'Evil' stars: David's ordination, Kristen kiss pave way for thrilling S3

NEW YORK, June 12 (UPI) -- Katja Herbers and Mike Colter say one of their favorite things about working on the supernatural series, Evil, is watching creators Robert and Michelle King put their characters in seemingly impossible situations, and then find inspired ways to get them out.

Season 3 debuts on Paramount+ on Sunday. Colter's character David, now a full-fledged Catholic priest and no longer a conflicted seminarian, still is investigating bizarre, possibly demonic cases for the church with the help of forensic psychologist Kristen (Herbers) and tech expert Ben (Aasif Mandvi).

The job often pits the team against the wealthy and sinister Leland (Michael Emerson), who is obsessed with the occult and Kristen's family, particularly her wild mom, Sheryl (Christine Lahti,) and her three precocious young daughters.

Season 2 of the show -- which frequently bends reality with magic, dreams and visions -- ended with David's ordination, Kristen's confession to David that she killed a child predator threatening her family, and a passionate kiss between the co-workers/friends.

"I was really excited to see where the Kings were going to take this kiss," Herbers told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

"I don't think they knew at the end of Season 2," she added. "They like writing themselves into a corner."

Colter said his fear was that there might be no more story to tell if David actually became a priest.

"Do we have any other place to go with him? Because the journey toward being a priest when he was a seminarian was always interesting," the actor said. "He was a priest in training. It felt like a very interesting place to be in that place of progress and transitioning. Now that he is there, my biggest fear was what do we do now?"

But, once again, the Kings came through.

"We are having our cake and eating it, too, in Season 3," Colter said.

"David is having challenges, but he is also having some fun, although it may not be in reality. I'm not sure where that fun is being had. That's giving the audience a thrill."

Colter also thinks viewers will enjoy that the team members still are together, even though they are headed in a new direction as they fight a powerful malevolent entity.

"We have things to do. We are still on this journey of trying to save the world. That's a big, lofty goal, but we are trying to save a portion of the world, at least," he said.

One of the challenges the crew faces this season is conducting their investigations under the influential, recently demonically exorcized Leland, who is still trying to insulate himself into Kristen's family -- seducing her mother and is trying to lure her young daughters to the dark side.

Herbers said Kristen and Leland don't have many scenes together this season, but when they do, there's "fireworks."

"End of Season 2, I was on my way to take him out with my ice ax," Herbers said.

"I came to David, and I said, 'I don't want to do this. I don't want to be a murderer again.' She has to now think of ways to get him out of her life by the law. He is not letting go of her. He is completely obsessed with her, and they are very connected when they do speak.

"We are playing some mega-chess. These are two smart people with the intellectual tools to take each other out. We don't know who is going to win," she added.

While Leland relishes hurting others and wreaking havoc, Kristen's sins haunt her.

"I will do anything to protect my children. I'm going to try not to murder again because murdering is no fun," Erbers laughed.

The actress said it is artistically satisfying to work on a show that not only combines horror, drama, comedy and romance, but also looks at real evil in the modern world.

"It feels very relevant. It's the jackpot for me as an actor," she said.

Colter concurs.

"We find a way to cleverly discuss what is really happening in the real world and, if people pay attention, we are using everything we have at our disposal in a way that it is sort of grounded and connected to the news, grounded and connected to our day-to-day lives -- things we experience from a family level, from a political level, spiritual level," he said.

"Evil is a very broad title, but it is so specific and so detailed in the way that we unpack a lot of the things we are dealing with," the actor added.

Topics addressed on the show include spirituality, mental illness, isolation, drug abuse, physical violence and recovering from trauma.

"We as a show are doing a really good job at exploring those things, but also not giving people a pass and trying to understand it to the point where we excuse evil," Colter emphasized.

"Sometimes the 'why' isn't as damaging or as important as the actual result. I don't want to always get into this heady thing where we need to know every reason a person does something, but we do need to stop it before it happens."