Recap / Evil S 1 E 6 Let X Equal 9

Let x = 9

Written by Aurin Squire
Directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan
Airdate: November 7, 2019

David, Kristen, and Ben are sent to assess the daycare worker Grace Ling to determine if she is a true prophet. On the home front, Leland works his charms on Kristen's mother Sheryl.

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Tropes

• Cloudcuckoolander: Grace comes off as a bit of one (though it would be hard not to telling someone that you can hear the voice of God in your head), but is still very much helpful and legitimately kind, answering Ben's inconsequential questions with legitimate seriousness, as well as those of anyone who comes to her daycare; and even warns Kristen (a non-believer who has no reason to listen to her) that to keep herself safe that she needs to avoid red for the next seven days.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: With Grace's prophecy for Kristen at the start of the episode warning her to avoid red for the next seven days for her safety, almost every instance of the color red in the episode correlates to either an act of violence or something associated with a demonic or Satanic influence.
  • A red sweatshirt on one of Kristen's daughters.
  • Kristen's red stud earrings.
  • Leland's gift to Kristen's daughters when he comes over to her house as Sheryl's date being a series of four red diaries wrapped in red paper.
  • The red of Leland's blood on a kitchen knife and a dishtowel after Kristen slices his neck.
  • At the end of the episode, when Leland arrives at Sheryl's apartment and initiates sex with her, fire begins to consume their bed.
  • The red dress that Sheryl picks out after having sex with Leland.
  • The credits card at the end of the episode even has its usual white liquid replaced with a bright red one.
• Credits Gag: The episode ends with a red credits card, Grace having told Kristen at the start as a prophecy from God that she needs to avoid red for the next seven days.
• The End of the World as We Know It: It turns out that this is the reason that the Church is so invested in Grace Ling's prophecies; they contain missing bits of a prophecy from the 1500s that predicts not just the end of the Catholic Church, but the end of the world.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: At the end of the episode, when Sheryl and Leland have sex fire begins to surround their bed until it seems to consume them both, which is heavily implied to be connected to Leland's association with Hell.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: Occurs three times throughout the episode.
  • Kristen's sexual fantasy of David morphing into George, who leers over her and attacks her.
  • Leland's response to Kristen slicing him in the neck with a kitchen knife is to audibly moan and to express arousal at the situation.
  Leland: I have never been more turned on by you.
  • When Leland goes over to Sheryl's house at the end of the episode and seduces her, their bed appears to be surrounded by flames as they have sex.
• Patched Together from the Headlines: The Grace Ling plot brings together the Trump administrations stepped-up immigration enforcement and the Chinese government's persecution of religious minorities, while Grace also takes time to confirm a Conspiracy Theory about the death of wealthy child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
• Red Is Violent: Grace's prophecy for Kristen at the start of the episode seems to revolve around this, with almost every instance of red contained in the episode being connected in some way to an act of violence or an alignment with evil.

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