Evil recap, season 4 episode 5: How to Fly an Airplane

The Big Pop-up Book of Science takes us into the air in the fifth episode of Evil's fourth season, titled "How to Fly an Airplane." Nervous fliers likely found themselves unsettled during this installment. Imagine your flight being interrupted because someone onboard is carrying an ancient demonic relic.

Before we get into this week's central mystery, we pick up in the immediate aftermath of Andy's visit to the hospital. Kristen and the girls are having a hard time coping with Andy being checked into a psychiatric facility.

She puts on a brave face for her girls, but once she's alone, Kristen takes refuge in her bathroom to cry it out and gets a visit from that gremlin-like grief demon Sister Andrea yanked out of Father Ignatius in the previous episode. Don't worry, he doesn't get a chance to tunnel into Kristen's side before a panicked phone call from Ben and David alerts her to an exorcism gone wrong and sends her to work.

A flight attendant, Vicki, starts self-harming, including hitting herself and, during the exorcism, attempting suicide. By questioning Vicki's husband, Kristen, Ben, and David consider the possibility she was having a severe allergic reaction to something in her uniform. Maybe the detergent?

Ben, David, and Kristen head to Vicki's crash pad, where they meet the many other flight attendants with whom she regularly works. All of whom are enjoying a binge-watch of Mike Flanagan's finest: The Haunting of Midnight Mass Club.

Talking to the other flight attendants gives the trio a new lead. Vicki had a side hustle, carting ancient relics to and fro for extra cash. Has she never seen even one horror movie?

Talk of a potentially cursed relic piques everyone's interest, including Father Dominic from the Entity. The Vatican is very interested in what Vicki brought home with her this time, as they believe it to be the missing piece of the True Cross, as in the cross on which Jesus was crucified. So convinced are they that the Vatican demands Ben, Kristen, and David fly directly to Rome to deliver the relic in person.

One uneventful flight later, the trio lands in Italy. But much to Kristen's chagrin, they don't get to see any of the sights. Instead, Father Dominic shuffles them off into some dark, creepy underground tunnels the Pope uses as an emergency evacuation route. I had to laugh at Dominic turning up because he took a separate flight. David calls him on being afraid the relic would cause their plane to crash and neglecting to warn them. All that trouble just to find out that their relic is a dud. At least we get to hear Kristen sing about sodomy and masturbation to a pair of Italian priests.

Since the flight to Rome was normal, you already know the return flight is where sh*t is going to hit the fan. The episode is titled "How to Fly an Airplane," after all. See, even though the wooden relic is fake, the box containing it is demonic in origin. One look at that thing and David, Ben, or Kristen should have suspected something was off about it. Everything about that box screamed "ancient evil."

The plane hits horrible turbulence and though the pilot assures everyone it's just bad weather, it certainly seems like that box is the culprit. Especially since Father Dominic contacts David mid-air to warn him about it (can the Vatican really do that?). David quickly pulls out his trusty vial of holy water and douses the box, which immediately starts to sizzle and melt.

With the box destroyed, the plane soon rights itself and prepares for descent. Coincidence? Or was the cursed box really behind the plane's almost-demise? I mean, they flew to Rome with it; if the demon box's whole goal was to travel to New York and spread evil, as Father Dominic suggests, wouldn't it have crashed the flight exiting the state to try and prevent being taken away? The turbulence could really be explained by bad weather and the box's reaction to holy water might have been purely chemical.

While Kristen is abroad, her daughters have their own little adventure at home. Their mother leaves them in the care of her friend Yasmine, the one who helped Kristen track down her missing egg. But when a storm hits (bad weather hint again!) and causes a branch to fly through her mother's window, Yasmine is called away to assist, leaving the four girls to fend for themselves for the night. Lexus and Laura blow the power out by using multiple hair dryers simultaneously. Don't judge, we've all done it.

As the oldest, Lynn takes charge. She and Lila go into the basement to find the circuit panel and flip the switch, using a hilarious YouTube from a shirtless guy named Bob the Built Builder as their guide. I love the internet personalities this show cooks up. But instead of turning the power back on, they're horrified to find a giant hole in the wall. And as these curious girls so often do, they can't help but investigate further, triggering a massive horde of bats to come flying through it and follow them into the house.

Alone, without adult supervision, and now trapped in the kitchen as the bats invade the rest of the house, they call the only other person they can: Sheryl. Apparently, she still has a key to the house, and she manages to chase the bats out using cinnamon sticks. Was I the only one thinking about rabies the whole time? Bats can bite without you even noticing! Get those girls a rabies vaccine, Sheryl!

Sheryl happened to be on babysitting duty with little Timothy when the girls called, so she brings him along with her. And because she's an agent of chaos, of course Sheryl reveals to the girls that Timothy is their brother. She conveniently leaves out that the baby was conceived without their mother's consent, instead playing it up as a little secret between them and her, giving her room to worm her way back into her granddaughters' lives if they want to get to know their half-brother.

New episodes of Evil stream Wednesdays on Paramount+. To stay up to date on thrillers, sci-fi, and horror, bookmark 1428 Elm and follow our Facebook page and Twitter account!