I am 15 years old, and have been an avid fan of your show “Night Stalker” ever since it came out in 2005. I was thoroughly disappointed when the show was cancelled so early into its existence, so I was very pleased when the DVD came out with its four bonus episodes. I watched them, enjoyed them, and put the DVD away, never expecting to watch it again.
A few days ago, for some odd reason, I began thinking about “Night Stalker” again, so I pulled out my DVD, watched all the episodes again, and then watched the deleted scenes, the episodes with commentary, and then, hungry for more, I printed and then read both manuscripts (“The ‘M’ Word” was pure brilliance!).
After listening to the commentaries, and reading interviews with you on the Internet concerning the mythology of the show, many of my questions were answered, but certainly not all of them. When you say that Kolchak has the mark of evil on his wrist, and it turns out that he’s been doing evil’s work throughout the show, I do not see how this is possible.
In the pilot episode, Kolchak learns that Emily Gale, killed by the hell hounds in the beginning of the episode, does not have the mark on her wrist, unlike his wife, who did have the mark (because she was supernaturally good and was killed by a force of evil). He takes this to mean that their deaths are not so similar after all, but still goes searching for the missing Julie Medlock. That does not seem evil to me, and he was not doing this for selfish reasons.
Another example is in the episode “Ascendant,” when Carl and Perri wait outside the Cawley house just in case the gloved man does appear and tries to kill Erik or George. Carl did not do this for selfish reasons either. He was simply trying to prevent the death of someone innocent. Examples like this occur throughout the twelve episodes.
I know you said in one of your interviews that Carl appears to be doing good things because his actions have positive results, but that he’s doing good things for evil reasons, but his motives do not appear to be evil at all in most cases. I’ll admit that he does have an awfully big ego and quite occasionally acts in selfish ways, but he does a lot of good things for apparently the right reasons. Even when it is discovered in “The Sea” that Kolchak has a connection with evil when the bikers do not kill him because of his mark, that discovery is made because Kolchak was sacrificing himself so Reed and Caleca could get away.
I’m just having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that Kolchak is evil. When the man from the pilot episode with the mark tells Kolchak that the mark is that of the good, Kolchak believes him because he thinks he’s doing good things. Kolchak later discovers that the exact opposite is true, but does that encourage him to become all out evil, or to try to fight his destiny and be good?
I also have some easier questions that I am wondering about.
1) Did hell hounds kill Irene Kolchak?
2) You say that the bikers represent the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Why do they kill Morales and his men, Richard Walton, Victor Caleca, and attempt to kill Linda Caleca? What exactly is their purpose?
3) In the episode “What’s the Frequency, Kolchak?” you said in an interview that this episode “gives you another piece of the mythology”, although I hardly understood what actually took place in it. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but the ending had me scratching my head. Could you explain to me exactly what happens and what doesn’t really happen at the end of this episode? And what does Carl mean when he says at the very end to Perri that he did have the answer, but it didn’t come from him, and when Perri asks him who it did come from, he says nothing? Could you please explain to me the mythology behind this episode?
Thank you so much for reading this painfully long email. I am such a huge fan of all your work, and I wish you good luck throughout the rest of your career.
David
Charlotte, NC

Sorry for the delay in replying to your e-mail, David, but you ask a lot of good questions and I want to give the thorough answers they deserve.
You’re right in saying that Carl does a number of things that clearly are not “evil.” In fact, in both “The Sea” and “What’s the Frequency, Kolchak?” he is deeply shaken by the thought that he may in some way be connected to evil. That’s what Kolchak means when he says, “He kept telling me I sent him messages in my stories. That I had his answer. And he was right — I did. But it didn’t come from me.” He means those messages in his news stories came from the “old man,” which was another way of saying the devil.
What I wanted to explore in “Night Stalker” was the nature of evil — could people who are in many ways well-meaning and “good,” in fact be serving a higher purpose that is evil? Or, put another way, could it be that while many of us intend and do good in many ways, in the larger scheme of things we are destined to do great evil, without meaning or intending to? My belief is that many, if not most, evil acts throughout human history are committed by people who not only were “good” in many other respects, but who in fact thought they were serving good when they did the opposite.
My idea was that Kolchak was predetermined to serve evil purposes. He wasn’t aware of this during the episodes we produced, but was slowly beginning to suspect it. When he finally did become aware of it later in the series (in the episodes we never got to make), my intention was for him to be tortured by the thought. Kolchak desperately wanted to be good, and was afraid he was, in fact, guilty of the murder of his wife. (He wasn’t, but he unwittingly helped lead her to her death. The hell hounds and bikers were responsible for her death.) The series would ultimately question whether Kolchak — or any of us — has free will, the ability to change personal destiny.
Just as we were going to find out those bearing the mark of Cain (like Kolchak) were predestined to serve evil, we would’ve learned eventually that Irene Kolchak, Julie Medlock, Linda Caleca and others were predestined to serve good. The devil’s servants were hunting them down, trying to destroy them. The idea was that once enough people serving good were destroyed, the forces of evil would dominate the earth. And Kolchak was an unwitting player in that cause.
Hope that helps, David, and thanks for your patience.