‘Evil’s Katja Herbers Teases More of Kristen & David’s Chemistry and Andy’s Return

Going into the midseason break, Evil left off with forensic psychologist Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers), priest-in-training David Acosta (Mike Colter), and contractor/tech expert Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi) head to a silent monastery for their next investigation. This comes as Kristen’s seemingly gotten away with the murder of serial killer LeRoux; her friend, Detective Mira Byrd (Kristen Connolly) knows she did it and covers for her.

While Ben suspects what happened, David is completely in the dark, but might that change in the back half? (It has to, right? There is always Season 3…) Speaking of Kristen’s complicated relationships (we never know quite what’s going on with her and David), she’s let her mother, Sheryl (Christine Lahti) back in her life — but that might not have been the best move, considering she’s clearly up to something this season.

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TV Insider turned to Herbers to find out what’s to come in Kristen’s major relationships, including with her husband Andy (Patrick Brammall) who is coming back from his latest climb.

Kristen has let Sheryl back into her life and her daughters’ lives, but Sheryl has that creepy doll she sacrifices to. Does Kristen trust her mom, considering the time she spent with Leland [Michael Emerson]? Or should she?

Katja Herbers: No. I don’t think she trusts her. I don’t think she thinks it’s as bad as it is right now. She let her back into her life because you only have one mom. I think she was a little quick, honestly, to let her back in after everything that happened. But I think there was also a point of it just being necessary in terms of taking care of these four girls with the husband away. There’s probably a little bit of pragmatism married to a little bit of sentiment.

Elizabeth Fisher/CBS

What can you tease about what coming up there?

The audience has seen a lot more of Sheryl than Kristen’s seen of Sheryl. That part of Sheryl is going to get worse. She’s doing that without [Kristen’s] knowledge. And I think once she does find out what’s going on, that’ll be something.

There’s obviously this attraction, both physical and intellectual, between Kristen and David. How is what’s going on with Kristen and what she’s going through this season affecting that?

She’s unraveling a bit more and keeping it together because she loves her work and has a place to really use her brain. It centers her, but she’s really unraveling. She’s not letting her friends know that she is. There are a lot of secrets — nobody’s really sharing with each other what they’re going through.

The attraction is still there. However, we’ve seen her dress up and go to a bar and put a condom in her purse. She’s ready to do some adultery, [with] just maybe anyone. I don’t think that guy in the bar was necessarily a match for her and doesn’t have anything to do with the kind of attraction she feels for David, but I think she’s so lost inside herself that maybe the thrill of picking up a guy at a bar and maybe having sex — she just needs that to just be put back into her body. That’s kind of how I approached it. To stop her brain from seeing people with their heads on fire. [Laughs]

Elizabeth Fisher/CBS

You can’t blame her for that.

No! Once you’ve killed someone, what’s a little adultery, you know what I mean? Who cares on the spectrum of things?

What can you tease about what’s coming up between Kristen and David? He still doesn’t know about LeRoux…

No, he doesn’t know about LeRoux. Ben suspects it and he’s kind of put it to rest, it seems, a little now.

He has his own things he’s going through.

Yeah. That’s lucky for her. [Laughs] He’s got his own stuff. You’ll see this chemistry [between Kristen and David] come back a bit more. We’ve had them separate and there will be a bunch of stuff coming up.

Elizabeth Fisher/CBS

She is married and Andy’s going to return eventually, but does she want him back with her? There’s a difference between wanting him around for the kids and wanting him around as her husband.

At this point, she doesn’t really know anymore because of the things that she’s going through. I do think they have an unconventional but a good marriage. I do think these people love each other. And I love that about our show, that it’s not just, “Oh, she’s stuck in a bad marriage. Here’s this Mike Colter guy, and she fancies him.” It’s more complicated than that. They’ve been together probably something like 18 years, and I think they do really, really love each other, but there’s something about that distance that obviously is very hard. Once he comes back, he’s going to come back to somebody he doesn’t really recognize anymore.

Speaking of the family, is Kristen at all worried about Lexis [Maddy Crocco] considering those teeth, what happened with the dentist, and the fertility clinic?

Yeah, minor concerns there. She’s concerned, but again, she’s kind of also rationalizing it. There’s a moment of concern and then she just goes back to, “Nope, nurture vs. nature. I nurtured her. She is fine. Can somebody really do something with these eggs? Is that even really a possibility?” We don’t even know yet. Is this all just a stupid coincidence? I think she’s definitely worried, but she’s just trying to hold on for dear life to not being worried.

Evil, Returns, Sunday, August 29, Paramount+