deerstalker

She went on the show with high hopes and left with barely any weight lost, but a number of online critics gained.

“Rifting Apart” – Director: Mark Beesely; Writer: Bryan Hill

Review

It’s no secret that Ash Vs. Evil Dead has been having a ratings problem, as lamented on a weekly basis not just by yours truly, but by AvED fandom across social media (#bringbackboomstick). The stars of the show have given many interviews this season as well discussing the show’s status as “on the bubble”—neither renewed nor cancelled, but perilously close to the edge of doom.

Given the events of the season and its foreboding atmosphere, culminating in Ash’s (Bruce Campbell) (temporary) death, it seems the showrunner and writers may have been thinking this is the final season as well. Ash sacrifices his life on a plan neither he nor Pablo (Ray Santiago) is sure will work in an attempt to save Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) and Brandy (Arielle Carver-O’Neill) from the terrors of The Rift. All of our main folks—Kelly, Pablo, Brandy, and now Ash—have died at least once, Pablo and Kelly fighting and Ash and Brandy self-sacrificing. Where else can the show go?

Well, this is Ash Vs. Evil Dead we’re talking about, so the answer is: All sorts of places. It ain’t over ‘til it’s over. There’s still time in the season to reverse all this evil and start fresh. Hope springs eternal in my AvED -loving heart. Plus, there’s been something off this whole season since the time-travel last season reset some things. I want to know what that off-ness is.

Last week, Ash broke down and cried in grief, and this week, he willingly kills himself—with Pablo’s help—to save both Brandy and Kelly from the evil that has plagued his life since he first went to that cursed cabin. Ash has become a loyal family man, a loyal friend, and kind of actually sorta mature now. Yes, Ash is finally adulting, putting the fate of his kin and his Ghostbeaters before his own needs. Ash becoming a mentor who imparts useful advice is a new direction for him, even if he hasn’t given up his sarcastic edge (which he never, ever should).

Ash manages to rescue Brandy, but Kelly is locked in The Rift, probably by some magic Kaya and Ruby have cast. As he mentions, though, he won’t leave Kelly behind, and Pablo and Brandy are decidedly in for the ride. I’m surmising that Pablo’s Brujo Especial powers will have a lot to do with forcing out Kaya and bringing Kelly’s soul back, assuming the show goes back to the status quo as it more-or-less has at the end of every season, albeit with some twist to lead into the next one. I refuse to believe this is the last hurrah for our heroes. We’ve got two episodes left to see what happens. Join me back here for both after you watch!

Recap

Previously on Ash Vs. Evil Dead: Ruby’s (Lucy Lawless) spawn tears out of its cocoon and it’s…another Evil Ash (Bruce Campbell)! She forces him to hack off his chainsaw hand so he looks exactly like our real Ash. Meanwhile, Brandy (Arielle Carver-O’Neill) has a plan to find out once and for all if Ruby/Prevett is a demon. She, Ash, and Kelly/Kaya (Dana DeLorenzo) head to the school dance. Pablo (Ray Santiago), still in the cellar with Zoe (Emilia Burns), sees the real Kelly in The Rift and heads to the dance to let Ash know Kelly is dead and the one they’ve been talking to is possessed. At the dance, Evil Ash starts slaughtering teens; Ruby says this proves Ash is the real demon. Once real Ash shows up, Ruby gives Brandy the Kandarian dagger to kill him, but she realizes she loves her dad and can’t do it. Pablo arrives and finds out Kelly is now Kaya. Ash destroys his evil clone; an enraged Ruby throws the Kandarian dagger at him, but Brandy steps in to save her dad, dying in Ash’s arms in the process.

We start with a close-up of a bloody shoe, then pull out to see an army of coroners taking bodies out of the gym. The sheriff (Jeff Szusterman) believes the real Ash is the killer and wants to find him, stat.

Pablo and Ash are hiding in a classroom, lamenting their losses, cursing Ruby, and discussing the Kelly problem. Ash flashes back to the original trilogy of Evil Dead and recalls seeing Prof. Knowby in The Rift that he didn’t yet know was a rift. He wants to go in there and grab Brandy and Kelly so their souls can go back in their bodies. Pablo sees the coroner taking Brandy out and they realize they need to get her body before the coroners perform an autopsy on her.

Inside The Rift, Brandy sees another kid running away. The Rift is basically Elk Grove, only mostly deserted and glowing green. Brandy goes to her dad’s hardware store and sees a menacing shape inside. She also sees the teen girl Ruby killed. The shape comes up behind the girl; webbed hands come out of the ground and drag her down. Before they can get Brandy, Dalton (Lindsay Farris) saves her. Bloody opening credits!

Pablo and Ash steal the van with Brandy’s body and race off. There’s another body in there, too. Ash says they have to get to his “evil cellar.” He tells Brandy’s body he will bring her soul home. As he goes back to the front seat, the other body bag starts moving.

Brandy tells “Kelly’s friend” (Dalton) she thought he was dead, and that her high school counselor was a demon. She asks him if this is Hell. “I dunno,” he begins. “I feel like maybe Hell is the next stop.” Dalton takes Brandy to a place where the evil shape doesn’t go. In the background, someone is screaming. Sounds like Hell to me.

Ash and Pablo take Brandy’s body out of the van, while in The Rift, the evil shape is hunting more teens. Kelly finds Brandy and Dalton hiding from the shape and leads them into the bar where she worked while alive. In the real-world cellar, Ash asks for Zoe, but she’s not there. Pablo thinks that in order to get to The Rift, they have to let the evil kill them. Ash looks at Brandy’s body bag and says he’ll do it for Brandy and Kelly. Pablo has the Kandarian dagger and says maybe Ash could just stab himself with it instead of trying to find a Deadite to kill him. Ash lines it up with his heart, but he can’t do it, so he asks Pablo to help. Pablo starts having doubts about the plan, but they decide to count to three and shank Ash. Pablo does the final push and Ash falls over dead. We even hear his heartbeat stop. Pablo tells dead Ash to give him a sign so he can open The Rift for Ash, Kelly, and Brandy.

Ash wakes up and thinks the plan didn’t work, except…he has both of his hands! He runs out and calls for Brandy, but winds up in the sperm bank. In the real world, Pablo can’t believe what happened. He hears a noise—someone is coming. He sees that Brandy’s bag is empty. Uh-oh.

Kelly tells Brandy that she and Dalton have been fighting the shape. They all hear something coming toward them and hide, but it’s just Ash. Dalton takes a knee immediately, bless his heart. Kelly realizes Ash is dead and he admits he killed himself, which Kelly can’t believe. Ash says he has a plan. “Well, an idea of a plan!” he admits. The shape is coming after another teen, so our gang hides.

Back in the real world, Pablo goes upstairs in the hardware store to look for whomever—or whatever—is making noise. The lights start to flicker; one of the dead teens is possessed and attacks Pablo, sending the dagger flying. Pablo grabs a heavy wrench and hits her.

Ash says they have to get to the cellar, have Pablo open The Rift, and walk through. He leads them back through the sperm bank to the door he thinks leads to the cellar, except they wind up outside. The shape comes up out of the ground, and Ash sees his Delta ‘88 is in the Rift, too. Dalton volunteers to distract the shape so they can escape. He kisses Kelly and calls out to the thing. Kelly is scoring with the kisses this season!

Ash jumps in the car and decides to drive through the “soul-sucker,” while a bunch of webbed hands start trying to pull the Delta ‘88 to Hell (so it’s a Helta ’88 now—get it? Get it?). The shape’s minions grab Dalton, who says “Go fuck yourself” before he’s dragged to hell. The Delta is being dragged down, too, but Ash gets it started—and they are dragged under anyway. The teens who’ve been running from the shape all watch in fear. Suddenly, the car bursts out of the ground. “Okay ladies, buckle up,” Ash says as he drives through the shape, which disappears. They finally make it to the hardware store, but down in the cellar, there’s no opening to the real world. “Pablo, you had one job!” Ash laments.

Pablo, meanwhile, is still fighting the teen Deadite, which he destroys by impaling its hand and sticking its head in a paint can shaker. There’s no shortage of creative deaths on this show. Ash’s TV ad comes on the store monitor, repeating, “Pablo, you had one job.” Pablo realizes it’s the sign he asked for, so he goes to the wall with the Sumerian writing and opens The Rift. Brandy goes through, but something is blocking Kelly from moving forward. Ash gets sucked through before he can help her. “Bye, Ash,” Kelly says softly.

Ash comes back to life. He and Pablo run up to the van to let Brandy out of her body bag before she suffocates. She’s pretty freaked, but cries in relief when she sees Ash. Ash says they have two problems to resolve, one involving Kelly. “Ghostbeaters never leave a man behind,” he tells the others.

Elsewhere, Kaya, who’s brought Ruby a present in Zoe, tells Ruby they are fucked because they left the Dark Ones trapped. Zoe calls Ruby “Demon Woman of Fire” in Latin, then calls Kaya a traitor in English. Ruby grabs a fancy knife and says Zoe will help them “rewrite our destiny.” Her eyes are black. Zoe looks terrified. End credits!

This week in Ash (and other) one-liners (plus other stuff I liked):

“To save those two, I would submit to a prostate exam.” Ash is dead serious. What, too soon?

Pablo: “Yeah, Ruby Knowby. She’s the demon puta that we gotta fuckin’ shank!” I think Pablo has been hanging out with Kelly too long.

Ash calls Pablo “the Cuervo Especial.”

“Pablo, you look like shit!”

Linda B. Watch: Linda B. does not appear, not even in The Rift.  At least she’s not dead…yet.

This week in AvED music: “Save the Last Dance for Me” by The Drifters plays in the coroner’s van that Ash and Pablo commandeer. Coroners have a very deadpan sense of humor. “Kick Out the Jams” by MC5 blares out of the Helta ’88 in The Rift. “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” by AC/DC plays over the closing credits. All songs are dead on!

All photos courtesy of Starz.

The post Ash Vs. Evil Dead Recap – S3, Ep 308, “Rifting Apart” appeared first on The Nerd Element.

David Barthwell has seen Black Panther five times. He needs to see the film one more time in order to catch up with Lisa Beasley, who is already planning on seeing it again. For both of them, the movie was more than just entertainment. Even greater than the scientific revelations and the social phenomenon it has become.

“I’ve always been a bit of a nerd. I watched Star Trek and Lord of the Rings growing up and I’ll call myself a fan but watching Black Panther and finally seeing a place like Wakanda with all the joy and color and subversiveness really shook me,” Barthwell told Black Enterprise.

David Barthwell, 35, is the eldest of three siblings organizing the Wakanda Conference

His childhood fantasies were playing out on screen, right before his eyes.

“I finally realized what it meant; transporting myself to another place. I felt the sense of loss that I could not go there and the feeling of wanting to be there but I couldn’t,” Barthwell said.

The need to belong, to reach out “for a piece of that which espouses the values” portrayed in Black Panther is what motivated Barthwell to launch the Wakanda Conference.

To start, Barthwell had to make sure he was on the right path. He discussed his thoughts with his siblings. Alison, 29, who is a writer, director, and teacher, along with Matthew, 26, who had just completed a graduate social work degree, were both in on the idea.

David, 35, who has run Verge Graphics for 15 years knew he had to show a proof of concept. He built a website, created a landing page for it and posted the event on social media. The event went viral within a day of posting it, with almost 10,000 sign-ups.

“The response was overwhelming,” Barthwell said.

He said he has since been contacted by so many different people from news outlets to people just looking to vent. It was then he knew he had a viable event on his hands. In the meantime, Alison reached out to her longtime friend, Beasley and pitched her the idea.

“As soon as she said it, I knew what it was and I don’t care if it was three people or thousands, I want to be there. The movie changed my life,” Beasley said.

Lisa Beasley, 31, an actor and comedian based in Chicago is one of the organizers of WakandaCon

Beasley, who has worked for years in the Windy City as a comic, said the movie helped her realize her potential. It was the challenge scene between Killmonger and T’Challa that got her. Killmonger had traveled to Wakanda to face King T’Challa in a tribal fight-to-death challenge as all the Wakandan tribes watched on. One can almost hear the gasps and anticipation in the movie theatre as the fight went on for about a minute before T’Challa was stabbed and shoved off the edge of the waterfalls.

Beasley said seeing the men and women standing side by side helped her realize her confidence as an actor and business owner.

“I have been hiding myself from a lot,” Beasley said. “Seeing black women, in their own full power, standing side by side the men even when they disagreed changed my perception of walking in confidence.”

She now runs the convention’s media outreach. A writer, producer, and comedian originally from Gary, Indiana, Beasley has appeared on ABC, NBC, and has toured the country with 3Peat Comedy and is a writer for Cards Against Humanity. The siblings also brought on seasoned filmmaker and producer Taylor Witten, whose business background came in handy when negotiating contracts.

But first, Barthwell said he took a step back and put everything on hold. He said he consulted with his lawyers to make sure he wasn’t breaking any intellectual property laws with Marvel Studios.

“I wanted to make sure it was something that we could do,” he said.

With the OK from his lawyers, Barthwell and the team toured several venues in Chicago. They even reached out to the mayor of Wauconda, Illinois, but they settled for the Hilton Hotel on the West Side of Chicago. Although the team is keeping names of speakers under wraps, Beasley confirmed that a number of the Black Panther cast has reached out, first to confirm that the conference was real and to see how they could participate. There was even a conversation with Black Atlanta Tech Week.

The blockbuster movie continues to break box office records globally, sending the sales of African attire through the roof. It has incited conversations about Afro-futurism and diversity in Hollywood. Even the chief executive of Disney hinted at a theme park ride.

Wakandacon 2018 will be transforming the Hilton Chicago (720 S. Michigan, Chicago IL) into Wakanda August 3-5.

Our badges are your ticket to the festivities.

A limited amount of discounted three-day badges are available for pre-sale: https://t.co/vsvX7m21Tj. pic.twitter.com/udOs2FFv9C

— WakandaCon (@We_Are_Wakanda) April 11, 2018

While the conference will not offer any rides, Beasley said anyone who is black should attend [but the event is open to everyone]. From politics, tech, social justice, innovation, to comic books, there are different topics that’ll interest different persons. A discounted $25 full weekend pass is already on sale. There’s a full weekend pass for $35 and at $56, you can get the premium Colonizer Full Weekend badge which proceeds will be donated to residents of Flint, Michigan. There’s also a $10 digital pass, which Barthwell said allows people who can’t travel to Chicago to stream online, a move he said will bring tech to underserved communities.

“This conference means different things to each one of us,” Beasley said. She hopes the event offers an opportunity to examine how the movie has brought together not only African Americans but Africans and black people in the diaspora for a common goal.

Barthwell wants to amplify the many different lessons in the movie. He especially relates to Killmonger’s anger as a black man and how they communicate.

“I have that side that relates to being angry,” he said. “But there’s also the part that says listen and respect black women and I’m interested to see how that plays into it.”

The post Meet Sibling Creators of WakandaCon: A Black Panther Inspired Conference appeared first on Black Enterprise.

***Atlanta is back for season two, ROBBIN SEASON and we couldn’t be more excited. While not a traditional recap for us, Nicole and William get together each week to talk out the great, the innovative and the utterly bizarre of the latest episode. All the spoilers ahead.***

William: I would say that at least we got a break from the gut punches of the past few Atlanta episodes, but there were some parts I was genuinely terrified of what might happen next. Especially for how the last episode taught us that the worst can in fact happen in this world. But I’m guessing that you felt similar to how I felt during the Barbershop episode, that “my god I’ve lived this before.”

Nicole: The episode wasn’t ostrich egg creepy, but–and this is a big but–there were parts when it felt dangerously familiar. I was saying a prayer to the patron saint of please-don’t-rape-these-women and biting my cuticles.

William: Yeah….so, I felt real peril when Nadine was basically too fucked up to move from the gummies and Van left her to get water…and then when Van was downstairs with the Drake’s assistant’s cousin or whatever. But we skipping ahead. How did you feel about the outset of the episode? Van and her girls trying to see them some Drake?

Nicole: I liked that the episode was named “Champagne Papi” and they alternate between calling him Drake and Aubrey. Identity is so slippery and contextual. Van in this episode isn’t Van the teacher or Van Earn’s girlfriend or Van Lottie’s mom. In fact when these identities are brought up, her girls shut it down. So the question of who this Van is in this episode is large. That’s she on a literal search makes me all the more excited. Ostensibly her search is for a picture with Drake, but we know it’s not.
The reason for the Drake hunt isn’t because she’s a fan (she never actually says that she is) but to beef up her IG so it’s not all pictures of Lottie, “chicken,” and Earn.

William: Right. She could give a fuck about Drake outside of what his fame can do for her public presentation. She’s actually more excited about meeting Drake’s…grandfather than she shows about anything else connected to him. I also think it speaks volumes that she spends about 85% of the episode looking either determined or annoyed or both EXCEPT when she finds the wardrobe. She’s in complete isolation, basically playing dress and runway in a gorgeous, but again, empty bathroom. If that didn’t give a potent insight into Van’s personality, I don’t know what does.

Nicole: She went to the party in the velvet crop wraparound dress and leaves in… a bomber jacket and pants.

William: Right?!?!

Nicole: And I’m still not sure who Van is. There’s definitely insight but…

…there was a second when she was contemplating having her picture taken with a cut out of Drake. Like really, really contemplating it. She decides against it (thank you, thank you) but for a second there was a question in her mind. The thing I think about as a user of Instagram and as someone who follows about 3 celebrities on IG is who is Van taking these pictures for. When Beyoncé posts sets of 3 (go look, it’s always 3 to create the horizontal spread) photographs taken and touched up by professional photographers, it makes sense. But who is on Van’s page? She not like her triflin’ social climbing friend who got her into the party. Who on her page is surprised to see pics of Lottie? Who on her page will believe a Drake pic? What will it change?

Who is the intended audience? And now I return to the moment she’s watching someone mess in Earn’s hair on IG. This reality she’s constructing is in large part for him, right?

William: Well, for him or to…compete with him. Which can be the same thing and possibly not. I mean, we don’t know if Earn’s purpose for posting some woman all up in his natural on IG is just to do it for for Van’s benefit, but it does say or attempts to say that he has a life either separated or independent of Van. I think Van wants to be able to say that definitively. And if she feels that way of at all, I think her IG is a manifestation of portraying that publicly. Who is it for is a good question. But it could also be for her, not wanting to think about Earn but going to her IG and seeing nothing but things that represent him in some fashion. It could very well be a recognition on her part that her life may not have incorporated many things outside of him.

Nicole: I think in that particular Venn diagram there is a lot of overlap; it might just be one circle.

If they wanted to show that she was out living life then her looking fine AF (she was) at a private party in a mansion (also facts) would get that point across. Why are you thirsty for a pic that makes you look like a groupie? But ultimately does she does anything?

William: Yeah…Van did look right. No disputing that, haha. Can we talk about the huge sigh of relief when we found that Nadine was with Darius after she disappeared?

Nicole: Darius for the win.

William: I honestly felt like that was the safest person for her to be around in that moment, including the girls she came with (one of which basically forced her to take the gummies in the first place. The setting of them sitting on the stones in the pool talking about the fidelity of reality was kind of perfect too.

Nicole: I’m still mad at the one who left the party with nothing but a text to the group chat.

There was just so much.

William: But…you know that one friend exists within each ecosystem. At least one.

Nicole: Van got too many of them. Homegirl from the first Van-centric episode (which leads to her getting fired) is definitely that friend as well. We didn’t even address the intro to the episode when she’s out here hawking discount codes and putting her phone is an entirely disinterested Van’s face.

William: Do you think Van having too many of those friends is a realistic portrayal or more of a “this is what men think women friendships look like?”

Nicole: That’s a hard one.

Honestly, I think women might be more inclined to keep a friend around past her expiration date in hopes that she might could be reformed, but that’s some young woman (not talking years, either) shit.

William: Fair.

Nicole: That gets (you) phased out.

Especially if one or more of y’all got kids. Nah, what we are not doing is ruining my one night out because you don’t understand loyalty. The real is that Van could’ve gotten raped. Nadine could’ve gotten raped. (All of them could have, tbh, but I mean that the circumstances were there: alone, in the company of suspect people, unable to consent). This chick is just like “Here, here is our friend. Imma go socialize with people I think can help me…. do…. what exactly?”

Nah.

If we are still talking performance, and Glover always is I’m convinced, we never see her out of character. But to answer your question–or the one I imagine you asking–no, we haven’t seen real friendship between women on the show yet and I’m not sure we will.

William: And of course, we have to talk about Tami. In the lounge. With the white woman. It was at all times, hilarious, and kind of cringe-worthy, and potent, but also, fucked up? Like, I don’t know where to start with that scene.

Nicole: I’m still processing that. There was no answer that woman could have given that would’ve been okay.

William: None-whatsoever.

Nicole: Because she pulled out receipts from community theater and ol’ girl was like FOH with that.

But my dude apologized.

William: Yeah, the apology has SO many layers to it.

Nicole: You got the decoder ring on this one?

William:I mean…I don’t even know fam. So, basically Tami breaks off Sabrina The White for being White and also the girlfriend of a dude that Tami digs. Like, that’s it. She ain’t out here doing no overt shit, she ain’t out here pushing white feminist agendas in her face. She really just existing. Existing in a pretty elevated place of privilege, but still, just existing. Tami attacks Sabrina, Sabrina defends herself and still doesn’t say any problematic shit. But again, she gotta defend why she is with someone. She stays longer than I think is expected of her for someone that was attacked out of nowhere, and her dude, apologizes. Is he apologizing for having a white girlfriend? Is he apologizing for Tami’s disposition? Like, he understands why Tami would be pissed? Or is he just a pacifist that is apologizing to cap a conflict? All of those can go in so many directions. And Tami is high and probably at least a little tipsy at this point. But I get the feeling she would’ve had a pretty identical attack if she were completely sober. And while its fucked up, I’m only like 58% mad at her about it.

Nicole: Sabrina has had this conversation before. Dude has given that exact apology before. Whatever argument the two of them scurried off to have or awkwardly not have, they’ve done that before, too.

William: Is that just the cost then?

Nicole: Of being a stereotype? I think so.

As you said, none of it is overtly problematic. She asserts that she’s loved him since Day 1, but in that moment she’s a stand in for all the white women who haven’t done that and have come in during Act II to reap the benefits.

Is it right? I mean… [trails off], it’s understandable.

William: Welp. Anything else you pull from this episode?

Nicole: So…

Van’s last words of the episode are “Drake’s Mexican” and I don’t know if that’s her being high and confused or if in this Justin-Bieber-is-black-universe Drake is in fact Mexican.

William: Haha, I think it’s both. In addition, that so much had happened that it just dawned on her that she a conversation with a Mexican man who she assumed to be his grandfather. All of which based upon her hearing “abuelo.”

Nicole: This episode wasn’t as tense (for the most part), but we got layers on layers, regardless.

Last question from me: who got robbed?

William: I would say Van got robbed of her chance to “socially climb” by getting a picture with Drake, but I feel like her stumbling upon the jig, not succumbing to it and living her best life down in that gorgeous bathroom means she came out ahead.

Nicole: She also ganked somebody for a jacket and pants.

William: So, next episode looks like Al in alone in the woods…I’m kind of terrified already.

Nicole: I’ll light a candle today just to be safe.

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