The Big Picture

• Surprisingly, in the TV show Evil, the Bouchard sisters are authentic, compelling, and the best characters of the show.
• The girls evolve from plot device to main characters
• Season 3 of Evil showcases ingenuity and sets up Season 4.

The arrival of Evil Season 4 is nigh, and while it will be great to see where last season’s crazy - SPOILER - baby shower cliffhanger goes, it’s disappointing knowing that one of television’s best and unique series is coming to an end. Evil has introduced some fascinating characters that have quickly become favorites, like our three main protagonists, Kristen (Katja Herbers), David (Mike Colter), Ben (Aasif Mandvi); the delightful Sister Andrea (Andrea Martin), and Michael Emerson’s brilliantly evil Leland. But for my money, the best characters to come out of the show are none other than Lynn (Brooklyn Shuck), Lila (Skylar Gray), Lexis (Maddy Crocco), and Laura (Dalya Knapp), collectively known as the Bouchard sisters. Four wonderful, funny, smart and real girls who own the scenes they’re in.

The Bouchard Sisters are Deliberately Realistic in 'Evil'

The first thing that strikes you about the Bouchard sisters, even in that first season, is just how close, and how surprisingly realistic, they are. They stick up for one another, they talk over each other, and like any normal child, they're not above being deceitful or excessively charming depending on the situation. It's a kinship — the good and the bad of it — that doesn't exist in many shows that feature sisters, and it's purposeful. In an article from The Daily Beast, one titled "How 'Evil' Birthed TV's Funniest Brood of Daughters," it's noted that creators Robert and Michelle King cast the Bouchard sisters in groups of four, specifically to find the right chemistry between them. While they nailed that aspect, chemistry only goes so far, but the Kings push the girls past that, and quite cleverly, by allowing them freedoms not afforded the other actors.

The girls are actually encouraged to improvise, as Michelle King told The Daily Beast, with Robert adding that they are given directions to interrupt one another so that no one can finish a line. It's a truth that Robert, having grown up in a family of seven, understands all too well, saying, "There were no lone children talking. Everybody was talking at the same time." According to Katja Herbers, who has improv comedy on her resume, the girls are pretty good at it. She works with the girls, whose dialogue is written in sections labeled "daughters," on who gets which line, and lets them at it. "I wait with my cues," Herbers says, "because they'll just say the most ridiculous things, and they'll end up in the show. They're great." And as the series has progressed, so, too, have the girls' acting skills, with Michelle King extolling their work: "The adult actors are already at such a high level, but the kids you can actually see coming into themselves as actors."

The Bouchard Sisters Go from Season 1 Plot Device to Season 2 Relevance in 'Evil'

That progression is evident in how the Bouchard sisters have become more integral to the series itself. In the first season of Evil, Laura's heart defect is what prompts Kristen, fired from her job as a psychologist with the DA's office, to accept David's job offer in the first place. The discovery that RSM Fertility, who provided treatment for Kristen with the birth of her daughter, Lexis, may be a front for a hierarchy that is corrupting eggs for evil purposes, occurs in the season finale. In between, they are the catalyst for Kristen's opening rift with her mother, Sheryl (Christine Lahti), after Sheryl buys them augmented reality headsets which exposes them to a disturbing game centered around a girl named Rose390 (Nora Murphy). The girls are, primarily, used for these plot points and not much else in Season 1.

With one notable exception: Episode 5, "October 31." The girls are coerced by a masked girl named Brenda to go to the graveyard and climb into a burial plot, where she will finish telling her story about a girl horribly burned by her parents who can only go out on Halloween night with a mask. It's a Goosebumps-like story that adds little to the overarching storyline of the series, but it's also the first time that the Bouchard girls are given something that is their own.

Then comes Season 2, and with it more prominence for the Bouchard sisters. "E is for Elevator," one of the season's highlights, sees the girls help Kristen discover that the team's latest case is tied to the Japanese "Elevator Game," in which elevator buttons, pressed in a specific order, supposedly (and it's never "supposedly" in Evil) opens a passage to Hell. It marks the first time the girls provide valuable insight, and the first time they join Ben and Kristen, however briefly, on a case as they help the two adults navigate the process. That episode is followed up by "Z is for Zombies," in which Lila is front and center, helping her friend Alex (Gloria Manning) with her father, whose maltreatment at work points toward a bigger problem. Lexis' ties with the bigger story are also explored deeper, with Kristen helping Lexis to a healthy self-acceptance of her looks, not knowing it's tied to the devil-like tail Lexis sports that only she can see.

The Bouchard Sisters Knock it Out of the Park in Season 3 of 'Evil'

Yet it's Season 3 that legitimizes the Bouchard sisters' claim to Evil's best characters. From the very first episode of the season, the girls take their game to a whole new level. After being told explicitly by Kristen not to interact with Leland under any circumstances, they listen and obey. Hm, not so much — remember above when we talked about how realistic the girls are? Like any children of their age, they listen and agree, then do what they want anyway. That rebellious nature results in what is arguably the funniest and most brilliant scene in the entire series.

Lexis is on her tablet and clicks on an ad for Bumblebee Valley, an online game in the vein of Animal Crossing. She creates a character named Linda the Lizard, who meets a pig in glasses named Pollie567. Laura walks in as she's playing it, and asks who the pig is. Without batting an eye, she answers, "Leland. He's trying to trick me into thinking he's a little girl." Soon all four girls are in on it, driving Leland crazy by constantly barraging him online. It not only reinforces how close the girls are, but speaks to just how clever they are, outsmarting the smug Leland and beating him at his own game... and he doesn't even know it. It's a payoff of "E is for Elevator," bringing in their computer savvy for a bigger part in the storyline.

The Bouchard Sisters Do What Couldn't be Done, and Set Themselves Up for Season 4 of 'Evil'

Then, the Bouchard girls do what Kristen, David, and Ben could not: get Leland driven out of his position with the Church. When Kristen learns that nothing can be done about Leland's appearances at the girls' school, she gives her girls laminated cards with a well-conceived plan on what to do if Leland makes contact. After she leaves, the girls plan their own takedown of Leland. After Laura suggests poison (!), Lexis suggests using Bumblebee Valley against him. They enter the game, out Leland as a pedophile posing as a young girl, play recordings of him saying inappropriate things in the game, set his virtual home alight, then give out his real name and IP address, which tracks back to St. Joseph's Parish. Needless to say, Leland is turfed immediately.

And it gets even better. When the family is told by Edward (Tim Matheson) that Andy (Patrick Brammall) has tragically died, Kristen is distraught. The girls? They quickly deduce that Leland is behind their father's "death," and head back to Bumblebee Valley to prove it. They start pinging Leland's avatar in the game, which sets off identical pings in Edward's transmission from Nepal, proving that it's bogus. Kristen may not believe it, but Leland, Sheryl, and Edward certainly do, and reluctantly set Andy free after being outsmarted — again — by the Bouchard sisters.

Season 4 promises a whole new level to the Bouchard sisters and their story. Laura's interest in becoming a nun may be explored deeper. What we do know for sure is that Lexis will definitely weigh heavily into the season, with the revelation that she's being groomed to take over one of the evilest of the evil demon families. That is when the true strength of the Bouchard sisters' relationship will be tested, as they work together to keep Lexis with them on the side of good. Will it work? There's no way in Hell it won't.

Evil is available to stream in the U.S. on Paramount+

WATCH ON PARAMOUNT+