Ash vs Evil Dead (season 3)

The third season of the American horror comedy series Ash vs Evil Dead, created by Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, and Tom Spezialy, premiered on Starz on February 25, 2018, before concluding on April 29, 2018. Ordered five days following the second season premiere, the third season consists of 10 episodes. The series is based on the Evil Dead film franchise.

Ash vs Evil Dead
Season 3
Starring
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes10
Release
Original networkStarz
Original releaseFebruary 25 (2018-02-25) –
April 29, 2018 (2018-04-29)
Season chronology

The series serves as a sequel to Army of Darkness, and stars Bruce Campbell reprising his role as the titular character, alongside Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo, Lucy Lawless, Arielle Carver-O'Neill, and Lindsay Farris in the ensemble cast.

In spite of the season receiving universally positive reviews from critics,[1] Starz cancelled the series nine days before the series finale on April 20, 2018. Campbell would reprise his role as Ash Williams in a vocal cameo role in the 2023 film Evil Dead Rise, in addition to being set to reprise the role in a further animated revival of Ash vs Evil Dead, in active development as of July 2022.[2]

Cast and characters
See also: List of Evil Dead characters

Main

Recurring

Special guests

Episodes
No.
overall		No. in
season		TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air dateUS viewers
(millions)
211"Family"Mark BeesleyMark VerheidenFebruary 25, 2018 (2018-02-25)0.225[9]
After the Necronomicon is once again found and read, the Evil Dead makes a return to Elk Grove. Ash reunites with Candace Barr, a former lover with whom he had a daughter, Brandy. Ash, Pablo and Candace rush to Kenward County High School in search of Brandy, who is being hunted down by the Kandarian Demon. They find Brandy and her friend Rachel in the music classroom, but a possessed Rachel then attacks and manages to decapitate Candace. Ash kills Rachel and then battles the possessed school mascot, Cougie, but Kelly, along with Dalton, a Knight of Sumeria, arrive and save Ash. Ruby, after retrieving the Necronomicon, performs a ritual, smearing her blood over a drawing of Ash and drinking it, causing her to be impregnated.
222"Booth Three"Mark BeesleyRob FrescoMarch 4, 2018 (2018-03-04)0.171[10]
While driving on the road, Ruby is forced to stop to give birth to her new demonic spawn, which she claims to be modeled after Ash's image. She kidnaps Natalie, a Norwegian woman and uses her partner's corpse as food to feed the spawn. Ash takes Brandy to school, where she meets up with Ruby, who is disguised as the school's guidance counselor, Ms. Prevett. Ruby attempts to persuade her in distrusting Ash. Pablo is visited by a female spirit who warns him of evil taking over his body, and that he must embrace his destiny as the next Brujo. Dalton notices the Sumerian writing on Pablo's body, and attempts to convince Kelly that he must be killed to prevent future risks. Ash later goes to the local sperm bank to investigate whether his sperm had been used, but Ruby summons the Kandarian Demon to the bank to destroy his seeds. Ash manages to prevail, but realizes that he must now protect Brandy at all cost.
233"Apparently Dead"Diego & Andres Meza-ValdesIvan RaimiMarch 11, 2018 (2018-03-11)0.160[11]
While Ash is attending Candace's funeral, she becomes possessed and fights him. Brandy's distrust for Ash grows further. Ash, upon discovering Ruby's involvement, informs the gang to find the Kandarian Dagger. Pablo receives another vision from the female spirit, pointing them toward the cabin. Pablo, Kelly and Dalton return to the cabin and start digging through the remains; eventually Kelly finds the knife, but the Evil Dead then comes after them and impales Dalton through a tree branch. He quickly turns Deadite and demands the knife, but Pablo attempts to run him over with a truck. Ruby goes to the cemetery and resurrects Brock Williams, who then returns to his home and meets Brandy. Later, Ash returns and has a fight with Brock, ending with the latter being killed right in front of Brandy.
244"Unfinished Business"Daniel NettheimNicki PalugaMarch 18, 2018 (2018-03-18)0.176[12]
Ash is visited by the ghost of the real Brock, who shows him a vision of the past in 2012 when he was visited by a Knight of Sumeria, Gary, who carried the missing pages of the Necronomicon. Brock incapacitated the knight and locked him under the hardware store's cellar after thinking he was dead. Back in present day, Ash enters the cellar and finds the knight's skeleton, as well as Sumerian writing on the wall. Ruby is contacted by the sorceress Kaya, who is imprisoned in the Netherworld. Kaya warns Ruby of the inevitable prophecy and the opening of the Rift. Ruby travels to the Knowby Cabin and finds Dalton, who she temporarily revives in order to learn of what he knew. Dalton reveals to Ruby of their finding of the dagger, but then shoots himself in the head to prevent himself from turning once more. Kelly returns to Ash's home and finds Brandy, who she attempts to convince to stay. They are however attacked by Pablo, who has been possessed by the Kandarian Demon. In the ensuing struggle, Pablo bites Kelly in her leg and infects her. The two girls retreat to Ash's trailer and barricade themselves in, but Kelly's infection worsens and mutates further. Ash arrives at Ruby's hideout, where he finds Natalie with Ruby's spawn, which has grown considerably. Ash tries to break Natalie free, but ends up waking the spawn from its sleep.
255"Baby Proof"Daniel NettheimLuke KalteauxMarch 25, 2018 (2018-03-25)0.179[13]
Pablo manages to enter the trailer, but Brandy stabs him with the Kandarian Dagger. He then finds himself in a realm between life and death, where he meets the Brujo, who explains that Pablo must now perform a ritual to return to life and succeed him. He successfully completes the ritual and comes back to life, but then runs off to find Ash. Kelly determines to make Ruby pay for what she's done. Meanwhile, at Ruby's hideout, Ash realizes that her spawn is made in his image, and attempts to capture him to prove his story to Brandy. The spawn goes on the loose, and kills Natalie. It attempts to manipulate her corpse to fight Ash but eventually Ash traps it inside. He then takes the spawn to the hardware store, but it manages to consume Natalie's corpse and free itself. He attempts to explain the situation to Brandy and a local police officer, but fails. However, Brandy chooses to believe her father and runs off together with him, leaving the spawn in Ruby's possession once more.
266"Tales from the Rift"Regan HallAaron LamApril 1, 2018 (2018-04-01)0.196[14]
Ash is contacted by a group of Knights of Sumeria, who he then takes to his hardware store to investigate the Sumerian writing. They deduce that the knight who died in the cellar, Gary, had figured out a way to open the gateway to the Deadlands, a dimension between the human world and Neitherworld (Hell). Pablo arrives at the store and is able to decipher the text, opening the portal. One of the knights, Marcus, travels through the portal to scout ahead, but comes back a demon and slaughters the rest of the knights except one. Ash manages to take down the Demon Marcus, then instructs Pablo to find out how to close down the rift for good. Kelly goes to Ruby's hideout with the dagger, intending to kill her, but Ruby overpowers Kelly and kills her with the Kandarian Dagger. She then uses Kelly's body as a vessel for Kaya. Ash returns home later that night and receives the dagger from Kaya, who now poses as Kelly in order to sabotage Ash's plan.
277"Twist and Shout"Mark BeesleyCaitlin MearesApril 8, 2018 (2018-04-08)0.136[15]
Back at the hardware store, Pablo sees the real Kelly in the Rift through an opening in the Sumerian writing and learns of her death. He rushes to find Ash to break the news. Ash and Kaya take Brandy to the school dance, in hope of confronting Ruby. Unbeknownst to them, Ruby also takes her spawn, now having fully grown into a clone of Ash, to the school in an attempt to break Brandy's trust in her father. Rash (Ruby's Ash) terrorizes the school and murders many students, fooling Brandy into believing that her father is a demon. When Ash finally gets to Brandy, Ruby provokes her by plunging herself into Ash's chainsaw and faking her death. However, Brandy can't bring herself to kill Ash. Pablo arrives at the school and encounters Kaya, but manages to escape. He and Rash fight momentarily, before the real Ash kills the clone. Ruby, frustrated at Ash's continuous streak of victory, wakes up and throws the Kandarian Dagger at him, but Brandy blocks the attack by jumping in front of him and dies instead. She then wakes up in the Deadlands, and runs away from a lurking threat.
288"Rifting Apart"Mark BeesleyBryan HillApril 15, 2018 (2018-04-15)0.175[16]
Ash and Pablo hijack the coroner's van to steal Brandy's body and make it back to the hardware store, where they then use the Kandarian Dagger to kill Ash and send him through the Rift, in hope of rescuing Brandy and Kelly. At the Deadlands, Brandy finds Kelly and Dalton, who have been evading a shadow creature lurking the dimension and consuming any spirit it comes across. Ash arrives in the Deadlands with both of his hands intact, and finds the other three. They attempt to run for the hardware store, but with the shadow creature blocking their path, Dalton volunteers to sacrifice himself as a distraction. Back at the hardware store, Pablo struggles with one of the possessed corpses from the coroner's van, whom Ash accidentally retrieved instead of Brandy's corpse. Pablo manages to open the portal in time, but Kelly is unable to make it back due to her body still being used by Kaya. Meanwhile, Kaya captures the surviving knight, Zoe, who Ruby attempts to use in order to help both her and Kaya survive the forthcoming wrath of the Dark Ones.
299"Judgement Day"Rick JacobsonRick JacobsonApril 22, 2018 (2018-04-22)0.130[17]
Ruby and Kaya use Zoe's body to make a new page for the Necronomicon, in order to hide their presence from the Dark Ones. Pablo discovers a connection between him and the Necronomicon, allowing him to see through its eyes. Ash determines to go back to their hideout and end Ruby's life. Pablo goes back to the hardware store only to find the Rift already open. The Dark Ones then come through and take the lost Necronomicon pages from Pablo, but spare his life. Back at Ash's house, Brandy fends off against the invading Kandarian Demon, but in the process, her phone is possessed and bites off her left thumb. Ash arrives at Ruby's place and attempts to fight them, but is quickly overpowered. Ruby destroys Ash's chainsaw and demands the location of the Rift, but the Dark Ones arrive and claim Ruby and Kaya’s souls, allowing Ash to retreat with the Necronomicon and Kelly's body. Ash returns to town, only to find that the Evil Dead have terrorized it. The Dark Ones reclaim the Necronomicon and chant a spell that summons a sixty-feet-tall creature called Kandar the Destroyer.
3010"The Mettle of Man"Rick JacobsonRick JacobsonApril 29, 2018 (2018-04-29)0.174[18]
The Evil Dead begin to terrorize every part of the world, prompting military forces to take action. Ash, Brandy and Pablo take Kelly's body back to the hardware store, where Pablo travels through the Rift to find her while Ash and Brandy fend off the Deadites. They successfully revive Kelly, but military forces declare they are releasing a nuke to destroy Kandar, which Pablo insists will only make it stronger. Pablo, Kelly and Brandy evacuate with the military, but Ash decides to stay behind. He commandeers a tank, attaches the Kandarian Dagger onto a tank round, and attracts Kandar's attention long enough to be able to fire the round through it, killing it for good. In the aftermath, an injured Ash is recovered by the Knights of Sumeria. He wakes up in a postapocalyptic future, with a new augmented hand. Ash then meets Lexx, a robotic woman in service to him (who calls Ash the Chosen One, and "sire"), and asks her about Brandy. Lexx promises to explain the situation to him while he drives her outside in a heavily modified Delta 88, declaring that he feels "Groovy".

Cancellation

On April 20, 2018, it was announced that Ash vs Evil Dead had been cancelled after a three-season run, with the last episode airing on April 29, 2018.[19][20] Towards the end of the third season, ratings had declined from the initial 437,000 same-day viewers of the first season to around 175,000 non-DVR viewers.[21] According to Variety, at the time of the eighth episode of the third season's airing, the show averaged a 0.08 rating in adults aged 18 to 49, with approximately 177,000 viewers per episode.[19]

Bruce Campbell stated at the time of the cancellation that "Ash vs. Evil Dead has been the ride of a lifetime. Ash Williams was the role of a lifetime. It was an honor to reunite with Evil Dead partners Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi to give our tireless fans another taste of the outrageous horror/comedy they demanded. I will always be grateful to Starz for the opportunity to revisit the franchise that launched our careers".[22] Following the news of the show's cancellation, fans of the series created petitions to renew Ash vs Evil Dead for a fourth or fifth season.[23][24] In response to an article published by the website Bloody Disgusting that encouraged fans to campaign for the show's continuation on the Netflix platform, Campbell tweeted "Big props to fans for the effort, but I'm retired as Ash. #timetofrysomeotherfish".[22]

Later Campbell said about the show's cancellation and legacy: “I’m really glad we did it because we saw Ash’s home, we went into his bedroom, we met his girlfriends, we met his daughter that we never knew he had and that he never knew he had, and we met his father, played by the great Lee Majors. I feel we really pushed all the buttons and he fulfilled his destiny written in that ancient book. He was the guy destined to defeat evil in the past, present and future, and he took off with a hot robot chick at the end to go kick in the future. What else do you need? We knew the ratings were bad. We knew, going into the last season, that we had to have an end because we didn’t think Starz was gonna re-up us and we were right. So, thank God we did that."[25]

Campbell and Raimi signed on as producers of the film Evil Dead Rise. True to his earlier statement, Campbell will not star in the project, although he would vocally cameo as a time-displaced Ash Williams.[26][27][28][29] The cinematographer of Ash vs Evil Dead, Dave Garbett, retrurns as cinematographer on Evil Dead Rise.[30]

Animated revival

On July 25, 2022, Campbell announced that an animated revival of Ash vs Evil Dead was in active development, with Campbell returning as the voice of Ash.[2]

Home media

A complete collection of all three seasons of Ash vs Evil Dead was released on Blu-ray and DVD by Starz/Lionsgate subsidiary Lionsgate Home Entertainment on October 16, 2018.[31]

Reception

Critical response
Further information: Ash vs Evil Dead § Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the third season has a score of 100% based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 8.32/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Ash vs Evil Dead's third and final season rounds out the amiable ensemble with welcome additions and dishes out a series of splatter-filled set pieces, closing the Necronomicon on the series in gleeful fashion".[1]

Accolades
YearAssociationCategoryNominee(s)Result
2018 Saturn Awards[32][33] Best Horror Television Series Ash vs Evil Dead Nominated
Best Actor on a Television Series Bruce Campbell Nominated

References
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  2. "Bruce Campbell Confirms 'Ash vs. Evil Dead' Animated Series Talks Have Begun". Collider. July 25, 2022.
  3. Hibberd, James. "'Evil Dead' scoop: Bruce Campbell reveals series details". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on October 26, 2015. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
  4. Maas, Jennifer (11 February 2015). "Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo join Ash vs Evil Dead". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 12, 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  5. Mr Disgusting (February 11, 2015). "Breaking: "Ash Vs Evil Dead" Casting and Details!". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
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