The second season of Evil has been excellent so far, but how it would wrap up was always a bit of a question. Episode 13, ‘C is for Cannibal’ tried to pull the threads together. *Warning! Spoilers Ahead!*
Sadly, the season finale didn’t quite hit the mark and left a bit of an unsatisfying taste in the mouth. While many interesting elements did surface and some key parts of the narrative arc were addressed, it didn’t feel complete, or really have the impact it should have. In many ways it felt more like a mid-season episode, than a finale.
As expected, David’s (Mike Colter) ordination finally occurs after a long lead up, and surprisingly happens without too much of a hitch. As in recent episodes, they ramp up the temptation angle, which does ultimately lead to a bit of a sting at the end of ‘C is for Cannibal’, but this will probably end up as more of a momentary twist, rather than a long term element.
For Kristen (Katja Herbers), the story here puts her through the ringer a lot more. She spends quite a lot of this episode in emotional turmoil, as well as being tortured by Leland’s (Michael Emerson) machinations. It doesn’t help her state that Kurt (Kurt Fuller) has decided to take some time off after his experience at their last exorcism. His discomfort is an interesting departure, as we’ve become accustomed to the characters all becoming a bit blasé about what they’re seeing or experiencing.
Interestingly, as David approaches ordination, his supernatural experiences get much more vivid, and Sister Andrea (Andrea Martin) tries to get him to accept this is the true reality of things. There’s much less ambiguity in Sister Andrea’s world than David’s and he is reluctant to fully commit to the battle. After spending so much time battling over the last couple of years, he just wants to have something akin to a normal life for a while, but this is extremely unlikely to happen. His visions continue and are just ramping up and up. It’s been an interesting twist to have the barriers between realities begin to fall, as it brings the supernatural element into a much more present force and in some ways makes the narrative more frightening.
All in all, what this amounts to is an interesting episode that brings a few parts of the overarching narrative to a head, but which doesn’t feel like a complete story. It lines things up for the next season in quite a good way, but wasn’t the satisfying conclusion we may have hoped for.
