Chatbot From Beyond the Grave

As Evil oozes its way toward the season four finale—and then wraps up the show forever with a quartet of concluding episodes—it’s continued to do what it does best: poke into the horrors of the modern world as seen through a lens that’s both ancient (demons) and modern (technology), with a healthy dose of humor keeping its darker moments from being too dark. This sneak-peek scene from episode nine, “How to Build a Chatbot,” offers a classic Evil moment in this regard.

According to Paramount+’s official description, the episode sees “David, Kristen, and Ben investigate a company using AI to fake communication with the dead after Father Ignatius receives text messages from the deceased Monsignor Korecki.” Here we see that plot kick in, with nearly the entire cast crammed into a room to noodle over the quandary. (That’s Wallace Shawn as Father Ignatius, of course, alongside Andrea Martin’s Sister Andrea, Mike Colter’s David, Katja Herbers’ Kristen, and Aasif Mandvi’s Ben.)

There’s an extra layer of sadness here, as Evil fans will know, because Monsignor Korecki—”Matt”—was murdered in season three by Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson) while protecting a woman whose claims of being able to talk to God were seemingly proven to be true. There’s also the fact that Ignatius and Korecki had a deep affection between them that was more romance than friendship, though being priests they were never able to act on it.

Elsewhere in the episode, “Sheryl and the other women convince the Manager to take action against Leland,” which should certainly only complicate Leland’s problems now that (as we saw last week), Sheryl (Christine Lahti) has very sneakily had the infant Antichrist baptized. The Manager—the giant, hairy demon that’s Sheryl and Leland’s corporate boss, as well as the head of their Satanic sect—doesn’t seem like a guy you can reason with, so this could be very bad for Leland going forward. And that’s very good for Evil!

As for that sinister chatbot, it looks like you can add it to the list of tech-gone-awry that Kristen, David, and especially Ben have tangled with over Evil‘s four seasons. Find out what happens next on “How to Build a Chatbot,” which hits Paramount+ Thursday, July 18.

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