Critic’s Rating: 4.15 / 5.0
4.15
Is the world getting weirder? Kristen wondered that aloud in Evil Season 4 Episode 9.
It’s a pivotal moment when the three assessors are enjoying each other’s company and pondering the world as they’ve come to know it.
The funny thing is that they don’t even know the half of it, but “How to Build” married the “normal” side with the “weird” side of this tale quite admirably.
Before I get into the nitty-gritty of the episode, I wanted to let you know that I opted to write a recap for this episode, which you can find at the link above.
If you’re a regular reader, you know we’ve made some changes. I’ve heard some complaints, so I wanted to see how offering both again works. Please let me know!
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If there ever was a show that deserved as much discussion as possible, it’s Evil.
Ironically, I see almost no discussion surrounding it. On Reddit, there were a handful of discussion threads, but they all dried up months ago. Well, I’m going to continue leading the charge for the time we have left, and I hope you’re along for the ride.
There were two overriding story arcs for “How to Build a Chatbot.” One centered on an assessment of an app that allowed people to create avatars of their dead loved ones, and the other pitted Sheryl and Leland against each other with The Manager in the middle.
Since the world is getting weirder both on the show and in real life, we are pretty sure what comes next will marry the two groups as they fight against Evil Leland Townsend.
Watching the story about LastConnectionAI.com reminded me of an episode of Black Mirror titled “Be Right Back.” In it, a woman’s husband is killed, and she begins an afterlife with him, first through texts, then through voice messaging, and finally through an Android replacement.
I thought then, and I think now, that I’d enjoy such an interaction. Of course, if it began calling me the whore of Babylon and cursing me in Aramaic, I would probably be as disturbed as everyone else.
What really clicked with Kristen, David, and Ben was how the chatbots broke through their barriers to the AI experience.
None of them wanted to believe that it could sway them or that they’d believe what they heard, but that didn’t hold true for any of them.
I thought it was weird that Kristen reached out to Andy, who should be within her grasp, and David, who definitely is. She gave up on Andy quickly, and I couldn’t tell if that was because she was letting him go or that it was just too off to think of him like he was no longer there.
Why she turned to David is no mystery. She closed her bedroom door, knowing very well that if all of her information was searched, there was a possibility it could get steamy in there. And steamy it did get!
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Is it more unlikely that they’ll ever connect before Evil ends or that they’ll give in to their passion, marriage to Andy and Jesus be damned? Real life would suggest they won’t connect.
It’s far more likely that people remain faithful than not. If you get all of your social info through entertainment, that might shock you. On TV, whether on scripted or reality TV, it seems like everyone cheats.
The better storytelling path is to dance around it. It’s far more complicated and nuanced to deny feelings that chafe against you every time you share the same space. That may be why lesser shows would have already had Kristen and David in bed together.
They have the freedom to use demonic entities to release a bit of steam, and during this episode, sexy demon Kristen makes an appearance. However, the interactions between David and Kristen at the software company were far better.
Kristen can’t hide her feminine, girlish side when she’s tempted by David’s presence, and Katja Herbers plays both that and her demonic playgirl to perfection.
David chose to revisit Julia, who we learned about earlier on Evil. Although there was no present connection between AI Julia and Leland, it was hard not to recall he once taunted David about how he pushed Julia to take her own life.
Julia did mention her suicide, but she left the instigator out of it. The real Julia might not have been so inclined.
Ben couldn’t figure out who to contact, but Karima chose their mother, which was suitable since Dr. Boggs wondered if there was a connection between Ben’s Jinn visions and something from his childhood involving his mother.
Not only did his mother give him a helpful hint through the AI grief bot on how to address his issues, but Ben’s symptoms increased after his mom reached out from beyond. There is definitely something gnawing at little Einas.
From what I could tell, there was no smell of hot buttered popcorn influencing him — he wasn’t snapping the rubber band on his wrist as Kristen did in Season 1 — but he did look like Jiffy Pop once he donned his tinfoil hat!
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David had a heavy heart after talking with AI Julia, and Kristen’s interactions with AI David showed how such a program could be detrimental to your well-being. Imagine a stalker uploading their prey. Yikes.
Ben’s experience was different. He has come to the conclusion that dressing himself like baked potato is just another scientific experiment. Would he feel the same if he saw a stranger doing it? Allowances we make for ourselves aren’t often extended to others.
So we need to address not just whether David and Kristen ever acknowledge their feelings for one another but also whether Kristen and Ben are more open to faith than they admit.
I’d say Ben and Kristen’s exploration of faith is far more significant than a dalliance between David and Kristen.
That’s especially true now that Leland intends to lure Kristen further down the rabbit hole of Baby Timothy’s world. His idea is that Kristen, with her infidelity, possession, and qualities as a murderess, is just the right person to raise the Antichrist.
But damn, how badass was Sheryl? She’s going to fight tooth and nail to keep Leland from destroying any more of her family with his evil ways, and it’s about time!
She’s decked out in Kevlar and taking every precaution, but she didn’t expect Leland to kill The Manager — surely, that ups his demonic cred a bit and gives him another leg to stand on in this battle.
I’m kind of going to miss the stinky guy.
Once you got to know him, he wasn’t all that bad. He appreciated Sheryl’s courage and had the guts to try passing off a random baby as the Antichrist after Timothy’s baptism. He had the same balls he admired in Sheryl!
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Will the remaining episodes be a cross between War of the Roses and The Omen with Leland and Sheryl trying to kill each other at the same time he tries to sway Kristen to raise Timothy?
Leland has tried many times to manipulate Kristen into doing his bidding, but she’s got a strong support team that helps her cut him off at the knees.
Ben is not at his best. Before they can conquer Leland, he’ll have to fix whatever is ailing him.
Keep in mind that Evil Season 4 Episode 10 was meant to be a season finale. After that, Kurt Fuller says in an interview that will be posted later today, things take a sharp turn to bring the series to a close.
While I’m not looking forward to the end, I’m eager to see it. I know that if anyone can pull this off, it’s Robert and Michelle King.
What are your expectations of Episode 10? Have you given any thought to how you’d like this chapter of Evil to end?
The world IS getting weirder. Can you think of a worse time for a show that explores it to end? I sure can’t.
Share your thoughts with me a comment below!
