Comic Vine Review

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Ash vs Evil Dead #109 - Bound in the Flesh

5

Ash has to fight his greatest enemy as he gets closer to destroying the Necronomicon.

Note: There will be spoilers below!

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Recap

Kelly and Pablo see Amanda’s dead body in the cabin and wonder what’s going on. The door suddenly slams behind them and they hear Ash fighting the evil version of himself that grew out of his hand. They pull their guns on them and the two Ashes start trying to convince them which is the real Ash. They each start revealing information about Kelly and Pablo that only the real Ash would know. Finally one of the Ashes tells them to just shoot both of them so that the other one would be dead and he won’t have to deal with all this stuff anymore. They listen to this one and shoot the other one.

It turns out they picked the right Ash to shoot because of the level of a racist comment he made and the fact that he tried to take the easy way out. They know the only person he’d lay down his life for is himself. Ash laments over the death of Amanda and says they could’ve made a handsome couple. Things were going well until the book started acting up. Kelly says it is his fault for reading from the book in the first place.

“If you live in the past, you hurt the future.”

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Ash tells them they need to get rid of the bodies before they come back as Deadites. Just as Ash is about to start chopping, the three hikers Pablo and Ash ran into before show up. They got lost and ended up at the cabin. They want to know if they can stay at the cabin. Ash tells them between the three of them, they’ve filled it to capacity—plus there’s some dead bodies inside. Kelly quickly says they’re dead animal bodies. When they ask if they can just camp out in the front, Ash is against it because they’d likely get possessed and try to kill them. Pablo says they can’t just send them off and is more concerned about the blonde hiker that seemed to have a crush on him. Ash tells them about a back trail to civilization and tells them to get out of there with them.

Ash starts chopping up his evil body. As this goes on, a pool of blood makes it way to the Necronomicon, which is still lying on the floor. The book starts talking to him and says it’d be a mistake to bury it. It tells him to be smart and use it instead. If he gets rid of it, he’ll go back to being just a stock boy. The book is what makes Ash special. He puts the book in the fridge so he can get back to the chopping. Returning to the main room, Amanda’s body is gone.

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In the woods, Pablo confronts Kelly after finding out she told the hiker he had a girlfriend. Kelly says it’s because the hiker’s not good enough for them. There’s also the fact that their life expectancy out there is pretty low. Hearing something in the woods, they start shooting but it turns out to just be a raccoon. They hear another noise but Brad the hiker tries stopping them. His wife jumps up too saying they should be sure what they’re shooting first. A fist bursts through her stomach and Amanda reveals herself, now transformed into a Deadite. Amanda then kills Brad and uses both bodies as shields when Pablo and Kelly try shooting her.

Amanda chases after the third hiker. Pablo tries saving her so Amanda turns on him. Grabbing him by the throat, she lifts him up and is ready to put an end to him. Ruby jumps into the scene and saves Pablo. Amanda tells Ruby Ash did this to her. Pablo says she’s lying so Ruby pulls out her special blade and asks for the truth. The Deadite’s appearance changes back to Amanda’s and she tells Ruby they can still be together. Ruby says their time hasn’t come yet and gets distracted when the third hiker comes to, screaming over an injury to her leg. When Ruby looks back, Amanda is gone. Ruby starts chopping up the hikers as Pablo tends to the other hiker’s wound. Ruby says she’s the one that will stop Ash. As long as he has the book, a trail of dead bodies will follow him.

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Back at the cabin, Ash retrieves his shotgun from the work shed and is confronted by Ruby. She asks why he’s on this property and where’s the book he stole from her family. He says he’s had the book for thirty years and has been protecting the planet. Ruby responds that she’s been cleaning up after his mess all this time. He won’t tell her where the book is but says he plans on burying the book based on his vision. Ruby tells him it won’t work. The book has to be dismantled. Ash says that can’t be done. She pulls out the knife and says that will do it.

Ash talks to Pablo and Kelly to see what they think. They realize they don’t have any other options. Ruby tells Ash to use the dagger to rip off the face from the book. Once he starts, he can’t stop, no matter how hard it gets. He starts cutting and the book begs him to stop. He pulls it off as it drips with blood and throws it on the floor. Now he has to present the book to Ruby and the power of ownership will be hers. That will end the ritual. Ash is hesitant and stops before he hands it to her. Eventually he gives her the book and Ruby starts reciting from the book. Things start getting freaky around the cabin. The cut off face of the book starts rising off the floor. Pablo’s pendant from his uncle starts pulling towards the face. It attaches to Pablo’s face. Ash tries stopping Ruby from reciting, saying she doesn’t know what she’s doing. Ruby tells him of course she knows what she’s doing. She’s the one that wrote the book.

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Thoughts

With just one more episode left, the story is escalating toward the season's conclusion. It was surprising last week that Amanda was killed but we see here that it's still possible for her to show up again. I will admit I was thinking and hoping she'd somehow come back to life normally similar to what Ruby did after getting thrown into the fire. The great thing about this show is it can pull these sort of surprises on us. Ash has always been a loner so it shouldn't be unexpected that anyone near him might fall victim to the Necronomicon. Even when Pablo was being threatened by Amanda (as a Deadite), you would assume he's still safe but a small part wonders if they'd actually do something crazy to his character.

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We finally get to see a lot more of Ruby in action. She seems to know a lot about the book and is determined to stop Ash from doing the wrong thing. In the final ritual, we discover that there's even more to her that we didn't know. She's been the only one with any real answers so you can't blame Ash for trusting her. Her revelation about having written the book doesn't make sense and means there's even more we need to find out next time.

The scenes for the next episode look pretty intense and over the top. This has been a great series and it'll be sad to see the season end. It'll be a long wait for Season 2. The show has maintained a frantic pace with plenty of action and humor. We've been getting shocking twists and surprises with these last few episodes. There's no telling what's coming up next.