‘Evil’ 4×05 Review: “How To Fly an Airplane”

Evil 4×05 “How To Fly an Airplane” sends the trio to Rome in what feels, at least somewhat, like a convenient plot device to get Kristen out of the way. That’s not to say that the parts of the hour focused on the trip don’t have any value or anything like that. It’s just kind of…odd that we’ve never gone there before, but now is the time. Not to mention, Kristen has four kids! Expecting her to drop everything on virtually no notice to spend 35 hours doing something she…really wasn’t needed for is grossly irresponsible. To be clear, we’re not saying it was irresponsible on Kristen’s part — the fault all lies with the Church. Although, we won’t lie either: Given what just happened to Andy, we found her not protesting a wee bit more to be kind of surprising.

But ok. Let’s go with it since it does give her a distraction — and us a good time. Of course, the problem is, when Mom’s away….Evil Grandma gets a chance to play. While we’re not happy with Sheryl’s choices right there at the end, we do like the idea of little Timothy the antichrist setting some dark forces in motion to meet his sisters. Because a lot of strange things had to happen for the baby to find his way to the Bouchard house, and because the relic in “How To Fly an Airplane” does turn out to be demonic, we’re going to decide it’s all connected through him.

And while we’re not going to use the phrase “filler episode” to describe Evil 4×05 — because we know better — we will say it’s a nice break from all the heavy emotional…stuff. In fact, while we’re sure something about this episode will come back to haunt us later, we kind of like being able to say that this one feels like we could show it to someone who doesn’t watch this series and have them still enjoy it, totally out of order, no context. The only thing we might have to explain is the whole deal with Timothy. But, well. Sheryl’s hesitation before spilling the beans, followed by the kids’ reactions to hearing he’s their brother, tells all the story an outsider really needs to know anyway.

Side note before we get started: Have we tried pouring holy water from Vatican City on the whole “we canceled your show” thing?

Snakes Demonic relics on a plane

Ok. So. First of all, let’s all take a second to marvel at just how cool a lot of the shots of the trio traveling through all those (annoyingly long, for them) tunnels were. And Kristen singing “Sodomy” from Hair while she, David, and Ben are trapped in the back of that car with those stuffy priests is everything. But despite some good moments along the way, the journey seems more like a meaningless schlepp than an adventure. Or, well, that’s the false sense of security we feel…right up until the chaos of the flight home comes out of nowhere and is a total stunner.

…literally. David, Kristen, and Ben are all totally, completely stunned by what occurs up there.

Look: We could spend an entire hour watching paint dry if it means also getting to experience Mike Colter having the combined horror movie/superhero sequence he gives us — and completely rocks — in Evil 4×05. Colter’s physicality, in the way David just struggles back to his seat during the turbulence is amazing. It’s this phenomenal display of strength, both in body and spirit, on a level that (likely) no one else on that plane could have pulled off. During the entire sequence, there’s not a second that goes by that we doubt David’s scared, unsure of what’s happening, and even a little bit desperate. But more than any of the above, we know he’s looking for a way to save everyone.

Also of note: Even with the chaos all around them, it’s as if David, Ben, and Kristen are up there all alone. Because they alone are our heroes, our sole focus. But while Ben and Kristen go back and forth over whether or not someone could be hacking from the ~~ground~~ ocean to make those awful noises on the intercoms, we can see the exact second when David comes up with a real plan — make good use of the holy water in his bag. Before he can get it and save the day, though, he has to fight off those visions of the ghost.

…which, obviously, means we’re once again going to say how good Colter is at communicating with us through making the tiniest details count. Here, it’s how tightly he squeezes those eyes shut, conveying how difficult chasing away that ghost turns out to be. Difficult, yet not impossible — after all, David does save the day. Good thing he was on that plane, with his holy water, which he only had because the assessors were forced to make the trip to check out the relic…which couldn’t have nearly crashed the plane if they hadn’t been on it in the first pla—…

…my brain just broke.

The kids aren’t alright

A freak accident at Yasmine’s mom’s assisted living facility, Plan B (the neighbor) unavailable, a power outage, bats, a locked door, a creepy-crawly where a key should be…Evil 4×05 has way, way too many coincidences for someone or something not to have orchestrated it all. Now, some questions: Sheryl and Leland’s quid pro quo situation means Sheryl should be gaining power…so, was this an Evil Grandma scheme? Does Leland realize he can’t trust her in matters involving her family so he did…something? Or can we just stick with our Timothy theory? Either way, we’re very much not going to believe all of that “just happened.”

(Side note: Weird how Leland was [checks notes] wrong when he was so sure he wouldn’t need Sheryl’s help again. Ugh. Men.)

Definitely going to say, given its very horror-tropey framing, the four Bouchard daughters’ version of Home Alone is superior to the original. Maddy Crocco, Brooklyn Shuck, Skylar Gray, and Dalya Knapp don’t often get to be much more than “Kristen’s chaotic daughters” (if you will). So, it’s such a nice surprise — and treat! — to see them get to carry a major part of the action here. It’s wild how much these girls have grown before our very eyes. And that applies to both the actors and their characters, who are seen here showing real concern for their mom and just…surviving every terrifying thing thrown at them.

Were we at all surprised that Lexis called Sheryl for help? No. Of course not. But do we care how easy that was to predict? Also no. Because the journey in getting to that point was so well done. Everything just came together beautifully — the lighting, the slow way the camera followed Laura and Lila to that hole in the basement wall…the pause before all hell broke loose with the bats, overall timing, Lynn getting to take charge, and the young actress’ performances above all. Such a blast. (But are we still like “no way are these kids this grown”? Uh, yeah.)

The fun, and the episode, comes to an abrupt end when Sheryl tells the four Ls about Timothy, though. As we said in the intro, we’re really not happy she put them in that position — especially when their dad just, by all appearances, overdosed in their bedroom and was then shipped off to a psychiatric facility. Like, can they not get a break? Despite not being happy with Evil Grandma, though, we will say we couldn’t help but feel bad for her, when she was just so happy to get to spend time with the girls again.

…but still. Evil Grandma, WTF.