The assessors investigate a potential haunting who happens to be Kristen’s (Katja Herbers) neighbor in “The Demon of the End.” David (Mike Colter) turns away from temptation and embraces his visions. Andy (Patrick Brammall) finds himself trapped and struggling. Kristen visits her mother (Christine Lahti as Sheryl) at work.

“The Demon of the End” is the tenth episode of season 3 of Evil, created by Michelle King and Robert King. The central cast includes Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, Aasif Mandvi, Michael Emerson, Christine Lahti, and Andrea Martin. As of this review, it’s available through Netflix and Paramount+ and its add-ons.

What I Like about “The Demon of the End”

“The Demon of the End” begins shortly after the last episode, keeping momentum with a memorable introduction. “The Angel of Warning” provides another memorable introduction, but this episode directly connects the tragedy with the characters we know. It hits hard and lingers on that emotional investment.

Li Jun Li continues her exceptional performance as Grace realizes the cost of assuming she understands her vision. One might speculate why this realization troubles her, but the moments leading to her appearance visibly haunt her.

The evolution of Andy’s (Patrick Brammall) storyline provides a few twists that suggest a focus for the character. Andy often seems like one of the characters neglected by the plot, and “The Demon of the End” provides some work in remedying this issue. While the follow through varies between episodes, it’s still effective in this episode.

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Evil: Season Three [Blu-Ray]

• Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, Aasif Mandvi (Actors)
• Robert King (Director)
• Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)

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Evil: Season Three [DVD]

• Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, Aasif Mandvi (Actors)
• Robert King (Director)
• Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)

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Kristen remains the central character for most plotlines, passing from each catastrophic revelation with surprisingly effective pacing. Katja Herbers chews each scene, often displaying her thoughts with her expression alone.

When Evil lets a scene simmer, it leads to some of the show’s best moments. The combined revelations at the end between the characters hold many such moments. Kristen’s final scenes of the season bring this visual storytelling to life. Small moments connect previous episodes to the current plot as everything becomes clear to Kristen and the viewer.

Tired Tropes and Triggers

This is less a trope or trigger, but a character displays a moment that suggests an OCD. It’s a brief moment with little room to make any definitive claims.

Perhaps toxic family relationships should be mentioned. However, little is unpacked at the current moment, leaving potential plotlines for season 4 to develop further or drop.

David suggests a character pray at a particularly low moment regardless of their belief. I find it benign, but it might not sit well for some. However, this is a series following assessors for the Catholic church.

What I Dislike about “The Demon of the End”

There’s nothing I particularly dislike or take issue with in “The Demon of the End.” The one criticism is that of leaving in something akin to a cliffhanger, forcing season 4 to begin with season 3’s natural conclusion. Yes, it builds anticipation, but it leads to a non-conclusion.

Final Thoughts on “The Demon of the End”

“The Demon of the End” brings the end of season 3 with a few memorable moments and directions for season 4. It ends the season by promising a future confrontation with two key characters and several mysteries to explore further. The episode mostly feels complete in its execution, though it ends right before a full conclusion.

Final Thoughts on Season 3

Season 3 is the shortest season of Evil, breaking the 13-episode trend of 1 and 2. This decision seems a positive development, allowing a more focused plot that pushes the greater narrative along. However, it is a shame that this season drew a shorter straw, considering the initial fumbling of season 2. Viewers receive a clear move toward a definitive conclusion. 
(4.5 / 5)

Named for one of my favorite Goosebumps books, The Boy Who Cried Monster shed light on a character who hasn’t gotten much attention. One that, as far as I’m concerned, needed some additional screen time.

The Story

We begin this episode with Anthony, investigating the Fort where his brother vanished. He’s surprised to find equipment that wasn’t there before, as well as an underground tunnel.

Meanwhile, CJ is having a bad time of things. After leaving a food order out on a woman’s porch, causing it to be lost, he makes up a story about zombies to explain the mistake.

After being caught, he explains to his mom that he’s bored as a delivery person. He wants to help make changes to the family restaurant.

His mother seems open to this at first. Then, CJ brings a delivery of soup to Anthony.

Anthony, it seems, hasn’t been feeling well. It must be something he ate. Or something that ripped through his suit at the Fort. By the time CJ arrives, he’s falling apart.

But he manages to pull himself together just long enough to kidnap CJ and try to feed him that same goo that infected him. The other teens save CJ just in time. And Anthony, or at least something that looks like Anthony, loses his head.

What worked

To start with, this episode was funny. Considerably funnier than the rest of the season. Part of this was the focus on CJ, easily the funniest character in the show. But it was also the fantastic acting by David Schwimmer. His line delivery, especially while doing violent things, was so inoffensive and even apologetic. It was impossible not to laugh.

I also appreciate that almost everyone is together now. After everyone finally talks to everyone else properly, all of the kids are on the same page. Even Jen is at least aware of what’s going on and working to fix things. The only one who isn’t with the team is Anthony. Or, at least whatever it is that looks like Anthony and is walking around his house.

Finally, I want to talk about our new character, Hannah. Hannah is incredibly creepy, upsetting, and almost certainly not a human being. Everything from the way she moves to the way she talks to her weird smile is unnerving. It’s as close to the uncanny valley as an actual human can get. And since the actor is a real human even if the character isn’t (we assume) that’s quite a feat.

I also loved that Devin is smitten with her right away. And we don’t know if he falls so hard because he’s a dumb teenage boy or because she’s infected him in some way. Both seem equally possible. I’m looking forward to seeing what she does through the rest of the season. Because I’m sure it isn’t going to be anything good.

What didn’t work

All that being said, this episode did have several fatal flaws. And they happen to be issues that are at the very top of my most hated tropes list.

To start with, I cannot stand the love triangle between Frankie, Devin and Trey. It feels forced, and way too much time is being spent on it. Now, I’ll grant that part of this is just because it feels like a very teenage drama storyline. And technically this is a show for teenagers and tweens. But frankly, we can stop encouraging this sort of bad storytelling for younger people. They’re smart, and this sort of thing insults their intelligence.

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I also hate issues that could be solved with simple conversations. If Anthony had simply talked with his kids before being replaced by a pod person, a fragile pod person, I bet a lot of these problems could have been solved earlier. This always feels like a lazy plot device. Anytime the answer is, ‘If we’d just communicated earlier this could have all been avoided,’ I am out.

Things are getting serious with just three episodes left to go. So we’ll be marathoning them this week.

So what better follow up to Invisibles Among Us in Nightmarish Nature than Monstrous Mimicry? Further exploring the leaps that critters will go to in order to eat and not be eaten. This time we’re focusing on those creatures that want to intentionally be mistaken for one another.

Insects Pretending to Be Insects

This is a pretty common subgroup in the mimicry set. Featuring such celebrities as the Viceroy Butterfly, which looks an awful lot like the Monarch. Why? Because everyone knows Monarch Butterflies taste nasty and cause indigestion. Duh? Though it appears the Viceroy took further cues from this and is not all that tasty in its own right either. Dual reinforcement is totally the way to go – it tells predators not to eat the yucky butterflies regardless. But some bugs go a bit further in this, imitating one another to seek out food or protection. Various wasps, spiders, beetles, and even some caterpillars impersonate ants for access to their nest or because ants aren’t as appetizing as their buggy counterparts to much of anything outside of the myrmecophagous crowd (as shared before, here’s a fun diversion with True Facts if you have no idea), though some also have nefarious plans in mind. And similarly, the female photoris fireflies imitate other firefly signals luring smaller males to try to mate with them where they are instead eaten.

Kind of Weird Mimicry: Insects Pretending to Be Animals

Moths are pretty tasty, as far as many birds and small mammals are concerned, so several of them find ways to appear less appetizing. Using mimicry in their larval form, they may try to look specifically like bird scat or even like snakes to drive away predators, with elaborate displays designed to reinforce their fakir statuses. And once they emerge as moths, they continue these trends, with different species flashing eye spots to look like owls, snakes, cats, and a myriad of other animals most of their predators don’t want to tangle with. But other insects pretend to be larger animals too, with some beetles and others producing noises often associated with predator, typically towards the same end – to deter those who might otherwise eat them.

Animals Pretending to Be Animals

Similarly some animals will mimic others. Snakes may resemble one other, as seen in the Milk versus King versus Coral Snakes and the popular rhyme, Red with Black is safe for Jack or venom lack, but Red with Yellow kills a fellow for all that it isn’t 100% accurate on the Red-Yellow end (better to err on the side of caution than not – so assume they are deadly). Fish and octopuses will imitate other fish for protection status or to conceal opportunistic predatory behaviors. And lots of animals will mimic the sounds others make, though Lyrebirds tend to take the cake in this, incorporating the vocalizations into mating rituals and more.

Really Weird Mimicry: Animals Pretending to Be Insects

Some of the weirdest mimicry comes out in animals pretending to be insects or small fish, where a predator will flick its strangely formed tongue that looks like a fish or water nymph to draw in more tiny critters that feel safe with their own, only to find themselves snapped up as dinner. Snapping turtles are notorious for this, disguising themselves in the muck to make their big asses less obvious and reinforce the ruse. Even some snakes do this.

Weirder Still

Then there are things that pretend to be plants. Like orchid mantises. Or sea slugs that look like anemones (some of which eat anemones and have stingers to match). I mentioned a few of these in the Invisibles Among Us segment last time, because some are highly specialized to look like very specific things and others just aren’t. Essentially, nature loves to play dress up and be confusing and adaptive. It’s like Halloween year round. And who can really argue with that?

Here’s a fun video from Animalogic exploring some of these themes. And feel free to check out more Nightmarish Nature here.

Vampires Among Us

Perilous Parenting

Freaky Fungus

Worrisome Wasps

Cannibalism

Terrifying Tardigrades

Reindeer Give Pause

Komodo Dragons

Zombie Snails

Horrifying Humans

Giants Among Spiders

Flesh in Flowers

Assassin Fashion

Baby Bomb

Orca Antics

Creepy Spider Facts

Screwed Up Screwworms

Scads of Scat

Starvation Diet

Invisibles Among Us