"Second Coming" is the tenth and final episode of the second season of Ash vs Evil Dead and the twentieth episode overall in the series. It was written by Luke Kalteux, and directed by Rick Jacobson. It premiered on December 11, 2016.
Plot Synopsis[]
Trapped in the fruit cellar, Ash Williams and Tanya watch as Professor Raymond Knowby flees the cabin with the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis in hand. With the Deadite Henrietta Knowby taunting and slowly approaching the cornered duo, Ash sees no other option than to fight the fleeing professor's possessed wife. The moment Ash looks away to reload his Boomstick, Henrietta vanishes into the darkness of the cellar, pulling Tanya under the staircase and turning her into a bloody pulp. Outside, Raymond dashes into his car with his treasures, only for an unseen assailant to maul him, sending a wave of blood onto all of the car's windows.
As Henrietta focuses on the girl, Ash uses his shotgun to blow the lock and chains off the fruit cellar's door, scrambling back up to the cabin's den. As he waits for Knowby's inevitable attack, the cabin door opens, where in walks a blonde Ruby holding the blood-covered Ex-Mortis. Recognizing Ash as the "Hero From The Sky" written of in the Necronomicon, the bewildered Ruby watches as Henrietta throws open the cellar door and pulls Ash back into the basement. Just as the door slams back shut, the pink-haired Ruby and Kelly Maxwell arrive at the cabin, shocked to see The Dark One's younger counterpart there. As the noise of Ash and Henrietta's battle reaches up to the living room above, Kelly makes a dash for the cellar door, only for the blonde Ruby to throw her across the room, disgusted that her older-self is now partnered with The Promised One.
Below the cabin, Ash and Henrietta's battle grows more intense with every block and punch. Eventually, Henrietta mutates into her "gooseneck" form, using her long neck to lunge at Ash from across the room. After a failed belly-flop onto Williams, Ash manages to start up his chainsaw, and pins-down Knowby as he slices off her head.
Back upstairs, the blonde Ruby believes her pink-haired counterpart to be some sort of trick, though the older Ruby tries her best to convince her otherwise. Ash emerges victorious from his battle the cellar, initially confused at the two Rubys standing before him before figuring out what is going on. As the future Ruby steps closer to her blonde self, the Ruby of 1982 stabs her pink-haired counterpart directly in the gut with the Kandarian Dagger. As she collapses to the floor, the older Ruby grabs the Ex-Mortis out of her younger counterpart's hands and sends out a burst of energy that sends both Rubys across the room in separate directions. Kelly and Ash run over to the wounded Ruby, who tells them that they need to get out of the cabin before her blonde-self gets back up. After making amends with her former enemies, the dying Ruby hands over the Necronomicon as Ash and Kelly make their escape, using her last bit of strength to shoot her 1982 counterpart staggering towards her.
Out in the hazy woods, just as the duo are approaching the Oldsmobile, Ash stops in his tracks his flesh and blood right hand begins to grow out of his stump. Realizing that this means the future has been changed, the two throw open the trunk of the Delta to find a confused Pablo alive and well. After giving him a quick run-down of what happened since his death, they get in the car and begin the long drive back to civilization. During the ride, Kelly expresses concern that they won't be able to get back to the future since Ruby is gone, though Ash is quick to realize that maybe Pablo can translate some of the Sumerian passages, as he and the book had bonded. Pablo states that he could... but doesn't want to, and suddenly cuts open his own throat, revealing Baal has been posing as Pablo the entire time. Ash slams on the brakes, and suddenly the blonde Ruby rips the door off the Oldsmobile, throwing in the severed head of her older-self in the seat beside Williams. Pulling Ash out onto the earthen floor, Ruby kicks him into unconsciousness.
Time passes, and Ash awakens to find Kelly looming over him, whom he groggily asks if they're back in Jacksonville. He then realizes that they've been taken back to the cabin, where Baal watches as the blonde Ruby uses the Necronomicon to summon their Demon Spawn. Realizing Ash is awake, Baal explains that he was the one who manipulated Ash into coming up with the "going back in time" plan to save Pablo in an attempt to recruit a version of Ruby who had not betrayed him. Williams acts unimpressed, telling Baal that he's only cocky because of his powers, and that if they were taken away, he could easily beat him in a fist-fight. Intrigued by this claim, Baal asks what exactly would happen to the victor of this fight, to which Ash responds that Baal, Ruby, and the spawn go back to the underworld and bring Pablo back, or if he loses, the demons are free to do whatever they'd like. To Ruby's surprise, Baal agrees to this "no powers" battle, and he and Ash make a blood pact sealed by the Necronomicon itself. As the two men begin to fight in the other room, Ruby opens the Ex-Mortis, as she does not want to risk everything to a "contest of egos", and begins to alter the deal, offering Kelly the chance to join her.
Inside the other room, Baal is losing the fight, prompting him to go back on his word and use his powers, taking the form of Chet Kaminski. Throwing Ash head-first into a piano, "Chet" uses Ash's chainsaw to slice off the freshly-grown right hand of Williams. Pulling himself out of the piano prison, Ash watches as his hand scurries off under a table, giving "Chet" just enough of a distraction to kick Ash through the door and into the cabin's hallway. As Ash shakes off the throw, he sees that Baal has now taken the form of his sister Cheryl Williams.
Back in the living room, Kelly continues her own fight against Ruby, though she is outnumbered due to the Demon Spawn, who grab her and pin her to the cabin's ceiling before letting her drop to the floor.
In the hallway, Ash ducks into the cabin's bathroom, noticing a shift in the air as he hears the voice of his father Brock calling his name. Ash opens the door to see Brock standing there, though he is quick to dismiss the figure as nothing more than another one of Baal's deceptions, and attacks his father by throwing him into the bathtub and drowning him. Just as Brock stops moving, Baal emerges in the doorway, revealing that he was not Brock (as Ash had believed) and that it was foolish for Ash to think he'd honor their deal. Ash turns around to look at the figure floating in the tub, watching in the blink of an eye as the body of Brock is replaced with a chainsaw, with the voice of his father telling him to take the weapon. Williams reaches in and pulls out the saw, revving it up as Baal does likewise with the chainsaw he conjured earlier in the guise of Chet. Blades clash and sparks fly as the battle leads into the cabin's kitchen, where Baal manages to pull off Ash's chainsaw off his stump and send Williams flying into the living room, where a wounded Kelly lays on the floor. As Baal picks the weakened Ash up to finish him off with his talon-like finger, Williams admits defeat, but has one last request from Baal, asking him what Ruby is like "in the sack". As Baal chuckles at the memory of his romance with Ruby, Ash uses the Baal's own finger to stab the demon directly in the stomach. Ruby and the spawn let out shrieks and gasps of agony as the book begins to honor the deal made with blood. The cabin begins to shake and shutter as the floor breaks open into a blazing inferno leading directly into the underworld, and Ash and Kelly run out of the burning shack, watching from the outside as flames consume the cabin before it collapses entirely. From the smoldering rubble that was once the Knowby's forest retreat, a hand emerges, prompting Ash to stand ready for one last fight. The hand's owner finally rises from the ruins: the real Pablo Simon Bolivar (though Ash punches him, just to make sure he's not Baal again), and the trio go in for a hug.
Back in the 21st Century, Elk Grove holds a parade and party to honor Ash Williams for slaying the demons which plagued their town. As the ceremony begins, Ash looks out into the crowd, seeing the ghosts of Brock, Cheryl, and Chet watching from afar, cheering and nodding in approval for his heroic deed. Ash steps up to the microphone on stage, telling the denizens of Elk Grove that he will be a pariah no more, and will make the city his home once more and defend it from whatever evil comes next. When the speech concludes, Ash tells Linda Emery that this celebration and acceptance in his hometown is all so perfect, and was not expected. Linda tells Ash he's earned a normal life to do whatever he wants, to which he responds he wants "some sugar", and kisses Linda, much to the delight of the crowd around them. The Ghost Beaters gather around their leader to revel in some of the celebration, unaware that the blonde Ruby stands among the crowd before them...
Three decades after the cabin has burnt to the ground, an unseen female stumbles across the ruins of the Knowby's retreat, finding the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis partially hidden beneath fallen leaves from the trees around them...
Gallery[]
Episode Stills[]
Trivia[]
- References to other Ash vs Evil Dead episodes:
- Ash's line about owing Ruby $200 presumably refers to the "gas money" she gave him as part of their deal in the Season One episode The Dark One.
- Ash tells Baal that their fight would "Test the mettle of man. That's what this is all about, right?" This refers to the line spoken by the Deadite Vivian in the Season One episode El Jefe, who told Ash "It's time to test the mettle of man."
- References to The Evil Dead:
- Jazz Traditional - Charleston by Erik Markman is heard during Ash and Henrietta's fight, as well as during the episode's end credits. The song was previously used in The Evil Dead during Ash's exploration of the cellar during the film's climax, as well as during the film's end credits.
- The fly sound effect first used in The Evil Dead can be heard during this episode's post-credit's scene.
- References to Evil Dead II:
- Henrietta grabbing Tanya through the cellar's stairs is a reference to an identical scene in Evil Dead II in which Henrietta grabs Ash by the ankles as pulls him through the space between the stairs.
- When 1982 Ruby first sees Ash inside the cabin, she recognizes him as the man in the "Hero From The Sky" page of the Necronomicon first seen in Evil Dead II.
- The way in which Ash pulls himself up from the fruit cellar following the fight with Henrietta is identical to when he emerges from the cellar to save Annie Knowby from Henrietta in Evil Dead II.
- References to Army of Darkness:
- The sequence where "Chet" slams down on the piano keys and the hammers emerge from all sides to smack Ash in the face is an homage to the scene in Army of Darkness where Ash is punched by skeletal hands from all sides of the frame while attempting to flee the graveyard.
- Ash telling Linda he wants "some sugar" during the ceremony scene is a reference to his "gimme some sugar, baby" line from Army of Darkness.
- Ted Raimi is listed in the credits twice: once as a regular cast member (for the role of Henrietta), and once as a special guest (for the role of Chet).
- This is the only episode in the series with a post-credits scene.
- One week after the episode's premiere, showrunner Craig DiGregorio revealed in an interview with The A.V. Club that the episode's ending was changed during filming due to disagreements between himself and producer Rob Tapert, which ultimately led to him stepping down from the role of showrunner. DiGregorio elaborated on the original ending:
- "Here’s what I remember—please forgive me if I gloss over anything—this alternate version was written almost a year ago. Basically, Ash kills Henrietta, gets the book, and runs outside with it. I wanted to get the episode outside of the cabin as quickly as possible because I thought I only wanted to see the cabin for episode nine. I didn’t want it to be there in 10 because I thought it was a repeat of last year with the last two episodes in the cabin. So, we got out of the cabin quickly, and that’s when Ruby and Kelly return. Inside, young Ash has entered but the book is gone, so he never reads it in this timeline. At that moment, the trunk rattles, Pablo’s in there, and he’s okay. So, now they have the book and they have Pablo. Ash decides Ruby and Kelly are going to destroy the book. Meanwhile, Ash and Pablo head into town because Ash secretly wants to see his present-day deceased father Brock one last time before they go back to the present—remember that in 203 Brock starts to reveal a big “secret,” we wanted Ash to want to get to the bottom of this. So, Ash and Pablo go to the bar, Kelly and Ruby go to the woods to destroy the book. In the woods, Ruby runs into 1982 Ruby and makes that same sort of plea to her, the “your life is going to be different, you don’t have to do this.” But 1982 Ruby thinks that her future self has gone completely soft, kills Ruby, but then Kelly holds her own against 1982 Ruby, grabs the book, and runs with it. 1982 Ruby chases her because she wants to bring her husband and kids back and she didn’t listen to her future self. Meanwhile, at the bar, Ash doesn’t see his dad, but does see a nice young lady, who seems very sad because she just got passed over for a teacher position. She’s distraught, and Ash, having learned a lot about how you can fail and come back from it, starts talking to her very genuinely in the charming Bruce way. They end up drinking together and go in a bathroom stall to have some early-’80s unprotected sex. What you don’t realize is that the woman Ash is having sex with is Kelly’s future mother (a young Suzy Maxwell). So, what happens is that Kelly, while running in the woods, all of a sudden feels her entire being change and drops the book. That’s when 1982 Ruby catches up and realizes what just happened. She looks through the Necronomicon and sees Ash’s picture, and then next to it, a picture of Kelly starts to appear. Because of the unprotected bathroom stall incident, Kelly has become Ash’s daughter. At that point, Pablo rushes into the bar, says there’s something wrong because the skies are going dark now that 1982 Ruby has the book, and they’re starting to summon things back. They go get Kelly, who’s somehow pissed at Ash, even though she doesn’t really know what happened, and while they don’t have the book, they have Pablo and use him to jump back to present day. When they get back, Ruby is standing there with Baal and her kids and they take Kelly away. Apologies, I really ran through a bunch there in about two sentences. But basically, we were setting up a season three where Ash had to go rescue his daughter… Kelly."[1]