happenin’.”
- “It’s kinda like spilling paint on a painting. It’s okay because there’s already paint on it.” “That is incorrect.”
Jesse Swanson is a would-be writer, podcaster and funny guy who covers TV shows of all shapes and sizes. You can find him on Twitter @JesseSwanson