Everything Evil

I’ve decided to do in-depth analysis’ of all of Coheed and Cambria’s studio tracks in chronological order so that myself and others might have a better idea of the story line of the universe and how the songs and the comics connect to each other.

I'm going to give a line-by-line (omitting repeated lines) of my interpretation of each song and explain how it corresponds to the comics.

"Everything Evil"

Everything Evil is one of the most confusing tracks by Coheed and Cambria to analyze and there are many versions of how it coincides with the story. This interpretation is my own personal version of how I think it coincides with the comics and the overall story. Much of the song is actually speculation by two FBI investigators who are trying to find out what happened at the Kilgannon house the next day. In the comic book (volume II, issue #2), one of them actually guesses very correctly, though they are only involved in one verse in the song, In a very Quentin Tarantino-esque move, the verse in which the investigators speak is actually a flash forward. In relation to the whole of the story at this point, their scene are happening the during next day and won’t be in the present until the latter half of the album. The parts they don’t understand and thus don’t speak during (the beginning and the end) are told in present-tense directly by the characters as the events happen.

The primary structure of the song is broken into two parts and deals with two separate events; General May Deftinwolf’s assault upon and capture of Coheed and Cambria Kilgannon and then Claudio finding the body of his dead sister Josephine and the Onstantine Priest finding him, respectively. At the start of the song, Mayo and his Red Army are outside the Kilgannon house, waiting for the deadline to run out and to see if the Kilgannon’s finished killing all four of their children. The first part of the song is told from his point of view, much of it being internal monologue. It’s safe to assume that Mayo saw Josephine enter the house while Patrick hesitates by his car after driving Josie home. Mayo then sees Patrick run inside to apologize and explain and then immediately run out of the house screaming in a panic. At this point, Mayo begins speaking, both to his subordinates and his quarry. This is where the song begins.

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“Wait for… Everything evil in you comes out.” - (Mayo, rhetorically speaking to Coheed, is urging Coheed to wait and be patient a while longer, as he will see the Beast within revealed soon enough.>

”I'll stay when we'll only motivate sound instead, Sergeant.” - (Mayo tells one of his sergeants that he will not wait any longer [stay] while there’s prey to capture and taunt [motivate] and that the only way he would stay still is if the house was empty and silent.)

”Make for the table...” - (I assume this is Mayo telling his men to grab their weapons and gear off the supply table in the van.)

”In hopes that I won't be afraid again.” - (This seems to be Mayo speaking to himself, trying to calm himself with the reminder that he will be armed and so will his men. It is revealed in the comics that when Mayo first meets Coheed after work and tells him about the virus and what must me done, Coheed gets angry and begins punching Mayo, revealing him [Mayo] to be a cyborg with the skin on the left side of his head and face missing. Perhaps the previous incident frightened Mayo more than he let on and is trying to calm himself before confronting Coheed again.)

”Call when enabled.” - (Essentially can be read as Mayo saying “tell me when you’re ready” to his troops.)

”And send the leader out against...” - (Mayo orders the leader of the squad to start moving toward the house and against whatever may wait inside. Mayo follows a few seconds later.)

”I will Stage a reenactment in a false pretense.” - (As he walks toward the house, Mayo reflects on his plan of action. He intends continue the ruse of needing the children eliminated for the safety of the Keywork, which we know is a lie.)

”Exist: inflict Unworthy unconsciousness.” - (Mayo reminds his men that the reason that the reason they are at the house is to capture Coheed and Cambria alive, which means forcefully inflicting unconsciousness if necessary.)

“Why debate when the actions suppressed?” – (Mayo has met Coheed and Cambria in their house and has begun to detain them. Coheed voices his concerns and guilt about killing Maria, Matthew and Josephine, and his reluctance to kill Claudio or tell Mayo where Claudio is. Mayo reminds Coheed that he’s already killed three of his children and that his actions have ensured that their lives have been suppressed and can’t be brought back. Since he’s already killed three of them, why not just go ahead and kill Claudio and get it over with instead of debating with himself.)

”Then kill the acquitted.” - (Coheed probably acknowledges that what Mayo says makes some sense, but before he can voice his continued doubts, Mayo says “Then kill the boy”, referring to Claudio who is still free and innocent and thus acquitted from the guilt of his parents.)

”Listen to the sounds that remain in question In hopes to solidify a truce.” - (Cambria reaches into Mayo’s mind and realizes that Mayo has no intentions of letting Claudio go or making his death easy and instead intends to hunt him down and kill him mercilessly. Cambria begins to beg Mayo to have mercy, to try and find some kind of compromise or agreement, but Mayo just ignores her and tunes out her pleas. Cambria also see’s that Mayo knew the children were all innocent and mentally conveys this to Claudio, who begins to become enraged, as shown soon.)

”Amongst the children, and the jury that stands the verdict; alive Here among the dead” - (This is either spoken by Mayo to Coheed and Cambria as a taunt or it could be another internal monologue. I personally interpret it as being spoken to Coheed in order to remind him where they are: the parents on trial with the Red Army and Mayo as the jury, all of them alive in the house where Coheed’s dead children still lie.)

”Evolve Monstar! Show me the things that I've never wanted done.” - (At this point, Coheed begins going berserk and starts to transform into the Beast. Cambria, seeing this as a possibility for both vengeance and escape, urges him to continue to evolve into the Monstar so that he may inflict vengeance upon Mayo, despite the fact she never wanted bloodshed before now.)

”Evolve Monstar! Do to me the things I never wanted done...” - (This line belongs to Coheed who, seeing what is happening to him and the power this transformation affords him, encourages the virus in his body to transform him into the Beast so that he can avenged his dead children. Neither he nor his wife fully understand yet that it is Coheed’s own body, not the virus, that is causing this transformation.)

”I... I felt much better than this before.” - (As Mayo defeats Coheed and detains him and Cambria. As the sedative begins to set in, Cambria thinks about what a horrible day it has been and how she was so much happier the days before all this happened.)

”If they find out to avoid Then the accident’s kept hidden away But if they stay...” - (As she begins to fall asleep, Cambria hopes that Claudio, who is out on a date with Newo, is smart enough to see that something is wrong at home and to stay away. If they find out something is wrong and know to avoid, they might not learn of what has happened and be able to escape. But if they stay on schedule and on course and Claudio comes home…[she’s falls unconscious before finishing].)

{begin flash forward} ”Blood hungry, cannibalistic unfit family ties” - (One of the inspectors, reading the file on Coheed and Cambria, muses on their history as being part of the K.B.I. and the virus that has infected that the whole family is infected with. ‘Blood hungry’ refers to Coheed and Cambria’s history of killing during their time with the K.B.I. and “cannibalistic unfit family ties’ is a reference to the virus that connects all the members of the Kilgannon family and was the cause of the family’s assumed demise.”

”In a series of knocks To the young girl's head side.” - (Knowing that the twins were poisoned with a very rare and volatile chemical, one of the inspector hypothesizes that Coheed, not wanting Josephine to suffer like the twins did, decided to kill Josephine quickly and hit her from behind in the head with the hammer.”

“Come write me a letter and paste it on my refrigerator door” - (It has been theorized that as they were leaving, Mayo had one of his mean forge a confession note that incriminates Coheed in going insane, slaughtering his children, kidnapping Cambria and running away. Mayo had the note posted in the refrigerator so whoever came to the scene could see it. In the line, one of the inspectors notices the note and ponders the convenience of such a letter.)

”Inspected; inspector, I think we've found something over here.” - (The investigator who found the note inspects it and then calls his partner over to see it for the piece of evidence it is.) {end flash forward}

”I... I felt much better than this before. If they find out to avoid Then the accidents kept hidden away But if they stay...” - (This could be Josephine’s either ghost, recently risen but slow to move on, or it could be Josephine herself and she’s regained consciousness but can’t move and is dying fast. Either way, this line is her pretty much mirroring Cambria’s thoughts. My reasoning for believing this is her is revealed below)

”Jesse! Just come look at what your brother did! Here He did away with me.” - (At some point during his time as her father, Coheed had to mention having a brother named Jesse. Even though he had no direct memories of Jesse, he did know of Jesse and know that they were brothers, perhaps even having a photo of him to back up the validity of his implanted memories. So it’s safe to say Coheed’s children know of Jesse being Coheed’s brother. Josephine never learned of the virus or the perceived necessity of killing her and the twins, so she’s very likely extremely upset and angry at being killed by her own father. She may not have risen in time to see her parents get taken down and hauled away, as we do not know how long of a time gap happened between then and now. At this point, she’s probably still stuck inside her dying body, fuming over her death and basically addressing Jesse in order to accuse her father and express her anger at him.)

”Stay until Wednesday, And write me a child-like letter, pretending. At war here in Thursday. Let's make this our last day at home by the fence.” - (There is a massive amount of debate on what this section of the song is about, but my personal opinion is that Claudio finds Josephine on the floor and when he reaches out and touches her, she’s still just barely alive. He begins asking her to tell him what happened but she can barely speak. As she tries to tell him about the Devils and Patrick, all she can think about is how she wishes he could stay with her until the dawn of Wednesday [it’s inferred that all this happens during Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning] and how he could write her a letter letting her know it was all a dream and that come Thursday, they could all be back warring with each other like any other siblings. She wishes that she could stay alive for at least a day longer; to have just one day alive at home within Heaven’s Fence.)

”Would you run? Would you run? Would you run down past the fence? Would you run? Would you run? Would you run down past the fence?” - (As she continues drifting in and out of thought, she begins thinking of Patrick, who ran away at seeing her killed and is still on the run. She looks up at Claudio and thinks she’s speaking aloud when she asks him if he’ll run away like Patrick to the ends of the world and beyond the horizon [the fence].)

[Screamed in the background] “F.B.I.!” - (This is actually Patrick, still on the run, looking for help and calling out to the authorities. F.B.I. is mainly just a term used to generalize any police force or force of authority in the world of the Amory Wars.)

{finale verse} ”And she screamed, Claudio! Dear Claudio!” - (Josephine, on the edge of death, see’s an Onstantine Priest (an enslaved and corrupted Mage) creeping up behind Claudio. She draws all the breath and tries to scream for Claudio to run. But her scream only comes out as a whisper and as he sees the Priest, she says “Claudio! Dear Claudio!”.)

”I wish, God damn it, we'll make it if you believe!” - (As Claudio runs and Josephine heads toward death, she thinks of how strong Claudio can be and of his potential and tries to tell him as he runs away that she believes in him and that ‘we’, being Man [humanity as a whole], will make it if only he can believe in himself.) {finale verse repeats and fades}

As the song ends, Josephine’s final words repeat and fade out and segue into a signature piano refrain that is essentially used throughout the albums to signify an indeterminate passing of time. I see this as symbolizing Josephine’s final passing and her becoming part of the Keywork peaceably as opposed to forcibly, as Ryan’s victims usually do. At the end of the song, Coheed and Cambria are in Mayo’s custody, Josephine and the twins are dead, Claudio is on the run from the Onstantine Priest and Patrick is on the run from Coheed, who he thinks is a murderer.