Evil (2019) s02e10 – O Is for Ovaphobia

All right, seriously, is Mike Colter okay? He’s literally only the episode as a sidekick. He’s in an interview montage, he and Aasif Mandvi follow someone, he goes into the fertility clinic for a non-scene with Mandvi and Herbers, and he’s there for the initial team meeting. Otherwise, he’s not in the episode. Wait, he runs into Christine Lahti in an awkward situation. That scene lasts maybe ninety seconds. Maybe. When everyone said they didn’t really want him to become a priest, it didn’t mean they didn’t want him on the show….

But there’s also no Church case in this episode. The procedural isn’t a procedural. Herbers is trying to figure out how she’s still got eggs on ice at the demonic fertility clinic when she hasn’t been paying any of the bills, which puts her on to suspicious, religious gynecologist Francesca Faridany. It’s more Herbers’s B-plot, with her daughter Maddy Crocco’s self-image issues. Initially, it seems like it’s about her vampire teeth—side effects of the demonic fertility clinic—than about her weight, but then it turns out to be about something else entirely.

Something fantastic.

Meanwhile, Mandvi’s got a fantastic adventure with girlfriend Nicole Shalhoub, who wants to get exorcized of her twin ghost sister and drags Mandvi along. It gets more and more concerning throughout, cliffhanging with the extraordinary. So both Mandvi and Herbers (or Crocco) have actually supernatural arcs going on, with “Evil” ratcheting up the possibility of confirming it sooner than later.

The other big arc is Lahti—against her better judgment—getting involved with Michael Emerson, who introduces her to silver fox creep, Tim Matheson. Giving Emerson an actual human friend or two makes his storyline seemingly less supernatural. So the show’s grounding him while letting Mandvi and Crocco take proverbial flight. Herbers is entirely unaware—everyone else goes to Mandvi for help, but he doesn’t share his love life intrigues with anyone—ditto Colter, though for different reasons. Crocco’s calmly not telling Mom everything but Colter’s just not around enough. We don’t even get meditating montages.

Good acting from Herbers, Mandvi, and Lahti. Matheson and Emerson seem like edge lord frat boy rapists gone grey, which is probably the idea. Crocco’s fine, but her arc is only about working towards the reveal. Shalhoub’s in a similar situation where the episode’s tricking the audience with her scenes, so she doesn’t work up any momentum.

It seems to be a bridging episode, which is fine. The plotting just plays a little off. Especially if the show eventually rationalizes all the fantastical stuff.

Evil (2019) s02e04 – E Is for Elevator

This episode has plot holes you can drive a truck through, but it also fully embraces Michael Emerson’s villain as comic relief. He’s no longer dangerous, no longer trying to get the heroes killed or kill little kids; he’s just a troll who inserts himself in the heroes’ lives and pesters them. It’s kind of delightful. Especially since the pestering has real teeth to it. For instance, this episode has him meeting with Mike Colter for spiritual consultation (as part of Emerson’s exorcism, which is just to pester Colter) and bringing up the Catholic Church having a big racism problem.

“Evil” has been unfailingly dismissive of the Catholic Church being an organization for the kidnapping, raping, and murdering of children until this point—though they started deviating with digs Katja Herbers has been making (and her subplot about returning to Catholicism has vanished so far this season)—so I was very surprised to see them do a race episode. Especially since Black man Colter’s priest trainer is Dylan Baker, who it turns out isn’t just a villain because he’s a Catholic priest, he’s also a racist one (I really hope Baker gets at least one sustained against-type—i.e. good guy—role before the end of his career; he’s really good at everything not just this bit). The script credit goes to series creators Robert King and Michelle King, who rarely ever get a script credit. I can’t remember the last time. The pilot?

Anyway.

They don’t end up doing great with it. As in Colter’s new bestie, fellow Black priest in training Hampton Fluker (who’s quite good), talking about how some guy at a party says Black Lives Matter is a poser group or something. It’s a very not serious moment about serious issues. Kind of terrifies me for “Good Fight.” And then it ends up to just be for Colter’s arc into alternate religion. So it gives him stuff to do, but it’s all treading water and leveraging guest stars Baker and Fluker. “Evil” season two continues to give Colter the shaft.

Speaking of shafts, the main story is about the Elevator Game, which is a Japanese Internet sensation about the way to take elevators to Hell. Herbers watches the video with her daughters (Japanese website but English language video because auto-translate or something) and then they tag along for the case. Kind of comic relief but also narrative efficiency. It’s just Herbers and Aasif Mandvi investigating because Colter’s busy dealing with working for, you know, the Catholic Church.

There’s an effective resolution to the case (though it involves a lot of the plot holes). Mandvi gets a big scene and subplot (including ex Nicole Shalhoub, who’s been missed); it’s a lot better than Herbers, who has a horror movie subplot and then Christine Lahti manipulating her. Far less entertaining and far less ambitious than anyone else’s plot; including Colter’s. But good performance from Herbers.

Fine direction from Alethea Jones.

It’s not the best episode of the season—this episode Ciara Renée gets the probably added f-bomb—but this season continues to be far more engaging than the first.