Warning: This post contains major spoilers for the Evil Season 3 premiere, as well as teases for what’s to come.
After watching the Evil Season 3 premiere, we had one big question: Can Kristen and David really put it all behind them? Thankfully, we had the perfect opportunity to get some answers when we interviewed series stars Katja Herbers and Mike Colter.
For Herbers, the answer was pretty simple: Basically, no. It’s not possible. But there was a catch. “You can try—you can try to push it down—but I think they feel what they feel. And it’s kind of…It’s a little bit heartbreaking because it seems to me that, at the height of their connection, they actually got disconnected.”
Um, yeah. “Heartbreaking” is actually the perfect word for Kristen and David. And, for the record, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Like we said in our Evil Season 3 advance review, these two—Herbers especially—broke us.
For one thing, there’s the complication of the forked-tongue friend David makes in Evil 3×01. And for another, there are a lot of complications standing in the main characters’ way.
Basically, Katja Herbers gave the angst to us straight: “Kristen really misses David, and he has this whole life with Kristen—or Other Kristen—that she knows nothing about. And so there’s this…disconnect between them that is fun to play around with.” (Fun to play around with, fun to wreck us with…whatever.)
What are some of the obstacles, and what has Kristen missing David so much in Evil Season 3? Mike Colter laid some of it out for us. “I think there’s…There’s so many obstacles, both real and imagined, that present a huge problem for any—for moving forward in any way. And I also think the audience—half the audience—while they do want to see something, there’s a half of the audience that also wants David to sort of stick with what he’s decided he wants to do with his life.” (For the record: We get it? But we’re still not remotely in the “opposed” column for something happening here.)
Another problem? There’s always Kristen’s “whole life” outside the work, which David might not quite really see. Or. Maybe Colter and Herbers disagree on the not seeing part because, um…Well. See for yourselves.
So, which part is more of a struggle for David? The “whole four kids” of it all? Or his work as a priest and…some upcoming top-secret…stuff he’s doing?
According to Colter, “It’s all of the above.” In Evil Season 3, “the duality and the double life thing has been playing really front and center for David…I think he enjoys it—I don’t think he has an option. I think he really has to…find some way to sort of find what is it to be a priest.”
Let’s Talk Other Kristen
There are a lot of reasons to be excited about Evil Season 3. First off, while Kristen and David may be dishing up the angst, Other Kristen is delivering viewers, and David, something else entirely.
For Colter, while David’s figuring himself out as a priest (more on that below), there’s also this…whatever it is. And we haven’t seen the last of it. “I think this…excites him—the thing that’s going on with this other version of Kristen.”
For Katja Herbers, who has to make Other Kristen really be other, getting to do these scenes is both “jarring—sex scenes are always awkward” and a source of excitement. As she put it, there were times when she almost felt like a guest star of sorts: “I felt like a visitor on the show that I’m actually on. And I play a big role on! I felt…I felt different and like I shouldn’t be there. Sneaky.”
So, even though she had to step out of her comfort zone with the Other Kristen scenes, “what’s really great about it was that it gave me this whole other personality to play—this whole other character. I approached her as someone who just also wants to be loved. A demon with a heart, who can’t stand this bitch Kristen that David seems to be in love with. And…she starts off with maybe a bit of cliché sexy. You know. And then, she figures out that that’s kind of, maybe, not the entirety of Kristen. That he loves Kristen—or he’s in love with Kristen—for other reasons, too. So, later, she becomes a bit more well-spoken. And maybe more intelligent…But she can’t have him.”
That’s correct. She can’t because if anybody gets to have David Acosta, it’s Kristen Bouchard.
Evil Season 3 Spoilers: Mike Colter on Father David’s Upcoming Journey
Of course, that whole Kristen and David thing will forever hit a snag when it comes to the fact that David is now a priest. And being a priest is…not always fun. As you’ll see later on, “in some of the episodes, they’re exploring the banality—the boredom—of day-to-day mundane things.”
Part of what actually adds some humor to an otherwise dark and angsty story (aside from, you know, watching Leland do Leland) is seeing Colter’s character react to the boredom of “sitting around a bunch of guys who’ve been doing this for, like, thirty-something years. And just…eating soup. Watching these guys, going and doing wedding ceremonies. And confessions…It’s like speed dating, except it’s just like, ‘ok. Tell me your sins. Alright. Great. You know, do the Our Father thing. You move right along.’ And he does that, you know, all. day. long.“
This leads him down an…interesting path, to say the least. We’re not going to go into detail on it. But let’s just say, aside from the hot times with Other Kristen, there’s a new “purpose” that also excites David. He accepts an offer that makes him think, “this is going to be fun. And I feel like I’m doing something. Like I have a reason to get up. And I feel like this is something I can really wrap my mind around.”
As the final word on David’s overall journey this season, Colter told us, “everybody wants to feel needed and wanted, and I think he’s always looking for that.”
Don’t miss Katja Herbers and Mike Colter in Evil Season 3, now streaming—with new episodes available every Sunday—on Paramount+.
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