Picking up from last week, Ash and the gang (which now includes Michigan state police officer) are heading to Ash’s “friend” Lem’s militia hang out. But if you were around at all for last week’s episode, you’d remember Lem getting Dead-ified. When they arrive, there are already a handful of dismembered bodies around and thus begins “Fire in the Hole,” an episode that takes a while to get going, but ultimately gets it shit together. Just like the group dynamics in this episode, actually.

It doesn’t take long for the four of them to get found by the head of the militia. They’re dragged in as prisoners, and all of the militia members think that Ash and co. are members of “the government.” While I’m sure some people will find the redneck stereotype to be a bit lame, I certainly got a kick out of it. The militia inform the group that Lem arrived earlier. They all believed him to be drunk, but when he started tearing people in half they suspected something else was in play: a government conspiracy.

While the militia are busy giving their speech, Lem takes another one of their numbers before fleeing into a bunker. Through some of the action, Amanda and Ash get separated from Pablo and Kelly. The A-Team are handcuffed and thrown into the bunker where Lem is lurking, while Pablo and Kelly run off to hide in a ditch.

Here there’ some nice moments between Pablo and Kelly. This relationship has easily been getting the most attention these last few episodes. Pablo says he really admires how Kelly really knows who she is. Pablo has come to this conclusion because of Kelly expressing the desire for a flame thrower. Poor Pablo has been trying to find his ideal weapon, which he think might be a rusty chain or even just a plain axe.

Poor Pablo.

But the two get caught after they try to take down one of the militia. There’s a hilarious scene where the two have to fight off some Deadites together and Kelly tries shooting a machine gun for the first time.

While the two try to fight off evil, Ash and Amanda have Lem to face off against. The two spend most of their time flirting in between scampering away from Deadite Lem. I found this vaguely lame and boring, but I suppose this was suppose to show Ash’s character development? (Bleh). But there is a pay-off when the two fight Lem together while being handcuffed! 

There’s a pretty sweet ending where Amanada, Pablo and Kelly take out a Deadite together. It’s also pretty badass to see the three of them standing together in an epic pose. But after their brief success, they start to head out before noticing that Ash isn’t with them. If he’s made the decision to go on without them, it only further illustrates how much Ash was really affected by what happened to him in that cabin in the woods all those years ago.

Oh! And the show even gives us a taste of Ruby’s fate. She’s alive, as we see her pulling herself out of the ashes of the Brujo’s grave. She seems to be perfectly normal, if just a little shaken. Though it’s difficult to surmise anything else from the couple brief scenes she’s in. We still don’t know much about her character. But hopefully we get to see a lot more of her before episode 10 rolls around and please bring her back for season 2.

So we’re supposed to be buying into this Ash and Amanda relationship, but I don’t think anyone is (well, I know I wasn’t particularly interested in watching any of this unfold). Ash is a character that hops from woman to woman, so I don’t think that this is something that we can  count on being around. But the worst side-effect of this sort of flirting going on is that the core trio have been separated a little too much in these last few episodes. What I loved about the first episode of Ash vs Evil Dead was the relationship between Pablo and Ash. That’s much more interesting that some silly romantic flirting, and it’s a heck of a lot more in the spirit of Evil Dead.