Evil: Rose390

"Ben the Magnificent!"

Federal Statute 38746-4/A(3): Every television genre show must, at some point in its run, do an episode about a creepy, possessed child. See appendix b RE: standard definitions of 'creepy,' 'possessed,' and 'child.'

See also: Musical episode.

Evil takes on one of the classic tropes and comes out with something that's simultaneously a solid Evil boilerplate episode and also a startlingly dark hour of television.

If Evil was operating as your standard 'monster of the week' episodic series, then this would be 'The one where they have to decide if a creepy child is possessed by a demon or just a stone-cold sociopath.'

And I should point out that there's nothing intrinsically wrong with episodic series. One of the best things about Strange New Worlds, to pick an example, is that they've gone back to largely episodic storytelling after years of 'big, serious, season long arcs' and it's been a big breath of the freshest of airs.

Which now compels me to say that there's also nothing wrong with serialized storytelling. I'm not trying to pit them against each other in some sort of epistemological cage match here. Both have their place, everybody's preferences are valid, and we're all getting ice cream.

What I'm trying to say is that it's consistently interesting to see how Evil straddles the line between the two forms.

If we're going to talk about the standard Evil boilerplate, here's the basic outline: Unexplained thing happens. Team investigates unexplained thing. We're given two equally plausible explanations for the unexplained thing, one supernatural and one scientific. Then we take turns having one side find 'definitive' evidence that their explanation is the right one, then the other side finds a counter proof of theirs, rinse and repeat. Then we wrap up with an unexpected event that makes getting a definitive answer kind of moot. And close with a strong indication that it was the supernatural one all along but we're not going to make a thing about it just now.

And as a format that works just fine. Eric has been getting increasingly violent in a way that seems more than a little demon-inspired. David's willing to keep an open mind but seems to be leaning toward demon possession, while Ben thinks it might be more of a toxic metal in the water issue and Kristen is too busy radically over-identifying with the parents to really commit to either side.

And if that was all this episode did, it would be a perfectly serviceable and frightening hour of television. But there are several factors that raise it above being merely serviceable.

First off, the actor playing possibly possessed Eric really nails the exact blend of terrifying and vulnerable that the part needed. You can understand easily why David is kind of taken with the kid and bonds with him over comics (I think they were anime, but the episode never calls them that and anime is very much not my field). David likes the kid, and more importantly believes that the kid can be saved. The actor's name, by the way, is Luke Judy, which is fun to say. His performance as Eric is crucial to our buying that David would feel the way he does and the kid nails it.

Indeed, it's mostly David that interacts with Eric as Ben and Kristen have branched off into the more delightful part of the episode, which means we need to talk about the girls.

I was very relieved last episode, when the girls didn't appear at all in the first episode of Evil that I was reviewing. Not that I don't like them, because they're fabulous. No, I was relieved for a far more prosaic reason. I am terrible with names.

The upshot of that is, I had absolutely no idea which daughter was which, and the thought of having to discuss them without letting on that I don't know their names was distressing. Indeed, if you look at my notes section, you'll see that the first quote from one of the girls is credited as 'Oldest Daughter.' Imagine my delight then, when Ben asked them their names and the closed captioning put all four of their stated their names on screen, each positioned under the correct daughter. Thank you, closed captioner, for that amazing gift. I now know which daughter is which and it's all thanks to you.

And as a side note, every scene with the daughters all talking over each other should be watched with the closed captions on because they are pure chaotic brilliance. Lines flashing all over the screen, flicking in and out in no discernable pattern. Honestly, it's just magic. And while we're talking about the chaos of the daughter scenes, I always wonder how on earth they write those out in the script, manage to do the blocking, and achieve precisely organized mayhem every time.

Which brings me the delight I mentioned a few paragraphs ago. If I was pressed to pick my single favorite thing about Evil, it would be Ben's relationship with the girls. He's always the perfect flavor of 'fun uncle' in every situation. 'Don't be afraid of the strange man in your bathroom...' makes me laugh out loud, and I adore the fact that he never talks down to them and always tells them the truth in an age-appropriate way. This was their first meeting and it's the beginning of greatness.

I do wonder what Ben would have done regarding telling Kristen about the inappropriate VR goggle usage. Would he have had the girls' back, or would he have felt obligated to tell on them? I honestly could see him going either way on that. Fortunately the girls saved him by doing the right thing and coming clean before he had to make the call.

Which leads us to the title character, and it's genuinely odd that the episode isn't named after the main plotline. While we get the complete story of Eric and his maybe-possession, it's worth noting that we get no closure on who or what Rose390 is, nor what's really going on in the game that they made a point of telling us isn't finished because they have to log back in and type 'goodbye' to end it. Something I'm sure that they'll circle back to over the course of the season. For the moment, both the game and the girl are suitably scary, so I'm good with not knowing yet.

And with that we've arrived at the darkness. I was emotionally unprepared to see network TV show the malicious drowning of an infant. And it's worth noting here that the way David and Eric's relationship was being handled by script and actors alike made the slow burn realization of what was happening a solid punch in the gut. But it's that last scene at the family's doorstep that really brings the dark.

I cannot think of a way that they could have improved the gradual reveal of what exactly Eric's parents had clearly done in the night. Not only is it unfathomably chilling to realize that we're witnessing parents that have just straight up murdered their son, but you also kind of get it. Part of you looks inside, puts yourself in their situation and thinks, 'Yeah. I might.' And that's a disturbing thing to feel.

Bits and Pieces:

-- David giving Eric instructions on how to fake empathy to appear normal totally gave me Dexter vibes. He didn't go so far as to define parameters under which it's acceptable to kill, but it definitely had a familiar feeling.

-- There was no Michael Emerson this week. He must be off licking his wounds after what Kristen did to him last episode.

-- It's interesting that Ben gives such solid parenting advice, given that he doesn't have kids of his own. To be clear, Kristen is an absolutely wonderful Mom, but Ben was right on in pointing out that it was brave of the girls to come forward on their own and taking the headsets away would just push them to play elsewhere.

-- Sheryl bought the girls VR headsets so that she can play online poker. She's clearly the fun grandma.

-- Normally when referencing the character from the title I would go out of my way to use the word titular, but it felt inappropriate and kind of gross in this case, even though I know it just means 'of the title.'

-- I get that it's plot furtherance and what they could get away with on network TV, but honestly, that monster that Ben saw the girls interacting with wasn't particularly bad. You could easily imagine a children's game with a monster like that in it. Frankly, and I believe Anya Jenkins would agree with me, the bunnies were way more scary looking than the monster. Honestly, those little fluffy bastards were nightmare fuel. And just everywhere. And what's with all the carrots?

-- I get that they were feeling like things were back on track and improving, but maybe don't give your recently homicidal kid unsupervised pool access?

-- The very strong implication is that the opening scene was Eric playing the ghost girl game in the new house and that that was what led to him being demonically possessed. They did an admirable job of not pointing it out, but it was definitely the implication. And Kristen's daughters just played that game and left it open. I feel like that might be a thing later.

-- Nitpicking, but still. Eric can't have chairs but can have drawers? I'm finding it hard to think of anything he could do with a chair that he couldn't also accomplish with a drawer or two.

-- Saying out loud 'I'm just a normal girl' is the quickest possible way to let me know that you are absolutely not a normal girl.

-- They also left a question mark over whether or not their dad is OK, or if Rose was telling the truth. I say 'their dad' because as I have mentioned, I am terrible with names.

Don't be afraid of the strange man in your bathroom...

Quotes:

Eric: "You don’t laugh when you’re hurt."

Kristen: "Ben, could you check my house for metal corrosion?"
Ben: "Yeah. Your kids psychos?"
(Cut to girls screaming.)

Lynn: (under her breath) "Switch to Bunny Hop."

Lynn: "So, the shower’s broken?"
Ben: "No, it isn’t. Your mother’s just worried you’re going to turn into psychopaths."

Kristen: "Thanks, Ben the Magnificent."

Did you want to know the girls' individual names?
Because I know them now.

Another solid early episode of Evil. The balance of episode plot to season plot was just about perfect and it introduced us to the magic that is Ben and Kristen's daughters hanging out together. It really only suffers from lack of Michael Emerson. Although, to be fair, the vast majority of television suffers from that exact problem.

Four out of five age-appropriate bunny games.

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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