Killing Eve (via BBC)
BBC’s dark comedy-thriller Killing Eve is back and Getintothis’ Mia Hind catches up on everything that’s happened so far, be warned, there are spoilers for season 2 and episodes 1-3 of season 3.
Killing Eve has finally returned, two weeks earlier than planned thanks to Coronavirus, and oh how we need something so engaging and entertaining as our world seems to plunder further and further into chaos.
Now three episodes in, we’ve been catching up with the lives of everybody’s favourite psychopath assassin and MI6 agent, Villanelle (Jodie Comer) and Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh).
As you can imagine, a lot has happened.
Getting shot and left for dead has obviously sent Eve running for the hills, as far away from her previous life to New Malden, where Eve now works in a Korean restaurant kitchen while her husband Nico appears to be in a rehab facility. Does her spy-free life last?
Not really, as she’s soon dragged back in.
In contrast, the extravagant Villanelle is in the middle of getting married in Spain. Even as her new bride watches in concern as she muses about how much happier she is now her ex is dead, she remains unphased.
At least, until a familiar face shows up, her former trainer Dasha (Dame Harriet Walter), and all hell breaks loose. As Dasha and Villanelle start trying to tear chunks out of each other, the rest of the wedding party begins to follow suit. Her poor wife is mortified.
By episode three, however, she has returned to London and her mind is very much back on Eve. And what of the formidable MI6 boss Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) and her son Kenny (Sean Delaney)?
Their relationship seems to have deteriorated since Kenny also left MI6 to work for investigative website Bitter Pill, at least until he meets a sticky end in the first episode. As much as she tries to stay the stoic leader we’ve always known, even Carolyn begins to crack.
It’s incredibly humanising.
Overall, though the first couple of episodes were slow in terms of the fast-paced action we’ve become accustomed to, it’s allowed for plenty of character development and growth.
Part of the beauty of Killing Eve is how morally-grey many – if not all – of its characters are. This provides a great springboard for episode three and beyond, when they all begin to mix with each other again.
There has been so much to love already but read below the fold to see some of our favourite parts.
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Dasha
Dame Harriet Walters’ chain-smoking former gymnast-turned-assassin Dasha has been a welcomed addition to the show. When she first appears at Villanelle’s wedding, her relationship with her is clouded in mystery, who is she? Why has she turned up unannounced?
And what has happened previously to provoke such an intense reaction?
The relationship between Villanelle and Dasha is somewhere between bitter rivals and mother and daughter, there are great moments of tension between the two as well as some much-needed levity – often involving the one putting the other down.
That explains a lot. #KillingEve pic.twitter.com/jbWgHt6rJj
— AMC Networks (@AMC_TV) April 20, 2020
A great moment comes in episode three when Villanelle rescues a baby and the three of them are practising “character work” (Villanelle’s own words) that really highlights their dynamic and proves Dasha will only take so much of Villanelle’s outlandishness.
With Dasha offering Villanelle anything she wants if she returns to the Twelve as an assassin, it makes you wonder what both the Twelve and Dasha’s plans are.
Dasha admits that they will help her return to her much-missed homeland Russia if she manages to get Villanelle on board. Is that all? And to promise such a thing, the Twelve have big plans for their number-one assassin.
Dasha (via BBC America)
Fashion
Villanelle’s fashion sense has been universally acclaimed since the start of season one and season three continues to show that she plays by her own rules with fashion as much as she does everything else.
While it’s hard to beat that pink dress from season one (you know the one), there are still some great fashion moments:
Villanelle’s wedding look – via BBC America
Returning home in Spain – via BBC America
Manager Villanelle
Part of her deal with Dasha sees Villanelle demanding she be made a Keeper: a level of management within the Twelve, higher than Dasha herself and Villanelle’s previous handler, Konstantin.
This sees Villanelle take a manager-in-training role with new recruit Felix, with both guidance and warning from Dasha that management is hard.
Walk this way. #KillingEve pic.twitter.com/WFxv7srNlY
— Killing Eve (@KillingEve) April 23, 2020
This brings out some of the best in worst with her. When Felix begins to talk about his boyfriend, we see Villanelle soften as they both lament lost loves. And when Felix doesn’t follow their plan exactly?
Well, she reacts exactly how you would expect a highly-trained assassin to: by sealing the young man’s fate for him before somebody else finds them.
She tried, but like many of us who have worked in management, she hates it.
Villanelle with new recruit Felix (via BBC)
Mutual Obsession
The driving force for much of the first two seasons is Villanelle and Eve’s mutual obsession with one another.
Though it may fall to the wayside while we’re catching up with everybody else, by the time Villanelle returns to London in episode three it’s very much at the front of both of their minds.
Villanelle makes her feelings clear when she records a message for Eve in a bear: “I can’t stop thinking about you.”
This doesn’t quite work out in Villanelle’s favour when the two finally reunite on the top deck of a London bus when Eve uses her feelings against her to try and lose her.
Though perhaps Eve shouldn’t be so nonchalant, because the final few moments of episode three show that she can’t stop thinking about Villanelle either.
Either way, as toxic as the two are to each other, it’s fascinating and electrifying watching them continue to play cat and mouse, both women wanting the other to know they’re on each other’s minds while continuing to dance around it and each other.
Reunited (via BBC America)
The mystery
Although it was ruled a suicide, there may be more to Kenny’s death that meets the eye. Eve made that clear during his funeral, and his grieving mother Carolyn seems to agree with her.
Kenny’s work with MI6 along with his investigative work at Bitter Pill meant he likely had a lot of valuable information to hand.
What did Kenny know? Did somebody really want him dead? Who wanted Kenny dead? With Villanelle returning to London, it’s clear the Twelve are involved somehow.
The answer at this point of course is, nobody knows. Maybe it was suicide. We don’t know yet, but that’s the point.
thinking about villanelle climbing on top of eve just like that goodnight pic.twitter.com/KT02dNHtat
— j ♥ | *KE SPOILERS* (@villanevelle) April 27, 2020
The mystery of it all is what keeps us hooked, as it always has. The first few episodes of Killing Eve have set the scene and provided the groundwork everybody needs to move forward – now, the mystery really starts to unravel itself. Though knowing Killing Eve, there are likely to be plenty more questions along the way.
Episodes of Killing Eve premiere at 6am on Mondays on BBC iPlayer, with the episodes airing on BBC One the following Sunday.
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