Evil post-mortem: Actress Christine Lahti discusses Sheryl's season 4 arc and THAT big twist

The tenth episode of Evil's fourth and final episode has been released on Paramount+, and it's one of this season's most shocking and emotional episodes, maybe of the entire show. This is your last warning to avoid spoilers if you haven't watched the episode yet.

Evil season 4, episode 10, titled, "How to Survive a Storm," culminates in the final confrontation between Sheryl (Christine Lahti) and Leland (Michael Emerson). Their violent back-and-forth ends with Leland, sadly, prevailing (with a little demonic assistance) and Sheryl getting killed. Leland throws her off of his balcony and though she's rushed to the emergency room, it's not enough to save her life. Thankfully, Kristen and her daughters are able to spend Sheryl's last few moments with her.

This episode was initially going to function as the season 4 finale and even the series finale at one point when Evil was first canceled. Thankfully, Paramount+ ordered four additional episodes to wrap up the series, so we will find out what's going to happen. Despite her death, Sheryl still had a few tricks up her sleeve to ensure Leland's downfall, and the episode ends with him being arrested and Timothy potentially ending up in Kristen's custody. It's a lot to process!

Luckily for us, we had the opportunity to talk to Sheryl actress Christine Lahti about her big episode and her character's final moments.

1428 ELM: I loved Sheryl's scenes with characters like David and Dr. Boggs this season, particularly Sheryl's confessional scene with David. What was it like getting to explore a different side of Sheryl with him?

CHRISTINE LAHTI: The confessional scene, I think, might be my favorite scene in the entire four seasons I did on the show. It was so beautifully written. Even though Sheryl had an ulterior motive, which was to convince David to baptize the baby and, therefore, bring down Leland, I think it showed how needy she was for redemption, how much she wanted [it], and how hard it was to ask for help.

But she really went there for some spiritual guidance and help. "How do I reconnect with my daughter and my grandchildren? How did I end up here?" You know, all alone. I know [her] quest for power at any cost became an obsession, but boy, she just had this change of heart. Like she feels awful, awful, awful, and lonely, and sad. And it's hard for her to admit any of that. But that's why I thought the scene was so brilliantly written, because it was just so complex.

1428 ELM: What do you think it meant for Sheryl's character that her final moments are with David, a Catholic priest, reading her the last rites?

[NOTE: At the time of the interview, Lahti had not yet watched the tenth episode.]

CHRISTINE LAHTI: I think the fact that she got a moment with her daughter to express her love and to—I don't know what's left of the dialogue. I heard there was a lot cut out because it didn't feel like, in reality, someone whose organs are shutting down would be so articulate, which makes total sense—but that there is a moment of feeling there's some forgiveness or love exchanged between Kristen and Sheryl. Did you feel that?

1428 ELM: Yeah, I mean, she kind of asks Kristen for forgiveness and Kristen doesn't really give her a straight answer. You guys are both great and convey so much through the silence and meaningful exchange of looks. David giving the last rites felt powerful.

CHRISTINE LAHTI: I think, in that last moment, normally she'd be like, "ugh, religion, God, please..."

1428 ELM: But she needs a little comfort.

CHRISTINE LAHTI: There's a little comfort, and maybe there is some...She'll take forgiveness wherever she can get it at this point. In her last breaths, she will take it from God, from David, from Kristen, from her granddaughters—She'll take it wherever she can get it. So I think it was a beautiful way to have her go out with some sense of comfort and relief, in a way.

1428 ELM: All season has really been building to that final confrontation between Leland and Sheryl. When you read it in the script and saw how it was gonna turn out, what was your initial reaction? Were you shocked?

CHRISTINE LAHTI: She went out, I think, to me, in a blaze of glory and heroically so I was happy about that. I was very sad to hear that she was gonna be killed. I had no idea. I found out the night before they released the tenth episode [script], which was initially going to be our series ending. And then, of course, they got to do four more episodes, which was fantastic.

But when I got the call from Michelle King, it was really shocking and sad, but she explained it very well. She said, "Look, this is a show called Evil, and it feels like the most organic ending to a showdown between Sheryl and Leland, [is he] prevails." Then it's going to be up to Kristen to bring him down or not. I understood that, and it felt organic, but I cried when I read this episode. It was really sad for me. I think I was in mourning for Sheryl for a long time after we wrapped.

1428 ELM: Sheryl is so cunning, though; she has contingency plans for her contingency plans. Her actions in this episode really set the tone for the rest of the show. Even though she dies, she still acts as a pretty big catalyst in shaping the next four episodes

CHRISTINE LAHTI: Absolutely. And I really appreciated that. I love that no matter what happened to her, it was a selfless act to make sure that Leland was brought down, put in jail for the rest of his life, or whatever, but ultimately, to protect her daughter and her granddaughters.

1428 ELM: Do you think she knew that Timothy might end up with Kristen?

CHRISTINE LAHTI: Yeah. I mean, she never believed, I don't think, in the whole demon child Antichrist b*llshit. I think she went along with it, maybe she thought it was a way to reconnect herself with Kristen. Sheryl did a lot of dark sh*tty, horrible things for power.

I think that her background, she was treated so horribly by men in the rock-and-roll world as a groupie. After Leland broke up with her—because, if you remember, they were gonna get married—and when he broke up with her, he said something like, "You take your dried-up old ovaries and go back under the rock that I found you under." I think something snapped in Cheryl. I think it was at that moment, she went, ok, like...

1428 ELM: What am I doing?

CHRISTINE LAHTI: Yeah, like, "What am I doing?" And she will get power whether she has to do some sh*tty things. She will not let another man treat her like this. What she found out, though, was that the demonic world of DF, the company that she was rising up in, was more patriarchal than the normal world. She understood, finally, that, wow, this quest for power has really not gotten her that far, but she must continue this quest because her ultimate goal is to bring down Leland.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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