Killing Eve‘s 4×05 “Don’t Get Attached” is the first time in season 4 that we actually like Eve and want to see her and Villanelle working out. If you’ve read our previous review, like “It’s Agony and I’m Ravenous,” this is absolutely shocking.
Trust us, we feel it too; an utter shock that we felt for a moment what we’ve felt for years before this season came along. Because yes, this season is still a dumpster fire. But maybe the fire can be put out last minute in the same way that Eve actually came back to herself in the last couple of minutes of this episode. Just maybe.
And look, we love Villanelle and how she’s trying to do some good by unaliving abusive men. And no, we don’t want harm to come to her in any way, shape, or form. Even if it’s to “wake up” Eve from this persona that she has created for herself that she’s the scorpion or that Villanelle is a bother. But we would’ve done the same thing if we were in Helene’s shoes and we wouldn’t hesitate for a second to retaliate.
Eve kidnapped a child and brought her to another country without her mother’s permission in Killing Eve 4×05. Any parent would look at something like that and go, “Hell, no. I’m taking this fucker down.” So Helene did that. Helene acted like nothing was wrong, lured in her prey with pleasantries that stroked Eve’s ego because finally, someone was falling for the act. And then Helene struck, proving to herself, to Eve, and to the audience that this “scorpion” can break.
There’s no doubt in our minds that Helene would’ve kept Eve at her side if she didn’t care for Villanelle and just watched her die. But Helene also found pleasure in Eve’s pain because she realized she was right. Eve has fashioned herself a fortress (for a reason we don’t know and that is still a problem) and pushed Villanelle aside to get to her goal. And maybe a part of her believed her own ruse.
But when it came down to it, when the cards were laid all out, Eve snapped back into place. And it felt great. Maybe not for Eve or Villanelle, the latter just being shot with an arrow. But it felt great for us, the viewer, to see the show that we had fallen in love with in the first three seasons. That is our Eve. Fierce, protective, kind, and slightly unhinged. That’s the woman that we have been missing since season 4 started. And the only way that this show is going to end well, is if Killing Eve remembers that and stops trying to reinvent itself.
So, get on with it. Because for the first time in this entire season, we want to see more and aren’t just watching things to see how it all ends. Now I want to know how it ends.
Killing Eve airs Sundays at 8/7c on BBC America.
