SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Mayor of Kingstown Season 4, Episode 4.

Mayor of Kingstown may have let Evelyn Foley survive a car wreck, but fans of the Paramount+ show might not want to relax yet. The stunning events of Season 4, Episode 4 feel like the tip of the iceberg for Necar Zadegan’s character. The hard-charging prosecutor doesn’t seem to have many cards left to play.

Season 4, Episode 4, “Sins of Omission” saw Evelyn wreck her car after a stone was dropped on it from an overpass, smashing through her windshield. What made the incident flat-out disturbing was that Ian Ferguson was the one who committed the attack. Ian confessed to his partner Stevie that he was just trying to scare Evelyn, in an attempt to keep himself from ending up behind bars like Kyle McLusky. But as her scenes in the same episode showed, Evelyn was anything but scared. In fact, she was already trying to work from her hospital bed. And that will almost certainly mean more trouble.

The further Evelyn has moved away from the rest of the core characters, the harder it’s been to integrate her into Mayor of Kingstown‘s stories—simply because she’s on the opposite side of everyone else. There’s only so long she can threaten Ian with legal action or frustrate her ex-lover Mike McLusky. Season 4 feels like the tipping point for her subplot. Evelyn’s been talking about building a case against Ian and Robert Sawyer for awhile now; it either needs to happen or it’s going to start sounding hollow. And since it’s now clear that Evelyn won’t quit under any circumstances, that limits what the writers can do with her.

She can succeed in her effort to arrest Ian and/or Robert, but that would be a high hurdle for Mayor of Kingstown to clear. For one, it would burn the last of Evelyn’s remaining bridges. But from a writing point of view, it’s an even bigger challenge. At least with Kyle’s arrest, that led to a character arc for him (in the worst possible way). Putting either Ian or Robert behind bars would feel slightly repetitive, and potentially make the rest of the show harder to write since it would mean less of actors Hugh Dillon and Hamish Allan-Headley. Maybe Robert is expendable as he’s already hit rock bottom, but it’s hard to imagine Mayor of Kingstown without Ian out on the street. He’s too much of an ally for Mike and plays too much of a part in moving the plot along.

The other option is that something or someone else stops Evelyn’s investigation in its tracks. That could be anything from getting orders from her boss, to political pressure of some kind, or some other threat that has yet to emerge. Viewers also can’t rule out the possibility that Evelyn is hurt or killed another way. Ian may not have intended to harm her, but Mayor of Kingstown‘s most common method of writing out its characters has been death (see: Doug Carney). She could have a medical setback in the hospital, and that would also mean the end of her investigation, as nobody else would have the guts to pursue the cops like Evelyn does. Or, if the writers want to reach farther, Evelyn could get recruited to help in the Hobbs situation—since fans know she hates corruption—and end up targeted by the Colombians (again, see: Doug Carney). Because she’s alienated the other characters, Evelyn has no plot armor that requires her to survive.

Whatever happens, something significant has to change for Evelyn. She’s already at risk of becoming a stagnant character just because she’s so relentlessly focused. She has one goal and one plotline, and that plot is already stretching across two seasons. Plus, there’s a new wrinkle to consider: Necar Zadegan is now a series regular on the CBS drama CIA. Per Deadline, Zadegan was cast this week as the CIA Chief of Station—and while actors have juggled two TV shows before, being a lead on a network TV show with a higher episode count may limit her availability if Mayor of Kingstown gets renewed for Season 5 (which it absolutely should).

Season 4 was already filming before that casting news, so audiences likely won’t see any effect from that in Evelyn’s immediate story. But it does reinforce that her character has to move forward, and the whole car crash incident is a very big, shocking way to jolt her plotline. Here’s an out-there possibility: Mike doesn’t need to forgive Evelyn, but he does need to take down Hobbs, and she’s not the kind of character who is going to go down in a gunfight. She doesn’t get her hands dirty; she has other people who do that for her. And Hobbs is the kind of corrupt official Evelyn hates. What if Evelyn, despite all this bad blood, becomes Mike’s best option to take Hobbs down? Ian’s not going to like that, and that further increases the mounting pressure on Mike.

Plus, it throws Evelyn right into Mayor of Kingstown Season 4’s main storyline, and if she survives that could be her semi-redemption in the eyes of the group. Joining forces to deal with a common enemy might prompt everyone to find a better solution to their own problem. After all, Kyle needs to get out of prison somehow. Or if Evelyn does wind up on the wrong side of the Colombians, that would get rid of said legal problem but at a terrible cost that both Mike and Ian would have to live with. One way or another, Evelyn cannot spend the rest of Season 4 in a hospital bed. That’s not who she is, and that’s not what Mayor of Kingstown is either, so viewers should expect at least one more plot twist when it comes to Evelyn Foley.

Mayor of Kingstown streams Sundays on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Paramount+.

Article content is (c)2020-2025 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.