Evil is back.
Yes, after enough real-life problems that we’ve faced in the past eighteen months while Evil has been off the air, it’s great to lose ourselves to the fictional and psychological thriller.
But where should we start?
To be possessed or not to be possessed, that is the question. While we’ve been teased for almost a year by the season 1 finale–where Kristen (Katja Herbers) potentially killed a serial killer who was threatening her family–the writers have toyed with us that – if she did it – maybe she was possessed.
Involuntary murder because of a possession? Stranger things have happened, no?
But that seems to be less of the focus in the season premiere of Evil, when Kristen flat out asks her therapist Kurt Boggs (Kurt Fuller) if he strictly followed patient-client confidentiality, including not leaking anything to the police (he promised), before blurting out she murdered the man that had been haunting her family and has little or no remorse about it.
“I killed someone.”
“How did you kill someone?”
“I went to a man’s house and killed him.”
While this may not be a shocking admission for those of us who have watched the show, since it confirms the fierce “anything-for-my-family” mentality viewers have admired about Kristen since the series began, her lack of remorse troubles Kurt and he warns her she’ll need to see him soon to work to resolve this. When she seems to shrug off owning any guilt for these actions, Kurt says her post-traumatic-stress brought her there whether she realizes it or not.
Still, the fact that a cross/crucifix burned a mark onto her hand the night of the murder seems to suggest she can’t touch anything holy. Of course, Ben has a theory that despite the eerie resemblance to a burned-on cross, the “skin rash” Kristen has is really a reaction to the cobalt and a surge in heat from a hairdryer. Okay. I’ll have to try that at home since it seems more practical than paying someone at a tattoo parlor.
To complement the ongoing question of whether Kristen herself may be possessed, the writers shift the attention back to perennial target, evil Leland (Michael Emerson), who argues he is possessed and needs redemption to be good again. Apparently Leland has donated a lot of money to the Church recently, and the Cardinal has asked for a personal favor to consider performing an exorcism.
The team, of course, immediately suspects a ploy and tells Bishop Marx, but as it is a request from the Cardinal himself, little can be done except interrogate Leland and investigate his claim, hopefully drawing out a few truths and even more lies from Leland and using this as a chance to personally inspect where Lealand lives: a meticulous apartment that has an oddity or two, like an upside down cross to troll the team which (in)advertently falls and bonks Kristen on the head.
On the bright side, this episode also promises to make better use of Ben (Aasif Mandvi). He stays true to himself, following his all-can-be-explained-by-science-persona (“I don’t believe in the Devil and I don’t believe in God”), that is met with an eerie smile by Leland who hauntingly tells him to expect a bad dream unlike any he has had before. And voila: instead of George, the demonic monster who terrified Kristen in her sleep last year, Ben is visited by a creepy female monster that seems to be of the same family as George (I don’t think she’s been named yet).
Strangely, and quite surprisingly, David (Mike Colter) is the underused actor this week. Part sulky, part subdued, he still has many thoughtful moments. But he seems to struggle more with his dreams and Leland seizes upon this at one point. Leland tells the team he needs to be exorcised because as a teenager he sold his soul to the devil when his parents were watching M*A*S*H because he wanted his bus driver who mocked him to die a long and terrible death.
On a side note, I think a lot of children in the 70s would have sold their souls to the devil because many households had only one TV and how much M*A*S*H can a teenager truly take?
When David asks him to describe the devil, Leland describes the figure that David has been dreaming about. Is he controlling David’s dreams? Has he broken into David’s place and seen his drawings? Both are certainly compelling, and creepy, possibilities. But the writers seemed content to have David do very little this week, which is frustrating.
The team does find an extra creepy map with symbols and writing that is hidden underneath a panel in Leland’s house. They take a lot of photos of it, and I’m sure the contents of the map will be used in forthcoming moments of the show.
Despite the team writing up a report that Leland is narcissistic and simply faking these events, it doesn’t work and Bishop Marx grants the request for the exorcism. Who knows what subsequent events will follow and how it will shape the upcoming season? And of course, there is a sense of dread on the team that attempting to exorcise Leland will bring out even more evil–either in others or themselves.
Yet the extra “preview” of the season that aired after the episode suggests that indeed is Leland’s (or possibly the devil’s) mission in season 2–to convert David to the dark side. With two months left before his ordination, Leland plans on turning everyone’s favorite good priest-in-training to the devil.
Although it is maybe a bit too early to tell, it seems they are setting up longer story arcs in season two and less one-and-done type episodes. While there were always some recurring plots, the full season preview suggests a complete thought-out plan that I’m not sure they had going into the first season.
WHAT WORKED:
To set up what essentially seems to be a new season is difficult to pace and still create enough suspense within the episode itself, but we had the typical share of creepy moments and dream sequences.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK
The episode’s subplot (still linked to the long-term idea that embryos were affected by evil) of Kristen’s daughter Lexi (Maddy Crocco) having two extra canine/vampire teeth seemed unnecessary. Though under sedation when she actually chomped down on the dentist’s finger it did fulfill the creepy-gory-horror moment we typically get once an episode. But in a show where the scariest moments are psychological, this “bite the finger off the dentist” moment seems so impractical that it takes us out of the reality sphere into the “I don’t believe that would happen” place. I wasn’t a fan.
BEST QUOTE
Leland, trying to convince Ben: “Do you ever pray in the middle of the night when there are strange sounds, strange forebodings?” I don’t think it influenced Ben yet, but is this the seed, mixed with the fact this prophecy came true and Ben had a terrifying dream, that will shake the scientific-minded Ben? We’ll have to find out.
So grab your holy water, Bible, and rosary, because we have an exorcism on its way. And I don’t think anyone believes this is going to end well…
Evil drops a new episode each Friday on Paramount+ and can be streamed online https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/evil/
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