Ash vs Evil Dead (TV Series) Bound in Flesh (2015) User Reviews

Firing on all cylinders

[Mr-Fusion · 8/10 · 14 October 2016]

Easily one of my favorite episodes so far, 'Bound in Flesh' is stuffed to the gills with plot. Everything from the narrative threads to the main cast converge on the cabin and there's an unshakable sense of dread throughout (never thought I'd see the Necronomicon "defaced"; and eek, that voice!).

Bruce Campbell's charisma goes full tilt here, ebbing only to let Ruby take the stage in the last few minutes (here we learn more about her than ever; it's about time, but on the other hand, she is nothing but bad news). And how can you help but look forward to the finale with a twist ending like this one?

8/10

Man, makin' decisions is so hard

[tenshi_ippikiookami · 8/10 · 29 December 2015]

I know, we all know. Making decisions is hard. But the show has taking' a couple that are a little bit of a head-scratcher. In the seventh episode the show teased us with an Ash vs Hand that ended in Ash vs Evil-Ash in last episode's ending. For any fan, Ash vs Evil-Ash ("Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun.") is a showdown made in... heavell? But the show throws it out of the window (well, shoots it down) in the first few minutes of this episode.

Amanda's death was kind of a shocker, but now that she's out, we don't really miss her so much. Ash has to cut her and his evil twin, but they are soon interrupted by the we-knew-they-were-going-to-be-fodder three camping people from last episode. Pablo and Kelly decide to take them out of the woods and leave Ash making some cutting. But Amanda runs away and attacks the group, killing two of the three campers (we have left Pablo's new love interest). Amanda's deadite version of puppetry is quite interesting and makes for a fun and shocking moment. But the show's sadly interrupted by Ruby who makes Amanda run away. And all the survivors go back to the cabin to decide what to do with the book.

This episode is quite good, and has some black and nice humor (that Pablo and Kelly discover who is the evil twin by subtle racist cues is an... interesting touch), but it also deals with Amanda's death in the shrugging-your-shoulders-was- she-really-a-friend? kind of way. Even if Ash is Ash, and we all know how he is, it was dealt with in a little bit a too cool way. Let's see if after two episodes of interrupted showdowns, next weeks delivers a big bang of a fight. Ash vs Xena... I mean, the Dark One.

Almost perfect.

[BA_Harrison · 9/10 · 27 January 2019]

Episode nine of Season One is almost perfect: it features just the right combination of offbeat humour, pure insanity, and outrageous gore. The only thing that prevents me from giving it top marks is Samara Weaving's scream, which, as I pointed out in my review for Mayhem (2017), is downright weird and kinda distracting as a result.

Weaving plays Heather, one of a group of hikers who turn up at the cabin where Ash is busy trying to dispose of the bodies of his evil clone and Amanda. Pablo and Kelly try to lead the campers away so that Ash can continue his grisly work, but the group are attacked by deadite Amanda, who, in the series' most ghoulish moment, uses two of the campers' dead bodies like hand puppets (shoving her hands into their skulls to operate their mouths!).

Pablo, Kelly and Heather return to the cabin, where things really kick off: Ruby (Lucy Lawless) turns up and says that she knows how to destroy the Necronomicon, but can she be trusted? Can she heck!

9/10 (or 10/10 if you don't find Samara's scream as awful as I do).

Ash vs Ash Part 2

[The-Social-Introvert · 30 December 2015]

Still at the cabin, Ash is surprisingly swiftly back to his quirky ways after Amanda's death. As Pablo and Kelly join him, he engages with Evil Ash in a humorous fight scene. The two are aware of the fitness problems each has, and exclaim them as if they were in some Pokémon duel before kneeing hips and punching ribs. After this, we get the cliché scene of the two Ash's pleading their innocence in front of a gun-wielding Pablo and Kelly, who, in my opinion, were very quick in dispatching the fake Ash – there was hardly much evidence that he wasn't the real one.

Amanda makes an appearances as well and, yes, she's a deadite. In a particularly gruesome scene before Pablo and Kelly reach the cabin, Amanda attacks the duo along with three campers, two of which she gorily dispatches with ease (even going as far as fiendishly reaching into their heads and using their mouths as puppets – damn!.) Not long after the suspicious Ruby makes an appearance and fends of Amanda. P & K eventually take her to the cabin where she convinces Ash to give her the Necronomicon (which, by the way, has some verbal input in the debate) in order to finish it once and for all. Did I say finish? Oh, I meant summon all the demons from it and destroy all life because, as Ruby explains in the cliff-hanger ending scene, she wrote the book. Shock shock, horror horror! It's a great setup for the finale episode which I eagerly await.

"I'm gonna say a lot of dumb things."

[Hey_Sweden · 8/10 · 18 July 2018]

When last we enjoyed the exploits of Ash & gang, Ash was engaged in a to-the-death battle with a duplicate copy of himself. Pablo and Kelly show up to save the day, determining which Ash is the human one by an amusing deduction. Ash fails to dismember the dead Amanda in due time, and she becomes a Deadite. Ruby finally catches up to the other main cast members, and after some heated words between her and Ash, Ash concedes the handling of the situation over to her. Predictably, things go very wrong...

'Bound in Flesh' is solid fun for this series, a typically zesty mix of humour, one-liners, over the top cartoonish gore, and a heavy atmosphere of utter gloom. The stage is now set for the concluding episode of this first season, and everything is handled in high style. Those pesky hikers from the previous episode add another wrinkle to the story - and, of course, they help to add to the body count. The "puppets" scene is a highlight, as is the delicious sequence of Ash actually SLICING THE FACE OFF of the cover of the Necronomicon. That cursed book tries its able best to mess with Ash's mind, but fortunately he will have none of that. Bruce Campbell is in fine form, as always, with Dana DeLorenzo and Ray Santiago really coming into their own as the other essential members of this little fighting unit. But the real value is supplied by Lucy Lawless, whose character has a major last second revelation in store for everyone watching. Now THAT will keep the viewers interested to see how the rest of the story will develop. Lucy gets to be pretty badass herself, making a hilariously OTT heroic entrance and chopping up bodies with cold-blooded efficiency.

I'm really looking forward to that last season one episode now.

Eight out of 10.

Pure action

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 26 April 2021]

Not a bad episode, pretty much pure action from start to finish. Lucy Lawless finally gets some real meat and screen time which is fun and it's nice to see Samara Weaving here years before she became a Hollywood starlet in the likes of READY OR NOT.