#EVIL Season 2 Episode 6 Review: C Is for Cop

Another merger between real-life issues and the supernatural, this wasn’t fun, and with the starker line between what’s real and what isn’t, it wasn’t as strong, either.

Evil is best when it veers between the two with evidence for either side.

EVIL Season 2 Episode 6 featured a White cop on Black victim shooting and ended with an outright fabrication placing a Black person in the wrong when a White person committed a crime.

It was especially bad since the White person at the end was Kristen. But more on that later.

Although they align politically, social justice issues and unions seem diametrically opposed. Unions don’t only fight for wages and fair working conditions. No, they also protect the guilty.

In the case of the police, there are so many hoops to jump through, and union intimidation is so prevalent that the worst of the bunch escapes punishment and remains on the job.

Why is that important? Because it seems ridiculous that Bishop Marx tasked the team to investigate the possibility that Officer Turley shot an unarmed woman to death because of demonic interference. Then again, it seems all too plausible.

It’s an odd ask, for sure. But unions have deep pockets, and they make large donations to the Catholic church. Money talks. It’s disgusting.

Kristen was the first who wanted to close the case before it began, getting up from her chair as if to walk out of the room. Ben was right beside her, but David chose to speak directly with Officer Jim Tarley.

Putting Kristen on an even keel with the killer was genius. Not only do they share their White race, but their children’s carpool, as well. Jim and Kristen are peers, and as it turned out, they are both killers, too.

Louie: Does it matter that he thinks it was a gun?

David: That doesn’t mean that he’s possessed. It just means that he expected there to be a gun due to the driver’s race.

Bishop Marx: Is it not also possible that Satan uses racism as a form of diabolical oppression?

Kristen: So, now we think Officer Turley is possessed and not just racist? I’m not proud of that sentence.

Ben: It seems weird to give him what he wants for the grand jury.

David: Nah, this might be bigger than that.

David managed to see the case as objectively as he could because he’s guilt-free. Kristen and Ben are collapsing under the weight of their guilty conscience. Kristen’s guilt, we understood. But Ben’s comes from his genetic manipulation of human DNA to eradicate childhood disease before birth.

If his night terrors are speaking the truth (and I think they are), Ben’s guilt stems from what became of that research. Whatever the result, it was unpleasant and haunted him day and night.

That suggests that their determination to squash Turley’s case before it began could be a manifestation of their guilt onto the man they were investigating. If they’re guilty, what happened between Officer Turley and Ms. Burke seems a given. Turley is guilty.

The only questions are what motivated his action and whether killing Ms. Burke means he’s a racist. There’s no question that he killed her.

It was interesting that we had the benefit of film to show us what Officer Turley saw. And if you saw a gun (and returned to see it again in her hand because you weren’t sure), that’s what the camera wanted you to see. And, stopping on that image, if it wasn’t a gun, then I’m guilty, too.

It sure looked like a gun in her hand.

Kristen’s friendship with Mira offered another viewpoint. She considers herself one of the good ones, just as she considered Officer Turley to be a good cop. But she had a story that could have ended much differently.

As humans, our innate motivation is to stay alive. We don’t stop breathing easily. Our body demands that we carry on. It’s not demonic, but in a kill or be killed situation, is it possible that our brains serve the same function?

When you need to make a split-second decision, your brain could be telling you that you must be the one to survive. No matter who or where you are, when you are faced with the possibility of death, it seems logical that you put yourself first.

That happens from all sides, and it makes involvement with weapons all the more terrifying. If you look at it without racial motivations, the high death count due to guns makes sense.

But, of course, there IS a racial component.

Whether it’s because, as Mira said, their arsenal of experience says that there is a higher degree of crime with one race over or another or, as we were reminded with the Dick Wolfe type they visited, it’s because entertainment puts a disproportional number of White heroes and Black criminals into what we call entertainment, it doesn’t matter.

I’ve increased diversity by 30% across all of my shows. I even pitched a show last year, three POCs in Park Slope for crying out loud, and they passed on it. You see, I’m not the problem. The problem, I’m afraid to say, is what the public really wants. You see, you can go out there and scream black lives matter, and a whole bunch of people will be with ya. Go and write a drama about people screaming black lives matter, and see how fast people switch you off.
Mr. Carr

It’s there. And again, money talks. Mr. Carr makes a lot of money for their network. Didn’t he say he had five shows? Evil is definitely pointing a finger, and it shone directly on the Chicago franchise with Detective Hank Voight in the center.

After the turbulence of 2020, we wondered how our programming would reflect the year, including how Hank Voight would ride that wave of his so-called heroism. I don’t know how he came out of it on Chicago P.D as I don’t watch. But if they’re reflecting on it here, it’s worthy of discussion.

Ultimately, Officer Turley wasn’t indicted and was cleared of charges in the shooting. Everyone, Kristen included, huffed and puffed about the injustice. She should have kept her mouth shut.

Mira was still in search of LaRoux’s murderer. Why anyone cares that he was killed and is wasting resources to solve the crime is a mystery. But it was only a matter of time before Kristen’s past with the man put her into the spotlight.

It’s not kill or be killed, but it was a matter of her life when she began dealing with what she did. She carefully cleaned the evidence, even if she didn’t toss it away. She asked Lexis to lie for her when questioned.

Kristen: Do you remember that guy, that killer who came here to threaten you?

Lexis: LaRoux.

Kristen: Right. So they want to know if I was here, too.

Lexis: Oh. That’s easy. You were.

Kristen: Right. And I know that I sent you to be and later, I came upstairs to tuck you in.

Lexis: Is that what you WANT me to say?

Kristen: No, I’m just making sure that that’s what happened.

Lexis: I guess that’s what could have happened.

Kristen: You don’t remember me coming upstairs, tucking you in about 30 minutes later?

Lexis: No, I do. [hesitant] I guess that makes sense to me.

Kristen: OK. Good. Thanks, Lex.

Lexis: Here’s the thing, mom. Ben had put in that alarm system, and you couldn’t have left because it would have set off the alarm, right?

When Kristen’s mind got the better of her, she wound up in the front yard, murder weapon in hand. That and a confession weren’t enough for her to answer for her crime. She has a friend in high places who ensured that the investigation wouldn’t circle to Kristen again.

Mira would say that a Black man was seen around Kristen’s house, and she’d close the door on it.

Did Kristen object? Nope. Because to remain free aka living in this world, she’s got to let Mira toss a fabricated Black man under the bus.

That couldn’t have been lost on Kristen, and if the supernatural side of Evil is real, it was only one more slip off the rungs of the ladder that she needs to climb her way out of hell.

Ben took David’s words to heart by asking a postal employee to say he’s forgiven for his past.

I don’t imagine either Ben or Kristen will be free of night terrors anytime soon. Nothing abdicated them of the guilt. Similarly, it seems impossible that those who take a life, no matter how they do it or why can ever shake away that feeling.

I liked that Ben asked the question, though, about how you absolve your guilt when you don’t have faith. Bishop Marx’s theory that Satan could use racism as diabolical oppression also made sense in light of Ben’s inquiry.

If we just need to look to something greater than ourselves for answers, we should all consider a way to do that so that the mistakes of the past don’t continue perpetually.

As it stands, it seems like we have a long way to go before we’re willing to absolve each other of past sins and move forward with open hearts. Evil seems to understand that, both the show and the concept.

What did you think of the way racism was tackled in this episode? Are we too eager to throw each other under the bus to save our own skin? Are we too enamored with heroes with savior complexes? Do we need more discussion and less acquiescence?

I can’t wait to hear from you.

Evil returns with new episodes on Sunday, August 29.

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She’s a member of the Critic’s Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on Twitter and email her here at TV Fanatic.