Evil Review: The Demon of Death (Season 3 Episode 1)
Evil Season 3 Episode 1, “The Demon of Death,” weighs the possibility of quantifying religion and whether that should be an option in the first place.
Evil, since its start, has always been an intriguing blend of frightening and weird. Something that has only grown since switching from CBS proper to Paramount+. That shows no sign of slowing down here with the season premiere.
The show still possesses all of the same ingredients as ever but this episode is a bit dialed back in regards to its bombast. It’s slightly more pedestrian on the face of it but is no less bizarre. It is getting to one of its most central themes and points of curiosity: at what point can science and religion co-exist?
The investigation for “The Demon of Death,” revolves around a complicated version of a human scale that is meant to weigh a body before and after death, in essence, determining the mass of a soul — or, as the lead scientist puts it, the consciousness a person.
This is one of Evil‘s favorite pet arguments: can you use science to bring people to God? That, very often, is the question that the Vatican wants the team to answer. What kind of correlation exists between these two diametrically opposed concepts and can one be used to strengthen the position of the other?
In typical fashion of the series, it doesn’t come away telling the audience what conclusion to draw from this. It’s the beauty of having both viewpoints presented so evenly with David and the Vatican on one side and Kristen and Ben on the other.
If it makes you feel better, you can choose to believe that the cosmic has something tangible that can be weighed within the human body. If not, there is always Ben’s position that science can and should never be used to bring validity to faith and religion.
Meanwhile, there are the continuing shenanigans of Kristen’s four daughters, who have been divisive amongst viewers in the past but are used really well within this episode and to great comedic effect. Very often they are the subject of some nefarious force that the adults are barely aware of or not at all.
There’s always this fear of what the girls might be getting up to, most of the time by way of whatever technology or influence they might be hoodwinked by. This episode subverts that really nicely by Lexis not only being aware that Leland (played by Michael Emerson) is trying to trick her again but is an active participant in making him look like a fool.
Leland continues to be this great antagonistic force on the series because — and part of this is down to Emerson’s performance — he perpetually straddles this thin line of being menacing and hapless. He would be even more terrifying if he didn’t put himself in the position of being outsmarted by four young girls.
What did you think of this episode of Evil? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Evil airs Sundays on Paramount+.
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Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.