[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Season 4 of Evil.]

The Big Picture

Season 4 of the Paramount+ series ‘Evil’ focuses on the intersection of science, religion and the supernatural, tracing the origins of evil.
The decision to shoot four bonus episodes for the final season was made to provide a satisfying conclusion.
The season explores nature vs nurture with a new challenge for Leland and Kristen, and the possibility of an Antichrist baby.

From creators Robert and Michelle King, the fourth and final season of the Paramount+ series Evil is as creepy, unsettling, and deliciously naughty as ever. As Kristen (Katja Herbers), David (Mike Colter) and Ben (Aasif Mandvi) continue to assess cases that could trace back to the origins of evil and be something truly supernatural or be something that has a clear explanation rooted in science or religion. Now, on top of everything else, Leland (Michael Emerson) is trying to get Kristen to raise the baby he’s hoping will become the Antichrist, the Vatican wants more from David, and Ben isn’t sure what’s real anymore.

During this interview with Collider, executive producers Robert and Michelle King talked about why the decision was made to shoot four bonus episodes to complete the series, focusing on a satisfying conclusion, the fun of putting Leland through having to take care of an infant, that creepy baby mobile, what the chances are that the baby won’t actually turn into the Antichrist, putting Sheryl (Christine Lahti) in an office with a literal glass ceiling, the time they thought they went too far but then realized they hadn’t, and whether they’d always been working toward this ending.

Evil “Evil,” the 2019 TV series from creators Robert and Michelle King, is a gripping exploration of the intersection between science and the supernatural. The series stars Katja Herbers as Dr. Kristen Bouchard, a forensic psychologist drawn into a world of dark mysteries and unexplained phenomena. Alongside priest-in-training David Acosta (Mike Colter) and tech expert Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi), Kristen is tasked with investigating a series of bizarre cases for the Catholic Church, including demonic possessions, hauntings, and miracles.Release Date September 26, 2019 Cast Mike Colter , Brooklyn Shuck , Katja Herbers , Dalya Knapp , Marti Matulis , Maddy Crocco , Kurt Fuller , Michael Emerson , Skylar Gray , Aasif Mandvi , Christine Lahti Seasons 4 Creator(s) Michelle King , Robert King Network CBS , Paramount

Collider: Since it sounds like it wasn’t exactly your choice to end with Season 4, do you feel like you were able to tie things up this season in the way that you wanted to, or did the bonus episodes come about because you didn’t feel like you were able to necessarily tie everything up by the end of this season?

MICHELLE KING: When there was talk of having to end the show, the decision was made to do four more episodes in order to bring the series to a close, and I absolutely feel like we were able to do that with those four episodes.

ROBERT KING: Yeah, you would have really felt it was incomplete without [the bonus episodes]. For the actors, they would have just been interrupted in their path, so it was great to be able to do that. The fourth season is more about science, and the last four episodes after the fourth season allowed us to bring the stories to a close.

‘Evil’ Creators Robert & Michelle King Wanted to Satisfy Their Fans and Cast with the Series Ending
Image via Paramount+

Had you ever considered trying to get the show picked up somewhere else, or were you just focused on wrapping things up with these additional episodes?

MICHELLE: We were focused on wrapping the show up for CBS Studios and Paramount+.

ROBERT: We know what the business is about. We are very knowledgeable about how it’s all about getting new subscribers and often that doesn’t fit in with the new mentality. To even go someplace else would be difficult. The most important thing for us was satisfying our own sense of ending the story, the fans, and then that the actors get their characters completed in some way that is satisfactory to the show and to them.

Related ‘Evil’ Season 4 Review: Everything Good Horror TV Should Be ‘Evil’ Season 4 premieres May 23 on Paramount+ in the U.S.

How long have you been waiting to torture Leland with taking care of an infant? Is that something that has been brewing for a while?

MICHELLE: I don’t think it brewed before the season, but we were just tickled pink with the thought of it.

ROBERT: It’s always fun when a character who, for example, in this case is evil thinks, “Okay, I’m perpetrating the greatest evil,” but not realizing, “Oh, damn, there’s actually some responsibility I now have for it.” And especially when it’s someone like Michael Emerson and the character has such a neat house with such beautiful things, bringing up an infant in there, he didn’t think it through.

Was there a list of things you wanted to put him through? Was it just fun to throw all different types of liquid at him that you could like? Whose idea was the baby mobile?

ROBERT: It was [Michelle’s] idea for the baby mobile. And then, in post, we decided to see what evil music we could get to play with it.

MICHELLE: Was it my idea? I thought it might have been the production designer. In any case, everyone jumped into it with both feet. We all loved this idea of Leland having to face raising the Antichrist.

ROBERT: It really did come down to what Kristen says in the first episode, “Why doesn’t The Omen address infancy? Because that’s the real horror.” The idea of having an Antichrist child, or just having a child, is the same thing. They vomit and poop just as much. It’s just as much of a nightmare either way, which was funny to us.

Related ‘Evil’s Most Shocking Episode Changed the Show Forever One character goes over the line, and it changes our perception of her future… and her past.

What was Michael Emerson’s reaction when you told him that this is what you would be subjecting him to?

MICHELLE: Michael is the most game actor you can imagine. He approaches everything with humor and the willingness to try.

ROBERT: It all comes down to wardrobe. Every time a vomit would miss, you’d have to change it again because there’d be some splatter there. It all came down to hours and the amount of wardrobe changes.

‘Evil’ Creators Robert & Michelle King Wonder if Nature Vs. Nurture Matters with the Anitchrist
Image via Paramount+

At least initially, Kristen doesn’t seem all that concerned that she’s had a part in birthing the Antichrist. Is that something that she’ll have to deal with more directly as the season progresses? Is there any chance he won’t turn out to be the Antichrist?

MICHELLE: Those are all great questions that will reveal themselves as you watch.

ROBERT: That is one of the themes we’re after, with nature versus nurture. How much is a child predetermined to be a certain way, and how much are they not? For us, all these actors are fun to put through their paces. To see the reaction they have to this new element is fun, especially when you’re not following the pathway of the usual Antichrist tropes of other shows. You’re going for the reality of raising a child that’s an infant.

One of my absolute favorite moments so far this season is the literal glass ceiling over Sheryl’s office. How did that come about? How does that play into her arc this season?

MICHELLE: It was Robert’s idea to put an actual physical glass ceiling, which is a funny side gag.

ROBERT: Especially because you have to hunch over to get in, like in Being John Malkovich. For us, it was the idea that she thought she could get more power by going to the dark side, but the dark side has its own sense of a glass ceiling hierarchy, which is always favoring men. It was a comic idea to us that Sheryl, by thinking she was gaining more power, ends up with a boss that is exactly like Harvey Weinstein as a demon. That was funny to us.

Related ‘Evil’s Best Characters Aren’t Who You’re Thinking Of These characters light up the show like no other.

You throw in a lot of things from the real world in your shows and you do that in this show this season. Whether it’s Elon Musk or robot dogs, do you have a process for deciding which real-life things or people you want to bring into any given series?

MICHELLE: I would say it’s somewhat informal and it’s about the writers’ room gathering and everybody talking about what has inflamed them in the last 24 hours.

ROBERT: We’re always shooting emails back and forth, and texts. In the second episode, there’s a sequence inspired by the Roger Stone deposition. That was shooting around among the writers, and then it can’t help but be a part of the show and the spirit of the show. You try to get something you think is at least a little bit of an evergreen because you can’t control when the show is gonna be on the air. You wanna try to use something that doesn’t disappear after a week.

‘Evil’ Creators Robert & Michelle King Have Abandoned the Idea of Going Too Far

Has there ever been something that you were worried went too far, especially on a show like this, that has the horror element and some of the gross-out aspects, or did it feel like you could get away with anything, with as talented as your cast is at selling it?

MICHELLE: Given that our lead actress kills a man, I think we pretty much abandoned the thought of going too far. When she isn’t committing adultery with a Satanist, this is someone we consider to be likable. So, I think we’ve abandoned the thought of going too far.

ROBERT: I think I made one mistake by thinking we had gone too far. We shot a scene for the third season where David has sex with the demon Kristen, and it’s a breakup between them. It was a lovely scene that we put online as a deleted scene, but that was one where I thought we went too far, both sexually and just exposing our actors, so we cut it from the episode. And then, it ended up online, and I watched it again, and it was a wonderful scene. So, it’s always a mistake to think you’ve gone too far because, in that moment, it may seem that way, but in another month, you’ll go, “Oh, that was stupid. Why was that deleted?”

Did you always know how you wanted to end this series, and do you feel like you have ended it that way? Were there things along the way that changed the shape of it, at all?

ROBERT: We knew the region of where we wanted to conclude. We were like, “Okay, I know what body of water we’re gonna dive into at the end,” but you always wanna leave yourself open to what’s happening in the news and what’s happening in current events. These last four episodes are only gonna be streamed three months after they were written. So, it really mad sense to not completely commit to one path.

Evil is available to stream on Paramount+. Check out the Season 4 trailer:

Watch on Paramount+