The Killing Eve season 2 finale is finally here! Episode 2×08, “You’re Mine,” forces Eve to finally pick a side, and hints at a family secret.
In the seventh episode of season 2, Eve lost all measure of sanity and slept with Hugo with Villanelle in her ear. Villanelle’s undercover project with Aaron Peel got weirder and weirder as his voyeuristic tendencies came to light, and Carolyn was adamant about one thing: Under no circumstances should anyone kill Aaron Peel.
The second season comes to an end with “You’re Mine,” an episode that takes place in a very short span of time, with only a handful of locations — but covers a lot of ground. What a way to end the show!
Ready for the Killing Eve season 2 finale? I’m not. I’m craving season 3 already.
Two killers walk into a bar…
Villanelle wakes up one morning and sneaks into Aaron’s bedroom to find out what we all feared — not only is he a voyeuristic creep who watches his guests, but he’s also a serial killer and this nice stay in Hotel Peel is going to end in bloody murder.
However, Villanelle’s reaction is much different than a normal person’s: she’s delighted and a little intrigued. Finally, a worthy opponent.
Except the fun gets cut short at breakfast, when Villanelle gets a peek at who Aaron is about to have over: Raymond, the Twelve’s terrifying henchman and her ex-manager. This isn’t what she signed up for. She says the safeword.
But what are the odds that Raymond, of all people, would end up in Rome at this particular house at this particular time? I smell conspiracy.
Cleanup commences
Eve is fully refreshed and at her most despicable after using Hugo for a physical embodiment of her obsession with Villanelle. But after she’s a jerk while he’s actually trying to treat her nicely (maybe I didn’t give him enough credit), Eve hears the safeword and all hell breaks loose.
She springs to action, but then there’s a gunshot. She flounders for a moment but finally hides under the bed… and the most incompetent henchman in the world doesn’t think to look there, so she’s safe. Hmm, convenient. Are these Raymond’s men? Because Aaron certainly doesn’t know that any of this is happening.
Eve now has only one priority: secure Villanelle. And the priority is so overwhelming that she leaves Hugo bleeding in the hallway, screaming her name. At least he died doing what he loved best…?
Carolyn did say that if anything went wrong, Eve and Villanelle were on their own, so Eve uses her best acting skills to pretend to be a clerk for a flirty henchman (I love how everyone in this show is uncontrollably attracted to Eve)… and then a Korean-speaking maid for Peel’s palace. Killing Eve is so good at languages.
I thought Eve had a cool plan B to incapacitate Peel and extract Villanelle, but… no. Her strategy is to burst into the dining room like some kind of one-woman army, and… stare Aaron down?
Awkward.
The worst breakfast ever
One more breakfast for the list, and it’s a weird one. Villanelle immediately acts like she didn’t mean to use the safeword, but Villanelle is too smart to make a mistake like this — and we saw how disturbed she was when she saw the picture. Why is she bluffing?
Also, how did this even happen? If the henchmen knew about Eve, how did they not know about Villanelle? How could this be so perfectly orchestrated to leave Eve in such a terrible position? Is Carolyn purposefully trying to get Eve killed? Or is she trying to get Villanelle killed, and in so doing, radicalize Eve?
(It turns out that it isn’t quite as complicated, but equally messed up.)
Aaron recognizes Eve and quickly connects the dots. He also gets who Villanelle is… and his conclusion is unexpected.
“Come work for me.”
It’s very, very similar to Eve and Villanelle’s conversation some episodes ago, during their date. “Will you give me everything I want?” Villanelle asks Aaron this, contemplating a future making “movies” with him. It would be an awesome lifestyle for Villanelle — if it didn’t come with an insufferable egotist.
Her job interview is to kill Eve. Oh, Aaron… if only you knew.
“Do you think I would kill you, Eve?”
“Yes.”
I love this scene, because it shows us exactly where these two characters stand. Despite everything that has happened, Eve still isn’t sure of what Villanelle is capable of, because Villanelle has kept her guessing. There’s fear — but also trust because otherwise Eve wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.
Eve’s trust is well-placed, it turns out, because Villanelle kills Aaron, all the while letting him watch his own murder. It’s a testament to Henry Lloyd-Hughes’ acting that he manages to look turned on and dying at the same time.
Eve watches, transfixed, as Villanelle finally carries out one of her dramatic murders in front of her.
Runaways
Eve panics, and Villanelle is having the time of her life.
“Why did I come here?”
“Because you wanted to save me.”
But Eve starts to question a lot more than only how she got into this particular pickle. Her mind is racing, and I can’t help but wonder if her thoughts turn back home, to Niko, to Bill and to Kenny… people she’s lost along the way because of Villanelle, and forgotten about because of Villanelle.
Villanelle slaps her out of it, and maybe I should feel bad but it made me laugh out loud. Sorry, Eve. She cushions the blow by telling her that she looks cute.
They decide to run away together, because they have nowhere else to go (according to Villanelle). Eve will go to the hotel, and Villanelle will steal a car and wait for her outside.
But the process in Eve’s head has already been set off. She still has drive — it just needs to decide on a direction. Eve needs to make a choice, and she needs to make it now.
Oh, and in passing, Villanelle says: “If I get shot, I want you to remember that it is your fault.” I want to think it was a joke, but it’s a little bit too much like foreshadowing to me.
I was right all along!
I knew it, guys! Carolyn makes a surprise-but-not-that-surprising visit at the hotel, which has mysteriously been cleaned up — Hugo and all. In the face of Eve’s panic, Carolyn is calm, collected… even satisfied. Aaron Peel is dead — and that’s what she intended to happen all along.
Eve finally realizes that she’s been manipulated into becoming an accessory to assassination, and that Villanelle is being used as a scapegoat so MI6 can stay squeaky clean. And oh, that thing Kenny wanted to tell her? He knew exactly what was going on.
Eve should have listened to literally everyone except Carolyn.
Meanwhile, outside, Villanelle finds a car. But Konstantin is waiting to persuade her to abandon Eve for her own protection.
Villanelle gets what’s going on immediately, and she’s just as horrified as Eve. Worst of all, Konstantin — who swore to keep her safe — has manipulated her into an even more dangerous position, and she’s now in danger of being killed by Raymond. She’s stunned. But Konstantin knows his ultimate priority: to be reunited with his family.
“You’d choose your family over me?”
“That’s what families are. It’s what they do.”
“I wouldn’t know; mine are all dead.”
“Most of them, sure.”
“What do you mean, most of them?”
Okay, WHAT?! Is this a season 3 setup? Does Villanelle have a parent or sibling still living, who the Twelve have been hiding, or who has stayed away on purpose? How would this change things for Villanelle, who has based her entire personality on being a loner?
At the moment, Villanelle seems incapable of processing Konstantin’s hints. Maybe she doesn’t want to. She threatens him, but he’s confident that she’ll never find him or his family. He still doesn’t understand: Why is Villanelle so attached to Eve?
“We are the same.”
These two tragic lovers are also all over the place, but I love them to death.
The girlfriends team up at last
Free from Konstantin, Villanelle risks everything and returns to the hotel for Eve. But someone is waiting for her: Raymond — with his handy ol’ axe. (Who does this man work for, anyway? Is it really the Twelve?)
After an awkward admission that his own children are ugly, Raymond and Villanelle get locked in a bloody fight, grappling for the axe. It’s an amazingly choreographed, brutally messy fight that’s very reminiscent of Villanelle’s fight with Julius earlier this season. This time, though, she’s in a much better state than she was after her stabbing, so we finally get to see what she can do.
Unfortunately, she’s evenly matched. Raymond is a formidable opponent and he finally traps her. But he’s forgotten the axe — and over his shoulder, Eve emerges and picks it up.
At this point, it becomes clear that the Twelve, or Konstantin-Carolyn, or MI6, or someone has orchestrated all of this to push Eve to kill, regardless of Villanelle’s own interests. It’s just too convenient. Between Villanelle’s bloodthirst, Eve’s desperation and the horror of the scene, circumstances force Eve to make a choice to save Villanelle and herself — and she finally attacks him, while Villanelle holds him execution-style and watches in fascination.
Eve is too far gone now.
Commitment issues
Still shell-shocked, Eve follows Villanelle through the streets and down a series of tunnels, haunted by what she’s just done. Villanelle, on the other hand, can only think about how proud she is that Eve killed her first person… and with an axe! To her, this is the perfect date: a tour of historic Rome after a perfectly dramatic murder, with the woman of her dreams. She speaks happily about their future as runaways, killing whoever they want, living a domestic life together — well, as domestic as either of them could bear it to be.
But Eve stays quiet. She’s still in shock. That is, until she spots Villanelle casually holding a gun — a gun she had on her the whole time. Which means that Villanelle let Eve kill someone with an axe, rather than saving her from the experience and killing Raymond with the gun herself.
It’s at this moment that Eve finally realizes where she is, what she’s done, and what she’s about to do if she goes along with Villanelle’s plan. She realizes that, although she’s already too far gone, she doesn’t want to keep going.
And this, more than anything Eve could have done, breaks Villanelle’s heart. Because Villanelle thought she and Eve were the same — that they were “special,” together. It’s the ultimate betrayal, far beyond what anyone else has done to her.
“You love me.”
“No.”
“I love you.”
“No.”
“I do!”
“You don’t understand what that is.”
“I do. You’re mine.”
“No.”
“You are! You’re mine! Eve? I thought you were special.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint.”
Remember what Konstantin said, about what Villanelle does to the people she loves? Like in the last season finale, someone Villanelle loves gets shot.
Villanelle shoots Eve, who falls to the ground. Villanelle can’t stand to see her alive if she can’t love her — if Villanelle can’t have her.
And so, season 2 of Killing Eve comes to an end.
This is such a great twist for the Killing Eve season 2 finale. While we hardly think that Eve will be dead because of this (what kind of idiot would kill off Sandra Oh?), season 3 will start off as the exact opposite of the start of season 2: this time it’s Eve dealing with the aftermath of nearly being murdered, and Villanelle dealing with conflicted feelings about it.
There are so many questions that need to be answered. Who was actually behind all of this? Who actually shot Hugo, and brought Raymond to Rome? Who is behind Carolyn and Konstantin?
Will Eve run back to her former life and try to put all the pieces back, or will she start afresh? Will MI6 take her back? And how will Niko react to his wife nearly being killed by the same woman who actually killed his best friend (almost-lover)?
And what does Villanelle become after her heart has been broken, and she’s been betrayed by everyone she trusted? What will she do?
Does she really have a living family member she doesn’t know about?
It’s the end for now, but Killing Eve has been renewed for season 3 by BBC America, this time with a new showrunner: Suzanne Heathcote. So there’s much more to come.
See you sometime next year (hopefully), for season 3 of Killing Eve!