Stan Against Evil Season 2 Finale Review: Whoops!
Carissa Pavlica
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Evie was on the right path when she told Stan her situation was a lot different than Claire's.
It made sense when Stan traversed time to save Evie on the Stan Against Evil Season 2 premiere. Her death wasn't natural. She wasn't supposed to die.
While it was a valid argument on Stan's part that nothing since Claire's death was natural, either, he should have given a little more thought to going back in time to stop her death. The events on Stan Against Evil Season 2 Episode 7 and Stan Against Evil Season 2 Episode 8 proved that theory.
Nobody thought it was a good idea from Lara onward, so how did Stan get so far?
While I'm asking questions, why does everything exciting happen in Stan's bedroom? It's always a very hush-hush scenario so only he's aware what's happening, and the rest of town has to figure it out. Evie knows him too well, though, so she always does.
Yeah, see, that's the thing. I can definitely imagine Stan killing someone with a bucket, but this whole smiling and polite thing; that does not track.
Evie
Stan had no problem fooling Leon, though, who willingly ate the brownies he received as a gift. About one-third of a massive tray of hallucinatory goodies, too.
And unless I misheard, he told Denise when he called that they were terrible. The intrepid deputy that he is, Leon kept on eating.
Leon provided some of the comic relief of two rather heavy installments of SAE. I mean, come on people, Leon died twice, and one of his deaths was incredibly gruesome.
Do we even know if he's not dead a third time (along with everyone else) by the end of the finale? Willard's Mill looked barren.
Stan wanted desperately to fetch Claire out of time, but his first go around in the time shack was to right the events he created by summoning Gerard DuQuette. It was a bit of a catch-22, though, because if he hadn't summoned him, he wouldn't have received the answer to the riddle and known where to get the eyes.
Poor Gordy the mailman. Honestly, that really freaked me out because his post-bashed in brains mail delivery it reminded me so much of a true story of a man who had severe head damage, and although he was dead, got up, fetched the paper, made coffee and attempted to go about his day.
Stories like that don't leave you, and when you watch as many true-crimes shows as I do, your head is full of them.
As I already said, I wish Stan had thought a bit more about what it meant to bring back Claire. He could have talked it out with Evie.
Evie: Stan, if you go through that door, am I even going to know you? No, I mean If Claire doesn't die, then you stay the sheriff.
Stan: I don't know.
Evie: I mean, what am I going to do? Am I just going to poof back to my old life?
She would have understood. If you watch Stan Against Evil online, you know their connection is ridiculous. By the second time he was meeting Claire and had time to talk with her before being killed, the conversation should have been a reminder of how much about their relationship wasn't, I don't know, perfect.
She hid from him all those years she was a demon hunter protecting him from an evil curse, and he never once sussed it out on his own. What does that say about how close they were?
On the other hand, smile too much and Evie knew there was an evil Stan in town. I know, I know. It kills me that Claire left the mortal plane again and took with her any hope I had for Evie and Stan by telling Stan the until death do we part stuff was BS.
That closed the door for Stan to ever move on from Claire with anyone and that's cruel. How can anyone move on if you're tied together after death? If you have five husbands and they all die, and you live 90 years, do they have to sit and wait in heaven? Are you a polygamist when you get there? What does it all mean???
So, yeah, Evie and Stan, you guys.
Claire wasn't even going to admit to Evie at first that she knew what Evie was talking about when Evie came to her obviously distraught over the death of Stan. At least everyone knows how to go back and forth in time now.
What I didn't know was how easy it was going to be to just go back with any old eyes. It seems like you need a fairly specific set of eyes to cast off, so when the portal was open, whose eyes could they have used to go back?
Maybe we'll find out on Stan Against Evil Season 3.
Although everything was right with the world in Stan's absence, everything wasn't right in the world because Stan wasn't in it.
With two sheriff's back, it was easier to take care of Ida Putnam.
So. That's your game? You become a giant and kick my ass? It's a pretty good game, I'm not gonna lie to ya.
Stan
Stan was even relatively impressed with her shtick. It felt like such an exciting moment when Evie burst onto the scene with her shovels ready to gauge out the eyes of the hag and send her packing.
It's hard to understand under what circumstances Claire lives and dies, though. Maybe it was an either/or situation. Either Stan makes it out, or Claire makes it out but not both. Does the universe work like that?
There isn't another fitting scenario that works here. Claire wasn't overly strained in fighting off Ida because Evie did the hard part. She didn't even kill the final flower, as it turned out.
That was surprising, but how else did Evie get two shovels into her hands when she only left with one? What the heck was Claire waiting for when her arm was previously poised above that damn flower twice? It can't be that difficult to plunge a shovel into the thing.
The portal appears to be right in the middle of Kevin's turf. He's not the dislocated ghost head laughing over top of it, is he? I didn't see Kev's body, but then I was looking at the head.
Stan: The flower. I never saw her destroy the final flower.
Evie: The portal. The portal opened. And the land of the dead shall corrupt the land of the living for time without end. My God.
Stan: We gotta go back.
My wish is that it's not as easy as continually going back in time with another set of eyeballs to set things right. It's too easy, even if things continually get very messed up. The saying is concrete -- for all time. Let it be half the season, at least.
Let's see what our similarly minded and very competent sheriffs can do when put to the test and without their normal resources. Also without Stan's thoughts going back to the night Claire died. He knows she's OK now.
Were you surprised Stan was at once both successful and unsuccessful in his attempt to go back to save Claire? What about how quickly Evie went back for her friend?
Did their goodbye scene tough your teeny weeny heart?
Comment away. Say something!!!
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.
