I knew there was no way they’d hire Richard Kind to simply sit there and be a more or less inconsequential judge at Leland’s trial. Not to say I wasn’t surprised when he took Leslie back to his chambers and decapitated her with a Civil War–era sword and then tossed her body out the window into a dumpster, but I did have a feeling Kind’s judge was destined for greatness. What a joy to watch him sell his soul to Satan! The judge’s turn — and losing Leslie as a star witness to testify for the prosecution — means Leland Townsend is, in fact, getting out of these pesky murder charges despite Kristen’s convincing testimony, mountains of evidence, and that sob story about Leland using Sheryl as a scapegoat. But that’s another thing we probably all knew: It wouldn’t be that easy to dispose of Leland.
It’s not just the trial that has fallen apart — as Ben says, everything seems to be crumbling around our assessors. Last week, we learned that although David was promoted to the Pastor of St. Joseph’s, the Archdiocese was shutting down the assessor program. This week, his attempt to save that program results in the Archdiocese closing down St. Joseph’s altogether. CongoRun — Evil’s Amazon stand-in — is handing over millions for the building. All the residents living at St. Joe’s will be reassigned — and yes, that includes both Sister Andrea and David. We don’t know where David will land just yet, but the band really is breaking up and there’s nothing they can do about it.
Speaking of David and Sister Andrea, “Fear of the Other” really puts their friendship on display. This week, it’s Sister Andrea who comes to the assessors with an urgent case: The son of her once great love, Paul, whom she left in order to join the convent, is being haunted by his doppelgänger. Paul Jr. found this man, Gregory, who looks exactly like him (they’re both played by Nate Corddry), online. Gregory began posting videos about feeling haunted, and eventually, he films himself burning himself alive. I have a lot of questions about how that video is still available online, but we don’t have time — since Gregory killed himself, Paul has felt his spirit inside him, and now he’s afraid he might hurt his wife and kids. Sister Andrea even observed him at the hotel he’s moved into, and just as Paul said, some freaky shit starts happening (a second man appears out of nowhere?) around 2 a.m. Paul also sleepwalks, so that doesn’t exactly dial down the freaky shit. Kristen thinks it could be a case of the doppelgänger phenomenon, where seeing his double makes Paul question his own life. It could also be related to the fact that Paul’s father killed himself — this could be generational trauma rearing its head. Sister Andrea wants an exorcism for the guy; the assessors want to see more.
So the assessors head to Paul’s hotel for what might be one last ghost stakeout. Ben might say that he won’t miss these, that this was just a job, but we all know better. He might be all, “I only have two feelings: hunger and disdain,” but deep down, Ben the Magnificent is a softy. Someone hug this man! Although the evening’s events don’t exactly lend themselves to warm and fuzzy moments. Once again, things start to get weird around 2 a.m. Sister Andrea shows up with her marshmallow demon bait — “demons have a sweet tooth” — and not long after, Paul starts sleepwalking. Only when Kristen starts interviewing him while he’s asleep does he tell her he isn’t Paul; she’s talking to Gregory. He killed himself because “he wanted me to.” The assessors see Paul fall to the ground, but Sister Andrea keeps her sights on the Gregory demon, who offers her a chilling, toothy grin when she catches up to him. I both appreciate Evil for still pulling out the surprises as the series winds down and curse it because that image is never leaving my brain now.
The assessors continue to pull the doppelgänger thread. Using a find-your-doppelgänger website, Ben and Kristen cannot help but look into the team’s doubles. Ben discovers his double is a nice family man named Baashir — there’s a video of him hanging out with his wife and young son on a lazy Saturday morning. It seems idyllic and so far from what Ben’s life is. Kristen, at first, can’t bring herself to search for her own doppelgänger, and instead, she puts in David’s picture. David’s double is a cocky boxer whom Kristen immediately has a sex dream about. Later, she discovers her own double is a hippie musician in Amsterdam; like Ben, this woman is worlds away from Kristen’s own life, and Kristen can’t seem to stop watching what she’s up to.
The whole reason they even got hooked up with this site, though, was to find another look-alike for Paul, preferably one living a happy, haunt-free life. When they do, it’s David who tries to impress upon Paul that we get to choose who we want to be and there’s not just one way to live our lives. Are we laying the groundwork for David to ride off into the sunset with Kristen or am I just being a silly romantic? Don’t answer that!
When Paul attempts to embody that belief and things go off the rails — apparently he, while “possessed,” called his wife and told her to run over their children with a car — the emotional core of this episode reveals itself. The Paul doppelgänger stuff is cool, but this episode is actually about Sister Andrea confronting her guilt. I don’t know if I really needed closure on her story, but it’s certainly a reminder of how great Andrea Martin is on this show and how lovely it’s been to watch this unlikely friendship bloom between Sister Andrea and Father Acosta.
The next evening she spends watching over Paul, a mess after that chat with his wife, whatever demon might be possessing him has it out for her, too. She comes face-to-face (well, half a face) with Paul Sr. She tells this demon to go to hell, but she then winds up facing her own doppel-demon. It’s this entity who calls Sister Andrea an “unholy demon” before hitting her with a shovel. Needless to say, this encounter rocks the real Sister. I love the choice to have her open up to David in the confessional box. The two are friends, she could certainly just go talk to him, but instead she chooses to talk to him with the wall in between them shrouded. She feels so guilty and at fault for leaving Paul, believing her decision to leave him is what turned him away from God and eventually drove him to kill himself and spend eternity in hell. Her confession of those feelings in such a formal manner speaks to how deeply she feels this guilt — it’s so deep that she truly thinks she needs God’s forgiveness and so deep that her shame keeps her from talking to her friend directly. It’s heartbreaking, and you can see that heartbreak in David’s face. He so badly wants to help her and recognizes, perhaps, that the best way to do so is not as her friend but as her priest. He tries to remind her of not only the fact that she had no control over what Paul chose to do with his life but also of God’s forgiveness both for her and Paul. He gives her a penance, and man, does she run out of there so fast.
You know what’s really beautiful about that scene? David doesn’t even attempt to bring up the interaction again. Because he’s not supposed to, of course, but also because he must know it wouldn’t help. But still, isn’t it comforting to know that he knows exactly what Andrea is feeling when they finally do go through with Paul’s exorcism? It’s intense! The demon inside Paul once again turns into Paul Sr., this time berating Sister Andrea for betraying and abandoning him. She stands up to him, knowing this isn’t the real Paul Sr. Then, Paul Jr. suddenly speaks as if he is a child again, crying out about his father leaving him, about him not being good enough to make his father stay. It’s another layer of guilt to heap on our favorite nun. When Paul asks Sister Andrea why his father did it, she responds: “I don’t know. I wish I did. No one wants us to follow them into death.” Paul throws up his demon juice and that’s that for him. (I would love to know if his wife was willing to take him back, though we kind of just leave him hanging.)
And as hard as it had to have been for David to watch Sister Andrea go through, he still doesn’t force her to talk about it. Instead, he later finds her on the piano in the rectory and opens up to her about a few things — this friendship goes both ways, he seems to say. The parish is closing, yes, but he is reeling from that in more than one way. He tells her that he always thought following “the path of righteousness” would lead him to satisfaction, and yet he’s “never been more lost” than he is now. Sister Andrea offers what help she can: She has the two of them play the heavenly chord together and the room lights up for both of them; she is showing David that God is with him no matter what. What a hopeful note to go out on. Who knows how things are going to end up for Sister Andrea — at best, she’ll be transferred; at worst, she might have a duel with the Big Evil coming to New York whom she confronted in the courtroom — but wow, did Evil gift us with an incredible character.
Church Bulletin
• Hey, look at that. Just when you think Kurt Boggs is going to cave to Leland and Team Demon, he has a change of heart on the stand after seeing Kristen disgusted with him and tells the court that Leland should be locked away in a mental institution for life.
• Leland’s reaction to Kurt turning on him was just another in a long line of perfect Michael Emerson line reads: “Well, he’s dead.”
• The team is beginning to make plans for life post-assessing. After Andy screws her again — this time out of a whole lot of money — Kristen decides she wants to open up her own practice in her garage. Ben gets multiple insanely good job offers but is having difficulties moving forward with any of them: “Why are you so afraid to succeed?” he asks himself. Poor, sweet Ben!
• Lila telling her mother that she should start an OnlyFans account — just to show her feet — in order to make money made me cackle.
• You do not know how hard I had my fingers crossed for David’s doppelgänger to be Lemond Bishop (Mike Colter’s character from The Good Wife).
