Stan Against Evil
Episode 1.5 “Ouija Bored” & 1.6 “I’m Gleaning my Coven”
Directed by Jack Bishop & Justin Njim (1.5, 1.6)
Written by Jessica Conrad (1.5) & Susan Burke (1.6)
Created by Dana Gould
Starring John C. McGinley, Deborah Baker Jr., Janet Varney, Nate Mooney
IFC
Air date: Wednesday, November 16th, 2016, 10pm

Last week on Stan Against Evil, Stan Miller (John C. McGinley) and new sheriff of Willard’s Mill Evie Barret (Janet Varney) were able to fight off a succubus, a pig demon, and demon preacher. They are trudging away on the list of 172 demons out to get them in revenge for a town curse. We open this week’s two-pack of episodes with flashback to Claire Miller (Susan Williams), the demon huntress doing her thing before succumbing to a heart attack mid-battle. Before she died she uprooted a scary looking flower monster… but now they’re everywhere.

The stinky flowers, or “buttholes with teeth” as Leon (Nate Mooney) calls them, are making the town drowsy and Evie comes up with an idea”¦ a seance to communicate with Claire for answers. This leads to Stan being taken by Claire”¦ who is really the demon she was fighting with when she died. John C. McGinley shows the acting chops here. Stan is very Perry Cox-like most of the time, raining down insults on all the annoying people around him. But with Claire you see the happiness, and by definition the heartbreak. She means normalcy for him. He is so blinded he doesn’t realize he’s been trapped on the other side of reality. To reach him, Evie devises a plan to signal him through his favorite show, WWII documentaries and that means getting the help of Hitler (Neal Kodinsky) himself.

“To be clear; I’m supposed to kill my wife because Hitler told me told do it, on TV?”

When he finally realizes what’s going on the demon turns the tables on him, but not before Evie and Denise (Deborah Baker Jr) help him escape death at the last minute. They make such an oddball little family unit. There is a really tender moment at the end where Evie and Denise falls asleep, and he takes a quiet moment outside looking up towards Claire.

Stan Against Evil 1.6 “I’m Gleaning my Coven”

Opening in 1936 Willard’s Mill where a woman Lotty (Valyn Hall) is giving birth… to some Lovecraftian monster baby. Back to the present where Stan has a serious issue with goth kids; “They’re the new kind of hippies that dresses up like the Munsters.” I seriously choked down my water on that one.

The goth kids recruit Denise to a “party” where they plan to resurrect the most powerful witch. Goth leader Craig (Micah Shane Ballinger) adds his own blood and quickly gets possessed by the witch. Meanwhile, Denise is LOVING this, thinking it’s the coolest party she’s been to and her pink handsome unicorn shirt is just fabulous. Deborah Baker Jr. steals this show every time she’s on screen. Soon, she’s possessed. It turns out, that the constable was the only real witch, and burned everyone to hide his secret. Evie and Stan (with Denise duct taped into the squad car) have to conduct another ritual, and bid farewell to another demon.

This show continues to breeze on by, and next week are the final two episodes of the first season. The three leads are just fantastic. McGinley is sarcasm personified, Varney has some of the best facial expressions on TV, and DBJ is my new favorite awkward scream queen.

The double shot season finale of Stan Against Evil is Wednesday night at 10:00/10:30pm ET only on IFC.

Image Gallery

Videos

Stan Against Evil | Hitler Speaks? | IFC

Stan gets some interdimensional advice from an unlikely source.

Stan Against Evil | Denise Isn’t Here | IFC

Denise is possessed; Evie and Stan try to communicate with her possesor.