Devil In The Details
Katja Herbers on what horrors await Dr Bouchard and her team in the final season of Evil
IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS SINCE EVIL premiered as a procedural mystery with supernatural proclivities, exploring the intersection of faith and science. The show’s premise has the Catholic Church hiring two atheists – forensic psychologist Dr Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) and tech expert Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi) – to join seminarian (now priest) David Acosta (Mike Colter) to investigate cases having to do with possession or demonic intervention.
Sounds pretty staid, but the level of crazy that’s unfolded across three seasons has made Evil one of the most insane yet addictive shows since The X-files. From apocalyptic codex cases to Bouchard’s daughter having a secret tail, the show goes places no one would expect. Yet creators Robert and Michelle King have kept it grounded and intellectually daring.
Evil’s fourth and final season will have four bonus episodes to wrap up the many outstanding plots, such as Bouchard’s missing – and possibly demonically corrupted – IVF eggs and the wicked machinations of Dr Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson), which might include the end of the world…
In the season three finale “The Demon Of The End”, Bouchard’s house was infected with spiritual demons, while her husband Andy (Patrick Brammall) was finally released back home – albeit changed by Townsend and her possessed mother Sheryl (Christine Lahti).
“Kristen is very resilient,” actress Katja Herbers tells Red Alert, reflecting on the insanity her character has faced. “But she bounces back. In this season… it’s gotten so absurd. At the end of season three she is finding out that Leland has impregnated a surrogate. Her mom was involved in this and [the baby] is supposed to be the Antichrist. She just started laughing.
“It’s just too much,” the actress smiles, “so Kristen decides if there are people in this world trying to control you with their evil nonsense, it’s just not worth getting upset about it. Just fuck it!”
Bouchard normally has a curious, openminded approach to the world and what they investigate. Herbers says that she’ll be far less patient in this last season – for example, in her attitude towards her bohemian mother.
“She’s a very troubled woman,” she says of how Bouchard now sees Sheryl. “Christine plays it beautifully, so you do understand that Leland has the power to really brainwash someone, and he plays into her insecurities. He gives her that potion that’s supposed to make her look younger that’s addictive to her, and
she probably thinks she can manipulate him. Now this baby is happening. From Kristen’s perspective, it’s kind of game over between them. I don’t know how you come back from that. That’s not even the half of it yet, because [Kristen] doesn’t know what she did to Andy.”
Speaking of her mountaineering hubby, Kristen begged God in prayer for him to be alive – and he is. But he’s not quite right. Herbers says that Townsend has definitely got into Andy’s head in a very bad way.
“He is being fed jealousy by Leland,” she says about lies implying that Kristen slept with David. “It gets into his head and he accuses me of it, and goes to David. I love that story because obviously there has been stuff going on between them, although they’ve never slept together. But they did kiss.”
Plus, there’s the “demon Kristen” doppelgänger David has manifested. “So, David has some weird guilt of something that didn’t happen, but did… but didn’t,” she laughs.
Herbers says that Kristen’s stronger rejection of religion will create a wedge between her and David. “It changes things a little bit between David and Kristen. They were getting very close again, and she looked at his perspective, like maybe there was some sense to what he’s saying. This season, she’s decided she wants to do away with everything that has anything to do with religion. It’s just science and she is not willing to move from that.”
Viewers have been drawn to David and Kristen’s relationship over the years. Are they ultimately meant to be together? Herbers says there is a genuine connection. “They could be together were it not this, and I think they’ve accepted that,” she says.
“I like that it has morphed into just friendship and respect. But I think at any point, they could both tap into the longing and do it, so there’s always a lot at play there. I like that. It’s sort of infinite in its possibilities – and not-possibilities. It’s always good for a character to want something that they can’t have.”
Making use of an eclectic array of topics, from pig swill insanity to hurricanes, Evil’s finale season will, Herbers says, continue to provoke audiences about everyday inhumanities while resolving its mythology too. “That’s what I love about what we do with the procedural elements,” she closes. “It being so much about the now we live in is great.”
Evil season four is on Paramount+ in May.
She’s decided she wants to do away with anything that has to do with religion