Yahoo News E vil star Katja Herbers responds to season 2's latest twist
Evil spoilers follow.
Evil star Katja Herbers has opened up about the supernatural thriller's latest twist regarding her character Dr Kristen Bouchard – and the character's realisation that she might, quite literally, get away with murder due to white privilege.
In season two's midseason finale, which aired in the US on Sunday night (July 25), an ice-axe-wielding Kristen was found in her backyard, in the middle of the night, by her detective friend Mira Byrd (Kristen Connolly), as she hallucinated a violent confrontation with serial killer Orson LeRoux (Darren Pettie).
Unable to contain her secret any longer, a guilt-ridden Kristen (Herbers) broke down and confessed to Mira that she had killed Orson with the ice axe.
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In response, however, Mira informed her pal that she was going to help her cover up her crime as "some people deserve to die", and added that it probably wouldn't be that difficult to do either, as no one would believe a Caucasian mother-of-four would be capable of such a thing.
Then, Mira suggested that they brush off the late-night police call by saying they saw a Black man lingering around the garden.
"I was surprised when I read the script, and thrilled with the way it all unfolded, and the fact that it was in this episode where there's also a story of the white cop getting away with shooting an unarmed black woman," Herbers told Entertainment Weekly, breaking down the parallels within the episode.
"Then me being acquitted for murder because I'm a white woman who drives a Subaru, and doesn't look like somebody who might kill someone and I have a friend who's high up, who's a cop. I thought it was really clever writing and heartbreaking."
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During the interview, Herbers also delved into Kristen's conflicted feelings about coming clean, explaining that while "she feels enormous relief that she's acquitted and that she's not going to have to go to jail," she's ultimately just replacing that worry with inevitable, all-consuming shame.
"There's the moment of, 'Wait, I might be free, but I'm going to forever be carrying this; I'm going to forever be shackled by the fact that I got off'," she noted. "Now she understands if she weren't white, things would've gone very differently. I think that's something that's going to haunt her."
Regret? #EvilReturns pic.twitter.com/RR1koyfkCi
— Evil (@evil) July 25, 2021
As for what comes next for Kristen and Mira, Herbers teased that her character will struggle more and more with their actions as time goes on.
"We are going to maybe first see her being like there's a huge weight lifted off her shoulder, and then I think she's going to unravel more because she doesn't know where to place this," she explained.
"She's going to act out. We're going to have a little bit of fun."
Evil airs on Paramount+ in the US, and Alibi in the UK.
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