Killing Eve‘s 4×02 “Don’t Get Eaten” clarifies something that we’ve been thinking about since “Just Dunk Me.” Eve fancies herself the villain now. She thinks of herself as the other. That’s why she’s so done with Villanelle. There’s nothing that Villanelle has to offer someone like Eve because she’s fallen head first into this mindset that she’s surpassed someone like the assassin. And it’s a truly dangerous mindset that doesn’t make sense because we never saw how she got here in the first place.
Then there’s the whole conversation about reinvention that Eve has with her therapist friend Martin (Adeel Akhtar). While Martin wants to help people, all Eve wants to do is use them for her benefit and to have will and power over others. Which, more power to you, but again, how did you get here? We’re getting sidetracked. Back to the therapist and the whole concept of reinvention.
Eve’s question about Villanelle is valid and shows that she has some interest in the woman she has left behind. That’s crystal. But it’s the reinvention bit that we can’t stop thinking about, and we don’t mean for Villanelle. What is this reinvention doing to Eve? Because this doesn’t feel like the self-assured, strong, and badass agent and woman that we’ve come to know over seasons of Killing Eve. This feels like a reinvention to run from her feelings and all the mistakes that she’s made in the past.
Or at least we’re hoping it means that because Killing Eve has us filling in our own blank spaces.
And then there’s the whole thing with Helene (Camille Cottin). Honestly, it feels like wasted time. Yes, we like to see two strong and questionable women have this back and forth that is dangerous and exhilarating. But we want that for Eve and Villanelle, not Eve and Helene. Seriously, what even was that? Because it reminded us of season 1 when Villanelle broke into Eve’s place and made her wear that dress. There was fear, tension, and a need to know more. And that’s not what we want. We want Villaneve, not whatever new ship this is.
We can’t talk Killing Eve without breaking down what’s happening on the Villanelle side of things. Because she’s hit a wall and knows it. In “Just Dunk Me” we were reintroduced to a new Villanelle. One that we have no idea how she got there, but new anyway. And Martin, the resident therapist on Killing Eve made us realize that Villanelle’s reinvention is her avoiding the things she’s done and packing it all away without confronting the bits of her that brought her to the kind of person she is in the first place.
It’s admirable that Villanelle tried. It’s also very human. Who hasn’t tried to wipe the slate clean and start fresh? This writer has tried to do that epically failed each time. Why? Because I wasn’t going for the root of the problem. And that’s what Villanelle needs to do. And her killing off the pastor and his daughter was her extreme way of doing just that. She tried something, it didn’t work, and instead of just letting it go and facing her demons, she slayed them as a way of freeing herself from having them and their words burrowing into her mind.
Extreme? Yes. Murder? Absolutely. A road to true self-growth on the horizon? Yup.
Personally, we have no idea where Villanelle goes from here. Well, we know a little bit because the trailer for 4×03 is up, but we don’t know what road she’s going to take to get to the point where she’s going to kill eve and fulfill what we’ve known from the start. And with only 8 episodes in this final season of Killing Eve, they better get moving and build a story that explains the bits missing because I’m tired of this show’s reinvention and how they’re avoiding the heart of this show: Villaneve, as twisted and wild as they may be.
Killing Eve airs Sundays at 8/7c on BBC America.
