Summary
Katja Herbers’ Dr. Kristen Bouchard finally comes face-to-face with the demon baby born from her own egg inEvilseason 4, episode 3. Despite wanting nothing to do with the baby that Leland had fathered with her missing ovum during theEvilseason 3 ending, Kristen is drawn in to witness the child’s birth by its frightened mother, Leslie (Molly Brown). Afraid that Leland is planning to kill her and feed her corpse to the newborn, Leslie reaches out to a reluctant Kristen to attend the birth.
Speaking withTV Insider,Herbers and series co-creator Robert KingexplainedEvil’sdemon birth and Kirsten’s decision to aid Leslie. Suggesting that Kristen is initially reluctant to even look at the child, Herbers explains that she later holds the baby and begins to develop a connection, which is further strengthened by him sharing the same name as her father. Meanwhile, King highlights Kristen’s inner conflict, recalling the Shakespearean quote fromJulius Caesarabout destroying a serpent’s egg before it is hatched. Check out their comments below:
Katja Herbers:She tries to just block it and think, ‘Look, it’s my egg. People donate eggs. This child is not my business.’ And then when she is there for the birth, she’s reluctant to hold the baby because she’s worried what that might do to her. Then when she does hold the baby, she tries not to look at the baby for a second, then she does. And it’s quite moving. I think she thinks of Leslie as a victim of this situation and not as an evil person.
What a great way to make me present for that and to kind of go through her with that. The way that I wanted to play it was that I was doing the same amount of screaming and trying to get this baby out as Leslie so that it kind of is like we’re both birthing this baby. And then naming after my father obviously creates another connection to this child. But I think it’s all from Leland’s mastermind.
Robert King:Some of this is coming out of Katja. [As] we finished shooting the last episode, the baby that we were using was just crying up a storm and Katja just kind of rubs his head or cheek a little bit and was whispering things in Dutch and the baby just was soothed beyond belief. So there’s something in Katja that is mirroring what’s going on with Kristen. What’s the Shakespeare’s line about a serpent’s egg? Do you break the egg? But it’s difficult when it’s a human being like a baby. How do you stop [them], even if you did think there was going to be a pathway to being an Antichrist?
Is Kristen Merely Falling Into Leland’s Evil Trap?
Kristen Has Always Been At The Center Of Leland’s Machinations
While Leslie, who also works for Kristen’s mother Sheryl, may indeed be an innocent victim in a situation Leland has masterminded, her call for help may have been exactly whatEvil’sprimary antagonist planned all along.
Despite her best efforts to distance herself from the birth of Leland’s baby,Evilseason 4, episode 3 saw Kristen drawn directly into it. Moreover, it also hinted at her continued involvement in the child’s life, as she is not shocked to learn that he was named Timothy after her own father, and she has also been officially noted as one of its mothers. Much like Herbers herself points out, much ofthis appears to be of Leland’s design, aimed at having her character continue to play an instrumental role in the baby’s childhood.
While Leslie, who also works for Kristen’s mother Sheryl, may indeed be an innocent victim in a situation Leland has masterminded, her call for help may have been exactly whatEvil’s primary antagonist planned all along. Moreover, with the revelation that Kristen is officially on record as one of the child’s parents, she may even find herselfforced to take custody of the babyshould a dark fate befall its birth mother.
Exactly what Leland hopes to achieve by involving Kristen in young Timothy’s life remains to be seen, but her family has always been at the center of his various machinations and that seems unlikely to change now. Perhaps much of his plans revolve around ensuringTimothy is guided to his demonic destinyby Kristen’s daughter Lexis, who King has previously described as a “John the Baptist”figurethroughoutEvilseason 4. This situation is only likely to escalate further asEvildraws closer to its eventual finale.
Evil
Cast
Evil is a psychological mystery series that follows a skeptical forensic psychologist, Kristen Bouchard, who teams up with a Catholic priest-in-training and a tech expert to investigate purportedly supernatural incidents. The series delves into complex themes of religion, science, and the nature of evil through its deeply layered narrative and character development. The show stars Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, and Aasif Mandvi.
