‘Evil’: Kings Break Down Series Finale Ending, Why Kristen & David Ended in That Way

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Evil series finale “Fear of the End.”]

One of the best TV shows since it premiered has sadly come to an end, but the good news is that the Evil finale leaves the door open for more.

A lot happens in the finale. Kristen (Katja Herbers) and Leland (Michael Emerson) face off, and David (Mike Colter) and Ben (Aasif Mandvi) stop her from killing him. Leland is locked away in a cabinet in the silent monastery, where Sister Andrea (Andrea Martin) has been sent following the church being shut down. Ben takes a new job. And Kristen takes her daughters to Rome to continue assessing with David.

Below, creators Robert and Michelle King break down the major moments of the finale. Plus, check out exclusive art from LA Based artist Kyle Lambert:

Kyle Lambert

Why have Kristen and David continue assessing in Rome versus New York?

Robert King: Definitely the writers’ room, but also you got a sense from the audience even if they don’t end up sleeping with each other, there was a sadness about this thing just breaking apart. You just want hope. I do think having them even in the same proximity—first of all, they’re charming and there’s so much chemistry between Mike and Katja. It was hard to think of this scene where they were all in separate worlds, so we wanted them together. We also wanted this pretty picture of the girls in these lovely Dan Lawson school outfits for Rome and Katja in the most beautiful dress ever, thinking, oh, this is the happy ending we want, and they’re going to kick their heels and go off in the sunset and then seeing, no, this child is probably the Antichrist and Kristen’s going to cover for him.

Michelle King: Also, we wanted to play the reality of, yeah, the church said there was no more money. There’s no more money. So if they do get to continue to assess, it’s going to have to come from a different pocket, a different way.

Robert: And maybe it’s a hope for us too with Evil since Paramount+ said no, maybe Roman TV in Italy will say we want more and they will bring us to Rome where we will shoot it.

Michelle: And have gelato.

Elizabeth Fisher / Paramount+

Kristen and David’s relationship has been so complicated. You’ve played with the possibility of going there, with the kiss and in these bonus episodes. You had David’s admission to Ben—such a great scene. 

Robert: That’s Mike Colter. He did an amazing job.

So good. That needed to be said. Did you ever consider having David leave the priesthood for Kristen and getting them together?

Michelle: That was certainly on the table. If you’re in a writers’ room and you’ve got characters that are so intrigued with one another, yes, that’s going to be on the table. But we never seriously went down that path.

Robert: Yeah, Michelle and I struggled with that so much because on the Josh Charles–Juliana Margulies front with Good Wife, there was a lot of will they/won’t they, then they do. What does this mean? There’s all this almost chemical decision about how many times you can flip things back and forth, especially in a show that you hope will go on. We wanted to avoid that and suggest his passion for his vows, his passion for making a decision and sticking to it is just as important in his makeup as having sex with Kristen—especially when you can still have Kristen as his friend. The temptation for them both will always be there because you can’t just turn that off when there’s so much heat between them. But again, it felt like the world, or at least the TV world, seems to think commitments almost of a metaphysical level are worth tossing away if you can sleep with someone you’re worshiping.

What did you want to do with David’s arc, with the Entity, Vatican Security, and taking him to Rome? Loved you bringing in Denis O’Hare.

Michelle: Yeah, us too. Wasn’t he wonderful with the Italian accent?

Robert: Denis O’Hare was there with us in the second episode of Good Wife all those years ago, and he’s one of our favorite actors because the way he can do drama and comedy is mixed. It’s just such a pleasure.

Elizabeth Fisher / Paramount+

We wanted from the very beginning this idea that David is working his way up through the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and at each stage, he sees there’s a certain amount of corruption in there—which by the way, being a Catholic, I just think is the case with any bureaucracy, that the higher up you move, the more you think there are stupid people who are controlling things. We wanted this idea that he’s given more power as he goes up, but he begins to realize with that power comes all these levels of corruption, especially with the Entity or the Friends of the Vatican. We wanted to have him keep moving up just as we saw Leland, by killing demon after demon, moving up through his Satanic hierarchy; there was some kind of mirroring going on.

Then there’s baby Timothy, with those eyes flashing and the teeth, nature vs. nurture. What can you say about his future? The 60 then were talking about the next Antichrist, but then it’s suggested they shouldn’t be moving on from Timothy.

Michelle: Yeah, I think there are flashes of the—Robert, I don’t know if you have a different point of view—demonic in baby Timothy, but in fact, when Sheryl [Christine Lahti] had him baptized, it did clear the way for a primarily angelic baby that there were still flashes thereof. So I think the 60 is right to move on from him. I don’t think he’s a great candidate for them, but you never know, as with any baby, how they’re going to mature.

Robert: Michelle and I disagree, which is why the show can work both ways, but I think it is the Antichrist, that Lexis, that tale was really her true satanic nature in her and that Kristen has been chosen partly because she would be a good mother to protect this baby as it makes its way to manhood and some demonic Antichrist presence. That to me is the punchline at the end of the joke, that we love Kristen, but also is she the mother of the living Antichrist? Did Leland get his way in the end? That’s why it’s really good that Michelle and I both disagreed because then the audience can disagree, too.

Michelle: Yeah, I don’t think Leland got his way. I think Leland wanted a fully demonic Antichrist in this world, and that is not what he got with baby Timothy.

Robert: But when the other guys, John Carroll Lynch‘s character, others saying, we got to move on, they’re wrong. The steps Leland took in my worldview of the episode are turning out well for him, even though he’s in this little box.

I was going to say, it doesn’t turn out for him in general. Returning to the monastery was great because that silent episode is one of the show’s best. Talk about settling on that ending for Leland. Did you know you wanted Sister Andrea there before you did, or did you realize you could have them in the same place?

Robert: When we thought we’d have a full fifth season, we were going to do episodes of Sister Andrea at this silent monastery and struggling with both silence, but also seeing there was the demonic there. We’d start with the idea that these crypto-farms, the mining for bitcoin takes so much computer energy that these towns where it’s near are going crazy from this sound. We were going to do the same thing with the silent monastery and then Sister Andrea works to kick out the demonic there. All that is to say we couldn’t do that because we had a short season, but we wanted Leland not to be killed in a prosaic pragmatic way, but kind of vanquished in a magical way, fitting with some of the symbolism of the show.

Going back to the 60, who’s Gray? He wasn’t on video.

Robert: The gray man from the storm episode. Even on his anonymous symbol, it has a bowler like the gray man.

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'Evil' Stars Look Back on Last Day on Set — Who Cried About Show Ending?

Henry tells Leland he’s protected Kristen for years. Had he in any sense, because he wanted Kristen to be raising the Antichrist? 

Michelle: Yes, and… There’s also the sense that he does have twisted up feelings for her.

Robert: There are all those scenes where she’s violent with him and he says, “You’re making me hard,” or “I’ve never been more turned on.” We do get a sense of some demented love there.

Could either of them have actually killed the other in the finale?

Robert: Yes. I think he had to buck himself up with Roger Miller, which is I guess is his way to turn demonic. He was really intending [to]. Kristen, if her friends hadn’t walked in, would’ve strangled him and killed him and probably buried him in the yard.

One of my favorite parts of the finale was how much we got the trio together—them in the backyard, burning the files, and the Christmas song…

Michelle: That was a given going in. There was certainly a conversation in the writers’ room of wanting to spotlight the warmth between the three of them because it’s been such a pleasure through the series.

Robert: Also at the end of Good Fight, which we thought was one of the more successful finales we did, there’s a speech from Audra McDonald to Christine Baranski about, you may think we didn’t change the world, it’s just as screwed up as ever, but you impacted these eight, 10 people, and you’d see flashes of the people they’ve helped over the season. And there did seem to be some sense of finale when you were able to embrace the whole show. That seemed to be what this burning [of] these files [was, to] take us back to these cases. That’s harder for shows that are more network-oriented in the way they have cases than a purely serialized show, which is the ending has to find a way to embrace everything that came before.

When I spoke with Aasif, he couldn’t remember if Ben stumbling over “I love you” to Kristen was written as a stumble. Was it?

Michelle: Yes.

Robert: It was, but he was great doing it. He’s clearly always been secretly kind of in love with her, whether that is a friendship love or what. Obviously you work off the chemistry of the actors, and the actors are that way. They are so affectionate for each other.

Robert, talk about directing the finale, and what was the last day on set like for both of you?

Robert: The finale was as sad as it was because we were leaving stage space that we’ve occupied for almost 14 years with Good Wife, Good Fight. Brooke Kennedy, who produced, started a hallway of autographs of all the guest actors that we had.

Michelle: This was on Good Wife and Good Fight.

Elizabeth Fisher / Paramount+

Robert: We continued it with Evil. The hallway was filled with signatures. So you walk down there and you’re kind of like, wow, this is the stars along Hollywood Boulevard.

Michelle: You see Alan Alda or Elaine May having drawn something or written something. It’s your high school yearbook made physical.

Robert: That is very sad. Every episode is a bit of a rush because of the TV schedule, and you’re always just kind of one step away from disaster, so you’re often not having a moment to get emotional. But then the very last day got pretty emotional. It was the Vatican scene, that had almost everybody in it. Kurt [Fuller] wasn’t there, but the four kids, Katja, Mike, Aasif. Aasif stayed because he had the very next scene and we’d said goodbye to Andrea Martin earlier that day. Unlike a movie where it’s a rush of six months or whatever to get done, with a show, it is years and years. That and Good Fight were truly, truly emotional. The very last scene was an emotional scene, which was the vision that Aasif has of coming in to see his sister dying. That was appropriate. Aasif didn’t have to cheat. He was just really crying. Michelle, do you remember?

Michelle: Yes, I do. What you have to remember about all this stuff is that there’s the emotional piece of it, and then there’s also the practical piece of it, which is it’s two in the morning, so yeah, maybe it’s sad, but folks need to wrap up and get home. So there can only be a certain amount of indulging of this sadness and nostalgia.

Robert: Also, everybody’s on a sugar high because usually the last day, everybody gets a truck for the production. It’s either crepes or donuts—everything is sugar, sugar, sugar. So I think everybody’s at their wits end and kind of in a very emotional state anyway.

Demon Kristen and David’s farewell was funny and almost sad in a way. Why did David need to leave her behind, at least for now? She can always pop back up.

Robert: In theory we saw the real dimensions of Demon Kristen, which is it’s a massive ugly mosquito that sucks out his spirit. That is where the show is most Catholic in its addressing of this kind of unreal sense of sexual satisfaction, which is what Demon Kristen was. And I should say that was Katja. The script has it be that Demon Kristen was just like this sad little marionette puppet in the corner saying, don’t leave me, don’t leave me. And then David says, I have to, and goes, and that was it. It was Katja who wanted to [grab] his leg as he’s trying to pull his leg away. Katja is amazing in both how she wants to push into further drama but [also] further comedy. I thought that was a perfect example.

Michelle: Story-wise, I think it speaks to David’s strength that he does, in fact, move on.

Speaking of comedy and drama, I have to say what the show does so well is comedy, drama, and horror—all in the same scene. Going back to 410 in Sheryl’s office with the demon and the skin suit around his legs like pants…

Robert: It’s so great when you have two comic actors like Christine Lahti and Kurt Fuller because part of that is them. And again, it’s our visual—Joel Harlow does the wardrobe, the demon costumes, and Mitch, who does the visual effects. That was funny. We described it as he’s like an old man coming out of a bathroom with his pants legs around his ankles.

Evil, Streaming now, Paramount+