Warning: The following contains spoilers from Sunday’s midseason premiere ofEvil.
Of course, you know that means someone did speak but no could’ve predicted what happened next.
And then suddenly the box holding the demon burst open, causing a panic on the grounds.
Elizabeth Fisher/Paramount+
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What inspired you guys to do a silent episode?
What was holding it back?
Was it the fact that you couldn’t find a good in-story justification for the silence?
Elizabeth Fisher/Paramount+
It seemed essential to the nature of it.
It was, I think, a two-step process.
But the other is if any word is spoken, that this demon will escape.
Mike Colter, Katja Herbers, Aasif Mandvi in ‘Evil.'.Elizabeth Fisher/Paramount+
Suddenly that became the engine, because then suddenly the silence made sense and wasn’t just an affectation.
At one point,Evil’s second season was supposed to air on CBS.
Did you encounter any obstacles from the relevant stakeholders when you pitched this?
MICHELLE:No, there wasn’t.
There perhaps should have been, [Laughs] but no, they embraced it.
They said, “That sounds tough, but go for it.”
They could not have been more enthusiastic about the script and the episode.
Evilis this bizarre, supernatural but not supernatural.
In both writing and directing this episode, did you look past examples of silent episodes for examples?
Robotdid one, as didBuffy.
ROBERT:We watchedMr.
I’d forgotten theBuffyone, so we didn’t watch that.
I’ve always been a fan of what Buster Keaton did.
Our version of the title cards was the magic slates that they’re writing on.
We wanted to reduce the number of those.
Katja told me she had a lot of fun playing drunk Kristen.
Did you give her any guidance for how to do that?
ROBERT:You know what?
She is so comedic in spirit, I think we could only ruin it by suggesting things.
I think what was really good was she really embraced the actress who played Fenna, Alexandra Socha.
Both of them seemed to really get into how much they could communicate.
You didn’t want that to not give them anywhere to go.
I feel like we all knew either Kristen or Ben would speak first.
What do you think compelled Kristen to be the one?
The room she slept in was wild.
Is there a fun story behind how you picked which Jesus statues to include?
MICHELLE:What I recall was every conversation was, “No, they need to be bigger.”
I think everybody thought that meant some sweet, smaller statues.
Then we went back two days later and shot more statues [Laughs].
Where did the fly twist come from?
MICHELLE:This is our second rodeo with botflies.
They figured intoBraindeadand it felt like time for a reprise.
You don’t need the supernatural to look at nature and go, “Oh, my god.
How can that exist?”
The botflies are in upstate New York, and they’re disgusting.
It just felt like yeah, that’s kind of the devil at work.
Do you need the devil when you have that element of nature?
It felt like this episode gave her a bit of a reprieve from that.
Where are things heading with her in the back half of the season?
You probably saw it on the episode after this.
Is that playing into the guilt that she truly feels?
Evilairs Sundays on Paramount+.
