Katja Herbers Changed One Major Detail Of The Evil Season 4 Ending

Dr. Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) has made her fair share of deals with devils. Over the course of four seasons of the Paramount+ show "Evil," the semi-skeptical forensic psychologist has killed a man, burned her hand on a cross, and had sex with a Satanic church founder. In the show's final season, she also helped raise the potential antichrist: a baby born via surrogate from her stolen eggs and world-class creep Leland Townsend's (Michael Emerson) DNA. It's no surprise, then, that "Evil" ends on a delightfully complicit note, with Kristen pulling an "I pretend I do not see it" meme when baby Timothy starts exhibiting some clear-cut signs of demonic possession.

In the series finale's final scene, Kristen and her daughters seem to have their happy ending. They've just moved to Rome and are loving it. Kristen is continuing her work surveying possible demonic activity alongside David (Mike Colter), the priest who she knows loves her despite the vows that keep them apart. She's cooler and more stylish than ever, and her daughters are delighted by their new lives. Except ... there's something wrong with baby Timothy. He's got a demonic glint in his eyes, and did he just grow fangs for a second?

According to series creators Robert and Michelle King, Timothy wasn't initially quite so sinister in the script, but Herbers wanted to push the envelope a bit. "The very end was not in the script," Robert King told Deadline after the show's finale, noting that the show always features "[the] contribution of the actors." The screenplay initially toned down Timothy's evil nature, making it a more ambiguous part of the epilogue. "Originally, it was like Timothy's eyes turned white, and Kristen looks at it and goes, 'is that a trick of the sun or not?' Then she just turns around and goes away with David," King recalled.

"Katja was the one who pushed it to: 'No, I should see it and see in it something more certain,'" King told Deadline, explaining that he decided at that point to ask the visual effects team to put some devilish teeth in Timothy's mouth. Herbers thought that, in that case, it would make sense for Kristen to cover up the teeth. They ended up with the final sequence, in which our morally flexible, problem-solving hero puts a pacifier in the antichrist's mouth, demonstrating that her love for Timothy wasn't predicated on his "goodness" and signifying a sort of "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it" mentality. Classic Kristen!

King says he calls those moments "Katjaisms," and allows that they make the series much more interesting. "It was all kind of a Katjaism ... to kind of push the envelope where she's complicit. It's not just a trick of the eye." 

Herbers herself confirmed as much in an interview with TV Guide, explaining that the tone of that moment was shaped after some rehearsals. "I didn't want to play scared, or something like [gasps], like, 'What is that?'" Herbers said. "I thought that would not be a great note to end on. And then I offered up that I would maybe see it and just give him the pacifier and pretend nothing happened."

Herbers compares Kristen's expression in that scene to her reaction to the scene in season 1 when she burns her hand with a cross, or the conclusion of season 4, when she finds out Leland stole her eggs to attempt to make an antichrist baby. "It's just this sense of, 'Can my life get any crazier?' and this amusement within the horror of it all, which I think is a big theme of our show," she explained. It's also an end note that allows for more "Evil" in the future, something the show's cast — and megafans like Stephen King – have been vocal about wanting. "I also like the idea of keeping the ending slightly open, so that you could, as a viewer, be excited about 'How is Kristen going to deal with this now?'" Herbers told TV Guide.

It's a smart idea, because it also builds in space for a time jump if the show were to return a few years down the line. That final scene tells us that Timothy's baptism didn't cure him of his potentially malevolent nature. But in the hyper-flexible and creative spiritual world of "Evil," redemption is never out of reach, kids are inherently innocent and savvy, and the rules of popular God-vs.-Satan narratives are just begging to be broken. It's also, importantly, not an unhappy ending. The baby might be the antichrist, but we get the sense that even if he was, it's nothing this intelligent, capable, protective single mother of five couldn't handle. Honestly? She's been through worse before. 

Herbers agrees, concluding: "We've seen her deal with absolutely everything, and she seems to always be able to get back on her feet, and she seems to always be able to find light again."

Hopefully, the fan and cast campaign for more "Evil" works, and we'll see Kristen kicking more demon butt again soon. In the meantime, all four seasons of the show are now available on Paramount+.