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Evil S2E10: “O Is for Ovaphobia”

A pop-up book featuring a chicken with a demon chick.

Evil S2E10, “O Os for Ovaphobia,” starts building momentum for Kristen, David and Ben’s showdown with RSM Fertility Clinic. Kristen and David are focusing their investigation of RSM by looking into some of the troubled children we’ve seen thus far in the show. First on the list is Tammy, Mathilda’s mother—yes, that Mathilda, who allegedly burned down her parents’ foster home. Mom thinks it was some kind of mistake, but Kristen and David and you and I all know better. Tammy doesn’t recall anything out of the ordinary from her treatment, but does recall receiving a letter that she had stopped paying for her eggs to be stored, but doesn’t recall having done so.

During their interview, Tammy mentions Mathilda’s teeth—specifically, that her canines came in particularly sharp…just like with Lexis. Speaking of Lexis, the poor girl has fallen down a rabbit hole of internet influencer Malindaz, who was last seen in S1E10, “7 Swans a Singin’,” creating the video (at Leland’s behest, no less) that caused multiple schoolgirls to get stuck singing “Pudsy’s Christmas” before attempting suicide. Malindaz is still as tacky and toxic as ever, teaching her audience how to hate their appearance.

Kristen confronts her daughter Lexis about her body image issues.

Of course, we find out later that Lexis has body image issues a little more…unique than a smile she isn’t proud of. As she looks at herself in a mirror, she turns around and there is a friggin’ lizard tail on her. And that sucker is huge. I’m certain this is just a visual metaphor for how Lexis views herself, but I’ve been wrong numerous times on Evil and it simply doesn’t get old getting bamboozled by the Kings.

Tammy asking Kristen if she received a letter as well prompts Kristen to contact RSM herself. Her payment hasn’t lapsed; instead, someone is paying an annual fee to keep Kristen’s eggs stored—and it’s not Andy. The woman Kristen speaks to informs her that she is not authorized to disclose who the mystery financier is over the phone, so Kristen, as assertive as ever, decides to visit RSM herself. Kristen manages to convince the receptionist to give her a name: Dr. Cara Autry has taken over the funding of the egg storage. As Kristen turns to leave, the receptionist has one more thing to say: “The world…it’s in its last days. We have to be kind to each other.” Not really the most encouraging thing you want to hear from someone that works at a fertility clinic.

Kristen tracks down Dr. Autry with the help of the mother of Eric from S1E4, “Rose390.” If you recall from that episode, Eric was a psychotic little monster who attempted to drown his infant sister before, it is heavily implied, his parents killed him to stop the terror. Eric, just like Mathilda and Lexis, was conceived with the assistance of RSM Fertility. Dr. Autry is unnatureally cagey as soon as Kristen begins with the pressing questions, and the women end up in a shouting match before Dr. Autry suddenly leaves to visit…Leland. Ben’s sarcastic surprise at this discovery after tailing her echoes what all of us are thinking.

Ben just can’t stay away from Vanessa, even though she still has that pesky sister spirit Maggie bound to her arm. It’s come to a head with “Maggie” apparently trashing Vanessa’s apartment. Rebuffing Ben’s attempts to get her in contact with Kristen for psychiatric help, Vanessa instead insists on going to Miss Marie–the very same Miss Marie who helped Lila’s dad from the throes of CongoRun warehouse zombieism in “Z Is for Zombie.” Maybe it’s because it’s a pair of adults with a potential supernatural problem as opposed to two kids fighting an Amazon surrogate, but Miss Marie is quite a bit weirder this time, which makes for some truly hilarious exchanges of dialogue between her and Ben.

Ben and Vanessa attend a seance to exorcise Maggie.

Even for Evil, Miss Marie’s putting on quite the theatrics here. It’s easy to chuckle at her megachurch pastor performance, the lights, the wind, and the bouncing table, but lo and behold, something seemed to have worked. When Ben next sees Vanessa, she’s happier and much more impulsive. Maggie is all gone, she proclaims, running a hand down her arm….her left arm. The wrong arm. When Ben calls her on it, she coyly denies a straight answer. Later, after another roll in the hay with his girlfriend, Ben gets a phone call…from Vanessa. Her train was late and she’s on her way. So who is this standing in front of him? Somehow Vanessa and Maggie are two different people now? Have they always been two different people and Maggie is just taking advantage of Ben? Or has Ben’s night demon opted for a wardrobe change?

Leland somehow convinces Sheryl to accompany him to a party, where he introduces her to a man named Edward, who is–you guessed it—an influencer. The two hit it off, so Sheryl is more than happy to hang out with Edward again, where he gives her a drink he refers to as his own concoction. I would have liked a less contrived way to accelerate the scene, because Sheryl, moreso than most, should have seen that red flag from miles away.

What happens next to Sheryl is terrifying. But this is more along the lines of real-world terrifying as opposed to spooky demon stuff. Sheryl realizes, lounging on the couch at Leland’s apartment as Edward caresses her legs, that she cannot move them when he suggest she do so. Smiling like a shark about to feast, Edward produces a syringe, invites Sheryl to scream for him, and reassures her that they’re on the same side before injecting her. Christine Lahti is terrific in this scene, and in the moment of Sheryl’s pure horror you forget the monster she can tend to be.

Leland and Edward move Sheryl to the floor, and Leland goes into a side room filled with jars, and one very paralyzed but still very much alive and very terrified Dr. Autry. Autry clearly had a reason for going to visit Leland—my guess is she is one of the many side characters in Evil he’s previously managed to manipulate—but this is certainly a turn. Leland takes two large jars of some liquid that has yet to be identified, and hooks both Sheryl and Edward up to IVs that inject each of them with the liquid. Edward is relaxed and content, but Sheryl is still in a state of terror.

Leland leers down at a paralyzed Dr. Autry.

What the actual f*ck, man.

What’s more, when David goes to Leland’s apartment to confront him about where Dr. Autry has disappeared to, he arrives just in time to find Sheryl and Edward coming out of the apartment, wearing (for Sheryl) uncharacteristically bright clothing and singing a ditty together. They’re both in tremendous spirits, a perplexingly far cry from Sheryl’s experience from the night before. I don’t even think I can speculate on that.

Kristen procures a legal order for her eggs to be transferred to another facility. The woman at the RSM counter will oblige, but points out that Kristen only has 11 eggs on file, not the 12 that Kristen points out in the physical file she brought with her. When asked what RSM did with the 12th egg, the woman merely smiles. Now, that’s interesting, and the nonchalant way in which she converses with Kristen tells me that RSM’s nefariousness goes deeper than we’ve seen so far. There has to be a correlation between Dr. Autry, her funding of eggs, Kristen’s (and perhaps other patients’) missing eggs, and Leland.

I really liked the scene where Kristen sits down with Lexis, and not only shows her what Malindaz looks like without makeup and studio lighting, but affirms that Lexis is beautiful. “And that’s not just your mom saying that. It’s just a fact.” Kristen’s been moving further and further down a dark path, but this short scene to remind that she is a caring mother was a nice change of pace.

Three episodes left, and we’re gathering up loose plot threads like it’s going out of style. “O Is for Ovaphobia” is a really solid episode that opens up as many new questions as it answers, but it does enough looking back at other big moments to dissuade most lurking concern I might have had that the show just won’t tie up interesting concepts. Honestly for now, the biggest question I have is this: what the hell am I going to obsess over after this season is over?

Written by Hawk Ripjaw

Hawk Ripjaw has been sharing his opinion on film and TV since his early teens, when the local public library gave away prizes for submissions to their newsletter. Since then, he's been writing for local newspapers, international video game sites, booze-themed movie websites, and anywhere else he can throw around some media passion. He watched the Mike Myers Cat in the Hat movie over 50 times in two years, for science.

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