Diksha Sundriyal
The fourth season of Paramount+’s ‘Evil’ opens with a case that once again brings forward the clash between science and religion. This time, Kristen, David, and Ben are called upon to investigate a research facility with a particle accelerator. Their job is to make sure that the facility has everything under control and will not, by mistake, create a door to Hell. This concern is aggravated after a video showing a few people at the lab indulging in Satanic worship becomes public. This makes one wonder about the real such scientific facilities in the world and whether there is any similarity they might have with the Garrow Research Facility in the show.
The Fictional Garrow Research Facility is Modelled on the CERN
Garrow Research Facility is a fictional place created to serve the plot of the fourth season. For obvious reasons, the place is fictional, but the creators of the show did their best to make it look and sound like a real place. The episode takes us inside the facility, with Kristen, David, and Ben even visiting the particle accelerator at one point. They also discuss the science of the place, hoping to figure out whether or not it has any connection to the supernatural.
There are several kinds of particle accelerators in America, but when it comes to the things that go on at Garrow, it is clear that CERN is the primary inspiration for it. The show even mentions CERN and its infamous fake ritual killing video, which the scientists at Garrow try to top, but instead of finding the humor in it, the people find it disturbing. The said incident happened in 2016 when a video of a bunch of people in black cloaks was filmed in the courtyard of the facility. It shows a woman being killed in front of the Shiva statue in the courtyard, and the video went viral when it first came into public view.
With the uproar it raised, the authorities promptly tried to get to the root of the matter, and it was clarified that the video was of scientists taking their humor too far. The spokesperson for the facility released a statement, saying that they don’t “condone this type of spoof, which can give rise to misunderstandings about the scientific nature of [CERN’s] work.” They refrained from revealing the identities of the people involved in the case, saying that the “internal matter” was being investigated.
Another reason the particle accelerator was in the news was concerns about the place unintentionally creating a black hole while working the machine. This was, of course, before the Large Hadron Collider was made operational, the aftermath of which quelled all doubts about the creation of a black hole and the subsequent destruction of the world. With the particle accelerator at Garrow set to be operational in about a month, concerns rise about things going wrong this time and leading to the end of the world. A bit of supernatural factor is thrown into it with the Gates of Hell opening from the facility, and it perfectly sets up the main conflict of the season.
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