Evil's Katja Herbers Talks Finding 'Amusement Within the Horror of It All' in the Series Finale

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the series finale of Evil, "Fear of the End."]

Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) almost took another life in the final episode of Evil.

Three seasons after Kristen killed the serial killer who was threatening her daughters — and then struggled with possession (either literal or metaphorical) while she came to terms with what she'd done — the series finale pushed her to her breaking point with another murderer. Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson) violated the terms of her restraining order and snuck into her house in the middle of the night, pressured by his demonic pals to end her life and put his obsession with her in the past. But Kristen got the jump on him, wrapping a rope around his neck. She nearly strangled him to death, only for David (Mike Colter) and Ben (Aasif Mandvi) to step in and offer a solution that wouldn't jeopardize Kristen's soul — again. 

Instead of killing him, the trio took Leland to the silent monastery from the memorable Season 2 episode "S Is for Silence," stuffing him into the same cabinet that was once rumored to hold a destructive demon. Now, the cabinet can live up to those legends again, guarded by Sister Andrea (Andrea Martin) and Fenna (Alexandra Socha), the nun Kristen connected with on her last visit. 

As for Kristen, she and her daughters, and baby Timothy, are getting a fresh start in Rome, where the Vatican is rebuilding the assessor program with David's help. The priest, the psychologist, her four girls, and her maybe-Antichrist son look like the picture-perfect makeshift family, but Evil can't end without one last surprise: Timothy still has a demonic side after all. We leave Kristen hiding her baby's pointed teeth from David and going about her day.

It's a clever ending for Evil, which was given only four episodes to wrap up its story after cancellation. "Fear of the End," written by Rockne S. O'Bannon and Nialla LeBouef and directed by Robert King, puts its characters first, bringing them to a happy place but leaving them in a world that still has plenty of evil to vanquish. There are stories to tell if the show ever returns — series creators Robert and Michelle King told TV Guide in July that they "keep pushing" for more — but as it is, it's a fitting end for a series that never seemed to expect perfect closure.

Katja Herbers spoke to TV Guide about Kristen's brutal showdown with Leland, her reunion with Fenna, and Kristen's reaction to her son's sharp teeth.

More on Evil:

• Evil creators Robert and Michelle King on the series finale's last twist
• Series finale review: Evil said it all

Tell me about filming the scene where Kristen strangles Leland.
Katja Herbers: It was a lot. That was a difficult scene. I think we spent like half a day trying to film that. Michael and I always have a lot of fun acting together, and we wanted to make it both really dangerous but also weirdly sexual, in a way. Because they do have that kind of tension between them. Was [Leland] really going to kill her? I don't know if he was or if he just wanted another confrontation, but I do think Kristen would really have killed him had she not been interrupted by her two friends protecting her from murdering again, because that's not good for anyone's soul. 

The look on Kristen's face in that scene is complicated. It seems like she's going through every emotion. Was there anything either in the script or in Robert King's direction that helped you figure out how to play that scene?
Herbers: You know, I'm such an intuitive actor, but I remember thinking I wanted that release after she's interrupted by David and Ben. I did think it would be good if she starts crying. That wasn't in the script or anything… but I just thought it should have a myriad of emotions, all the emotions. [In] such an extreme situation, probably the most extreme, of potentially taking someone's life — what must go through one's head? And I thought, the more that's going through my head, and the more fanatic and crazy I am, the better, and then the release will be greater.

Practically, how did you film that? Were there stunt doubles involved, especially when you fell back on the floor?
Herbers: Just the fall. Yeah, the fall was done by a great stunt artist. And then we were on top of each other, and you obviously have to pretend to be strangling someone while making sure that you're not hurting them in any way, which, in a way, is quite a technical thing to do, because you have to create that tension in your body to make the veins pop in your neck, to make it look believable. I remember Michael and I said at the end of the day that we were going to text each other the next morning just a number of pain that we were in, on a scale of one to ten. I think I texted him a seven, and he texted me a six. So we were pretty beaten up by it, but it was definitely worth it.

How do you think Kristen would have felt if she had killed Leland?
Herbers: Maybe she would have had another season of possession after that. I think this is definitely the better option. She would have probably felt all of the things after killing him, both the relief that he's gone, and the shock that she did that, and the horror of that. I understand her reasoning for wanting to kill him very much, but I think it's best not ever to kill, and I think she would have struggled with that like she did in the second season. To have murdered twice is probably even harder.

And this ending meant that Kristen got a little reunion with Fenna.
Herbers: Wasn't that sweet? Actually, it's maybe slightly embarrassing, but when I read the script, I teared up at it a little bit, but then when I saw the episode, I also really found it quite moving, which is kind of crazy when you're also in it. But I did think it was just so sweet to bring her back, and it's such a testament to the Kings' care for this show and the care for the characters, and also the care for the guest actors. She was a fan favorite, and I think that that episode was a fan favorite, and it's also, by the way, a cast favorite. We all loved making that episode, and seeing that tied back in to the story I thought was quite moving.

In these last few episodes, we met the doppelgängers of Kristen, David, and Ben. Since they were inspired by some aspects of real life, did you have any input?
Herbers: I think we inform our original characters just by being who we are, right? And I think what they wanted to do with these doppelgängers was also bring the three of us back to our home. Aasif is there with his real family. [David's doppelgänger] is not who Mike is at all, but that's because that's something that he really wanted. He had an idea about the character. But Aasif and I are — I mean, I'm not out on the street with a guitar, but I am Dutch, and I do come from a family of musicians, and I guess I may be more hippie than Kristen is. So yeah, I think we informed that.

At the very end of the episode, Kristen sees baby Timothy looking kind of demonic. I'm curious how you interpreted that.
Herbers: I like that you say "kind of" demonic. What do you mean? He had [sharp] teeth and crazy eyes. No, he was full-on demon! What [was the question]? 

How did you interpret that?
Herbers: We didn't really know what we were going to do until we got to set and rehearsed a little bit. I didn't want to play scared, or something like [gasps], like, "What is that?" 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. It mimics a little bit, for me, the end of the first season, where I put the cross in my hand and then it burned. There was a look [on Kristen's face]. I've had multiple of these looks — also at the end of the fourth season, the original end of the fourth season, Timothy is at the door, and 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. I don't look at our show as a horror show, but there is horror, but there's a lot of amusement and a lot of goofiness and a lot of fun in our show [as well]. 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?" 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.

Kristen's blue dress in that scene is so good. What was it like working with [costume designer] Dan Lawson on that look?
Herbers: It was really great. That look is sort of iconic, the way that he made her so different. It informs so much of who these characters are. Thirty percent of who Kristen is is what he dresses me in, and that informs the way I move. It informs the way I feel. To be able to work with somebody like Dan, who is so collaborative and comes up with such inspiring choices — one of the great things about being on Evil was getting to work with Dan.

When you say the dress was different, you mean it's a different look for her in Europe versus her look in New York?
Herbers: Yeah! We've never seen her wear something like that. It's so tight fitting and so colorful, and she's not normally in that kind of color. She's more conventional. [She's] interesting and fun, but she doesn't have her booty out like that.

Did that indicate to you that she's embracing Italy?
Herbers: Yeah, it felt to me really joyful. We tried on different dresses, and there was also a more conservative choice, which was also really nice, but we went with this because we thought it spoke to the imagination most, and it was more of a departure from what we've seen of hers. There were other dresses that were closer to who she's been — still a little bit like Roman Holiday, but not a departure. And I feel like this was a new Kristen, in a way.

What was the last scene you filmed?
Herbers: That scene.

That was the last scene? Wow.
Herbers: It was hard, because I wanted to keep it light, but I was very emotional having to film all that. It would have been easier to end on some crying scene, but no. That was our last scene, also because they had to build, you know, Rome. 

Were there any other scenes in this episode that were difficult emotionally?
Herbers: Oh, everything. Just because I loved making this show, and I love the people we got to make it with — not just the people in front of the camera, but also behind the camera. And it just felt like we had gotten a really bad disease diagnosis, and we were going to die. I was both extremely grateful [and sad] while filming. Just constantly, I was going, "Oh my god, I'm so grateful, and I'm so sad, and now I'm having such a great time." I was savoring every moment, while trying to do good work and stay focused. Those last four [episodes] were very different than our normal workflow, because it had a certain speed, because we made it for less budget. So I was going from one episode to another episode, sometimes within a day. Crazy, crazy ride.

The series finale of Evil is now streaming on Paramount+.