Ruby went to Kandarian Kinkos and then this asshole popped up!

We return to some familiar territory in this episode. Ash faces off with an evil doppelganger of himself, this time brought on by Ruby. Close to the start of the episode, he emerges from a womb, covered in slime, and already has his chainsaw melded to his arm. Which Ruby instructs him to saw off so he’ll look like the real Ash. 

Ruby’s rat bastard plan is to have doppelganger Ash show up at the high school dance and start murdering kids left and right, showing himself to be an evil demon to his daughter, and then hide when the real Ash comes by to save Brandy so she will be thoroughly convinced that her father is evil and he needs to be stopped. Ruby tells Brandy that she has been hiding things from her, that there is evil in Elk Grove, but that it’s all because of her father. With Kaya-as-Kelly saying this makes sense, and then all of the hullabaloo with the mass murdering with doppelganger Ash, Brandy hides under the table with Ruby until Ash emerges looking for her and hands her the dagger. Ruby throws herself on his chainsaw, trying even more to convince Brandy he’s evil. And Brandy wants to kill Ash, says he deserves it even, but she can’t. She just can’t do it.

Then Pablo shows up, fighting with doppelganger Ash. You see, he showed up at the school after seeing Kelly in the rift in the cellar. He gets in a tussle with Kaya Kelly (Kellya? Kayly?) and then discovers doppelganger Ash and realizes quickly with his El Brujo Especial powers that he’s a demon. So the Ashes get in a fight, he blows his head off, and melts into a bit of a puddle. Ruby stands up unscathed because that rotten demon bitch is immortal, complaining that no one is that stupid or that lucky, and that she wasted two years in that shithole school. She tosses the Kandarian dagger and it gets Brandy in the back, where she dies in Ash’s arms. And then she ends up in the rift where Kelly and presumably all of the other people who have been killed have ended up. And she’s all alone, except for something creepy as shit that we can’t quite see yet.

Even though we’ve gone back to this well, it’s really well done here, and it’s showing real growth in Ash. He’s come to care for Brandy not just out of a sense of “this could fuck my shit up if things go south”, but has formed a bit of a fatherly bond with her. He loves her, and she’s taken from him by that she-devil with the Kandarian dagger right after she realizes he was right all along. It’s heartbreaking for him, and now our impromptu fourth member of the Ghost Beaters is gone, leaving us with just Ash and Pablo. Can they possibly save Kelly and Brandy through the rift? And what the hell even was that thing? And on a musical note, perfect choice with Blue Öyster Cult’s Don’t Fear the Reaper playing over the credits. Perfect touch of supernatural and melancholy for the ending, and the type of 70s rock soundtrack I’ve come to rely on with this series.