Evil - Book 27

Discussing Ep. 1.13

Wow!

Like.....WOW!!!

What an ending! And I just read that Evil got a second season so that is such great news because they could not have ended things like this. They couldn't have!

Having said that though, I get the sense that because a second season was not secure, that the writers, as many writers of TV shows often face, were forced to try and tie everything together and leave a cliff hanger that could serve as a season or series finale. As such, some elements in this episode and the way they tied things together fell a little short but overall, it was such a blast of a season and a blast of an episode!

So this guy is showing up all over the place now. He appeared in the real world talking to Townsend. He appears in Kristen's dream. He appeared in an illusion to Kristen's daughter, Lexis. And he appeared in a vision to David. Is he supposed to Satan? I'm assuming he is so we'll go with that for now.

I liked the progression at the beginning because it went from her first encounter with demonic possession in the form of Orson, then it went onto George, and finally ended with Satan. What has surprised me about this series is that it wasn't what I thought it would be. I expected that each episode was going to be like the first, where they come across some seemingly supernatural case and in some instances they will debunk everything and in some instances, like the episode with the ghost in the hospital camera, they won't and will leave it to the audience to decide.

But it looks like they've embraced the supernatural and running with it full steam ahead.

I was fully expecting them to have this be one of those mysteries where it started out as supernatural but they would write it off as natural. Eleanor is pregnant with twins and is due in 10 days, but she believes that one of her children is possessed, or at the very least, evil incarnate and shows it by hurting her with his bumping around in her stomach. I figured they would debunk this until this particular scene when David places a crucifix on Eleanor's hand, which a possessed person could not hold. Eleanor holds onto it just fine. But then he puts it on Eleanor's stomach and this fucking bump came out of nowhere! It was clear that she wasn't kidding and that it wasn't just her imagination that she was feeling this demon baby inside of her bumping her insides to smithereens! So it was up to David to convince the diocese that an exorcism was required.

Of course, the diocese didn't believe that the baby might have been possessed because possession requires consent. I was impressed that they got that part right. Then, of all people, Ben suggests that it's not possession but an infestation, which wouldn't require consent. That was impressive too! So the diocese decides to apply his own test by having Eleanor take part in communion. Then this happens!

I was expecting something when she swallowed the wafer, but not this! What the hell happened here? They said in the hospital that the one twin absorbed the other and that it happens, otherwise known as Vanishing Twin Syndrome. But fuck man....did the bad twin puree the good twin into nothing but blood? That was like all the blood in Eleanor's body that she bled out onto the floor!

So in their investigation of the case, they find out that Eleanor was impregnated through in vitro fertilization by a company called RSM Fertility. I have to say, it was really weird, if not somewhat convenient, how everything came together.

While Ben is in Eleanor's kitchen, a teddy bear suddenly starts playing the tune that made all those choir girls go nuts in that YouTuber video. He checks the bear out and finds out it came from RSM Fertility. Bizarre how the bear started playing the tune without being activated. When they check out the clinic, David makes the connection with the Euler Triangle that he had seen in his past visions.

I was a tad bit disappointed, if only because the vision that David had contained numbers and letters that I thought were going to point to something more, not just merely be the same image as the RSM Fertility logo. However, as I said before, I understand the circumstances the writers were in and they only had 13 episodes to work with so I'll run with this. After looking at some images of past clients of the clinic, David recognizes someone from a past episode.

This is the kid that suddenly became possessed and tried to drown his baby sister and whose parents ended up killing him! So now they're connecting SOME of the past cases to the fertility clinic. I'm willing to bet that Brenda, from the Halloween episode, was also birthed thanks to the RSM Fertility clinic. It would only make sense.

Adding to the revelations, David discovers that RSM Fertility is located in the very same cities that correlated to the three stars vision that he had, which he later connected to specific cities in the US.

So I kind of felt like they were going into Manifest territory here by having David have visions instead of "callings" that would later point to something in the future. So what David and Ben conclude is that RSM Fertility is basically churning out psychopaths. But it seems to go deeper than mere psychopaths and that the fetuses are somehow demonically obsessed, meaning that there is some kind of attachment to the demonic world. This is essentially confirmed by Kristen, who reveals that her second eldest daughter, Lexis, was created in vitro thanks to RSM Fertility.

Now this is where I was a bit iffy on this particular revelation. Aside from the eldest daughter, Lynn, and the youngest daughter, Laura, we haven't really been exposed to the other two daughters, Lexis and Lila. Lexis got some shine in that episode where Sheryl gave her horrible advice and caused her to injure a fellow student that was bullying her. But that was it. She started to become more involved in the last episode and this episode with her confessing weird things to Kristen, but there was really nothing there that suggested that she was any different from her siblings. If anything, I would have thought that it was the youngest daughter, Laura, that was born using in vitro. She's the one with the bad heart valve and she was the one who saw the demon outside of the VR headset when they first got that. Also, she was the one who was in the grave when Brenda took the girls to the graveyard. So all of that would have made more sense if Laura was the one who was the odd one out among the sisters.

But they're having it that Lexis is potentially a future psycho or possessed who is being visited by Satan (or Orson possessed by a demon) and so now it's a wait and see kind of thing. It's interesting because there doesn't seem to be a specific age when the change happens. With that kid who tried to drown his baby sister, it happened when he was around 10. With Eleanor's twins, it happened as a fetus. And with Kristen, it seems to have happened as an adult!

Speaking of Kristen's behaviour....WHOA!!!

So she's getting harassed by Orson, who pretends that he's become a born-again Christian and wants to make amends. But he's also throwing false accusations and also ends up going too far when he shows up, trying to break into Kristen's house and Lexis, inexplicably, lets him in as she follows the command of Satan in a bizarre vision. At this point, Kristen snaps and grabs a hiking pick with a very sinister look on her face. Given what she had done to Townsend, basically committing attempted murder had Townsend not made it to the hospital to stitch up the cut she made on his neck, it's clear that she was willing to go to great lengths to protect her family.

But now we are left with the impression that she killed Orson. We never got confirmation of it, but signs are heavily pointing to the idea that Kristen did indeed kill Orson after he successfully broke into her house and left a gift basket. She had blood on her leg which Ben noticed, and she seemed very insistent with Ben that he didn't see anything, that there was no blood on her legs. Also, when Mira (who I was very surprised was still talking with Kristen) informed her that they found Orson bludgeoned to death and figured it was his wife, that left the viewer with the serious question as to what exactly Kristen did. It's especially dangerous because the cops aren't stupid. Mind you, neither is Kristen and perhaps she did a good enough job of covering her tracks. But she's playing with fire and it seems like she's going to get burned.

Speaking of which.....

This was awesome! What a way to end the season. I mean, this was almost like Forever Knight, when Nick the vampire tries to hold a crucifix and gets burned. Here, Kristen....the atheist, the nonbeliever, the former Catholic who lost her faith....tries to hold a crucifix and gets burned! So what are we to take from this? She can't be possessed because she never consented to possession. It could be obsession, given her visits with George and Satan in her dreams and given her irrational attitude. The fact is though, I have a feeling that a connection is going to be made between Kristen and the RSM Fertility clinic that is beyond Lexis being the only one in the family from there.

My guess is that, given what happened with Kristen at the end of the episode and along with Sheryl and her relationship with both Kristen and Townsend, that Kristen herself is a product of RSM Fertility. It would explain why we've never heard anything about Kristen's father and why Kristen was so heavily targeted by Townsend, along with why she's so different from Sheryl and why Kristen's behaviour has suddenly taken a turn for the worst. It would also explain David's vision at the end, with Satan threshing the wheat and Kristen willingly going towards him, suggesting that she is already his.

Speaking of Sheryl, she's REALLY starting to get on my nerves. I get that she's "in love" with Townsend and therefore is completely blind to the red flags that circle around him, but to give him a copy of that damn Codex and to also give him a copy of her key is just absolutely ridiculous. Credit to Townsend for working his magic and proposing to her, further ensnaring her. The thing that I don't get is when Sheryl approached Kristen to get her blessing, that Kristen didn't reveal everything that she had learned about Townsend, like his real name of Jake The Flake and his previous divorces and all of that. Somehow, I think that still wouldn't have changed Sheryl's mind but it's unfortunate, but not uncommon, for someone to choose a lover (who is bad for them) over their own family.

Anyway, so while they did attempt to connect various cases from the past to this overall storyline, there are still a number of questions left behind which I'm glad a second season might yet answer.

What are we to make of the Codex and the sigils?

We never got any resolution to David's father painting the sigils or that woman who birthed that demon baby, or the ghost of that slave girl that talked to David.

What ever happened to that prayer group that David was supposed to host that Townsend was going to send Sebastian, the incel, into to shoot everyone up? Whatever happened to Townsend getting another incel to do the job?

Are we ever going to get an explanation for the ghost/angel in that hospital footage?

What was the voice that spoke to Ben and his sister through the Alexa device that seemed to know so much about them and was talking in Arabic?

Is there a resolution as to where Nurse Plague (Nancy) went and why she was trying to kill black patients?

Who left those notes that were in Julia's handwriting and kept taking photos of David and Renée together? And whatever happened to his relationship with Renée?

Why did God give David these revelations now when the RSM Fertility clinic has been operating for years?

I really do hope we get answers to these questions next season.

Overall, a great first season. This show really surprised me in so many ways and I'm happy about that. I think the chemistry between Kristen, Ben and David is awesome and they're my favourite trio right now. Can't wait to for the next season.

I'll leave off with this quote that David said to Kristen. I liked David's explanation for why he continues to believe. It pretty much mirrors my own reasons for believing.

"When this body contained a soul, an entire kingdom was too small to hold it. But now, two paces of wretched earth is plenty of room."

It is indeed, ironic.