***The following contains spoilers for 4.11***

In the most recent episode of Evil, which premiered on Thursday, a woman, Ellie (Anna Chlumsky), claiming to be Kristen (Katja Herber)’s daughter Laura from the future, reveals some disturbing news. Meanwhile, the future of the assessor program is threatened. On the other side of things, Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson) is brought to trial after Sheryl (Christine Lahti) provided evidence that led to his arrest. The two victims he had imprisoned died, so he’s left trying to blackmail Dr. Boggs (Kurt Fuller) into helping him with an insanity defense. As he tries to mount his defense, he also tries to get his lawyer (John Carroll Lynch), who isn’t much help, changed, only for him to reveal he’s actually a demon.

Always delegating his dirty work, Leland clearly did not ever expect to get caught and arrested. How will he deal with the fallout? “He's going to deal with it the same way he deals with all kinds of intrusion or regulation from the normal world in his affairs with the 60,” explained Emerson during a recent interview with SciFi Vision, adding that the delegation is a survival technique. “[H]e usually has someone he can call,” continued the actor, “someone that they own, someone that's in their pocket, but he doesn't always know who they are or from which direction they might be coming.”

The actor also admitted that Kristen has become a distraction from his work with the 60. “[I]t's probably the reason he's not more successful in the corporate world of the 60, because he has these petty little wars that he maintains,” said Emerson. “He's just so busy trying to bring down David (Mike Colter) and Kristen that sometimes he doesn't help his own career that much.”

Unfortunately the series only has three more episodes to wrap up the plot. Can Leland get a happy ending? Emerson isn’t sure, but he did say that whatever “makes [Leland] happy is going to make lots of other people unhappy.”

Regardless, the actor is “very satisfied” with how it ends. “I think the audience will be pleased too that he doesn't prevail,” Emerson teased. “He doesn't altogether go away, although he's - I'm going to use the word ‘hampered.’ A set of limitations are imposed on him, but I wouldn't say it's the end of Leland.”

For more, including whether he thinks Leland thinks about the afterlife, what surprised him about his character, filming the recent fight scene with Lahti, what side of Leland he prefers to play, what other projects are on the horizon, and much more, read the full transcript below.


SCIFI VISION:  Last time I spoke with you, we had talked about how he's more about manipulating people to do his dirty work for him, and I was trying to remember, I don't know still if he’s ever killed a human himself. I know he's tried to kill Sheryl, obviously, but my question with that is, do you think that maybe he would have an easier time if he quit delegating to everyone, instead of whispering in everybody's ear and making them do it for them just did his own dirty work?

MICHAEL EMERSON:   Yes, well, he's a bossy sort, certainly, and, I think, he always feels like he knows how a thing ought to be done, but he has a natural wariness of blame, I think, or getting caught by the law. So, I think delegation is a survival technique for him, and it would take a lot. He would have to be a little bit out of his mind to do something that could be brought back to haunt him.

You talk about him not wanting to get in trouble with the law, but well, he’s on trial. How is he going to deal with that? He may be in trouble and may not get out of it.

He's going to deal with it the same way he deals with all kinds of intrusion or regulation from the normal world in his affairs with the 60, and that is, he usually has someone he can call, someone that they own, someone that's in their pocket, but he doesn't always know who they are or from which direction they might be coming, which is kind of fun.

Yeah, definitely. Let me ask you, and this is just your own opinion, but what is actually the most important to Leland? The stuff with Timothy notwithstanding, because that was connected to Sheryl and Kristen and everything, but aside from that, he spends so much time I feel like trying to get Kristen, and obviously, he got Sheryl finally, but instead of focusing on whatever his master plan is, he's busy trying to annoy her. So, is taking her down kind of just as important to him, do you think?

It's certainly his primary distraction, and it's probably the reason he's not more successful in the corporate world of the 60, because he has these petty little wars that he maintains. He's just so busy trying to bring down David and Kristen that sometimes he doesn't help his own career that much.

Yeah, definitely not. Now, somebody asked me on social media, do you think he worries about the afterlife? But I kind of wonder. I mean, he may want to go to hell, so maybe that's not a concern. How do you think he feels about it? Or do you think he doesn't even think about it. He's just more, “this is what I'm doing now, and what matters?”

I'm not sure. He must feel that there's a there's a place in a demon afterlife where he will always be a hero and the high office holder. So, he doesn't think about it the way that Christians do, certainly, and I don't know what he's been promised. You know, maybe immortality is a bonus once you get high up enough in the executive suite.

Can he get a happy ending? And what would that look like, do you think, for Leland?

I don't know, because anything that makes him happy is going to make lots of other people unhappy. So, I don't know. I don't know what he would look forward to, except, I mean his mischief seems habitual, of pathological, maybe. So, I don't know when he would settle down and make peace with anyone.

So, let me ask you, without telling me what it is, were you satisfied with whatever happens to him at the end of the show?

Oh, yes, I’m very satisfied. And I think the audience will be pleased too that he doesn't prevail. He doesn't altogether go away, although he's - I'm going to use the word “hampered.” A set of limitations are imposed on him, but I wouldn't say it's the end of Leyland.

Okay, that's fair. So, obviously this show gets dark a lot of times, especially with your character, but yet he's still fun at the same time, but is it ever hard to kind of get into that? Does it ever affect you, I guess, outside of the show? And is it easy to get back away from it, or do you just kind of have fun with it and not worry about it?

I tend to have fun with it. I think the show is funny. I think my character is, gee, to a large extent, it's a comic role. I think that anyway. That's me.

Yeah, I agree with you. I just was curious, because he, I mean, he does though do really evil things.

The only trouble I've ever had is when the long faded scraps of my Catholic upbringing rear their head at some blasphemy or some mockery that I'm doing about the church or the mass or the sacraments, and I feel like, wow, there was a time when I'd have been looking for a lightning bolt to strike me, being so playful about things so serious to many people, but it's a good script, and I believe in the content and the tone of the work we do on Evil. I like the mix of entertainment and thought provoking.

Yeah, I was going to say, a lot of times, even when he is doing really bad things, it is hard not to laugh, even if he's winning.

And when he's winning, he's so childish, and when he's losing, he's such a crybaby. So, on some level, he's always laughable.

Definitely true. So, is there anything that either you took or you were given from the show to remember it by, now that it's over?

Oh, like a memento?

Yeah, like a prop or something, whatever.

Gee, I don't have any props. I think I'll end up with an article of clothing, maybe, and that will be my keepsake.

That's fair. Let me ask you this then. What have you learned since being this show, or how have you changed since this role?

No, you know, I feel unaltered in my viewpoint as a craftsman or as an actor. I feel like a lot of things I have thought or tendencies I have, or instincts I have, have been confirmed by the work on this show, have been confirmed to me by Robert and Michelle King, who subscribed to my way of thinking about the playing of certain kinds of scenes and the delivery [laughs] of certain kinds of lines. We have hit it off so well that I feel very vindicated, I guess, artistically.

Is there anything then, from the point after the tone changed, because obviously this show started out a lot different, but once he became more of this sort of comedic role, was there anything that really surprised you though that you didn't expect to happen with his trajectory?

Gosh, I mean, he still shocks me the way he talks to Kristen sometimes so baldly sexual, I guess you would say. It always alarms and tickles me that he's so very direct with her.

Yeah, well, got a cake in the face for it last time. [laughs] You had a physical fight scene with Sheryl. Talk about filming that, because that was such a fun scene, you two trying to kill each other.

Well, that's one where - you know, both Christine and I are actors. We've been at it for a while, and we we look at each other and shake our heads, because it's like, when do we stop doing this kind of work? When is there no combat, or, you know, physical mayhem or dancing or the kind of stuff that gives older actors aches and pains the following morning? You just think, there must come a time when I'm not gonna have these scenes written for me, but it never seems to appear. I thought it would have happened many years ago. So, we just do it. We do it by the book. We do it fairly slowly and nice and easy so that nobody gets hurt.

Do you prefer to play his more - and they're kind of, I guess, tied in together, but the more sort of fun part of him, or the more sinister part of him, when he is being truly, truly evil? Do you have a preference, or do you just enjoy all of it?

Oh, I like, I like them both, I guess. They're flip sides of one coin, I believe. But when he's terrible, I do like the kind of stillness, the kind of breath holding horror of some of those scenes, like when I was hypnotizing Andy (Patrick Brammall) to kill his own daughter, that stuff. I don't know. Maybe - you know, I've played a few of those kinds of characters over the years, but it's kind of thrilling. It's still kind of thrilling.

Well, you're good at pretending to be evil. I know we're about out of time, but do you have anything else that you have coming up besides Evil that you're promoting?

No, outside of my little turn as the evil wizard in my friend’s movie, Man and Witch.

Okay, cool. Well, thank you, I appreciate your time, and I'll look for it. I know supposedly you're in the upcoming Lost documentary. So, hopefully I will see some interviews there too.

Oh yeah, that thing, yeah. We had a quite an open and frank discussion about that show. So, it might be worth listening to.