'Evil' Season 1 Finale Review: The horrific tale ends with a jaw-dropping twist and one big mystery
The review contains spoilers for 'Evil' Season 1 Episode 13 — 'Book 27'
If you're an unbeliever, you may start believing. And if you're a believer, you may have to lose all your beliefs. Sounds pretty convoluted, right? That's 'Evil' for you! What started out as a team of skeptics and believers soon manifested itself into a twisted tale.
In its jaw-dropping final episode, it only gets more sadistic and barbaric, and that too, without a warning. 'Book 27' incorporates a slight 'Inception' element as a dream-within-a-dream sequence plays out.
Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) revisits her encounter with her first-case serial killer Orson LeRoux (Darren Pettie) — only this time she is attacking him with her chair. When she wakes up from the bizarre dream, the demon George is on top of her and knows about her offer to go to Mount Everest with her husband.
As if that was not enough torture for the morning, she watches her daughter Lexis (Maddy Crocco) spitting blood out of her mouth.
Kristen realizes that the demon could only know it through Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson), who must have found it out through Sheryl Luria (Christine Lahti). She immediately gives an ultimatum to Sheryl to either be with Leland or her daughters. Guess whose side Sheryl picks: Her lover, of course!
As the episode proceeds, Kirsten teams up with David Acosta (Mike Colter) and Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi) to examine a pregnant woman who wants an exorcism. "Why are all these exorcisms women?" Kirsten had a valid point there! Through all the quirks and idiosyncrasies, much goes adrift and here's everything that went down.
The Kristen-Orson Connection
"I came here to make peace. I found God!" Orson meets Kristen outside her house and tries his best to apologize. He even calls her and tells her he wants to "apologize" for "imagining snapping the necks of your girls." But, she goes to cops and complains about a man constantly on watch.
To get rid of the paranoia, she gets Ben to fortify her home with new locks and an updated security system and hands over one key each to all her daughters. Orson still tries to get in touch with her. But, towards the end, she gets a call saying LeRoux is dead. "He was bludgeoned. We are thinking it was by his wife. Your troubles are over." But is it really? Or is the serial killer the demon goat?
The unborn demon baby
Doctors say Eleanor (Laura Heisler) is having a difficult pregnancy but when Kirsten, David, and Ben meet the pregnant woman first, she tells them her fetus is possessed. "At night, there are sounds inside me. My daughter constantly cries for my help." While Kirsten tries to evaluate if there is a logical explanation, she assures them it is a devil inside. "He is eating me. I can feel it." The horrific words will ring in your ears for a long time.
It is only when David places the cross on her belly that they notice the kicks. She pleads, "It's the devil inside me. Please help me before he can kill me." The priests realize they cannot do an exorcism on an unborn child but agree to do an infestation of the womb. They perform the Eucharist and in no time, Eleanor falls on the floor and there's a gargantuan flow of blood spilling out of her vagina. The frightening imagery will nauseate you and scare you to your wits.
Once, she is taken to the hospital, she looks at the screen and panics. "Where is my child?" Her son is still alive, it is her daughter who is dead. If that doesn't give you the heebie-jeebies, nothing else will.
Sheryl and Leland: To tie the knot?
Kristen lets her mother Sheryl go to her demonic lover Leland. Once together, Leland asks Shirley if he can see her house keys. Puzzled, she hands it over only to see him adding his key to the ring.
The two go out for dinner. When Sheryl tells Leland about her daughter's unusual request, he goes down on his knees and proposes her. Sheryl says yes, but on the condition of her family accepting him. So are Sheryl and Leland going to turn from lovers to a married couple? And what implications will it have on Kristen's life?
RSM Fertility Centre and Lexis
Kristen's daughter wakes up to knocks on the door. "Why shall I let you in?" she asks but opens the door anyway. It is the demon goat! Later, Kristen comes home to find a huge candy parcel with Orson's name on it.
In another sequence, David and Ben discover that the RSM fertility center has a link with the devil baby. As they connect the dots, they realize the hospital has been sowing the seeds for possessed babies. There is a bigger twist. When the two tell Kristen, she has a shocking reaction. "I went to RSM Fertility," she reveals. "I had a baby born using Vitro after Layla died. It is Lexis."
'Wheat' was David's bizarre dream?
Towards the end of the episode, David has a bizarre dream in a field of barley. He looks at Kristen coming to meet him but suddenly moving towards the demon goat. 'Wheat' in the world is going on with David's vision? Does it have something to do with Kristin's link to the demon goat?
The show ends with a major twist: Is Kristin possessed? Did the crucifix burn her? Two clues point towards it: Ben notices blood on Kristen's legs but she acts creepy while trying to wash it off. Later, she takes out prayer beads and finds a bloody cross sign on her hand.
Remember how Ben said, "Lot of blood in your religion." Doesn't it all add? It all sums up to Katja's disclosure from her interview: "At the end of the season, we're left with one big question and a whole bunch of other stuff to think about."