- "Kindness is hypocrisy."
- ―Leland Townsend[src]
Leland Townsend (real name: Jacob "Jake" Perry) is a main character on Evil. He is portrayed by actor Michael Emerson.
Personality
Leland prides himself on being a master manipulator. A stoic, intimidating and well put together man, who can be charming when he wants to be. He strives to be omniscient and omnipotent. However, this is somewhat of an act. In truth Leland is rather insecure and easily angered when others prove they know more than he does, especially within a situation he'd intended on dominating. The best example of it is by Kristen Bouchard when she reveals she knows his real name; she has also described him as 'talking too much'.
Appearance
He is an older man aged fifty-five (during Season 1) and isn't overly tall; he stands at roughly 5' 8''. His short, brown hair has started to recede and he has blue eyes. Townsend wears glasses and tailored suits as standard. While not conventionally handsome his neat and proper appearance as well as his illusion of control is attractive.
Occupation
As a forensic psychologist Leland practices psychology within civil courts as well as the criminal justice system. His duties involve a number of different aspects including but not limited to providing psychotherapy to victims, performing assessments for mental competency and interviewing child witnesses. He can and has been called into court numerous times to give evidence based off of his knowledge.
Character Biography
Early Life
Born in Des Moines, Iowa as Jacob Perry, he was a rather unimportant child. He attended Roosevelt High School and was a fairly shy child apparently. He became an honorary member of the school band club and played the tuba in marching band; which Leland believes to be 'worthy entertainment'.
Jake Perry
When still using his birth name, Leland worked as an insurance adjuster. His first wife, Janey, divorced him after their failure to have children - allegedly due to him being impotent. He married again after an unspecified amount of time to a woman named Tina, she never loved him and only married him for his wealth. This second marriage failed as well and he left Iowa for New York to reinvent himself as Leland Townsend.
Leland Townsend
After changing himself into Leland Townsend he trained as a forensic psychologist in New York. From his office he actively manipulates his patients and twists their world views, morals and senses of entitlement so he can use them as his own pawns for causing death and destruction. The best example of Leland's persuasive abilities being Sebastian Lewin who Leland manages to convince to go on a mass shooting by twisting Sebastian's awkwardness around women into a hatred and urge to do harm. However, Sebastian accidentally shoots himself in the head before the plan can be carried out and when Leland learns of this he flips his desk over and yells in anger.
When David Acosta has Kristen Bouchard join his team his attempts to solidify Orson LeRoux's insanity plea are outed, it is revealed by Kristen that he somehow attained her therapy notes from Kurt Boggs' records and gave them to LeRoux. At this defeat Leland turns his attentions towards Kristen Bouchard and her family. He inserts himself into Sheryl Luria's life and eventually manages to start dating her in order to grant him access to Kristen's home life. When Kristen returns home one night to find Leland entertaining her four daughters with diaries he'd purchased for them Kristen threatens him and slices his throat forcing him to the hospital. Later when Kristen discovers her mother is still dating Leland and has possibly been corrupted by his mind games she gives Sheryl an ultimatum, Leland or her granddaughters. Leland's ability to manipulate has worked so successfully that Sheryl walks out and goes straight to Leland at his office where it is revealed that she had been stealing things from her daughter simply because Leland had asked. Leland further increases his hold over Sheryl by asking her to marry him in "Book 27" to which she agrees completely unaware that she'd be his third wife.
Leland in his therapy session with The Devil in "Justice x 2"
In "Justice x 2", after a confrontation with Kristen, Leland attends a therapy session of his own with The Devil as his therapist where they discuss how Leland feels. He's angry that Kristen learnt about his past, especially the nickname 'Jake the Flake' and hates that she made him feel impotent. When the Devil Therapist asked why he didn't just rip her heart out Dr. Townsend answers that it wasn't the plan and The Devil reassures him by saying that Leland is to find someone else to 'take her heart out' so as the pair could 'eat it together', this plan calms Leland.
In another attempt to manipulate and insert himself in the lives of David, Ben and Kristen he reveals that he has been donating to the church to gain favor with the Church's officials. Leland claims that he needs an exorcism, that he is in love and has many regrets for the things he's done. None of the three believe a word of what he says and Kristen quickly proves his claim of being ridiculed by the school bus driver could not be true due to him having had his own car by contacting his first ex-wife, Janey. He also alleges that his constant ridicule and his interest in the occult and dark arts had lead him to summoning the Devil himself so they could make his deal, that his contract lead to the death of the bus driver in a crash and that the Devil used a claw to tattoo an eight onto the back of his ear.
For the most part Leland takes their questions in stride until he learns that they want to look around his home to check for anything which could be causing the starching he says he hears at night. Ben quickly manages to track down a hidden copy of the seal map which may or may not have been left for them to find. They also find a at home tattoo kit hidden in a crucifix which falls off the wall and hits Kristen in the head. He lets Kristen assess him privately but taunts her the entire time then attempts to get her to aid him in corrupting David Acosta but she refuses.
At Kristen's behest Ben Shakir sets up Leland's web cam so they could watch him whenever they wanted without Leland knowing, this allows them to capture Leland very oddly just staring at the wall for at least ten minutes without moving, speaking or doing anything at all. Later, Ben opens his laptop to watch Leland where he finds Leland's eyes seemingly tracking Ben's movements before he leans in closer and begins to laugh in an alarmingly manic way. It is unclear if Leland could actually see Ben somehow or if he is aware of the spying and decided to mess with them.
In The Series Finale Fear of the End
Meanwhile, upstairs, Kristen’s daughters find the VR goggles from Season 1’s “Rose398” episode in the back of their mom’s closet. They download the latest update, then Lilah and Lynn put the headsets on to play a game called Mother Midnight that is supposed to reveal players’ fates. The sisters are bored, until a creepy hand grabs Lynn’s shoulder, and then things get really weird.
The girls crawl through the closet until they wind up in a space that looks like their living room, where David, Kristen and Ben are talking. As the girls watch, Leland sneaks in through the kitchen, brandishing a climbing ax. Lynn and Lilah scream, but the adults don’t hear them. And so they’re powerless to stop Leland from burying the ax in the back of Kristen’s head.
Downstairs, Leland breaks into the house by busting through the brick wall in the basement from the other side.He puts airpods in his ears to listen to Roger Miller’s “Dang Me,” carrying a dagger as he makes his way upstairs to Kristen’s bedroom.
It looks like Kristen is in the shower as he approaches, but she’s actually behind him with rope in her hands. She uses the element of surprise to get the cord around his neck, pulling with all her might as they fall to the ground. She grips him as tight as she can, her legs locking around his middle, and she doesn’t let up until Ben and David suddenly appear, telling her she can let go.
Leland’s not dead, and a spent Kristen wearily notes that he’ll just come back. “Let us take care of it,” Ben whispers. “But ourway,” David qualifies, “not his.” So they drag him to the silent retreat upstate and stuff him in the demonic cabinet,
Trivia
Leland dancing while Kristen walks towards the Devil Therapist.
- The music he pops up dancing to during David Acosta's hallucination in "N Is for Night Terrors" is "Funkytown" by Lipps Inc.
- Kristen is a firm believer that Leland has no real supernatural connections to anyone or anything. Instead she believes him to simply be a thief and insane. Her professional opinion is that Leland has extreme narcissism and Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD)[2] and that his talk of demons, possession and other-worldly beings is just a method of manipulation as well as a way of feeding his narcissism by making himself feel important or special. HPD is a condition in which those effected display excessive attention-seeking behaviors as their self-esteem rests on the approval of others rather than any real self-worth. Symptoms include but are not limited to; rapid emotional shifts, inappropriate seduction and flirtation, difficulty maintaining relationships, over sensitivity to criticism, narcissism, persistent lying and threatening suicide attempts.[3]
Episode Appearances
| Evil | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| Season 2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| Season 3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| Season 4 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| Season 5 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||||||||
| Key | ✔ (appears) · M (mention) · I (indirect mention) · P (photo) · F (flashback/vision) · H (hallucination) · B (body) · V (voice) · C (mid/post-credits scene) | ||||||||||||
Quotes
- "I don't work with losers."
- ―Leland Townsend[src]
.jpg "Leland Townsend (Season 2 Poster).jpg (1.13 MB)")
