Evil – A is for Angel Review

Where’s Roma Downey when we need her?

In the second episode of season two, “A is for Angel,” our team’s primary task involves studying and assessing a recently converted parishioner who believes he is channeling the Archangel Michael. Bishop Marx (Peter Scolari) asks them to determine if he is possessed by angelic forces, demonic forces, or simply suffering a psychotic break.

As always, nothing is simple and there is no early consensus on his condition since his pregnant wife says he is demanding they sell their home, quit their jobs, give all their money away and live in poverty. Yet when he races to save a family by seemingly lifting up a car with superhuman strength and yet getting no burns, his angelic qualities are considered. The more exciting reveal by a camera at the scene shows that although the man saved the family, he let the uncle in the car burn for a full minute first, which he says was a punishment sent by God for the man’s sins. Yikes. 

David (Mike Colter) continues to struggle with lucid dreams, also seeing the Archangel Michael who warns the end is near for humanity and half of humanity will soon be dead. This prophetic vision is somehow called “The Second Bowl” (Really? Can’t the Second Bowl be something happier like the Bears win their second Super Bowl?)  He argues with the vision about how there still is some good left in the world and refuses to believe God would destroy the Earth now.

I was into the David dreaming thing–it works well. I didn’t like that when David awoke from a dream, he was looking at news coverage of Covid and seemingly implying “end of days” with the coronavirus. It was brief, never brought up again, and in bad taste. I don’t think the writers really want to go there so it just seemed unnecessary.

But David’s dreams also have brought a wonderful addition: new guest star Andrea Martin, a seemingly hard-boiled nun who tells it like it is. She chides David, “Stop hurting yourself. Pain is for tourists.” and goes one-on-one with the diabolical Leland (“You smell.”)  More practically, she puts a metronome app on David’s phone (that’s one tech-savvy nun!) to help him focus on the metronome to connect better to his dreams that fade before he can interact with them. This is a casting coup: Martin (The Great News, The Good Fight) seems to be half-psychologist and half-Ghostbuster. By the end of the episode she’s promised to help David in his fight, presumably against evil. Fantastic! 

The second subplot of the episodes revolves around confession.

David continued to struggle as a priest-in-training and is at risk of not making it. In a mock session on hearing confessions with other future priests, he argues too much with the priests. This was interesting theoretically: if an abuser admits to abuse, can a priest refuse to absolve them? Can the penance be to contact a self-help group or is it just a bunch of Hail Marys?

But, like last week’s vampire teeth incident, this strangely seemed more forced and less realistic than the crazy primary plot. In this case, Bishop Smith orders David to hear a confession from an influential parishioner because David needs more practice. Even though David isn’t a priest and can’t absolve sins, this illogical series of events leads David to listen to Leland’s (Michael Emerson) confession. 

Leland eventually gets to the good stuff and it’s a bit of a shocker: he admits to basically stalking David’s ex-girlfriend, Julia, from the pre-priest days, and possibly causing her suicide? But if Leland frames it that way it’s probably only partly accurate. David puts on his best poker face and doesn’t explode, which is what Leland likely wants, but does grasp a rosary so hard his hand is all bloody. This could be potentially interesting for the show but I’m not sure if it matters. We already know Leland is bad–and David has moved on.

And Leland has also called off his wedding. As Leland and Kristen’s mom Sheryl (Christine Lahti) prepare for their wedding, Leland is brutally honest with her and ends the relationship. “We’re done. I’ve been using you to get to your daughter to hurt her. Well now she’s hurt, so I don’t need you.” But Sheryl is a fighter and at one point slaps Leland twice and at another point potentially writes her name with blood on his wall. Revenge can be sweet.

Can we just agree to give Christine Lahti double the screen time she’s getting now. The show is always better with her.

Ben (Aasif Mandvi) continues to use science in helpful ways, theorizing the guy who is listening to the voice of the archangel is actually being poisoned by a patch he wears at work if he doesn’t take it off every three days as suggested. So is it really a scopolamine overdose? We may not know, however, since when they return to his house, his concerned wife had been turned into a pile of salt. I like the crazed Biblical reference to Lot’s wife (“she turned back instead of trusting the Lord”) but this is where the show gets a bit dramatic. Maybe they should hire Grissom from CSI to join their team: is it real salt? Salt with human remains? How did he turn someone into salt?

In many ways, though, “A is for Angel” felt like an early season one episode, with a stand-alone plot and David insisting the spiritual forces are true and believing in them. He utters, “I think there’s evil in the world and it should be confronted” to his skeptical peers, so in many ways David is back. And after last week’s lack of David, it’s great to see him on screen so much.

What worked: No kids. Sorry, but we can know Kristen is a devoted mother without trying to wrap so many subplots around her family. Her own mom is fantastic but her kids never truly help the show much.

What didn’t: Not much. It was quite good. My only minor issue is Leland seems to be coming more unraveled and dare I say vulnerable? It’s way cooler when he seems totally in control. Some vulnerability in the antagonist helps make a well-rounded character but too much (which seems to be happening here) can be frustrating.

Quote of the Day: Leland’s “You don’t know what you’re dealing with” threat to Sheryl after she slaps him a few times is met with the fantastic “Come on. I’m not some wilting wedding planner. Do you know how many demons I dated before you?” I love that Leland flinched after she delivered it. And the delicious double-meaning of “demon” makes us wonder if Sheryl knew what she was doing all along.

Next week there seems to be a lot of fire (literally) and an exorcism (but not Leland). And more Christine Lahti! Sounds like a plan to me.

Evil drops a new episode each Friday on Paramount+ and can be streamed online https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/evil/