There was a lot riding on Ash vs Evil Dead. Rarely can films make the jump to the small screen and make a successful attempt. But this show repeatedly allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief. With such a great first season, there was plenty riding on the shoulders of the finale, but “The Dark One” delivered everything an Evil Dead fan could hope for.

Last week’s episode left off with a major reveal: Ruby is the writer of the Necronomicon and thus a big name in the world of Evil. She’s set the face of the book to suck on Pablo’s face like some sort of flesh version of Man in the Iron Mask. Ruby grabs her new pet and drags him with her into the dreaded cellar.

Ash makes up his mind to follow them, but he falls down the stairs and back to where we began: Ash about to read his “poetry” from a book of evil to a girl. The wiser Ash declines, but he soon spots Ruby sitting in the trailer with him. She offers him a deal that he can have his life back if she can have control over the demons. The truce is extended, but Ash declines.

Meanwhile, Kelly and Heather (that random hiker chick, if you don’t remember) are left to fend for themselves. Jelly being the more obvious threat is literally kicked out of the house by the house. Needless to say, Heather is pretty crap at being a hero and spends more time getting stabbed by things and getting attacked by couches than doing anything else.

While Heather is busy getting killed (to be fair, she lasted longer than I thought she would), Kelly has the sense to try and burn down the house, which incidentally is what happened to the real cabin from the original film. But the house finally has enough and lets Kelly back in.

Back in the cellar, Ash has his hands full. He spies Ruby chanting from her book and forcing poor Pablo to vomit up her demon babies for her. He tries to get Pablo back, but it soon becomes Ash vs Pablo then Kelly runs in to save the day to make it Kelly vs Pablo but then it’s really all about Ash vs Ruby.

Being the utter idiot he is, Ash finally succumbs to temptation and agrees to Ruby’s offer. She frees Pablo from his flesh-face prison and allows the Ghost Beaters to go on their way, despite Pablo and Kelly’s pleas to Ash.

The reports of the giant sinkholes are a clear signal that Ash fucked things up. Again. But where would we be if Ash actually learned a lesson for once? The closing scenes are interesting as it’s the only scene where both kids are in the back seat, away from Ash. If anything causes a strain on a relationship, it’s probably when one of your friends allows The Dark One to have control over all demons and evil.

So where does that leave things for season two? Will Ash become the new Buffy? Ash the Demon Slayer. It’s not too clear, but no one can out run their past and absolutely no one can out run evil. Even in Jacksonville.

The season finale of Ash vs Evil Dead left me feeling excited for season two – the same type of excitement I felt from episode one. The show sometimes became confused throughout the season when it couldn’t decide on a tone, but these can all be improvements to be made in episodes to follow. As far as film to TV adaptions go, Ash vs Evil Dead proves that good things can happen. The finale delivered such a strong final note, you can’t help but feel groovy.