[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Evil Season 2 finale “C Is for Cannibal.”]
A lot more went down in the Evil Season 2 finale, making us very happy the Paramount+ drama has already been renewed.
It was more than just those very intimate moments between Kristen (Katja Herbers) and David (Mike Colter) to end the episode. (Read what creators Michelle and Robert King had to say about that here.) We learned more about that sigil map, thanks to Sister Andrea (Andrea Martin): There are 60 demonic houses of Satan, and each master must have a successor before death. Among those “new,” as mentioned at Leland’s (Michael Emerson) party, is Sheryl (Christine Lahti), but she’s up to something.
Meanwhile, if you’ve been wondering what’s going on with Dr. Boggs (Kurt Fuller) and if you should be suspicious of those calls with his “wife,” you may not be entirely wrong. Has being part of Kristen’s investigations and seeing a demon himself just gotten to him, or is there more to that “break” he’s taking? We asked the Kings about that and more.
How’s Ben (Aasif Mandvi) doing with everything — his past, his demon, his girlfriend whose twin is now flesh?
Michelle King: I would say he’s one of the most stable characters we’ve created, and yet so much has been thrown at him this season that even he finds himself just slightly off-balance.
Robert King: I think he’s starting to lose it. I think next season will be interesting. Ben unhinged because of what’s going on is interesting because he tries to maintain so much.
Elizabeth Fisher/CBS
You can’t blame him, especially with what’s going on with his girlfriend and her twin.
Robert: Aasif does a great job when Ben is vulnerable. I love that moment in “B Is for Brain” where he calls his sister late at night. There was such vulnerability in worrying that you forsook your own past and your parents. I think that’s going to enter back in again.
Let’s talk about that sigil map of the 60 demonic houses and the lines of succession. Leland tells Mitch that Sheryl’s new, too. What does that mean for her relationship with her family?
Robert: Not good. Not good especially for Lexis [Maddy Crocco] because there seem to be certain designs on poor Lexis. And it’s unclear whether Lexis is a willing or unwilling participant in those designs, but either way, we’ve seen Sheryl as an advisor to her granddaughters and kind of the fun grandmother, who’s like, yeah, you don’t need to clean up, just leave it on the floor. When that is married with a certain level of evil — no matter what Kristen thinks she’s doing, that she’s becoming good — how does that influence this household?
Elizabeth Fisher/CBS
There was also that moment where Sheryl threatened Leland. What exactly was she talking about with “if I do this”? Joining them? Something else?
Robert: I don’t even know if we should be telling you that. I’ll tell you that it’s about Lexis and what path they want to guide Lexis down.
What can you tease about what’s coming up with those demonic houses, the successors, and them crossing paths with Kristen, David, and Ben?
Robert: What the sigil map always meant to us was ways to access different types of evil because what we always didn’t want the show to become was just exorcism of the week. The sigil map allows you to look at other elements of society — whether politics, capitalism, art — that are connected to each other through this map. So I do think we’re going to use that more and more as our team finds ways to thwart what they think is a coming attack against the powers that be in religion. I think what we’re heading towards is some — I want to use Armageddon metaphorically, not literally — kind of ultimate battle.
Elizabeth Fisher/CBS
What’s going on with Boggs? He sees that demon. He says he’s taking a two-month break, off the advice of his wife. That’s the second time he mentions his wife in as many scenes that have me wondering if there’s more going on than he’s telling Kristen.
Michelle: We can say that he was someone who started the series very certain of what the world looked like and is less certain now. And so he is regrouping and finding himself more and more interested in the kind of work that Kristen does and trying to see how he might get involved in some way.
Robert: I think Boggs has always been a slightly suspicious character. He’s been often some good therapy, but some questionable choices. And we want to leave some mystery about, is there even a wife in existence, what is going on with him? Because I think there’s some suspicion, but we didn’t know if it was Kristen’s paranoia. And the more we hear, we’re not sure whether that was paranoia because you can’t be paranoid about something that turns out to be true.
The plan is for him to come back in those two months, though, right?
Michelle: If you’re asking is the actor coming back to the show? The answer is yes.
Elizabeth Fisher/CBS
Robert: Yeah. We have him next year, and yes, either he’s going to take that break or it’s going to be a very short break because of other events.
But his plan is the two-month break. That’s not like a lie or anything?
Robert: Yeah. He needs to shake it off.
What makes Sister Andrea someone evil should fear?
Michelle: She is the most unapologetic of all the characters about her beliefs and she’s more certain than anyone else. She has no doubts. And because she has no doubts, she feels very comfortable being fierce and she’s also funny.
Robert: Andrea Martin always gives you this sense of someone — because of her certainty about comedy, there’s a certain authority that comes with her. The thought of her and Mike who’s six foot eight or six foot five, and she’s our size, smaller — the idea that she could be almost a general in an army when you’re on the spiritual plane, but in the church, she’s treated as someone who cleans up the floors and everything just felt funny to us. And also more Christian in philosophy, Christ, the least of us, will become the grandest, the greatest, the last will be first. So that all seems to fit together that you’re not looking for the guy who looks like King David to fight. What you’re looking for is King David’s sister who’s cleaning up in the kitchen. That, I think, is what we’re going for with Andrea. And again Andrea Martin, we just ride her coattails. All you got to do is give her a few lines and she runs with it.
Elizabeth Fisher/CBS
She shows how she gets hurt by the visions, but then we also see her hurt the vision with that cross, which was so good. Is that something that’s going to continue to be part of her story?
Robert: Yeah. We like the idea of her as like an Arnold Schwarzenegger action hero, even though she’s Andrea Martin. You can’t think of anything funnier than that, that she’s literally physically battling demons. And also, as Michelle said, she’s the one who believes it the most, because we’re never 100 percent sure if that is purely psychological or truly physical. If you walked into that room, what would you see? Would she just be battling with the air or would you see this demon figure? That’s the question.
So Leland’s already corrupting the church as we see with Mitch’s assessment. What can you say about what he’s up to next with the church?
Michelle: It’s absolutely central to his plan. And I’m not sure we can say much else.
Robert: His design this year of getting exorcised and all that was with this in mind. Because of what he went through, he would be seen as clean and being able to enter the church.
Are those lovely, creepy dolls still around and part of Sheryl’s story?
Robert: Yes.
Evil, Season 3, TBA, Paramount+
