‘Evil’: Creepy Dolls, a Gift We’d Return and a Major Kristen & David Moment (RECAP)

Katja Herbers as Kristen, Mike Colter as David in Evil
Spoiler Alert
Elizabeth Fisher/CBS

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Evil Season 2 Episode 12 “D Is for Doll.”]

It was only a matter of time before Evil did the “D Is for Doll” episode, and if creepy dolls and what they may or may not be able to do is your thing, the penultimate hour of Season 2 is right up your alley.

Dr. Boggs (Kurt Fuller) turns to Kristen (Katja Herbers), David (Mike Colter), and Ben (Aasif Mandvi) to help a friend who’s been experiencing some odd stuff at home. Meanwhile, Kristen’s mother Sheryl (Christine Lahti) ends up tied to their story yet again (though they still don’t know it) after another encounter with Edward (Tim Matheson).

Plus, as the days tick down to his ordination, David begins questioning what the future should hold for him. Will Kristen be the devil to try to tempt him away to Sister Andrea’s (Andrea Martin, continuing to be a highlight of the season and show) angel on his shoulder, or might a request from her surprise him?

Creepy Doll #1

When Kristen stops by to tell Dr. Boggs she’s no longer seeing hallucinations and to schedule another appointment, he asks her to meet with his friend, Nathan (Chicago Med‘s Ato Esssandoh). His wife died a year ago from heart disease (she was only 44), and he fears his grief has opened a door to something. He’s been sensing a presence in his house and seeing a shadow of a man for weeks.

Now, it seems to have taken an interest in and is targeting his son, Elijah, who broke his arm. He was alone when it happened, but he says he felt like he was pushed and now it feels like bugs are crawling underneath his skin. Nathan attributes a mark on his son’s ceiling to water damage, so Ben heads up to the attic to check it out. David joins him when Boggs brings up the book he wants to write about the team. (The consensus: No.)

Sailor Doll Eddie in Evil

Elizabeth Fisher/CBS

There’s a chest up there, and inside is a box. Inside the box is a doll (above) that looks like it could be Eddie’s relative. (Remember the doll Sheryl’s been praying and sacrificing to?) The doll was Nathan’s wife’s, and it had rules. “If you don’t do what Eddie wants, he hurts you.” (Apparently there’s a line of Eddie dolls, with costume changes! Who wouldn’t want to collect them all?)

Elijah’s arm bothers him so much, he cuts off his cast and injures his arm enough that he needs surgery. Meanwhile, Ben discovers that there was a toxic chemical on the doll and uses an ultraviolet light to search for traces in the teen’s room. He uncovers three shadows on the wall, each demonic and progressively scarier until the one with a long tongue licking toward the bed.

Ato Esssandoh, Katja Herbers, Kurt Fuller, Aasif Mandvi in Evil

Elizabeth Fisher/CBS

Rather than bring in a priest for an exorcism, Monsignor Korecki (Boris McGiver) insists a trained layman, Gregory, can handle it. Gregory is odd, to say the least, and David clearly hates him. After he does his thing, he claims the house is safe. But … how do you explain the demonic encounter Boggs has in the hall?

Unsurprisingly, Gregory’s “exorcism” doesn’t work, but Nathan also hadn’t shared everything: His wife gave Eddie gifts to keep him happy, then died a month after he convinced her to stop. He wants the doll back to see if picking up where she left off will do anything.

Michael Emerson as Leland, Andrea Martin as Sister Andrea in Evil

Elizabeth Fisher/CBS

Kristen & David Get Close (A.K.A. a Break From Creepy Dolls)

After Sister Andrea hears that Leland (Michael Emerson) wants a permanent position in the church counseling the possessed (and has fun “accidentally” spilling tea on him), she’s more determined than ever that David is ordained. “I have a gift like you have a gift. A door has been opened up to us, and it comes with some responsibility,” she says. “When you’re in Plato’s cave and you break the restraints and you turn to the light, you can’t go back.” If he’s having doubts, go satisfy them “because the war is beginning.”

And so David does question if his future is at the church or if it may be elsewhere, but it may be a conversation with Kristen that solidifies his answer. He admits to her that he doesn’t know if he’s doing the right thing. They’ve been talking for a year now about everything from God to death to how to be, she says, and he inspires her even if she doesn’t agree with him. She knows he wants to be good, and so few people want that. She worries what will happen if he turns away.

Katja Herbers as Kristen Bouchard in Evil

Elizabeth Fisher/CBS

“I think you offer balance. There are all these bad people, and I think you offer balance to them,” she says. “I will confess I like our time together. But what’s more important I realized is you being this, a priest, different.”

He asks if she wonders what it would be like if things happened differently, if he met her before all this. Yes. “Would we be in love?” he asks, and she nods! But then she walks over to him, puts her hand on his chest, and tells him, “go get ordained,” before leaving. (Why do we feel like she just made his decision even harder?)

Creepy Dolls #2 & 3

Kristen’s daughter Lynn (Brooklyn Shuck) babysits for a kid whose friend always picks the games, and as she discovers during a game of hide and seek, that “friend” is a creepy doll (below) sitting in the dark. “He told me not to move so I can’t play, I’m really sorry,” the kid says. What’s worse: that doll hitches a ride home with Lynn in her bag. When the kids’ parents stop by looking for it, Kristen says Lynn doesn’t have the doll. Her daughter admits she does, but then they can’t find it.

Clown Doll Eddie in Evil

Elizabeth Fisher/CBS

Later that night, Lexis (Maddy Crocco) realizes Laura (Dalya Knapp) took it, and after seeing it, thinks it’s Sheryl’s Eddie. She grabs it and brings it out to the garage. She sets it on Sheryl’s altar and starts praying like her grandmother does. The room starts shaking due to the train going by, and the girls run back into the house, screaming.

Meanwhile, Sheryl drops her granddaughters off at school, Edward joins her. He followed her, he says. “That’s sinister,” she tells him but goes along when he proposes a game: If she does two things he asks, he’ll give her one thing that’s “invaluable.” The first is he has her join him in a business meeting, wear sunglasses, work on a puzzle, then, when he says daffodil, slap the other man in the room. The second is, after hearing daffodil again, bringing a strange man his STD test results in the middle of a dinner at a restaurant.

So what does she get as a result? The greatest lesson of all: her inner strength. No, Edward’s joking, and he gives her an actual wrapped present…depending on your definition of the word. Inside the box is the head of his great-grandfather, preserved in a jar. His family always wanted to keep a piece of their patriarch close to them and passed it down through generations. Now, she is his successor. “This is your sigil,” he says, and she doesn’t return it immediately?!

Instead, she takes a look at the map of sigils (remember that?) and finds the one that looks like the head. When she turns to her altar for Eddie, she’s surprised to see the new doll there. She takes hers out and places it next to it. Then she draws a cross on the floor and puts the jar on a stand where the lines intersect: “Father.” She puts one Eddie doll down: “Son.” Then the other: “Holy Ghost.” With that, she begins praying, “I’m ready. Use me.” What is going on with Sheryl?? How is it that her storyline gets creepier with almost every scene?

Evil, Sundays, Paramount+