Evil Series Finale: EPs Robert and Michelle King Explain Why They Chose That Kristen/David Outcome
This post contains spoilers from Evil‘s series finale. Proceed accordingly.
Don’t let that sunny final shot fool you: In the end, Evil turned out to be what its creators consider a “tragedy.”
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Sure, none of the series’ central trio — Katja Herbers’ Kristen, Mike Colter’s David and Aasif Mandvi’s Ben — are dead by the end of the show’s last episode. And no, the forces of darkness have not taken over the globe just yet. And yeah, David and Kristen looked happy at the end of the hour, as they strolled together on their way to work as assessors at the Vatican. (Read a full recap here.)
But the fact that David and Kristen remain friends and co-workers, despite being in romantic love with each other, is incredibly tragic, series co-creators Robert and Michelle King tell TVLine.
“We also liked the idea of David being truly committed to the choice he made, so that the love is real, even though there might not be a physical expression of it,” the executive producers say.
TVLINE | I’m going to go ahead and say you guys are not fans of social media.
ROBERT KING | [Laughs, looks at Michelle King] What do you say?
MICHELLE KING | I think we can say we’re very skeptical of social media and very aware of the dangers. I do think with a lot of these technologies there are absolute benefits. They allow connection and community where you might not have that opportunity. There are some people that are housebound that might not be able to connect with folks in other ways. But that said, the danger for evil is very real, and we’re seeing it play out.
TVLINE | I was happy to have my idea that Hell is a Zoom call with more than three people on it confirmed. The banality of evil seemed very much a throughline, especially in this last season. Can you speak a bit to the black-Mass-vs.-Zoom-call feel of where you’ve been going for the past few seasons?
ROBERT KING | We always thought it was these demonic presences having names like George and Lee and Lou, Mike, they’re all — when Cheryl worked at this kind of DF corporation, which was in downwotn Manhattan that was on the floor between some real estate people and some accountants — they are the ones who are creating all the corruption in the United States. The banality of evil, obviousl —it’s not just taking that as a cute phrase but saying, “This is how it works.” It’s always funny to us that the goat demon Norman can’t figure out how to unmute himself. [Laughs] You’re right: Hell is the Zoom call of that many people.
MICHELLE KING | It’s also meant to suggest that people shouldn’t think that evil is outside their world, that it’s some exotic thing that they never bump up against. No. It’s the soup you’re swimming in.
TVLINE | I, myself, got caught up in thinking about who was going to “win” this show. And then I felt very dumb, because in good vs. evil, no one comes out on top. The good goes on, and the evil goes on.
ROBERT KING | The show has always been trying to take supernatural-show tropes like the Antichrist and possession and adapt it to what I would consider present-day psychology. Michelle’s right: to try to make evil not so baroque, to make it part of ourselves and our world. There is no last battle royale between it… There’s the Bible. There’s the apocalypse and everything, but it felt like present-day reality is that fighting evil is an everyday occupation by every person taking up their own tools.
… It’s kind of what’s going on right now, with the idea of belittling Trump instead of aggrandizing him. That element of probably it should be cut down to size a little bit, too, which also makes it more of something that happens in your neighborhood and not just in the government, per se.
TVLINE | I do not mean to reduce your elegant show to a TV trope. But for those of us who ‘shipped David and Kristen, you gave us what we wanted — via Find My Doppel and Ellie and Kristen’s dreams — even though the characters did not wind up together. Please talk about giving us what we wanted without giving us what we wanted.
MICHELLE KING | I think you’re exactly right. [Laughs] You’re not alone. They love the idea of David and Kristen together, but we also liked the idea of David being truly committed to the choice he made, so that the love is real even though there might not be a physical expression of it.
ROBERT KING | Yeah. I think probably the truest speech in all the season is David’s about “If I’m the middle ages then f–k it, I’m just the middle ages but I’m not going to give up this commitment”. We played that game, too, because it has a romantic comedy element of how much they are truly in love but there are hurdles for both of them. Him with the Church, her with being married — and now you’ve demolished one of them. Andy f—ked around on her, and so now why are they not kicking up their heels together? I think what was fun to us, and we learned a lot from Josh Charles and Julianna Margulies [in The Good Wife] that kind of “Are they? Are they not? Are they? Are they not?” and that Moonlighting element. The bottom line is the only way to respect the audience and respect the show is if you respect these people as real people and how hard it is to jump over those hurdles, especially when what you respect in David is that he has [that commitment to the Church]. If David gave up on that, he would be less of David — to even Kristen — and I think that’s what she knows.
MICHELLE KING | What’s great was we had the character of Ben, who could really speak for the audience there. You know, “Why the hell aren’t you together?”
ROBERT KING | “What’s wrong is not loving her. Why aren’t you loving her?” It’s tragedy. And I think that’s something David acknowledges. I mean there’s a little bit of happy talk at the end, with both of their sunglasses going on and walking away together, but it’s really tragedy that they cannot be together as lovers. Because they would be massively great together.
TVLINE | At the very end of the episode, we see baby Timothy morph into something worrisome. And Kristen’s reaction to what she sees feels very different from how the Kristen of Season 1 might’ve reacted.
ROBERT KING | The Kristen at the beginning of the series was pragmatic and did not see the world other than what it was or the way we see the world empirically. By the end, she’s seen so much stuff that pushes her mind a little bit from side to side, whether it’s pharmaceutical or whatever, that I do think she thinks, “Oh my God, this is probably the Antichrist, and I need to cover for him, because he’s my baby.” By the way, that was Katja’s instinct. Because in the script it was mentioned that the eyes look a little evil and then there’s something maybe wrong about the mouth. Then she looks again and sees, did I see that? And then she just goes on.
Katja’s take was “Damn right I see it, and I cover for it.” That’s all Katja’s push. I think that’s fascinating: the idea a little of a bit more mothering as possibly a danger, too. The mother of Hitler, the mother of Stalin. You know, her mothering in the series is something to be admired but at the end actually could be evil, too. So, anyway, I think that’s complicated. It was exactly the right choice on her part.
MICHELLE KING | Yeah. Much the same. I mean Kristen at the beginning would not accept that there was any supernatural in this world. She would have dismissed it immediately. Having seen what she’s seen, she cannot immediately dismiss those things.
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