‘Evil’ Bosses Break Down Kristen & David’s Very Intimate Moments in the Season 2 Finale
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Evil Season 2 Finale “C Is for Cannibal.”]
Listen, a lot happens in the Evil Season 2 finale. Sheryl’s (Christine Lahti) joined the wrong club. Leland (Michael Emerson) has his sights set on Kristen’s (Katja Herbers) daughter Lexis (Maddy Crocco) and is successfully infiltrating the church. There’s cannibalism, which we don’t want to think about too much beyond that. There’s a Bat-Devil that Sister Andrea (Andrea Martin) stabs with a cross. But what we’re really focused on is how it ends for Kristen and David (Mike Colter).
Yes, David does go through with his ordination, so hello, Father David — Ben (Aasif Mandvi) has fun calling him that even before it’s official. And Kristen is ready to do what she did to serial killer LeRoux to Leland — kill him — to protect her family (she even has her weapon choice, her ice axe) … only she ends up at David’s door and confesses to him! Yes, the whole kneeling, how long it’s been, is she truly sorry, act of contrition confession, followed by her crying in his arms — and the two kissing!
TV Insider turned to creators Michelle and Robert King to break down that key scene and tease what’s next.
Before we get to the kiss, talk about that confession because that moment felt like the most intimate moment between two characters in the entire series.
Michelle King: They did such a gorgeous job. You’re exactly right and that’s such an interesting way to put it. That speaks to how seriously the show takes religion, that our most intimate moment would be during a sacrament.
Robert King: Part of it is so much about what Katja and Mike do. Katja and Mike have so much chemistry, to push that chemistry inside out in a way and not have Mike lose himself as this priest character and Katja is so worried she’s going to kill again to break down like that, I’m moved by it constantly and editing it together, you were moved by all the different versions that did of it. There were some amazing acting choices made there.
Elizabeth Fisher/CBS
Michelle: And I would say it was such a difficult scene for the two of them. And they were so supportive of one another during the process of filming. That was in itself somewhat touching.
Why have them kiss when they do after the confession?
Robert: That was a very last-minute choice. That was probably the last choice we made in the writers’ room. And I think there were two things at play. One was the intimacy of the confession and the relief that Kristen feels, a natural sense of kind of falling into his body and being held. And I think our characters have a lot of difficulty differentiating between — and a lot of people have a lot of difficulty differentiating between — relief and sexual desire: the relief of being held, the intimacy that comes with the sacrament and everything, and then the sexual desire that flows from it. And we also just thought that was a very cool place that seemed to match the end of Season 1 where you’re turning the chapter into what’s going to happen next, but also leave you on a little suspense of, “OK, how do they handle that?”
So how do they handle it?
Robert: We’re in the writers’ room now. I don’t think the audience will be dissatisfied. That’s a double negative. I do think the audience will be satisfied.
Elizabeth Fisher/CBS
Kristen was going to kill Leland before going to David, and Leland remains a threat to her girls. So how is she going to handle that while knowing she doesn’t want to do the one thing that would eliminate that threat?
Michelle: You’re asking all these great questions that there’s no way we’re going to answer.
Robert: You know they’re written on our board in our writers’ room. That’s exactly word for word, because that is the horn of the dilemma, isn’t it? Kristen does not have available to her the means she had with LeRoux. And are there some people in the world that the only way to stop them is with the ultimate price, which is stopping their life? Kristen doesn’t really have that available to her now, and she also doesn’t have that same evil available to her that she had in the second season.
David was clearly having doubts, but he still went through with the ordination. Why?
Michelle: Because he is a profoundly religious person at the end of the day.
Robert: I think Sister Andrea convinces him. There’s also our discussion with Kristin in the last episode, which is, “you’re balance to the world, too bad,” that kind of responsibility is thrown on him. But there are a lot of bad people in the world and we need good people and I think she says, “I’m afraid if you leave, we will lose that balance.” I think that probably is where David’s head is at more than anything. Sister Andrea goes a step further and says, “You have a talent one out of 40 million have, which is you can see through this doorway into the supernatural,” which she believes and David believes. So how can you walk away from that is, I think, part of the question.
Evil, Season 3, TBA, Paramount+
