"Are you here to break me out or break me in?"
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Sadistically skinning people and wearing their hide as disguises aside, this week's formal introduction of Baal, a demon overlord played by Joel Tobeck, felt a bit lacking. Mostly, this bereft feeling came whenever he was physically present. He just didn't give off a "big bad" presence - especially that of a master seducer.
Yes, I know that Baal's powers of seduction stem from his supernatural abilities, but you still want your chaotic Casanovas to have a certain swagger and he, so far, just doesn't fit the mold. I guess we'll have to see what other tricks he can throw at our heroes because this week he kind of used them all up. Magical mind control, bloody human husks as camouflage - it all went down inside the town police precinct and, for the most part, Team Ghostbeaters got the drop on him.
"Confinement" dragged a little in the middle when everyone was arguing and Kelly kept stepping in with the gun and saying "Shut the f*** up!" but on the upswing was that his episode brought everyone together for the first time and got them on the same page. I know that Baal's main tactic is to make everyone turn on one another, but it just didn't make for a great second act here.
With everyone's in one place, for what was more or less a "bottle episode," Ash could stop being the town pariah and step forward as the outlandish demon-slaying hero that he is. Not only did "Dumb White Guy" Chet and Tommy return, but Linda popped back into the mix as well. With Tommy being a sniveling twit, it was kind of easy to see that the show would maneuver Ash and Linda toward each other (she IS named Linda after all), but they still had Baal work a bit of magic on Tommy so that he was even more of a weasel. You know, just in case Ash's own homegrown powers of persuasion weren't enough.
There was plenty of action in at the end of this one, with Ash doing battle with the skinless "lady cop" (a boomstick blast and some nasty chainsaw action did the trick), but for the most part this episode involved pulling the entire ensemble together while the show introduced its first official non-Necronomicon villain.
Again, I wasn't overly impressed with Baal, but I am still intrigued about what the book is currently doing to poor Pablo. Currently, it's painfully carving inscriptions and incantations on his stomach in an attempt to...help stop Baal? I guess the real question here is: Why did tossing the book back bring forth Baal and what is Baal's actual connection to the book?
The Verdict
Greasy-haired, disheveled Baal just didn't have the big boss presence I was looking for in an Evil Dead overlord, as there haven't been too many of them over the course of the franchise. I did like that "Confinement" trapped all the Season 2 players together for a story that got everyone on the same page while also expanding on the mystery of Pablo and the Necronomicon.
Editors' Choice
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