Major spoilers for Evil season 3 aheadthe Evil season 3 finale finally revealed what would happen once Kristen learned that her mother, Sheryl (Christine Lahti), was working with the villainous Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson). Viewers only got to see a glimpse of Kristen's shocked expression, but it points to a difficult road ahead.
Leland has been a thorn in Kristen's side since the first time they met and, based on what's been teased about the already-renewed Evil season 4, the animosity between the two will only grow worse. Sheryl's role in the conflict is less certain, given that she seems to love her daughter and granddaughters very much while also actively working against them. She helped Leland abduct Kristen's husband, Andy (Patrick Brammall), and paralyze him. Plus, Sheryl is all too aware of Leland's rotten core.
In an interview with Collider, Herbers was asked whether Kristen will ever be able to forgive Sheryl for lying and working with Leland. Though she makes it clear that she's not sure what the writers are planning, the Evil star stressed that, at least from her perspective, there's no coming back from Sheryl's deceit. Herbers essentially says, though Kristen might be able to handle seeing her mother many years down the line, their relationship would likely be over for the time being:
“I can’t see it. I cannot see it. I don’t see how you come back from that. Christine has a very different opinion, which is great because she should defend her character. I think she’s past any kind of defense. She has put my children in incredible danger, I told her not to date a psychopath in Season 1, she put my husband on a shelf. He’s now brainwashed or has amnesia. I’m not gonna say I’m gonna kill her, but I’m going to kill her, you know what I mean? I’m not going to maybe murder her, but I need her away, and then maybe in 10 years I will see her again or something. I don’t know, maybe when she gets really old we can reconcile. I have no idea how that relationship gets prepared.”
While it's worth noting that the creative team behind Evil may decide to go in a different direction, the anger Herbers describes certainly makes sense. Kristen and Sheryl have already had a falling out about Leland, going all the way back to the show's first season, and Kristen believes the issue is behind them. To then learn that her mother has been lying this whole time should lead to a memorable confrontation. This is doubly true seeing as how Kristen will go to violent lengths to protect her daughters — daughters that Leland has repeatedly threatened.
To hear it from Lahti's perspective though, as Herbers mentions, it's different. Given how Lathi plays Sheryl, the actress has expressed the more sympathetic view that Sheryl will defeat Leland eventually. Lahti has argued, more or less, that Sheryl is working to bring down Leland from the inside. Regardless of which view the audience favors, it does seem to be the case that Evil season 4 will finally focus on a long-simmering and much-awaited showdown between mother and daughter and their differing views.
Source: Collider
