Killing Eve – Just Dunk Me

By: Kelly Kearney

After the season three finale left our favorite assassin/agent wives going their separate ways in that heart wrenching bridge goodbye, the will they/ won’t they love/kill each other ladies are back and they are more lethal than ever; or at least Eve is. After she tracks down Konstantin to find out the whereabouts of Villanelle’s boss and Twelve operative, Hélène, we get a peek at what is really going on with these two. Eve, like Carolyn, is out of MI6 but she is still freelance hunting the Twelve while convincing herself she’s over Villanelle while still tracking her every move. Also trying on a new life for size is the object of Eve’s obsession, Villanelle (who is now going by Nelle) and has thrown down with Jesus in search of the answers to life’s toughest questions from inside a baptismal font. Well, at least she’s trying to convince herself she’s on some new shiny new righteous path because the reality is this newfound religion is just to prove to Eve that she’s changed. It’s the assassin’s redemption arc and it’s all to earn the heart of her beloved. Too bad her beloved is on her own new path and this one seems filled with vengeance and, quite possibly, the blood of her enemies. These two-keep circling each other like a lioness and her prey. It’s just that they keep trading hats and can’t decide which one wants to be the hungry killer and which one has chosen to be the meal.

SOMEWHERE IN RUSSIA

We begin in the Russian countryside as a smartly dressed biker zips through the landscape disobeying all traffic laws and human safety, her own included, as she zips towards town. She parks on the steps of what can only be the local town hall, where outside we see the streets covered in flyers from the Mayoral race. The winner is Konstantin (Kim Bodnia), who took Carolyn’s advice and ran from the Twelve as well as the blasty end of her gun. With another gun drawn and her helmet still on, the biker forces her way inside the building until she finds her target getting a head message from his secretary. The woman takes one look at the armed assailant and quickly leaves the ridiculous massaging device on Konstantin’s head and takes off before she’s caught in whatever crossfire is about to go down. When the helmet comes off we see it’s not an assassin or Villanelle, but Eve (Sandra Oh) and Konstantin barks out his infamous laugh. He’s happy to see it’s her and probably very happy she’s not an assassin working for The Twelve. Eve lets him know how she feels about their reunion by shooting him in the hand and demanding to know how to find Villanelle’s new boss, Hélène. He has no idea where the woman is, but knows she’s been assigned to the new trainee recruits. Incidentally, the last trainee to see her wound up under a train courtesy of Villanelle. He tells Eve if she wants to know where Hélène is maybe she should she talk to Villanelle. Eve ignores him and as she walks out of the room he laughs and eludes to the fact this mission is going to get her killed. Eve turns back around and with a straight face says, “Thank God.”

Speaking of God, when we do catch up with Villanelle (Jodie Comer) she’s singing in church. Cross, collar, red robes and all, this voice of an angel has the heart of a demon and it looks like she’s bound to raise unholy Hell. Whatever this soul-cleansing mission is it seems The Twelve’s best killer is turning over a new and less lethal leaf. Silly Villanelle, everyone knows killing is in your DNA, girl. For now, she’s trying on the “Thou Shalt Not Kill” hat and from the looks of things she’s almost convinced herself of her own salvation, or at least putting on a good enough act to convince Eve. When we catch back up with Eve, she’s on a stake out with her new partner, Yusuf (Robert Gilbert), and occasional bed mate. Whatever it takes to keep her Villanelle obsession at bay. As a matter of fact, instead of RSVPing to Villanelle’s request to attend her baptismal re-birth she tears it up and has van sex with her Kenny/Hugo replacement. These two will do anything to get the other out of their systems except finally give in to their urges, which might be the only way they could scratch that nagging toxic itch and put it to bed for good.

MALLORCA

“Humankind cannot beat too much humanity,” says Carolyn (Fiona Shaw), who has not lost her mojo for observational comedy. She sits in Spain, exhausted with her assistant as he rambles off her week’s schedule leaving us to wonder if she could be right. If anyone is drowning in their perceived humanity it’s Eve, who we catch a glimpse of wrestling Yusuf in a London park for all to see. The two co-workers with benefits are making scene because Eve needs to prove her heterosexuality by manhandling her new man in public. Yes, very straight, Eve. Everyone is totally buying it.

Back to Carolyn. who is also asserting her feminine power over men, when we learn she was fired by MI6 and demoted to cultural attaché. Hugo (Edward Bluemel), thanks to the bullet he took for his service, was promoted to her position and he has no problem rubbing it in her face, especially now that he has photo proof she killed her co-worker. She brushes off his threats and his orders to stop investigating The Twelve, reminding him she’s the best chance they have at finding them and the people who shot him. She’s certainly not taking his advice and orders the staff to escort him out. She has bigger fish to fry than Hugo and his Bermuda shorts wearing-blackmail threats.

Over at the Jesus saves house Nelle is shaking up a family home as live in ward to the church’s vicar and his daughter, May (Zindzi Hudson). Vicar Phil (Steve Oram) wants Nelle to find her own place soon, but May fights him on this and says after her baptism she will be part of their family. It’s immediately clear the daughter has a crush on their wayward roomie and Villanelle doesn’t hate that attention. May promises her father the living arrangements will work out, but she hasn’t seen what her crush did to their cat, Lucifer! Apparently, Nelle doesn’t know her own strength because when Lucifer scratches her in the bathroom she tosses the feline offender across the room and its bloody body comes to its final resting place in her drawn bath. Instead of telling her friend what she did, she crawls into the May’s lap and asks for soothing head pats. The two are in some sort of relationship, with all roads leading back to killing the part of her that wants Eve.

SALVATION COMES AT A PRICE

Carolyn surprises Eve on her run with a juicy case she knows the former agent will want to sink her teeth into. Someone has been knocking off members of The Twelve and Carolyn wants to know who they are. Now that she isn’t working for MI6, her ability to investigate is limited and that’s where Eve comes in. She knows Eve is also out and now working for a private security and out of the watchful eyes of the government. Even though Eve claims to want to watch those Twelve “critters burn” Carolyn isn’t so sure. She leaves her the file and tells her to figure out who those critters are before she starts lighting torches. It takes all of five seconds for Eve to grab the file and tell her partner she’s on the case, which considering where her last lovers ended up, she might owe Yusuf a warning or two before he agrees to help.

Back at the church the preparations for Nelle’s baptism take a turn when the housekeeper interrupts freaking out over the dead cat she found. Sure enough Phil sees Villanelle on the church’s security camera footage burying poor little Lucifer. He questions why she would bury their cat and not tell them it died by accident. She explains she didn’t want to upset anyone and worried it would put her rebirth at risk. Noticing her motivations for the baptism seems less about God and more about who will be attending, he questions her faith and his role in it. Admittedly, she doesn’t even believe in God, but she has plans to pop off all kinds of good deeds on the tail end of this holy dunk. For those possibilities alone the vicar cannot deny her that salvation.

I’M ON MY KNEES FOR YOU

We catch up with Eve at a funeral parlor where she’s investigating the death of Rhian, the assassin trainee Villanelle tossed in front of a train. Eve has some story about being a former teacher of Rhian and asks the mortician, Pam (Anjana Vasan) if they have contact information for the woman. When she leaves the body to look it up, Eve messes around with the corpse’s eyelids because of course she does. She’s as gruesomely weird as her loving nemesis, Villanelle. Later on that day we see Eve stalking the mortician and as she follows the woman around a corner she gets jumped! The mortician isn’t your average slice and deadly slice death doctor. She has skills! She beats up Eve and leaves her gasping. By the time Eve catches her breath and runs to find her assailant, she spots her driving away with Hélène (Camille Cottin)! “Found her,” she grimaces.

Over at the church the pews are packed with people for the service. Nelle is wearing white like it’s her wedding day, only it’s the church she’s marrying and it’s all for Eve. When Eve doesn’t show up on time, she orders Phil to get on with the show and screams, “Just dunk me!” Then, she dunks herself.

Cut to a fish tank in Eve’s hotel room and makeshift office where she and her and Yusuf are mapping out The Twelve and going through the details of her findings at the funeral parlor. Something was off with that well-trained killer of a mortician, but Eve cannot put her finger on it. Whatever it is, it’s familiar to her. After some sexy banter about nuts, Eve goes down to the lobby to buy some of the salty snack food and that’s when she sees Villanelle staring back at her from the other side of the fish tank’s glass. “I forgive you,” she says to Eve and she means for not attending her ceremony. Eve is so outraged she’s speechless, which only gets worse when Villanelle gets on her knees in front of her and starts praying. The tension between these two could burn the hotel to the ground and they both know it. Villanelle pleads with Eve to see that she’s changed, but Eve points out that if she had she would not have come for her. Villanelle points out that if Eve had changed like she is claiming than she wouldn’t have let herself be found. The truth hurts and that’s why Eve slaps Villanelle across the face. Her words had weight to them and they are crushing Eve’s resolve. No matter how well they delude themselves into believing they are over, deep down they know they’re fated to perform this mating dance to the inevitable grave.

Dressed in her white robes and sporting a pout on her slapped face, Villanelle decides it’s time to get real with the big guy in the sky. She talks with Jesus. Well, it’s the one hanging off the church’s crucifix, and asks for some holy assurances that this faith thing isn’t a scam. A sign, a wink, anything, will do because trust for her doesn’t come easy. Villanelle’s heavenly sign comes in the form of May, who shoots her shot and kisses Nelle at the altar. At first the smooch is reciprocated but then, like a flip of a light switch, Villanelle grabs the woman’s head and drowns her in the baptismal font. It’s her uncontrollable murderous instinct that shocks her back to the reality of what she’s doing. Panicked she pulls her friend from the brink of death and saves her, but who saved whom? Villanelle, the trained killer and harbinger of death, resisted the heady embrace of the grim reaper? She overcame her most basic instincts, but how? Maybe she has changed because later on she starts having visions of herself as a bearded Jesus eating popcorn and promising gifts of salvation. Is this what if feels like to be saved? If it is, heaven help anyone who crosses her path.