Believing in anything can be messy, so it only makes sense that “Evil” would be, too.
It would be easy to claim that Season 2 delivers more of the same, but that would undersell the extent to which these new episodes have a far greater dose of “more” than “the same.” After already building to something of a unified theory that tied most of the mysterious Season 1 occurrences together, “Evil” keeps some of that framework and spends the early going of this new season by adding rather than refining.
As frustrating as it can be at points from an episodic storytelling standpoint, there’s a certain method to that murkiness that puts the viewer on equal footing with the main trio whose perceptions of what to believe has been shifted by visions of avenging archangels, scythe-wielding devils, and disco dance moves from the unlikeliest of sources.
When those two manage to sync up, like Kristen navigating the complicated realities of her marriage or David’s not-exactly-sanctioned efforts at communing with the sublime, it’s a thrill to have a show that can deftly handle both at the same time.
Keeping him around is more a blessing than a curse, but the contortions that “Evil” has to make to keep him involved sometimes points to the show having the occasional hit-or-miss streak.
The show has room for dissections of cognitive behavior, considerations of the ethics of certain Church practices, dalliances with prosthetic-covered dream demons, and a handful of psychedelics-induced hallucinations for good measure.
Peel back the layers of CGI apparitions and simple effects flair and you still have the show’s simple, tiny unsettling touches: a shriek coming from a garbled voice recording or a strange noise happening just out of sight or a mirror staring back with a sinister grin.