Diksha Sundriyal
Paramount+’s ‘Evil’ brings its story to an end with its fourth and final season as Kristen, David, and Ben find themselves at a crossroads about what they want from the new chapter of their lives. The finale keeps up the tradition of the series by not giving a concrete explanation about everything but giving the audience enough to satisfy them about the arc they’ve been following. Cut short due to a premature cancellation, the series doesn’t try to stuff everything in the finale to tie up all loose ends. Rather, it prefers to leave some things in the wind, leaving the audience wondering about what it holds for the future. SPOILERS AHEAD
Evil “Fear of the End” Recap
With the assessor program gone, Kristen, David, and Ben start the new chapters of their lives. Kristen has started her own practice and seems to be doing well, thanks to the help of Dr. Kurt Boggs, who referred his patients to her. Ben starts his new job at a company that pays him incredibly well, and even though the desk job seems rather depressing, with “run” literally carved into his desk, there is no option but to go through with it.
David prepares for his move to Rome, but the Entity wants to tie up all the fuss with the 60 before they leave New York. It is found that the 60 are congregating for something big, which will include a woman being sacrificed on an altar. Interestingly, Leland chooses to host the congregation in David’s now-deconsecrated church. However, through David, Sister Andrea tries to warn them that this is just a ploy, and the 60 know what the Entity is planning. Even when David tries to reason with them, they don’t listen and end up suffering the consequences.
Meanwhile, Kristen’s daughters whip out the VR goggles, known for making trouble every time the girls try something new with them. This time, they play a game that allows them to see the future. They see Kristen getting killed by Leland. To make things more ominous, immediately after the vision, a 24-hour countdown starts to tick, with none the wiser about what it really means.
What Happens to Leland? Does He Die?
Since the first episode of ‘Evil,’ Leland Townsend has done whatever he can to get on Kristen’s nerves. He is desperate to get her on the side of evil, more fervently since the coming of the Anti-Christ. Leland believes that little Timothy should grow up under Kristen’s care because she is the worst mother possible and will lead him on the path to corruption, as she herself is corrupt. The 60, however, doesn’t share his views and becomes increasingly impatient about Leland trying to protect Kristen. This time, however, Leland is forced to give up and makes a move on Kristen’s life.
For the 60, Kristen should be the sacrifice on the altar, which they had been planning, but instead of meeting in person, they all meet over a video conference, which trumps the whole thing’s purpose. At first, Leland tries to invite Kristen to meet the 60, hoping that this would be the chance for him to get her over to their side, especially now that she is not connected to the Church anymore. However, his efforts only make Kristen more conscious about her safety. The VR goggle’s vision of Leland killing her also keeps her on edge. So, when Leland arrives in her bedroom with the intent to kill her, she is ready and almost kills him instead.
Kristen chokes Leland when Ben and David arrive and calm her down. She thinks she has killed Leland for good, but it turns out it is not so easy to kill him. Moreover, killing him would turn Kristen into a murderer, and this isn’t something any of them wants. Still, they need to get Leland out of the picture. So far, they have tried every way to keep him away from Kristen and her family. They tried restraining orders, and they tried to have him sent to prison. But the law hasn’t been on their side because Leland has the backing of the 60, who have their claws everywhere and are capable of getting him out no matter what charges are levied on him.
The trio knows that they need to dispose of Leland permanently, but they mustn’t turn evil themselves in the process. They can’t kill him, so they come up with an ingenious way to get rid of him. In the second season, the trio visited a silent monastery where they were introduced to a demon cabinet. By now, Leland has proven that he is no less than a demon (even if Ben and Kristen would only accept it as a metaphor). So, they throw him in a sack, take him to the monastery, and put him inside the cabinet.
No one will come looking for him there, and even if they do, the silent nuns and monks of the place wouldn’t be of much help. With no help, Leland will never be able to leave the monastery and will spend the rest of his days trapped in the cabinet. More reassurance comes from the presence of Sister Andrea, who seems to have been reassigned to the monastery. If there is one person they can trust who can keep the evil out of the monastery and Leland inside the cabinet, it is her. So, for all intents and purposes, Leland Townsend is gone for good.
What Did the 24-Hour Countdown Mean?
‘Evil’ has a way of keeping the audience on edge about the explanations it gives about the most bizarre of things. Just when it seems that things have gone so far as to have only a supernatural explanation, an entirely plausible explanation appears to remove any doubt of a paranormal presence. The same happens with the 24-hour countdown in the VR goggles.
At first, it seems that the countdown is related to the vision, that it is ticking a clock on Kristen’s death, which will happen at the end of the countdown. Later, it turns out that other people have also met similar countdowns following terrifying visions, which has made them desperate to do anything they can to stop those things from happening. Moreover, the app has given the people the entire layout of Kristen’s house, which it got from the “find the ghost” app her daughters used. The people crowd outside Kristen’s house, hoping to break in, which is basically a way to make her life even more miserable, especially when it comes to light that Leland’s company, DF, is behind the games.
All of this shows that the goggles and the games were a way for Leland to mess with Kristen and her family while also keeping an eye on them through it, using the data provided by the apps. But that still doesn’t explain the countdown. Even though Kristen and Ben don’t take it seriously, especially now that they know what the app is about, her daughters are still concerned about what will happen when the countdown ends. What makes things worse is that Leland actually shows up at the house to kill Kristen, and for a minute, it looks like the prophecy will come true.
Kristen’s death would also fall in line with the Entity’s intel about a woman being sacrificed by the 60 and the 60’s desire to have Kristen killed. But Kristen, entirely unaffected by their plans and the prophecies of the future, fights back and almost kills Leland in the process. This way, the prophecy is revealed to be false, and it is proven that it was just a way for the game to mess with her daughters, and Leland’s arrival to kill her is just a coincidence. Moreover, at the end of the countdown, the girls discover that it is to show them that their trial period is over, and if they want to continue using the thing, they must pay for it.
This information doesn’t jump out of the blue because, in an earlier scene, Ben mentions that it is the beta version before going live. The countdown was meant to mess up with the players’ heads, but it needed to have something at the end, so asking people to pay for it to continue using it makes sense. It also shows that DF is now going live with its plan to place itself into people’s minds by using the goggles tech that directly studies and influences the human brain. Their real plan is set to unfold now, so in a way, the countdown marks the beginning of the end of the world, considering that this is the future the 60 has been planning for this entire time.
Is Timothy Anti-Christ?
With Leland out of the way and many people of the Entity dead, Giovanni de Vita has to accept that they overestimated their capabilities and underestimated David and his friends. This allows David to have some say in what he wants for his future. He reveals that he will go to Rome but not join the Entity. Instead, he wants to restart the assessor program. Despite his inhibitions, Giovanni decides to give him that. However, when David puts this question in front of Kristen and Ben, they don’t seem to be on the same page with him.
Ben doesn’t want to leave his well-paying job to move to Rome and do something that will not only pay less but also entirely uproot his life in New York. The deal isn’t just good enough. Kristen feels the same. For her, it is more about her four daughters and one infant son for whom she needs some stability, which she might finally have now that Leland is gone. Still, she wants to be with David. She changes her mind when she hears her doppelgänger talk about how life should be about taking risks and trying new things. While Ben stays back, Kristen moves to Rome. She has an option of leaving after six months if that’s what she feels is best for her family. In any case, David is happy to have her there, and she is glad to have some change of scenery, which she and her family desperately needed, especially after their home address and the entire plan of the house was posted on Reddit.
It is a hopeful ending for Kristen and David, but even here, they are not completely rid of the things that haunted them in New York. In fact, in the final shot, Kristen is disturbed when she sees Timothy’s eyes turn white for a split second. A crooked set of teeth flashes when he smiles. Does this mean that it is finally confirmed that Timothy is the Anti-Christ? What makes it more interesting is that Timothy was previously seen in his demonic form, but only Sister Andrea could see it. However, Kristen is seeing it this time, and she has always been a skeptic.
‘Evil’ has always kept things balanced in the show, and with the way everything else pans out, it makes sense that the show would leave something for the audience to ponder upon. So, while Kristen has taken a chance and moved to Rome to turn over a new leaf, she is still trudging the baggage of the past. Because David is right next to her and he doesn’t see anything wrong with Timothy, it could be that Kristen needs to deal with some issues of her own, and seeing Timothy as the demon baby might be the manifestation of her mental state. It certainly gives more ground to the supernatural aspect of the story, but should another episode of the show be made, there is a good chance that Kristen’s vision can be explained as something non-supernatural.
At the end of the day, ‘Evil’ leaves its audience like it always has. It gives enough to make us wonder whether what we see puts more weight on the series’ paranormal nature while also making us excited to figure out how it can be explained more pragmatically. The believers and the skeptics are left with enough information to come up with their own theories and believe whatever they want.
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