Evil: 3 Stars

"Oh, I would want. That would be great. Yes, please, please, yes."

Kristen, David, and Ben investigate a possible case of Demonic Obsession. Just another day on Broadway.

It's interesting, going back and revisiting these early episodes with the benefit of hindsight. There's still so much being set up and established which we later came to take for granted. For example, I think this is the first time Kristen ever visited the church where David lives (she says as much) and given how much time we spend there later on that feels incredibly momentous, even though it really isn't when viewed in context.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that I'm going to do my best to not let knowledge of where everything is going color my discussion of the episode at hand.

One of the strengths that this show had from the very beginning – indeed, one of the strengths of every show that the Kings have produced – is the way they structure the narrative as a series of chess moves. One 'side' makes a move, the other counters, the first adjusts, the other parries, and so on. In this episode we have Leland going out of his way to undermine all of Kristen's work as an expert witness to vindicate a 15-year-old defendant. So, Kristen finds a loophole to allow herself to testify not about the case, but about Leland's credibility. So, Leland responds by finding a way to bring Kristen's stolen therapy notes into evidence so as to preemptively undermine HER credibility, and so on, and so forth.

Robert and Michelle King's shows do a consistently good job of breaking down storylines in terms of 'tactical responses' from opposing sides, and this episode is a good example.

It's also worth noting at this point how much the first season of Evil leans into courtroom drama. Obviously, this is where the Kings' comfort zone lies, and it serves them well, but as both the show and their comfort zones grow, they rely on it less and less in later seasons. But there I go with the filter of hindsight that I just promised I'd try to avoid, so let's move on.

The neatest trick that the devil ever played was convincing the world that he doesn't exist, or so they say. The neatest trick that this episode plays is keeping that particular point an open question. Indeed, it directly mirrors the Kristen/Leland chess match in a pleasantly subtle way. For every time that there's a sudden reversal in fortune for someone in the courtroom, we simultaneously get an abrupt change of direction regarding whether or not there's anything supernatural happening to Broadway producer Byron Duke or if it's all just an elaborate prank.

Sweating blood would appear to be a significant sign, but Ben takes all of four seconds to identify the problem as infected hair plugs. Byron arguing with himself and attempting to strangle someone who isn't there sure seem like indicators of demonic naughtiness, but Kristen finds a rational explanation with a quick google search. (As a side note, is that whole 'personifying your anger' a real thing? Are there self help people actually advocating that? And on a similar note, is David's opening instructional video about the six types of demonic possession actually accurate as to what the Catholic Church really believes? This show has a tendency to make me ask the question 'Is that really a thing??' with shocking regularity.)

So, with Kristen and Leland thrusting and reposteing, and demonic versus explicable flipping back and forth, what else do we have going on in this one?

Well, David is currently a victim of obsession himself, trying to recreate the vision he recently had. And by 'vision,' we do mean 'drug induced hallucination.' This is actually an interesting example of the broader point of the episode. David is desperately trying to recreate the vision that Kristen has no trouble recognizing as the 'Salvator Mundi.' So, completely rational explanation. But... in finding that answer, David also is drawn to the roman numerals which just so happen to be longitude and latitude for New York City. And with some cunning use of graphics software, David discovers that the three white flecks in the crystal sphere that Jesus holds in that painting correspond exactly to the coordinates of NYC, Chicago, and Washington DC.

They're having it both ways. It's both a completely understandable case of someone doing drugs and remembering a famous painting, and a moment of revelation of mystical symbols in a famous painting corresponding to modern geography. It's both a pissed off tech drone faking a demonic soul-sale in revenge for not getting paid, and an actual demonic wireless speaker revealing hidden family truths to Ben in a language that I personally do not speak. (I'd love to know what language it was, by the way. My best guess is Farsi, but the internet isn't giving me a clear answer.)

It should be completely insufferable, the way that they're having their cake and eating it too, vis-a-vis what's really happening, but they get away with it. That final shot of poor Patti being positively jubilant about her boss being cured while he casually walks out to the deck and jumps to his death is a phenomenally well-judged moment and played just perfectly.

And finally, it's worth noting that Kristen won in this episode for one reason and one reason only. She was willing to cheat. She re-created the incriminating conversation with Leland using a deep fake, and he was powerless to say how he knew it was faked. Check and mate. That's an interesting place for your protagonist to be in.

Bits and Pieces:

-- OK, we need to talk about it. What the HELL was going on with the life size sheep stool in Byron's office? Seriously. It's just sitting there all life sized and weird and no one ever addresses it. If I walked into someone's office and they had that sheep stool/bench/whatever the hell it is, that would definitely be my first question.

-- It took me an embarrassingly long time to track the title '3 Stars' to the stars in the crystal sphere. I got caught up in the ratings metaphor.

-- That said, one sentence of my notes for this episode said simply 'Three white dots on Jesus' snow globe.' and that might be my favorite sentence I've ever written.

-- Yeah, yeah, I know it's not a complete sentence. My point still stands.

-- No sign of any of the girls, or George the Demon this week. Leland did make the error of threatening the girls to Kristen's face, however. I feel like anyone that's ever met Kristen would just know that that's a fatal mistake.

-- The 15-year-old boy being threatened with a life in prison was named 'Adam,' which felt a little on the nose.

-- At the end of the day, they did kind of confirm that this was an actual Demonic Obsession, didn't they?

-- The song at the end was 'Monkey Wash, Donkey Rinse' by Warren Zevon, of 'Werewolves of London' fame. I was unfamiliar with it but it's a catchy tune.

-- It's a little irritating to me the way that characters on TV always know the complete catalog of Shakespeare off the top of their head. For the record, the quote that Kristen throws out, and Leland adds to, is from Merchant of Venice. I did not know that. I had to google it. The only Shakespeare speech that I know any significant amount of is Prospero from the end of The Tempest, because I really like that one.

-- It's always nice to see John Glover in anything. Does anyone ever see him and not immediately say, 'Hey, there's Lionel Luther!'?

-- I know I'm on the losing side with Byron on this issue, but I will die on the hill of putting two spaces after a period. Here's a fun fact: Blogger, the site on which I type this, will let you enter two spaces after a period in html view, but when you switch to compose view it edits them all to just one space. It pisses me off every single time.

-- There are at least a dozen reasons why that audio recording would have been inadmissible in court. But, hey, TV. And it's fun to see Michael Emerson lose.

Quotes:

Monsignor: "Well, here's everyday evil."

Byron: "There's a reason Harvey Weinstein went down. I don't use sex and I'm much more talented."

Priest: "Symbols matter."

Leland: "No, no. do the breasts bigger."

Byron: "You are so past your sell-by date, Patti."

Byron: "Who the Hell are you, lady?"
Kristen: "Somebody who enjoys your shows but thinks you're being a bit of a dick."

Joe: "I'm the buyer of souls. And yours only cost a Tony."

Digital Assistant: "Hell is 3,400 miles from New York. There are tolls on these routes."

Kristen: "It's just there's so many things wrong with the church."
David: "That's why we need good people."

A really enjoyable slice of TV from a show that's just starting to figure out how it wants its clay to solidify. Four out of five inexplicable sheep stools.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, retired firefighter, and roughly 78% water. You can find more of his work at the 42nd Vizsla. If you'd like to see his raw notes for this and other reviews, you can find them at What Was Mikey Thinking.

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