The Final Assessment

The X-Files meets the Vatican in this orgy of conspiracy theories. Leland returns from the back back burner in spectacular fashion and gives us a glimpse of a story (and ending) that we could only hope for. #Evil #Season2 #UisforUFO #cottoncandy #XfilesxVatican

Unanswered questions abound and many small things seem important to the story, and are treated as such by the characters, without giving viewers any context--it won't all be saved by coming back alter. Instead we're teased with nightmare fuel, and understated vision of hell, and overt doubt. #Evil #Season2 #BisforBrain #Godhelmet

A layered episode, a great example of using the medium as the message: a nearly dialogue-free episode of television, allowing viewers to share the characters' experience. #Evil #Season2 #SisforSilence #onetrackmind

The threads running through this episode (and ultimately through the whole series)--guilt, sin, and doubt--may be neon, but are no less masterfully woven. Mileage is gotten in unexpected (but not unsurprising, sadly) ways from a handful of occurrences that could have been exhausted in an episode or two in less-skilled hands. #Evil #Season2 #CisforCop #Alibis

Packed with addiction, union-busting, shockingly gullible clergy, and a cogent discussion of "28 Days Later," the most interesting question is one this episode ask quietly: is a small evil justified to stop a greater one? Also, we see Miss Murray, and while we will see her again, she feels like someone that could have had much more presence.#Evil #Season2 @ZisforZombies #40kproblems

As Episode 2 laid bare the terrifying reality of coming face to face with a biblically accurate angel, this episode interrogates the use of fear in religious indoctrination and parenting. This will be an ongoing subject for the series, but the choice to use self-assured skeptic Ben to make the point here makes it all the more powerful. #Evil #Season2 #EisforElevator #elevatorgame

With Sister Andrea, the show commits to the conspiracy arc and leans into it, but it never forgets its smarmy heart. As David's character seems to resolve into its final form, Kristen and Ben are still going through some things.#Evil #FisforFire #Firestarter #Duellingexorcists

Be not afraid, indeed. After a season spent wrestling with the reality of horns-and-pitchfork demons, the trio explores the flip side--Biblical angels. Here, the show decides not to indulge the representational aspect--wheels in the sky made of wings and eyes--to the same extent that it does for the demonic, instead spending the time to explore what an angel acting exactly as represented in the Bible would look like in current society. The result is terrifying, even as the weakness of pure venality as a motivating force becomes more obvious in Leland's weakness.#Evil #Season2 #AisforAngel #Pillarofsalt

The series seemed to hit its stride at the end of Season 1, when the tone finally seemed to set. Happily, there is no loss of momentum going into the second season. The Pop-up Book of Terrifying Things appears, and feels like it was always there. And we began to get a sharper picture of how Leland's profound weakness co-exists with the real dangers that he presents.