Evil Review: Justice x 2 (Season 1 Episode 12)

Evil whacks us over the head, yet again, with the zany and epic Evil Season 1 Episode 12, “Justice x 2.”

It is that tasty strange offering that we’ve come to expect. Evil is spoiling us.

Katja Herbers as the kinda-twisted Kristen Bouchard has me laughing out loud at a scene where Leland threatens to murder her daughters. 

The gleeful way Kristen cuts out Leland’s heart and stomps on it is positively divine. 

This comes up on nearly every review, but it is worth repeating: the characters walk a razor-thin tonal line on the show and they do it so adeptly it feels like witnessing a miracle.

Herbers manages to make Bouchard a character that we understand, but have very little actual insight into. It is wild how she pulls this off. 

Her daughters are at risk now, seemingly because her frustratingly daft husband brought in a chant to exchange his life for his daughter’s. 

On the one hand, hooray! There is an established way for Andy to be killed off (Sorry, Andy, this is a trinity, not a quad).

On the other hand, oh NO! Lynn, Lila, and Lexis are ALSO using the chant. If the life exchange applies to Andy, will it also apply to the girls?

There are a few wrenches thrown into the mix on the episode that keep us continually surprised. It is impossible to relate the glee and burst of amazement that happens when we see Leland talking to his demon therapist. 

The audacity to be so bold! 

Kristen’s fearlessness is right: she shakes Leland to his core. Leland is right too; there is a large scale demonic plan of attack against her and her family. 

The oversized brilliance of the demon therapist situation, including Emily Leroux’s very scary and very real fear that the now-released Orson is going to kill her, shouldn’t overshadow the power of David’s arc on the episode. 

Sonia’s evil is borne out of the extreme trauma of witnessing the horrific murder of her Tutsi community. Sonia can still hear the laughter and the sound of a baby being crunched against a wall. 

Her efforts to torture and murder Lando are complicated because the ways she has experienced the evil of propaganda in some ways justify her actions. 

She describes her actions as justice, not vengeance. She is completely willing to face the consequences of her crime. 

Evil ushers in this grey version of evil. It is impossible to know where it starts and ends for people who have lived through genocide.  

Lando is certain that he has done nothing wrong. Comedy is just comedy, it doesn’t hurt people! He was just trying to survive; he only did what he was asked to do. 

He weaves in a consideration of the concept of “punching up.” He only used jokes against the people in society who have more power.

The idea here being it is ethically acceptable to make all of the jokes in the world about someone like Trump, who has nearly limitless power, but not about undocumented immigrants, who have minuscule power.

But, Lando is just kidding himself. 

Undoubtedly, the influence of the bystander effect impacted many people during Tutsi and Hutu conflicts. It is easy and very human to do nothing as horrors unfold in front of you.

But, Lando actually contributed to the horror by lending his voice to dehumanizing and violent messaging under the guise of “comedy.” 

Surely, he doesn’t deserve to be murdered. But, dang, it’s complicated. His death does bring about a certain amount of justice. 

It’s a deep storyline that is offered with the luscious and quirky directing that has become a calling card for the show.

The image of Ben on the phone with Kristen’s husband while in the foreground we see the machete behind Sonia’s back is STUNNING. 

With this storyline, Evil once again blends the philosophical and ethical inquisition of the show with a high level of cinematic quality. 

My only complaint of the episode, and perhaps the season as a whole, is the decentralization of Ben. The show works best when there is consistent equal emphasis on the three main characters over the course of a few episodes.

This penultimate episode makes it clear that Ben is central to everything that is happening. However, he needs screentime and story to reflect that prominence. 

We know we will be getting a second season of Evil, so there is time for Ben to be fully incorporated into the show in the future.

Ben the Magnificent shan’t be sidelined. 

Confessional

• I think Andy’s meditating is selfish. He gives the girls ten minutes to get ready and then goes and shuts them out. Laura is terrified, but he doesn’t even help her get ready! Then he doesn’t even notice them learning and saying the chant? I’ll just say it, his fathering sucks.
• The girls’ reaction to Ben at the hospital makes my heart sing.
• The cockroach coming out of the hole in the wall is so good. So good. 
• David’s “help us!” scream is terrifying. His voice is so rich and deep normally, the thin scream is beyond unnerving.
• The judge giving Orson her personal bible is vomit-inducing. It is hard to believe this type of idiocy really exists.
• Where’s Kristen’s mom? Do we want to know?
• Marti Matluis plays Therapist AND George! So, George is the Big Demon in Charge?
• We need to get David some therapy. He has been THROUGH IT. 

What did you think of this episode of Evil? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Evil airs Thursdays at 10/9c on CBS.

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