How 'Ash Vs Evil Dead' Season Two Originally Ended

Showrunner Craig DiGregorio recently left Ash vs Evil Dead over creative differences. The screenwriter behind My Name is Bruce and a few episodes of Daredevil and Battlestar Galactica, Mark Verheiden, is now leading the way on season three. From DiGregorio's perspective, he had to make to make too many comprises during season two, and the biggest disagreement he had may have come down to the ending.

Below, learn the original Ash vs Evil Dead season two ending (SPOILERS ahead).

Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) is Ash's daughter. Well, at least she was going to be until producer Robert Tapert, one of the owners of the Evil Dead property, had his say. The AV Club ran a surprisingly candid interview with DiGregorio, who discusses some of the disagreements he had with Tapert and his style of running things. At the end of the day, Tapert had final say, so the ending DiGregorio and the writing team were building towards was scrapped.

DiGregorio explains you can see hints of the twist coming before the finale, like when Ash says to Kelly, "Glad you're not my kid." Here's DiGregorio's breakdown of how the latest season of Ash vs Evil Dead was going to end:

Basically, Ash kills Henrietta, gets the book, and runs outside with it. I wanted to get the episode outside of the cabin as quickly as possible because I thought I only wanted to see the cabin for episode nine. I didn't want it to be there in 10 because I thought it was a repeat of last year with the last two episodes in the cabin. So, we got out of the cabin quickly, and that's when Ruby and Kelly return. Inside, young Ash has entered but the book is gone, so he never reads it in this timeline. At that moment, the trunk rattles, Pablo's in there, and he's okay.

So, now they have the book and they have Pablo. Ash decides Ruby and Kelly are going to destroy the book. Meanwhile, Ash and Pablo head into town because Ash secretly wants to see his present-day deceased father Brock one last time before they go back to the present—remember that in [episode] 203 Brock starts to reveal a big "secret," we wanted Ash to want to get to the bottom of this. So, Ash and Pablo go to the bar, Kelly and Ruby go to the woods to destroy the book. In the woods, Ruby runs into 1982 Ruby and makes that same sort of plea to her, the "your life is going to be different, you don't have to do this." But 1982 Ruby thinks that her future self has gone completely soft, kills Ruby, but then Kelly holds her own against 1982 Ruby, grabs the book, and runs with it. 1982 Ruby chases her because she wants to bring her husband and kids back and she didn't listen to her future self.

Ash doesn't see his dad, but when he's at the bar, he hits it off with a lady. They have a few drinks, find a bathroom stall, and have "some early-'80s unprotected sex." That woman? Kelly's mom. When Kelly is running in the woods by the cabin, she feels a change and then sees herself appear alongside Ash in the Necronomicon.

DiGregorio continued:

At that point, Pablo rushes into the bar, says there's something wrong because the skies are going dark now that 1982 Ruby has the book, and they're starting to summon things back. They go get Kelly, who's somehow pissed at Ash, even though she doesn't really know what happened, and while they don't have the book, they have Pablo and use him to jump back to present day. When they get back, Ruby is standing there with Baal and her kids and they take Kelly away. Basically, we were setting up a season three where Ash had to go rescue his daughter... Kelly.

In the end, Tapert wasn't a fan of the idea of Ash being Kelly's father. That major twist maybe would've shaken things up and brought the characters closer together. The finale itself is satisfying enough for another pretty good season of Ash vs Evil Dead, but DiGregorio's original plan sounds like a more exciting conclusion and a more promising setup for season three.