Evil Recap: Bride and Doom
This week’s Evil is a literal jaw-dropper.
About halfway through the episode, which is titled “The Demon of Sex,” the titular figure loses the lower part of his face when Sister Andrea strikes a stunning spiritual blow. It’s gross — but nowhere near as disgusting as the backhanded move Leland pulls against the small-but-mighty nun near the end of the hour.
Elsewhere, Sheryl has two big wins at work, one of them assisted by everyone’s favorite fictional influencer. And Karima has a super-secret solution to Ben’s existential crisis. Read on for an episode rundown.
MR. & MRS. & HELL FIEND | David presides over the wedding of Leo and Amalia, two young parishioners who waited until they were married to have sex and who wind up needing a consult barely a week after their “I do”s. While they’re talking with Father Acosta, Sister Andrea follows a trail of otherworldly slime (that only she can see) into the conference room and winds up interrupting the newlyweds’ meeting… where there’s also a giant demon (again, whom only she can see) lurking in the corner.
“I didn’t see anything,” David tells her when she requests a moment’s chat in the hallway. “Because you’re not as good!” the frustrated nun bluntly responds. (Ha!) Theorizing that something about the marriage is possessed, she joins David’s consultation — angering the demon. And soon the truth comes out: When Amalia and Leo try to have sex, “we have a physical reaction,” he explains. Leo gets nauseous. And Amalia has “hives” that suspiciously look like claw marks on her back and rib cage. (“Food allergy. I didn’t do that,” the cheeky demon, who also moons Sister Andrea during this scene, quips.)
Kristen chats with the couple, and at first, she’s making headway — we can tell because the demon starts deteriorating right before Sister Andrea’s eyes. And though Dr. Bouchard doesn’t love that the nun is sitting in on her session, the women come to an agreement… which is good, because when Leo and Amalia return, the demon is larger and it mocks Sister Andrea, saying she’s losing.
Kristen counsels the pair to “do what your body wants you to do” and encourages them to engage in whatever urges come to mind. That manifests as Amalia slapping Leo in the bedroom one night. Then he bites her lip while kissing her, drawing blood. Then she grabs a butcher knife from the kitchen and orders him to “F—k me now, or I’ll kill you.” Leo is into it! They go at it, all nausea and skin irritation forgotten, and the demon happily climbs right under the covers with them as they consummate their (unholy?) marriage.
SINGLE MOTHERHOOD’S GOING GREAT, THANKS | While the contractor is being a big jerk to Kristen, pressuring her to sign up for his services while Andy is away in Nepal, Ben is upstairs snaking the toilet while Lynn, Lila and Laura watch/provide color commentary. Something starts pulling on the snake like a tuna on a fishing line; the device eventually snaps, cutting up Ben’s hand and adding to his pile of woes. When the sisters Bouchard note that Ben isn’t very magnificent lately, Lynn diagnoses him with “cultural derealization,” or depression brought on by the extreme bizarreness of the world. “I think that’s why you’re sad,” she says. “You can’t figure it out anymore. Things have gotten all weird, and you don’t like it.”
Where’s Lexis, you wonder? Oh she’s just chanting “I’m bad” over and over in her room, solo, while wearing her mom’s sex wolf mask — totally normal teen stuff. When Kristen discerns that Lexis’ actions are Lynn’s punishment for Lexis’ telling Kristen about Lynn’s boyfriend in the previous episode, Kristen Has. Had. E. Nough. She calls an impromptu family meeting and drafts a list of 10 commandments for their family that must be followed, “no matter what.” The first entry: “Thou shalt not lie to Mom.” There are some about telling Kristen if Leland approaches, and not going into Kristen’s closet, that kind of thing.
Upstairs, the toilet coughs up an eyeball attached to an optic nerve. Ben looks at it, flushes it, then slowly walks out.
KARIMA FTW! | Ben holes up in his apartment, which eventually leads his sister, Karima, to hunt him down and demand to know what’s the matter. “I try to figure out these cases that don’t make any sense, and then we just move on to the next thing,” he says listlessly. So she demands that he come with her to the “Super Secret Science League,” a gathering of nerds that Ben finds massively unimpressive… until they announce that he’s got to see whether he can blow something up in three minutes, using only materials that can be found in a kitchen. He and Karima nail the task, and aw, Ben looks so happy!
Later, as a guest speaker is talking about a meteor that’s spewing rocks and stumping scientists, Karima points out that it’s possible to believe in science and have faith in Allah. Then she volunteers to help him figure out his unanswered cases, and anything they can’t piece together, they’ll bring to the League. After all, “Anything that God has given is solvable,” she says, smiling. (P.S. I LOVE HER. MORE KARIMA/SOHINA SIDHU, PLEASE.) Ben’s newfound joie de vivre is noticeable when he next meets up with David and Kristen.
KRISTEN TO THE RESCUE | When Leland gets wind of Sister Andrea messing with the demon, he sees an opportunity. So he scurries to the monsignor and announces that the nun is in ill health and has been hallucinating. “The worry is liability,” the monsignor later tells David and Kristen, then he defers to Kristen’s professional assessment of the aging sister. Kristen sees the situation for the potential railroading that it is, and blithely assures the head priest that there’s no evidence Sister Andrea is talking to anyone imaginary. In the hallway afterward, the two women seem to come to an understanding based on mutual respect.
RAD G TAKES CHARGE |You know who’s got no respect, though? The millennials who work at Sheryl’s troll farm/crypto currency company, who regularly say “OK, Boomer” to her face and who refuse to help her brainstorm a way to get Makob (the currency’s name) to trade at $135/coin instead of the $11 it’s at.
But then she gets a very helpful idea from an unexpected source. When Sheryl visits her granddaughters to announce that she’s moving to a house just a few minutes away, she sees the commandments list… as well as the ones the girls came up with to help them survive school. An entry on the latter list — “influence the influencers” — was inspired by Melindaz, aka the YouTube-esque personality we’ve met a few times before, and Sheryl gets an idea.
When Melindaz is sitting in Sheryl’s office, she’s initially not down with the idea of promoting Makob on her feed. But when Sheryl offers $10K up front and another $10K when the price rises, the extremely online blonde is all in. And the plan works! Later, as Sheryl rejoices over Makob’s new value, she calls her uncooperative assistant, Taylor, and the equally surly office manager, Bobby, into her office.
Without losing her very pleasant tone, Sheryl demands that Taylor resign. And when Taylor balks, Sheryl announces that the chocolates she sent the woman earlier that day contained Brazil nuts — a substance to which Taylor is deathly allergic. Sheryl also has stolen Taylor’s epipen, and as the assistant starts to cough and rub at her throat, Sheryl makes her sign a resignation letter. Eventually, Taylor is gasping as she enters the elevator; Sheryl tosses the much-needed medicine into the car just as the doors close. “Everyone has their weaknesses, Bobby,” she says to the gaping office manager. “Don’t make me find yours.” Damn, Rad G!
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
Andrea Martin is a national treasure, and I mean that for both the USA and Canada
Yes to more Karima. It was great to see her getting more screentime this episode, and interacting with Ben as she did. I’m glad she was able to help get him out of his funk and rejuvenate him a bit. I’m curious to see if and how that group they spent time with will factor into their interactions going forward, and how Karima will prove helpful in trying to resolve some of these strange mysteries Ben’s been struggling over.
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Also love, as always, Ben’s interaction with Kristen’s girls. Though I’m bracing for whatever nastiness will result from the weird stuff with the toilet and that shrunken head Andy flushed.
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The case with the couple was interesting. I liked how Kristen and David interacted with them, but yeah, Sister Andrea’s right to be nervous about that demon’s presence. I’m also glad that Kristen backed her up when Leland and the monsignor expressed concern about her health. I hope Kristen and David’s continued efforts to protect Sister Andrea, the way she’s been protecting David, pay off.
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Of course Leland’s involved in crypto. And of course Malindaz (another good callback) would get recruited into it as well. Poor Lexis is getting targeted from all sides, it seems – Leland, Malindaz, now Lynn’s messing with her with that mask as well… Those commandments are going to come back to bite the Bouchard family, aren’t they?
So when will the show become “scary” once again? I’m getting the awful deja by and now recall when The X Files would be too campy at times. However, The X Files averaged 20+ shows a season. Unfortunately, Evil has half or less shows to move the storyline and the writers have become enamored with themselves. There is unequivocally no way that a Doctoral Psychologist would ever allow Leland to be within 500 feet much less in the same room supposedly now buddies with the top priest. This is where Evil jumped the shark. I honestly was frightened after viewing some episodes from the first 2 seasons. However, season 3 has not delivered. Guess how you kill a scary movie or television show? If the writers don’t quit congratulating themselves, the answer will be shortly forthcoming followed by cancellation. Now That is a scary thought.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion.Obviously you have a negative one about Season 3 of EVIL but i wouldn’t be too concerned about having “scary thought(s)” of EVIL being cancelled. So far Season 3 has been given a score of 100% of critical reviews by Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic has it at 92% which gives it a ranking of “Universal Acclaim”,and many millions of viewers who are very much enjoying Season 3.
Are you kidding? The show has never been outright scary every episode, but often more about the foreboding feelings. This episode, I do grant you, was not as eerie as some. But I am freaked out about that shrunken head coming back. I am worried about the dad on his trip, and if he’ll come back. I am concerned for the girls, especially Lexis. This show gives me so much anxiety and feelings of dread, and part of me is afraid to keep watching to see what it builds too. As for Leland, you really think the Catholic church would listen to a skeptic psychologist? What is she going to do or say without sounding crazy and being dismissed herself? Look at real churches, politics, corporations…it’s not at all uncommon for people to be unwise and ignore others, or to make do with a bad situation. She feels helpless to keep him out, as does David and the nun who would probably have more influence, but she can try to keep him out of her kids’ lives and that’s what she’s focused on. Also, having evil forces behind doomscrolling and the explanation for it made way too much sense and was kind of genius, because people do often turn to God/Allah/etc. in tragedy…and I know I doomscrolled way too much in 2020 and I literally just saw a friend post about doing that tonight with recent political news. Anyway, this episode had a bit more nice with the awesome sister and putting young snobs in their place, but I am still creeped the f— out by this series.
The Monsignor is the boss. Neither Kristen nor anyone else can stop him from associating with whom ever he wants, Doctorate or no.
Tru Dat!
Would not be surprised if Leo & Amelia ,with their violent sex kink now revealed, re-appear again this Season with one or both of them dead when their “games” go too far.I like how Kristen and Sister Andrea are establishing an alliance with mutual respect. Since Sister Andrea can see demons it might only be a matter of time before Sister Andrea will see either/both the demons haunting Kristen (George & the Jinn).Very good episode!Very good teaser for next week!
I have to wonder if there was a teensy bit of meta dropped in this week’s episode, because Ben mirrored a lot of my recent frustrations with the show. We know there are threads of an overarching story, but so far they’re not going anywhere. Right now it’s like three different shows at once with occasional crossovers: The team investigating weird evil occurances that are rarely 100% resolved; Leland and Cheryl’s misadventures in evil; and something evil stalking at least one of the kids. Something has to start moving forward and tying together, right? I mean, we know that David and Kristen and Ben aren’t ultimately going to eliminate evil and wipe out the demonic underworld, but it would be nice for the show to go somewhere, before the creepy quirky fun wears off and it’s just spinning its wheels.
I agree.The show does jump around and leaves many threads hanging. While I enjoyed tonight’s show – Sister Andrea is a gem and great to see Ben’s sister get more involved as well – there is still so much left unanswered from so many of the previous episodes. I’ll keep watching though. I’m enjoying it too much!!
Okay…I think I’m suffering from “cultural derealization” too. Who isn’t with this bizarro world that gets stranger and more oppressive each new day…
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But I think that eyeball was Ben’s straw. First, Moby Dick grabs his snake like it’s a line, and then after he tries to flush the eyeball, the toilet literally cackles out an evil “I WON” laugh…I don’t blame him for just going home to hide in bed.
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Glad Sis dragged him to the cool scientists’ secret society thing. Ben deserves a break and a win.
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That demon thing was a welcome sight, after a fewer amount of demonic visitors this season. Demon Kristen just isn’t as Evil-ish as Demon Therapist or Georgie. Leland must have seen him too, being a crony and all …right?
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I liked that moment of understanding at the end there. I think Kristen is beginning to believe in Demons that only certain people can see, and that acknowledgement at the end seemed to be an acknowledgement of the other as a valuable part of the team. They certainly have taking down Leland as a common goal!
It was pretty clear to me that Kristen backed Sister Andrea as soon as she realized Leland wanted to get rid of her. That Leland cared enough to want to get rid of her immediately made up Kristen’s mind. You could see it happen in the room. Any doubts she’d had about Sister Andrea because of what she was saying earlier in the episode were instantly erased. Kristen still may not exactly believe in demons but she believes that if Leland sees Andrea as a threat, that’s reason enough to listen to her.
Fun episode. The title and the book scene earlier had me wondering if this episode was going to be as sexually charged as the premiere. It wasn’t and that was a good thing as the episode was so well crafted.
Love that the currency is named Makob, or rather macabre!