"El Jefe" is the series premiere of the American comedy horror television series Ash vs Evil Dead, which serves as a continuation of the Evil Dead trilogy. The episode was written by Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi and Tom Spezialy, and directed by Sam Raimi. It originally aired on the premium channel Starz on October 31, 2015.
The series is set 30 years after the events of the Evil Dead trilogy, and follows Ash Williams, who now works at the "Value Stop" as a simple stock boy. Having spent his life not doing anything remarkable since the events of the trilogy, Ash will have to renounce his routine existence and become a hero once more by taking up arms and facing the titular Evil Dead.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 0.437 million household viewers and gained a 0.13 ratings share among adults aged 18–49. The series premiere received extremely positive reviews from critics, who praised the series as "fun", also highlighting Campbell's performance and Raimi's directing as strong points.
Plot
Approximately 30 years after returning from 1300 AD, Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) now lives in a home trailer. He goes to a local bar, where he has sex with a woman in the restroom. During the act, the woman's face turns into a demon vintage for a brief moment, disturbing Ash. He returns to his trailer, he recalls a memory where he smoked marijuana with a prostitute and then proceeded to read the Necronomicon as a "poetry read", making him realize he unleashed demonic forces into the world.
Michigan state police detective Amanda Fisher (Jill Marie Jones) and her partner, detective John Carson (Mike Edward) investigate a disturbance at an abandoned house. Inside, they encounter a possessed woman, who stabs Amanda in her hand with scissors and kills Carson by hanging him from antlers. Amanda kills the woman by shooting her head off, and discovers her partner is now undead, forcing her to kill him as well. The event causes Amanda to start seeing undead people. She tries to dismiss this, although a mysterious woman named Ruby (Lucy Lawless) is convinced that she is seeing undead people.
The next day, Ash sets up a meeting with Lionel Hawkins, owner of an occult bookstore. Before meeting him, he goes to his job at a Value Stop department store for his paycheck but is denied early pay until the end of the day. Ash's co-worker, Pablo (Ray Santiago), wants to hang out with Ash, who appreciates him but claims he needs to leave town. Unwilling to let him go alone, Pablo refers him to their colleague, Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo), to help him. Ash tries to flirt with her, but she rebuffs his advances. While alone in the warehouse, Ash is attacked by a possessed doll, who tries to kill him with a box cutter. Before she stabs him, Pablo kills the doll.
Ash explains his past to Pablo, saying he is leaving town to fix his mistake of reading the Necronomicon. Pablo also states that his uncle, a shaman known as "El Brujo", warned about the presence of the Devil. His uncle also spoke about a person who would stop evil, known as "El Jefe". Pablo is convinced that Ash is "El Jefe" but Ash rejects that notion. Ash leaves the store just as a storm is approaching the town. Kelly finds that her father has been visited by her deceased mother and sets out with Pablo on his motorcycle to leave. They leave the store just as a Deadite force possesses their manager.
Pablo takes Kelly to Ash's trailer, who once again refuses to hear his claims. Ash's neighbor turns out to be possessed and attempts to grab Kelly. Finally accepting he must return to his old life, Ash cuts his arm with an axe and then kills his neighbor with his shotgun. As he prepares to take his chainsaw, Ash's old neighbor, Vivian (Sian Davis), appear, possessed as well. She wounds Ash, stabs Pablo with a knife on the shoulder, and prepares to stab Kelly's eyes. Ash regains his chainsaw, beheading Vivian and saving Kelly. Ash finally accepts his role and prepares to fix everything. When Pablo asks how does he feel to be back, Ash replies "Groovy".
Production
Development
The project originally began as a fourth Evil Dead film, before Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell settled for a TV series. The series was announced in July 2014 at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, with Starz ordering the series in November 2014.
The episode was written by Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi and Tom Spezialy, and directed by Sam Raimi.