Evil - Justice X2

Discussing Ep. 1.12

Damn! Was this ever a graphic, turn-on-a-dime type of episode! So much to unpack here.

First, I'll tackle Sonya and her issues with that comedian guy, Lando.

First of all, let this be a lesson: if you're some down-on-your-luck, average Joe just trying to make it in the world, and some classy, dolled up, beautiful woman takes a liking to you.....RUN!!! It's too good to be true! In this case, Sonya was out for revenge for the Rwandan Genocide. Why they decided to insert this whole aspect of her hearing voices and confusing them with God seemed a bit tacked on. Nevertheless, aside from different twists and turns in this episode, there was one aspect that was consistent: turning the Word of God on it's head!

I have to say, I liked how she was able to parry with David in regards to Scripture. First, she says that she's been hearing a voice and surmises that God is commanding her to kill. David argues that God does not do that, that He does not command people to kill. She argues back that He did indeed command Saul to kill ALL the Amaleks, right down to the women, children and infants. David's only response was that that was Old Testament and that no longer applied. That wasn't a sufficient enough argument for Sonya and I think it kind of left the viewer in limbo in terms of the argument itself.

Her second argument comes after she's already knocked out David and has him tied up, along with Lando. First off, David has been having a really bad run of luck here. First, he gets stabbed and sent to the hospital. Then in the hospital, he gets doped up on drugs and is almost killed by the nurse. And here, he gets pushed down a flight of stairs and tied up! I should hope that the next episode, the show goes easy on him.

I wasn't sure what to make of Lando. Obviously, he was guilty of something or he wouldn't have freaked out when she did that cockroach joke at the beginning. But his accent changed from Rwandan to American and then back to Rwandan again. So I didn't know what was what in regards to his country of origin. As Sonya is accusing him of being the voice on the radio that encouraged Hutu soldiers to slaughter Tutsi people without remorse during the Genocide, he keeps saying that it wasn't him. I figured he was lying but I wasn't sure in what way. Then, Sonya decides to take things up a notch to encourage Lando to confess.

This was fucking brutal! She lopped his ear off! Though I will say, that's pretty good accuracy with a machete. I'd have to imagine it isn't easy to take a swing at someone with a machete and only chop their ear off. As she's tending to his wound, David brings up Jesus healing the man who got his own ear chopped off by one of Jesus' disciples, claiming that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. Sonya counters, correctly, that Jesus also claimed that He did not come to the world to bring peace, but a sword. And David had no retort. I think it really served to show how confusing the Scriptures can actually be, and how people can pretty much justify any behaviour by grabbing any verse from the Bible to support it.

As it turns out, Lando was the voice on the radio and confessed his sins. I knew that he was a dead man after that. She wasn't going to let him walk away with one ear to show for it. And her labelling it as justice rather than revenge also brings up the rhetorical question: what is the difference in this case? Even though Lando wasn't one of the soldiers who committed those atrocities, he made jokes about it. The other thing that I found intriguing was when Sonya was recounting her experience during the Genocide, how she saw her sister die and how she saw the Hutu soldiers killing people with machetes and even cracking babies heads on the pavement. For me, it brought to mind Psalm 137: 8 & 9:

O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.

Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

What was the difference between what Sonya did here and the Israelites did to the Babylonians? How was what Sonya did merely revenge and what God commanded the Israelites to do as justice? Whatever judgement is thrown at Sonya, I think she has a defence for it. Because it's true...God has asked specific things of the people of the Bible that He seemingly commands other people to forsake and abhor! So many times, it seems like a double standard if not sheer hypocrisy. Thou shalt not kill...but go ahead and kill these people? I can see how and why Sonya would get confused and why others do as well. I think, however, that she was on her way to going overboard with the various visitors that came to her place, including Ben!

When that woman with the dog, Joker, came a calling, I questioned why Sonya took her machete with her. Then, when the woman was seemingly not going to leave well enough alone, Sonya was reaching for the machete. What the hell was she going to do....kill the woman and her dog? Thankfully, she came up with a rather funny, if not awkward explanation, about her and her husband doing some roleplaying and sex games. That seemed to calm the woman's fears. Then Ben shows up and again, Sonya had her trusty machete in hand. Again, thankfully Ben was called away and he lived to see another day, but Sonya came very close to killing innocent bystanders which is something I don't think her conscience could stand. I get the sense that she's at peace with what she has done. She calmly killed Lando and then called the police to let them know what she had done. As strange as it sounds, I think she's at peace both before her own conscience and God.

The hospital scene and the surgery for Laura was interesting. First, I liked how Kristen kind of turned it on Andy when he was meditating and him kind of mocking her association with the Catholic faith, even though she's an admitted atheist. Once again though, this felt tacked on. He never said or hinted before at being Buddhist or engaging in Buddhist practices. I guess that's why Kristen was so surprised, no? Still, it was odd when he started doing his mantra and the eldest daughter, Lynn, sees him doing this and then at the hospital, with no instruction or guidance from him, all three of the girls are doing the same mantra in the same pose! I'm wondering what the significance of that is, if it's going to be painted as either good or bad. It was eerie, to say the least, because how could Lynn replicate what Andy was saying so perfectly? How could the other girls? And why would she even try given that she likely had no idea what Andy was saying?

I was questioning why Laura was getting the surgery because Grace had told Kristen that the valve would heal on its own. They held up Grace's prophecy when the doctor came back and told Andy and Kristen that the valve did indeed heal on its own and the surgery was not necessary. But now, there's a catch. Andy's mantra requested that his life be given for Laura's. Given that all three of the other sisters recited the same mantra.....are they all going to give their lives for Laura too? It ties in a bit with what Townsend said later on.

As for the trial, I was surprised they brought Orson Leroux back or even connected his murders with the recent murders of those three boys. I kind of feel like the trial itself was a means to an end, to bring on that epic confrontation between Kristen and Townsend, and to also sabotage this particular relationship between Kristen and her detective friend, Mira. I will say that Kristen really ruined her relationship with Mira for no reason at all. In Mira's defence, she was just doing her job. She was being honest and objective and Kristen couldn't ask her to be anything else. While Kristen brought up a decent point, that Mira was writing a book about serial killers and thus her objectivity was in question, in the end that did nothing to sway the judge's decision. Orson still got to go free. And now, Kristen has no ally in the police force. I don't know if she necessarily needs one but Mira has been somewhat helpful in these episodes she's appeared in. Beyond that, she was Kristen's friend and now that friendship is likely over. So Kristen ruined that friendship for nothing.

But if Kristen took a misstep with Mira, she corrected herself and took a MASSIVE stomp on Townsend! She EVISCERATED this guy! She castrated him, held up his manhood and bopped him on the nose with it all the while making fun of him! Not literally, of course, but I've never seen Townsend look so beaten down with words. He came off so weak, so insecure, so defeated. He came off like Sebastian! It was amazing. 

He started off strong, mocking Kristen and essentially threatening her family. This is where the third instance of the Bible was turned on it's head, sort of. Townsend said that he was going to do to Kristen what God did to Job, implying that it was almost divine what he was going to do. He said he was going to take her daughters and husband away from her. I immediately thought of this line when Andy said that he traded his life for Laura's, and the sisters did as well, albeit inadvertently. I thought Townsend had Kristen on the ropes here. But then, she cut him off. Again, and again, and again, and again, and again. She brushed off his threats and countered with some truths. Leland Townsend, formerly known as Jake Perry, an insurance adjuster twice divorced, played the tuba in the marching band and carried the nickname Jake The Flake. Townsend was so stunned by this, she left him literally speechless. It was brilliant! So, kudos to Kristen for finally getting one over on Townsend.

Though I had to admit, I was a bit worried, if not confused. Because Kristen's phone was not working when Townsend came by, implying that there was something supernatural about him.

In much the same way that her recorder didn't work when she tried to record Townsend confessing to corrupting that young kid in prison earlier in the season, her phone wasn't working here either while in his presence. I thought that with Kristen's smackdown, exposing Townsend as an insecure fraud who was using Satanism and the Devil as a mechanism and symbol to induce fear but had no real power beyond that of a normal human being, they did what they always did....reduce the supernatural into nothing more than a natural occurrence with a natural explanation. They almost did that here....until this.

This was excellent! I mean....what the hell is this? Is that the Devil? Is this a figment of Townsend's imagination? At first, I was so curious as to who Townsend was talking to because they never had Townsend talk to a therapist before. Who was his therapist? I thought we were going to see some priest or someone we had seen in the past working as Townsend's therapist, sort of to introduce a new twist. But we got this instead.

This was funny, bizarre, cool and intriguing all at the same time. I liked how Townsend was revealing all his insecurities, all his feelings in regards to Kristen and how he was obsessed with her. And he expressed a desire to kill her but that wasn't "according to the plan." The Demon asked him if he would like it to be according to the plan, suggesting that "the plan" is rather fluid and slightly changeable. The Demon allowed that they would kill Kristen and they would cut out her heart, and "you and I will eat it together." I loved how calm, how soothing the voice was and how nonchalant he said this line. It was such a great contrast to the visual of this giant goat man saying these words.

So where does this leave us? Is Townsend possessed? I have to think he somewhat is because of the way Kristen's electronic devices seem to malfunction in his presence. At the same time, his relationship with Sheryl, his insecurities and his past seem to suggest that he's just some ordinary guy. And is that demon real or is it part of Townsend's imagination? 

I'm also still keeping track of the numbers in the titles of the episodes. 

177, 3, 390, 31, 9, 3, 2, 2, 7, 320, 2

Are these lottery numbers? Why does every episode, aside from the pilot, have a number?

I'm still thinking it has some significance.