With psychologist Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers), priest-in-training David Acosta (Mike Colter), and skeptic Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi) heading to a silent monastery to investigate if a priest should be considered for sainthood, co-creator executive producer Robert King gets to do (and direct) the type of episode he’s wanted to for some time in Evil Season 2: a silent one.
Because words cannot be spoken within the monastery’s walls, each person is given a magic slate to write on, and to David’s surprise, he finds someone has written “I want you” on his … right after Kristen leaves his room. (As he leaves, Father Winston, played by Kenneth Tigar, completes the sentiment: “to stay here.” But David knows “God needs me out there” and turns down the offer.)
Here, co-creators and executive producers Michelle and Robert King discuss making the episode, that message to David, and more.
I want to start with the writing of it because the words that are used — written or whispered outside the walls of the monastery — are so important. Talk about your approach to that?
Robert King: The starting point was not to do any words at all, but there were two reasons to do words. [It was] partly because it was boring without it. You’re always looking at it almost like a musical piece — what is it in a song when you do something different in a song instead of the verses over and over again? It just felt like it needed a new note. The second thing is we didn’t want to lose the audience on plot. And the problem is when you wrote too much on the magic slates, they were almost like titles in silent movies: “Oh God, another title. I don’t want to read another title.” So that was it.
Michelle King: And just to give you a little bit of the history of it, Robert has wanted to do a silent episode of any show we’ve done for many years now and it keeps getting pushed back until finally on this one, [writer] Davita Scarlett suggested a way to do it, which was, what if they went to a silent monastery? Suddenly it didn’t seem like a gimmick, it seemed integral to the plotting, and we were off.
Gallery: ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’: What We Want to See in a Wrap-up Movie (TV Insider)
‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’: What We Want to See in a Wrap-up Movie
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist may be getting what few canceled shows do: a chance to wrap up all the loose ends from the end of the finale.
A two-hour movie is reportedly coming to Roku, around the holidays — and depending on how that does, it’s possible we could get more episodes, too. While nothing is confirmed just yet, we’re already thinking about what we’d like to see happen. After all, the NBC series finale left off with Zoey (Jane Levy) singing a heart song to Max (Skylar Astin) — though she’s the one who hears those musical tunes that express how people are feeling. Neither had any idea how that happened.
And while some storylines were sort of wrapped up — Simon (John Clarence Stewart) made a major career move, Mo (Alex Newell) and Perry (David St. Louis) are together, Maggie (Mary Steenburgen) has decided to think about dating and informed her kids — they still left off in ways that left us needing to see more.
So below, we’ve gathered what we’d like to see if a Zoey’s movie does, in fact, happen.
A definitive answer about Max hearing a heart song
Does he now have the same power Zoey does? Or was it an extension of her power because she was ready to open herself up to him now that they’re back together? The goal of Max hearing her sing was to give him the “window into her” she had had with him prior to that song, executive producer Austin Winsberg told TV Insider. As for whether he’d be able to hear other people’s heart songs, that had “not fully been decided yet” at the time, he admitted.
Zoey and Max very much together
It felt like we barely got to see them be a couple at the beginning of Season 2 before their split, then as they got back together in the finale, that was overshadowed by the heart song shocker. Don’t let their relationship status be a question mark for even a moment — that’s already been done.
Simon finding out about Zoey’s (and Max’s?) power
It just never felt right that he was kept in the dark, considering he and Zoey were dating — and her power caused problems in her relationship with Max. Simon didn’t even know about it to decide how he felt. But now that he and Zoey are going to be friends — and he and Max are — it’s a loose end that needs to be addressed.
A return from Lauren Graham
Lauren Graham, who played Zoey’s boss Joan, couldn’t be part of the second season (except for the premiere) due to scheduling with The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. It’s unknown if that could end up being a factor again (the Disney+ series was renewed) but it just wouldn’t be right to not see her at all, even if it just ends up being a quick stop-in.
More Peter Gallagher
While the Clarkes may have said goodbye to Mitch in the Season 1 finale, that wasn’t the last time we saw Gallagher — and Winsberg hadn’t ruled out that continuing while waiting for news of a third season in May. “Any time that we can incorporate Peter and Mitch into the show, the show’s better for it,” he said. “The challenge is just always, how do we do it? What are the creative ways in which we can bring Mitch back? …It’s just all about trying to find unique ways to bring him into the storytelling.” As long as it makes even a tiny bit of sense, we’re on board.
A big dance number
It just wouldn’t be Zoey’s without one. (Just look at “Shake It Off” in the Season 2 finale.) Need we say more?
An emotional heart song
As much as we love the big musical performances, the smaller, more emotional songs are just as much a part of the show’s DNA. Whether it’s a duet — like Zoey and Max’s “A Moment Like This” — or a solo — like Emily’s (Alice Lee) “Anyone” — there needs to be at least one (maybe two, if it’s a two-hour movie and the end).
Simon suceeding at work
In the finale, Simon got the go-ahead to create an incubation program for small businesses, focusing on people of color and other marginalized groups, which was going to “pave the road for us to tell us more inclusive stories in Season 3 and bringing new, smaller businesses and more diversity into SPRQ Point,” Winsberg said. That very much has to be part of anything Zoey’s does going forward, and since it’s unknown just what (if anything) we might get, let’s see more successes than missteps — a season could explore the ups and downs of it in the right way, but not really a two-hour movie.
Mo and Perry figuring things out together
Just because they were together at the end of the two seasons on NBC doesn’t mean it’s going to be an easy journey forward. After all, Winsberg wanted “to see what it’s like for Mo, who was kind of this carefree, independent person, having to be in a relationship with an older man, who’s got two kids and an ex.” If there is a movie, let’s have it pick up with Mo sort of comfortable around Perry’s kids in some aspects but not others. Let’s see a couple of stumbles but have them be ones that the couple can take on together as a unit.
Maggie figuring out her next steps
In Season 2, Maggie began to figure out life after losing her husband Mitch, and that included maybe dating. By the finale, she was ready to think about it. Season 2 was “about her being able to start her business again without Mitch, about being able to go back out into the world again on her own and try to be her own person. Now she’s starting to find her own sea legs as an individual. Now it’s about the next step of that,” Winsberg said. “And I think it’s interesting to take a real look at a woman of a certain age and what it means to try to go back into the dating world again. I’m excited about the kind of stories we can tell there.” Let’s see that play out, especially if Bernadette Peters can come back as Deb to help her.
The Clarkes sharing a scene
Considering this is a show about someone who hears people’s inner feelings as heart songs — complete with elaborate musical productions — it’s not impossible to imagine a way for the family to be together one last time. There could be a flashback, perhaps only Zoey sees Mitch due to her powers, or really anything (except in another hospital room like above). Like with a return from Gallagher, we’re on board even if it doesn’t entirely make sense.
12/12 SLIDES
Robert, you must’ve had fun directing then.
Robert: Well, you’re right. Directing actually was fun. What wasn’t fun was post-production. The editing room is when things got a little ugly, but in directing, I would say there were a lot of things that made it fun. One is you didn’t have to wear headphones. You could go without and you could direct while planes were going overhead. There’s always this obsession with sounds. If somebody starts up a truck on the next street, damn, that take is done. Now start a new take.
The other thing is Katja had a lot of comedy in it, which she’s good with, and when we cast her, we’d seen a lot of her Dutch movies, in which she did comedy and some of them were not subtitled. So you were just watching it, watching for facial expression because I don’t know Dutch. And so it was a little bit of a return to that, how much you communicate with facial expressions, especially in comedy. And having just the three core characters was fun because they get along so well and we get along so well with them that it was cool to see that — even though I wish I got to direct the kids, I wish I directed Michael Emerson, there’s a lot of other fun people. I seemed happy when I was doing it, didn’t I?
You had fun with the “I want you” on David’s board and playing his and Kristen’s attraction to one another. What did you want to do with that to set up where you’re taking them the rest of the season?
Robert: Well, one of the things was post-production was ugly, partly because there was a subplot there that he thought this “I want you” may not be from Kristen, but might be from one of the other monks. We were playing up is there another monk that is kind of liking him and attracted to him and playing that idea of sexual boundaries being broken in a monastery, but it all was just too complicated and also too long. And it also seemed to take you off the main track of the main character.
One of the things we’re doing is we love the chemistry that Katja and Mike have in person. I wouldn’t say sexual attraction, but they have a chemistry that it just reads. So sometimes we play into it because we know that that is a great asset for the show, the same way Josh Charles and Julianna Margulies’ relationship was for The Good Wife. It’s just something you lean into because you know you got it. And sometimes, when you know someone can handle Shakespeare, you throw words at him that you wouldn’t throw at somebody else. Here, the chemistry was so evident we throw that at them because we know it just burns.
Kristen, David, and Ben sort of escaped everything Leland (Michael Emerson) with this investigation. So what’s waiting for them when it comes to him when they return home?
Michelle: He remains as determined of ruining them as ever. The closer David gets to his ordination, the more motivated Leland is to try to destroy him and Kristen and Ben.
Robert: Leland has a lot to do with [Episode 8]. The Leland plot is very much about him using the idea of exorcism to get at this group and possibly break them up, possibly corrupt the church and how it handles exorcisms.
