They started out as cat and mouse, but the chase spiraled out of control. How have Eve and Villanelle changed? And after the Killing Eve season finale, what’s next for television’s most complicated ship?
Just like that, the first season of Killing Eve is over, and our Sundays will no longer be full of excitement, great humor and problematic faves. The season finale left us reeling from just how well-executed it was, shocking us at every turn and taking us to a very unexpected place.
Spoilers for the Killing Eve season finale below.
After an entire season of Eve doing her utmost to track down a killer that she not only has come to be terrified of, but is also powerfully attracted to, Eve and Villanelle finally came face to face alone for a second time — this time, on much more even footing.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge has said “Every moment in this show exists so these two women can end up alone in a room together.” And it really felt like that, with the two women continuously circling each other, dropping messages meant for the other here and there. The final scene, which placed them both in bed with each other, finally admitting their feelings of attraction, insecurity… and revenge (in a painful twist!) was the perfect way to end the show.
From the moment these two met, there was a powerful attraction between them — even before each one knew who the other was. Eve famously remembers her kind of like a painter envisions a work of art:
“Her hair is dark blonde, maybe honey? It was tied back. She was slim, about 25, 26. She had very delicate features … her eyes are sort of cat-like. Wide, but alert. Her lips are full, she has a long neck, high cheekbones. Her skin is smooth and bright … she had a lost look in her eye, that was both direct and also chilling. She’s totally focused, yet almost entirely inaccessible.”
It’s the first time we get a hint that Eve might be attracted to women as well; or at least, specifically to Villanelle. It’s something she doesn’t even seem to notice or really come to terms with at the start of the show.
Villanelle, on the other hand, recognizes her own attraction instantly, because it’s such a mirror of her relationship with Anna. It appears that she’s gotten some form of therapy in the aftermath of what happened with Anna, and with her penchant for older women with wavy black hair, Eve is a natural obsession. She feeds it, using other women to satisfy her fantasies about Eve, and when Eve is nearby, she reaches out.
But Eve’s moment of acceptance takes much longer, and it’s only after Bill’s death that her attraction solidifies into something stronger. Up to that point, Villanelle has been an idea she entertained herself with; now, she became a driving force in her life. Eve harnesses her attraction and turns it into a tool for her revenge: the ultimate combination.
Clueless as to how her killing Bill has impacted Eve emotionally, Villanelle seems to think of Eve as a kind of side-show to the main aspect of her life: killing the people she’s instructed to kill, and getting leverage over Konstantin. She might not even really intend to pursue Eve properly; the chase is just a kind of amusing pastime.
But Eve feeds her own obsession, becoming more and more impulsive — yet thankfully retaining her wits — and even going as far as forsaking both her husband and her job. Her life has boiled down to Villanelle only.
It’s only when Eve starts to use Villanelle’s own strategies against her (Sorry, Baby) that Villanelle finally starts to take her seriously. But she still thinks she has the emotional upper hand: Eve’s attraction has started to shine through, and though Villanelle is very open about her sexuality, she doesn’t think that Eve has the ability to do the same and continue to do her job properly.
But right when Villanelle is at her most confident, and has Eve cornered and admitting her feelings for her — in the eyes of someone like Villanelle, who is so careful about guarding her own insecurities, the ultimate admission of weakness — and Villanelle finally allows herself to let her guard down completely… Eve stabs her.
Villanelle has never been this vulnerable on the show before. As much as she cared for Konstantin and Anna, she never let her guard down for a moment. In fact, she killed them (or at least attempted to — Anna took her own life, in the end, and I find it hard to believe that Konstantin is actually dead) because they were evidence of her weakness. The fact that Eve has seen the part of her that was willing to put aside the gun and go in for a kiss is deadly — both for Villanelle’s own concept of herself, and maybe for Eve.
Right after this is the first time Villanelle shoots at Eve, aiming to kill. She might have been dangerous at the start of the show, but as season two begins, she’ll be at her most unpredictable yet. Why is the show called Killing Eve? Is that what Villanelle will be trying to do next season?
On the other hand, Eve has finally proved herself a formidable adversary, which is something Villanelle has never had. And Eve, being so confident in her own feelings, now has the emotional upper hand. But she wasn’t able to kill Villanelle, and she didn’t want to, either.
Now, without a job, possibly without a husband, and nursing intense affection — because it’s affection, now — for someone who is probably going to really try to kill her this time, season two is going to be a crazy ride for everyone involved.
Killing Eve has perfected the art of a problematic romance (as Villanelle would say, “You know we’ve never had sex? Weird, huh?”), and done an excellent job of raising the stakes for a second season in a totally unpredictable way. In the meantime, we’ll have to survive the wait by rewatching that season finale and all its incredible moments.
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