Evil: Vatican III

"The Vatican doesn’t apologize."

Evil splits its attention this week as the various threads of the season start coming into focus. Was that a mixed metaphor?

Mixed metaphor or no, there are at least two distinct plotlines going on in this episode. Both are interesting enough in their own right and are well told, but we're left with a general sense that the episode is more interested in setting up pieces for the remaining plot of the season than it is in the story at hand.

That might not be entirely fair. Why don't we discuss them individually and see where we end up.

We'll start with the B plot, since that's what the episode chooses to do. We open with proto-incel Sebastian, finally getting up his nerve to ask out the woman who works at his favorite coffee shop. Of course, he does it in the cringiest way possible, comes on way too strong, and gets a polite 'no thank you'. And as a side note, it's sad that I assumed that she was lying about being in a relationship because that's the safest way to deal with creepy incel pick up attempts. What does that say about where we are as a society.

Leland being on hand so that he can personally 'groom' Sebastian toward what one assumes is his ultimate destiny as yet another incel mass murder statistic is completely in character for him. The only surprising thing about it is that Leland would take so much time over such small fry when he has a lot of much more 'big picture' evil to be working on. But hey, maybe this is his version of leisure time fun. That would, after all, also be completely in character for him.

The really interesting thing about the way the Incel Army plotline plays out are the things that it doesn't include. Most immediately noticeable is the way they leave it as a mystery what's in the disgusting box that Sebastian gives to the Woman in the coffee shop, but it's of equal interest that after whipping themselves up online regard how much they hate women and love America, the Incel Army decides to do 'something', but we don't really get any details on what they're planning to do.

I mean, we all kind of know what they're going to do. But the show itself just lets the matter drop to be picked up (one assumes) in future episodes.

And that's what I'm talking about when I say that the episode is more interested in setting things up than it is in paying them off. Clearly the Incel Army is going to play into things later on but witnessing one instance of Leland prodding one member further down the Incel path until he was finally indoctrinated enough to be brought to 8Chan (because of course, 8Chan. Ughh.) is interesting stuff. But it's fairly light as a story in and of itself. Even for a B-plot.

Which brings us neatly to the A-plot, the exorcism of Bridget Farrell.

We should acknowledge, with all of the films and TV episodes dedicated to telling variations on your standard exorcism story, it can be difficult to find a fresh angle. And I liked their solution to that problem. Instead of focusing on the nuts and bolts of the exorcism itself, the story pivots around what exactly Kristen's ethical obligations are in this scenario. And the script raises a lot of interesting questions on this front.

As an employee (or possibly independent contractor? I don't know that the show ever clarifies. Ah well. Unless fictional Kristen Bouchard shows up and asks one of us for help with her tax returns, I don't suppose it matters. Where was I now? Oh, right...) As an employee of the Catholic Church overseeing exorcisms, what exactly are Kristen's ethical obligations regarding things she learns from the possibly possessed? Obviously legally and ethically are two different concerns, and they do a good job of exploring the issue, even if they never get to a definitive answer to the question. Actually, it might be more accurate to say that they do a good job of exploring the issue because they never get to a definitive answer.

Kristen, true to character, comes down on the side of 'right' when faced with the choice between 'right' and 'legal.' One of the things I respect about this show is that they never try to gloss over or obfuscate the way that Kristen deliberately chooses against 'legal' when push comes to shove. It would be so easy to skate past the 'you know you're breaking the law doing this' aspect of her choices, and they never do. It's also very much in character that she first explores ever possible legal option which would allow her goal before she accepts that the legal options aren't going to work.

Which brings us to her friend, Mira the homicide cop. I liked Mira a lot. I don't remember if we ever see her again after this episode. I think we do, but I wouldn't bet a finger on it.

The plot device of a character knowing details about a murder that haven't been released to the public and being unable to say how they know it, thus becoming a suspect themselves has been done many times, but they avoided all the common pitfalls. Not only does Mira never for a moment suspect Kristen, but her immediate response is to head to Kristen's house with pictures of the victims (a little tug on the heartstrings as a mother certainly doesn't hurt) and then clearly and succinctly explain to Kristen the steps that she can take to get around the ethical dilemma. Every single aspect of that approach is smart. It demonstrates that she understands Kristen and has a pragmatic approach to solving the problem without crossing legal boundaries. I really hope we do see more of Mira.

And it's at this point that the exorcism plotline arguably goes a twist too far in the interest of setting up more of the '60 Demons Chart' information that we'll need later. The first twist, that Dwight finally can't take anymore of seeing his wife like this and turns her into the cops is well handled. The slow realization that he'd done this just minutes before the exorcism worked, too late to stop Bridget from being arrested for the murders now that she's free of the demon that actually did them is good tragedy, well plotted and executed.

And then the final twist kind of spoils things. Not entirely, but at least a little. The leap that our heroes take to deducing that Dwight has been using coercive control to make Bridget think that she was the killer while it was really Dwight doing the killing kind of came out of nowhere. David conveniently just lets himself into Dwight and Bridget's house in order to conveniently be there to see Dwight taking out the box of murder trophies. And most damningly, we hear in reported speech that apparently the police just took everybody's word for it that Bridget was innocent and released her based on no conclusive evidence whatsoever.

That felt incredibly rushed, and it was rushed solely so that David could find the demon-sigil on the inside of the wood paneling by Dwight's trophies, setting up more of the 60 demons map info for later in the season. They essentially torpedoed a pretty good take on an exorcism story in order to facilitate one last twist that would allow them to set up future plot points.  When I say that this one is more interested in setting up later episodes than it is in itself, this is what I'm talking about.

Lots of Dutch Angles this week

Bits and Pieces:

-- If we are to assume that it really was Dwight using Coercive Control (which is a real thing and a serious form of abuse), then how do we explain all of Bridget's voice modulation and apparently legitimate demonic possession? Were both Bridget and Dwight possessed by Demon Howard? Neither? Who names a demon Howard? That entire last pivot to Dwight as the murderer really muddies the water as to what is actually going on here.

-- No Sheryl this week. One assumes that she's off recovering from all those third degree burns she received last week while having sex in the bed of fire. Also no sign of the girls, which made me realize that I couldn't remember which of them it was that received the diary with the picture of the slaughtered pig in it.

-- I'm not Catholic, but my vague understanding of Vatican II is that it was an annual council in the Autumn for a few weeks over the course of 1962-1965 and was an attempt to make modern Catholicism more accessible. The Catholic Accessors here are certainly not attempting anything of the kind, which makes me think that they only titled the episode this in order to keep the pattern of including a number in every episode title of Season One.

-- I greatly enjoyed all the sparring between the Accessors and David, Kristen, and Ben. It's an old gimmick, but David surprising both them and the audience by being fluent in Italian was charming. And good on David for standing up for his team.

-- Now we know that the drawings that Grace Ling did in the ICE facility are captured on video. Add that one to our collection of simmering background details. And good on Ben for thinking of it.

-- Gratuitous last minute reveal of David's Dad being a painter who incorporated demon sigils. Sting setup for next week.

-- Why on Earth did Ben wait until they got all the way back to David's rooms to tell David and Kristen about seeing Dwight call the cops? Seems like it would have been pretty easy to mention on the scene.

-- For a secret demonic map of sigils, there's a startlingly large amount of information about them on the internet.

-- Both Leland's sessions with Sebastian and the video montage of the Incels online espousing their beliefs were just so, so gross. Well written, good characterization, carries the story forward in a good way. But the certain knowledge that there are lots and lots of guys out there saying and believing these exact same things just made it feel disgusting.

-- Mira, upon meeting David, accuses Kristen of 'Fleabagging', which was a fun reference.

--It's an interesting side observation that I made note of Sebastian's name, but I don't seem to have noted what the name is of the woman in the coffee shop that turned him down. Which means that on some level I'm guilty of seeing her as a plot function instead of a person in a very similar way to how Sebastian sees her as an object instead of a human being, and now I feel icky inside about myself. Per IMDb it appears her name was Linda.

Don't be these guys.

Quotes:

Ben: "I find it odd that there was a prophet at all. Everything after that is just gravy."
Vatican Accessor: "What does that mean... gravy?"
Ben: "It means that once something is stupid it doesn’t matter how much more stupid gets piled on top of it."

Monsignor: "This is about stopping a massacre." David: "Then they should stop asking my team about their sex lives."

Ben: "Aww. That made me tingly all over."

Kristen: "David, I love our debates over these issues, but not when it comes to murder.

Sebastian the Incel: "What kind of person does that, anyway?"
Leland: "Someone who’s a whore for tips?"

David: "If he comes back, Kristen, you have to tell me. There’s two sides to this. It’s not enough to just use logic."
Kristen: "If he comes back, you’re gonna have to keep me from killing him."
Mira the Cop: "Who are we planning on killing?"
Kristen: "The architect. For making this door too thin."

Howard: "I care because you care, and I don’t like you anymore."

A solid and well told episode, whose only real flaw is keeping possibly just a little bit too much of an eye on setting up the rest of the season at the expense of the episode at hand. But hey, it's halfway through the season and these things have to get set up somewhere, so I can't find it in my heart to judge it too harshly.

Four out of five blueberry muffins.

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.

• Evil season 1
• Evil home