‘Evil’ Final Season Scoop: David’s Attraction to Kristen, Raising the Antichrist & More

Paramount+’s philosophical horror drama begins its fourth and final season—ending far too soon for its many fans.  What can we expect?  To start, the psychopathic devil-worshiping Leland (Michael Emerson) is not enjoying raising Timothy, the puking, pooping infant, born via surrogate from a purloined egg from Kristen (Katja Herbers) that he self-fertilized and whom he believes to be the Antichrist.

He’s not the only one with issues, however. All three of the Catholic Church’s exorcist assessors are going through a lot. Confirmed atheist Ben (Aasif Mandvi) “has a real crisis of faith—in science and medicine, after suffering from migraines and visions,” says Evil executive producer Robert King. “His arc is moving from a true belief in science and medicine to how much of life is a mystery beyond that.”

“David [Mike Colter] is clearly struggling with his attraction to Kristen,” King continues. “But even more he’s struggling with something called The Entity that wants to call itself the friend of the Vatican. These are people who attack the evil forces of the world but through pragmatic and militaristic means. So some of the means seem like the evil that David fights, which is what you do when you use evil to combat evil. “

As for Kristen, King adds, “she is really struggling, with her laughing at Leland, his insane idea that they’re having the Antichrist together. It’s kind of almost a Rosemary’s Baby  situation.” Could it be a nature vs nurture contest, or, he adds, “is her mother’s instinct triumphing over everything? We wanted to play babies as their own kind of threats, their own kind of joy and their own kind of nightmare. You don’t even need the Antichrist layered on top!”

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The main theme this season, King suggests, “is that evil is changing because of the use of technology. The most scary thing of all is that evil across all languages, all states and countries is in communication with each other. There is no rationale to it. It just wants to do wrong, because doing wrong is fun. How can love battle evil when love seems to have trouble catching up in a world that’s being ruled by social media?” Another series-long theme, says Michelle King, Robert’s wife and fellow executive producer, “is that it is possible for people who disagree to have respectful conversation about difficult problems.”

There are 14 episodes to find out which side of the argument will have the upper hand when the show ends in August.

Evil, Fourth and Final Season Premiere, Thursday, May 23, Paramount+