The Most Disturbing Episodes Of Evil So Far
"Evil" can be a difficult show to explain to the uninitiated. Sure, the premise is fairly simple: A priest-in-training pairs up with a forensic psychologist to investigate potentially religious and/or supernatural phenomena for the Catholic church. They are joined by a cynical tech expert who believes everything has a logical explanation. The dynamic between the characters will remind sci-fi fans of the often fraught relationship between Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in "The X-Files," but the rest of the show is like nothing we've seen before.
Our first hint that something is a little different here comes in the very first episode. Kristen (Katja Herbers) is haunted by a terrifying demon in her sleep — or is she awake? — and things only get stranger from there. The team learns about an ancient demonic order that initiates humans by having them do dastardly deeds, and then there's the whole matter of a fertility clinic that is up to no good. Kristen and David (Mike Colter) clearly have feelings for one another, but acting on them would mess up David's whole priesthood thing. Ben (Aasif Mandvi) is haunted by his girlfriend's conjoined twin sister, and did we mention a demon baby appears at one point?
All in all, "Evil" is a pretty creepy show, though some episodes turn up the scare factor a few notches. If you're looking for an accurate rundown of which episodes are most likely to give you nightmares, then you've come to the right place. Read on to discover the most disturbing episodes of "Evil" so far.
Genesis 1 (Season 1, Episode 1)
Sometimes, television shows take a while to live up to their true potential, whether it be their capacity for delivering scares or delivering laughs. "Evil" gives us one of the show's most terrifying recurring characters right off the bat. The first episode of "Evil," entitled "Genesis 1" (every episode in this season includes a number), sees our dynamic team get together for the first time. The characters are so well-drawn that we can immediately sense the chemistry between them, but what's really scary is the demonic entities we encounter in this episode.
First, there's Leland Townsend (the brilliant Michael Emerson), who is obviously extremely creepy and is set up to be the series' main villain from the first episode. But, while Leland is obviously a disturbed person, he's just a human. The figure that really gives us the heebie-jeebies in this episode is a demon by the name of George (portrayed by Marti Matulis, who also plays Leland's devil therapist).
George has dark, leathery skin and bright orange eyes, and the first time we see him on screen remains one of the scariest moments in the whole series. He shows up a number of times throughout Season 1, with Kristen diligently trying to find a way to get rid of him, but nothing is as scary as his first appearance on the show. What's great about "Evil" is that the humans are often as scary as the demons, but George is more terrifying than all the humans combined.
Rose390 (Season 1, Episode 4)
"Rose390" just might be the most disturbing "Evil" episode of all time. It's not scary because of the demonic presences, but rather for precisely the opposite reason: The case the team is sent to evaluate is terrifyingly human. In this episode, Kristen, Ben, and David are sent to assess Eric (Luke Judy), a 9-year-old boy who has been exhibiting psychopathic behaviors. Eric has been acting violently towards the family, so his parents have locked him in his room in order to protect their newborn baby.
There is a ray of hope when David seems to have found a way to connect with Eric, but all hope is dashed when Eric tries to drown his baby sister in the pool. David saves the baby in time, but not before the parents decide to take drastic measures. When the team returns to the house, they quickly realize that Eric's parents, seeing no other way out, have killed Eric in order to protect their new baby. It's an extremely shocking turn of events, especially considering it's only the fourth episode of the series.
While Kristen is off evaluating a psychotic child, her four daughters are having a disturbing experience of their own. Kristen's mom Sheryl (Christine Lahti) has purchased her granddaughters a VR game, and they start by playing a game called "The Haunted Girl." Later, they encounter a player (or a demon in the internet?) called Rose390, who is very creepy indeed — though not as scary as Eric.
Room 320 (Season 1, Episode 11)
It may be hard to argue against "Rose390" being the scariest episode of the series, but "Room320" certainly gives it a run for its money. The episode picks up where the previous one ended, with David being the victim of a brutal stabbing outside the church. David winds up at Harbor Hospital, the site of the episode "117 Minutes," aka that time the team thought an angel was captured on camera but what they really discovered was a nasty case of medical racism.
As it turns out, the hospital is still pretty racist, which David learns when he is put under the care of Linda, also known as Nurse Plague (Tara Summers). David learns from his roommate Harlan (Marcus Callender) that Nurse Plague pumps her patients full of pain meds and then does unspeakable things to them, keeping their hospital bracelets as trophies. At night, David watches as creepy demons — TV Guide calls them "Meat Monsters" — wander the halls and grab helpless patients. Harlan warns David that Black patients are constantly dying in the hospital under mysterious circumstances due to people like Nurse Plague.
Luckily, Kristen comes to David's aid and exposes Nurse Plague's evil scheme, but not before irreparable damage has been done to David's psyche. Like the most successful episodes of "Evil," it's both extremely creepy and a trenchant commentary on one of today's social problems — a problem which one might accurately describe as "evil."
Book 27 (Season 1, Episode 13)
The Season 1 finale is filled with plenty of horrifying revelations, which is why it most certainly deserves a place on this list. The team's case this week involves a woman named Eleanor (Laura Heisler), who claims that her male fetus is possessed (she's carrying twins). They perform a series of tests on the baby/babies, and when David tries to give the afflicted fetus communion, Eleanor starts gushing a veritable river of blood all over the church floor. Then, when the baby is born (keyword: baby) the doctor tells Eleanor that the male fetus (the one she thought was possessed) consumed the other.
Eleanor's case leads the trio to a fertility clinic that seems to be connected to several cases they've worked on throughout the first season, including the murderous 9-year-old from Episode 4. Even more worrisome is the fact that Kristen used the fertility clinic herself to conceive her daughter Lexis (Maddy Crocco), and is now concerned that her kid might turn out to be evil, too.
The real kicker of the episode comes near the end. Kristen and her family are being harassed by a serial killer named Orson LeRoux (Darren Pettie), who has recently been released from jail. Having finally had enough of Orson's creepy stalking, Kristen leaves the house with an ice pick, which she presumably uses to bludgeon Orson to death. The episode ends with Kristen in the bathroom as she picks up a rosary, and, get this — it burns her hand. The episode is chilling in more ways than one, from the utter creepiness of RSM Fertility to Kristen's descent into evil.
E is For Elevator (Season 2, Episode 4)
TV Insider once called the "Evil" Season 2 episode "E is For Elevator" the "scariest episode yet," and for good reason. The team is sent to investigate the case of a teen named Wyatt who has gone missing and whose parents have found a pentagram on his floor. "EL GAME 8-4-2-13-1" is also carved into his desk, and Kristen's daughters inform her of the Elevator Game, which supposedly takes players straight to hell if they play correctly.
The numbers represent floor numbers on an elevator in an old hotel, which are meant to be visited in order. The trouble is, there's no thirteenth floor. The team learns of a woman who died in the elevator in the 1960s after she was chopped in half trying to rescue her dog. She supposedly haunts the hotel, and when Kristen gets trapped in the elevator herself, she sees the chopped-in-half woman crawling down the hallway, marking one of the scariest sequences in "Evil" history.
Meanwhile, Ben discovers the secret, which is that the "2" button on the elevator looks kind of like a 13. When he presses it, he gets sent to an abandoned floor in the hotel from which he has no way of escaping. He discovers the bodies of the missing teens, and is prepared to meet his own death — until David and Kristen rescue him. Kristen's hallway vision is terrifying, but so is Ben's near-death experience, which is haunting precisely because of how mundane and random it all is.
D is for Doll (Season 2, Episode 12)
It wouldn't make sense for a horror series to forgo an episode about dolls (even "The X-Files" did it), and the writers of "Evil" clearly knew this. That's why we were gifted (or cursed?) with the Season 2 episode "D is for Doll," which features not one, but three demonic dolls. The episode begins with the trio investigating the case of Nathan (Ato Essandoh), one of Kurt's (Kurt Fuller) patients. Nathan has lost his wife recently. Prior to that, she bought an "Eddie" doll that Nathan says has been tormenting him and his son. What he neglects to mention is his wife used to offer the doll gifts in order to make him happy, and when she stopped, she died shortly thereafter.
Meanwhile, Kristen's eldest, Lynn (Brooklyn Shuck), is babysitting a kid who also has an Eddie doll that has been asking him to do weird things. When the doll somehow winds up in Lynn's backpack, her sisters mistakenly think it's Sheryl's (because, yes, she also has an Eddie doll), and they place it in her room. Sheryl's actual doll is with her creepy new partner Edward (Tim Matheson), who is using the doll's power to initiate Sheryl into his demonic doom squad. Sweet, right? It's disturbing all around, especially since Sheryl — who seems like a lost cause at this point — is still living right next to her sweet, innocent granddaughters.
C is for Cannibal (Season 2, Episode 13)
When "Evil" does an episode about cannibalism, you just know it's going to be good. Season 2, Episode 13 — aptly titled "C is for Cannibal" — really goes there in terms of demonology. It's the eve of David's ordination into the priesthood, but first, the trio has a case to solve. They visit Mitch (Taylor Trensch), a med student who was previously a vegetarian but now has an intense craving for human flesh. The craving is so strong that Mitch has started zip-tying himself to bed at night so he doesn't snack on his roommate.
When they go to investigate, David is spooked by a flying demon, and this same demon visits Sister Andrea (Andrea Martin). It licks her face while she sleeps, which is equal parts scary and gross. They eventually learn that Mitch is being initiated into a demon "house" at the behest of Leland and his demonically-inclined friends. Mitch eventually gives in to his desire for flesh and becomes the successor in a demon house. One point for evil, zero points for good.
David and Kristen finally hook up in this episode, but the only thing scary about that is that it took so long. If only their doomed romance wasn't spoiled by a bit of light cannibalism.
The Demon of the Road (Season 3, Episode 4)
There's something especially eerie about paranormal events that occur on dark highways. Perhaps it's because we all know how creepy it is to be on a dimly-lit road late at night, so the circumstances are a little too close to home. In "The Demon of the Road," the trio is sent to assess a case involving a truck driver who seems to be possessed following his last job. They discover an urban legend (or is it?) among truck drivers about a particular stretch of highway that must be avoided at all costs.
Being the kooky kids that they are, the team decides to drive this stretch of highway themselves. And lo and behold, spooky things do start to happen, such as the radio scrambling and whispering Ben's name, and the car's power suddenly failing. They also encounter what looks like a flying figure shining a bright light that begins closely following their car. It's scary stuff, especially since no one on the team can quite figure out what it is that's following them.
They later learn that the "UFO" of sorts is just a guy with a drone, but — in typical "Evil" fashion — they also discover that he was working for one of the demon houses. The mystery of the episode is a classic horror/sci-fi one, but the story behind the phenomenon is all "Evil."
The Demon of Parenthood (Season 3, Episode 8)
Two words: Demon baby. Season 3, Episode 8 of "Evil" contains one of the most disturbing images in the series, and it all goes back to whatever vile stuff is going down at that fertility clinic. Kristen has been working with her lawyer, who is building a case against RSM Fertility and informs Kristen that her egg might have been implanted into someone else. This is obviously stressful news for Kristen, and her fears seep into her unconscious to produce a truly disgusting dream sequence in which she discovers a hairy, deformed demon baby in her kitchen and decides to breastfeed it. We'll say it for you: Ew.
Kristen's fears about her egg turn out to be justified, as she learns shortly thereafter that her egg has been used by another woman. Kristen goes to meet with Valerie (Lauren Norvelle), who is eight months pregnant, and her husband Logan (Charlie Semine). Things seem okay at first, but then Logan confesses to Kristen that he's worried about his wife and the baby and he thinks something might be wrong with it. The next time Kristen visits the couple, Logan seems even worse, but she assumes it's just anxiety.
As it turns out, it was more than just anxiety, because the next time Kristen visits the house she finds that Logan has killed Valerie and presumably cut the baby out of her. Kristen walking into the bloody nursery is one of the most harrowing sequences ever seen on the show, even though we never actually see Valerie's body.
The Demon of the End (Season 3, Episode 10)
The Season 3 finale isn't the most terrifying in terms of demons, but it does pack a disturbing punch that leaves us salivating for more. This episode's case happens to be Kristen's next-door neighbor, because whatever demonic stuff has been happening in the Bouchard house lately has seeped through the walls. Some creepy stuff is written on the walls of Kristen's new construction, so Sister Andrea (truly the hero of the show) comes over to translate it and also bash some demons in the process.
The real shockers of the episode come near the very end. Andy has finally returned from Nepal after presumably being caught in an avalanche (he was actually kidnaped by Sheryl, Leland, and Edward). He wakes up in the middle of the night and walks into the unfinished addition. There he finds a group of demons huddled around Kristen's demon baby (remember that thing?), and is also joined by Kurt, who seems to find the whole scene just adorable.
But, wait, there's more. Kristen and her lawyer find the address where her lost egg has been sent, so she decides to pay a visit. She enters a seemingly innocuous office, only to find that it's Sheryl's (demon-run) workplace. Even worse, Sheryl's office is throwing a baby shower that day, and guess who the father is? That's right, it's Leland Townsend himself, who seems to be fathering Kristen's biological baby. Can it get any worse for Kristen? Only time will tell.