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wearevillaneve · 5 years ago

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Killing Eve S3, E5: “Are You From Pinner?“ should really be called “Killing Oksana.”

With “Are You From Pinner?” in the books, we are past the halfway mark of the Suzanne Heathcote era of Killing Eve and in some circles of the fandom, the hope is this wet firecracker of a season will blow up in the final three episodes.

Based upon what’ has come before, this may be a tad optimistic. As erratic and disjointed as the preceding four episodes, E5 introduced something entirely new and different to Killing Eve. A standalone showcase for Jodie Comer’s Villanelle without Eve or Dasha or Konstantin or any of the other regular cast to block the spotlight. Can you see the fatal error in all this?

Typically when something is dubbed a “shitshow” it’s meant metaphorically, but as one of the set pieces was Villanelle literally throwing shit, it becomes an accurate description.

Before we got to this point, the six-month time jump from the end of last season looked like a combination of a tactical error and a missed opportunity. Instead of Villanelle returning to Russia to drop in on the home folks, there were a many more unanswered questions from “You’re Mine” in dire need of an explanation.

1. Who rescued Eve found and transported her to the hospital? The “lucky some tourists found you” one-liner by the late Kenny Stowton seems pretty flimsy. Didn’t the Rome police have any questions about this Asian woman with amazing hair ended up in Hadrian’s Villa lying facedown in a pool of blood? Was it a robbery? Okay, so then did Eve have any money, passport or ID to get back to England once she healed sufficiently? Did she receive any rehabilitative aftercare? Is she on any pain-killing medicines? What was her mental state after being shot by V? What was her emotional and psychological state after slaughtering Raymond to save V?

2. How did Niko get out of the storage locker? Eve didn’t know where he was and neither did MI6. Even if he was found by someone else, how did he explain away the small matter of Gemma’s rotting corpse? Niko griped to Eve that MI6 intervened to make it look like Gemma committed suicide to cover up the fact that not only can’t a spy agency catch an international assassin who kills British citizens at will, they later hired her to work on an off-the-book mission where a technocratic billionaire got his throat slit.

Why would MI6 go through all that fuss and bother to cover up a murder of a civilian when it could easily be laid at Niko’s feet? His only defense is Gemma was killed by a beautiful blonde psychopath with a crush on his estranged wife. Carolyn told Eve she was on her own after Rome. What changed, because something must have for MI6 to ride to Niko’s rescue. 3. Isn’t The Twelve presented as this immense, almighty, sprawling international diabolical entity of murder, violence, and sowing chaos and espionage against nations with their dirty little fingers apparently manipulating every intelligence agency on the planet? It also deploys assassins and goons too fucking stupid to look under a bed to find an unarmed MI6 agent hiding there quaking in fear OR recognize said agent when a thug asks her out for a sushi dinner. Well, okay then. Killing Eve logic explains it all. Returning back to this sluggish solo flight, Villanelle’s family in Mother Russia are a bunch of dopey dunces with anger management issues, poor self-control, and flat-earthers who break out in spontaneous dance routines while the prodigal trouble child, Oksana, looking like the Whitest White Girl Ever who tried to shake her moneymaker, but couldn’t because both of her feet were super-glued to the floor, stands by bewildered probably thinking, “Who the hell are you people?”

A few weeks ago rumors from not-very reliable sources were floating around that executive producer Sally Woodward Gentle had mused it might be conceivable Killing Eve could conceivably go on without one of the two leads. Perhaps Woodward Gentle is hedging her bets should Comer or Oh not return after the fourth season. “Are You From Pinner” is proof that’s not true. The show is called Killing Eve, not Killing Villanelle. Though she has become the sun to Eve’s moon, there’s a reason for Eve Polastri to inhabit a central place in Villanelle’s life. She is the other half which makes Villanelle whole. Whether together or apart, what keeps the audience coming back is the strange relationship between Eve and Villanelle. Without Eve to humanize Villanelle, she become just another attractive, charismatic killer with a sad back story. Yet Villanelle is not a Marvel super villain and many fans were perfectly fine with not knowing what it was in her past that made her who she is now.

Heathcote subverted expectations of another meeting between the central characters in episode 5 as her showrunner predecessors Emerald Fennell and Phoebe Waller-Bridge had done previously, but she went further by removing Eve completely. Eve was not referenced a single time by Villanelle and weirdly, Sandra Oh and all the other cast members names were removed from the credits. Heathcote’s erred by that omission as it reinforced the notion some KE fans have held that she and Fennell tilted the balance in favor of Comer’s character as Oh’s is diminished. That may not have been the newest showrunner’s intention, but it certainly feeds the impression that it was. The conclusion of Villanelle killing her mother and burning down the house was a wrenching, powerful moment, but taken in totality of the entire show, not nearly enough to compensate for the lackluster and pointless set-up scenes.

What we learned from Oksana's origin story is you really can't go home again. Fine, but why did that require an Eve-less episode to know that. This all could have unfolded in the six-month jump after Rome as a sub-plot playing out over the first four episodes. It didn’t justify a standalone showcase for Villanelle.

All it did was blunt the equally affecting impact of Eve witnessing Niko’s death. A better and much fairer approach would have been devote the first half to Eve grieving for her murdered husband and the second to Villanelle less-than-warm welcome home. Minus Eve, and without Konstantin and no Dasha to exercise some guidance over the nuclear missile that is Villanelle, what you get is an unleashed assassin alternatively being childish, being a smart-ass, being mysterious, being fashionable, before inevitably turning murderous.

Most of the time it works and we forgive Villanelle her many trespasses This time it face-planted despite a sensational closing sequence between Oksana and her mother. Unfortunately, ten riveting minutes do not make up for the uninteresting 32 minutes which preceded it.

Villanelle has become unstoppable in her homicidal tendencies. She has morphed into a female Terminator who occasionally imitates human traits. Nothing can stop her or barely slow her down. She commits mayhem and slaughter like most of us breathe and suffers zero consequence for it. The fact she took out her own mother should neither shock nor surprise.

“Are You From Pinner?” demonstrates Villanelle’s complex charms shine most brightly in her interactions with Eve, Konstantin and Dasha. Remove them from the equation and even Comer’s wealth of talents are not enough to rise above flat, lifeless characters, muddled motivations and a plot which wavers between the comedic for too long and the tragic too late to register. A friend said she didn’t much like “Are You From Pinner” but hoped it would be better after a second or third viewing. I told sometimes a first impression is a right impression and that it was doubtful a third watch would help much. How much subtlety and nuance is there to be found from a turd tossing contest? I can say with all confidence, I can't see myself watching this episode again. Like ever. If you got something out of this misfire and it touched your heart and made you squirt a tear for Oksana, more power to you. All I got out of it was confirmation why the show is called Killing Eve and not Villanelle and Her Wacky Russian Family. Come for the comedy. Stay for the kills. In a new interview for her Elle Canada cover story, Oh spoke of how she had reached a point in her life where she was not looking for the next big blockbuster movie, but interested in roles where her Korean American identity can be explored. “I decided that I’m only going to play characters that are essential to the plot, that conduct the narrative and therefore can’t be cut out.” Eve is an essential character who conducts the narrative, and was cut out of the latest installment of the program that bears her name. And that bothers me. It bothers me a lot more than just a mediocre Killing Eve story. I will never watch another Killing Eve which erases one of the female leads to elevate the other. That is not how women empower women.

FINAL GRADE: C

#Killing Eve #Villanelle #suzanne heathcote #ke s3 #emerald fennell #phoebe waller bridge #showrunner #Eve Polastri #Villanelle x Eve

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flurryheaven · 4 years ago

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Emmy Spotlight - 2020 Nominations

Outstanding Contemporary Costumes

Killing Eve (BBC America)

Season 3 Episode 5 ‘Are You From Pinner?’

Costume Designer - Sam Perry

Costume Supervisor - Katie Broome

Assistant Costume Designer - Justin Selway

This is Perry’s, Broome’s, and Selway’s 1st nomination.

#emmy spotlight #emmys 2020 #emmy nominations #costume design #television #killing eve #s3 e5 are you from pinner #sam perry #katie broome #justin selway #primetime emmys #nominations #tv #best costumes on tv #costumes

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starring-movies · 4 years ago

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Killing Eve: Episode Analysis

*SPOILERS*

Season 2, Episode 4 - Desperate Times

This episode begins with Konstantin taking Villanelle to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. They go to the art museum and Konstantin takes Villanelle and he stands in front of a painting of Adam and Eve by Cornelis van Haarlem, called ‘The Fall of Man’. Villanelle doesn’t really pay attention to the painting but in the shot she is positioned standing in between Adam and Eve, in the place of the serpent. This imagery puts Villanelle in the equivalent place of the serpent, in Eve’s life; she is tempting Eve away from her normal life, as well as away from Niko and her life with him, in the same way as the serpent does. This placement of Villanelle in the shot, in between Adam and Eve in the paining, also visually shows the audience how Villanelle is driving Eve and Niko apart from each other by coming in between the two of them.

Instead of looking at the painting of Adam and Eve, Villanelle is more taken by the painting of ‘The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers’ by Jan de Baen. This is firstly where Villanelle gets the inspiration for her next kill. However, Villanelle being attracted to this painting (rather than ‘The Fall of Man’ that Konstantin is looking at) also symbolises how she knows that her kills and the exciting showmanship she uses when she does them, is what she can use to come in between Eve and Niko (just as she stands between Adam and Eve in the painting) and also what she can use to help her to tempt Eve away from her life (like the serpent).

The song playing just before this scene (when Konstantin meets Villanelle on the bridge at the Leidsegracht canal), and when Konstantin and Villanelle first go to Rijksmuseum is ‘Remember’ by Unloved. The lyrics are:

“Remember me?

Remember them?

Remember that?

That was then,

This is now,

I'm just saying”

The lyrics of the song reflect the majority of Villanelle’s aim in this episode - she is trying to get Eve’s attention and for her to remember her, as she thinks that Eve isn’t interested in her now that she’s got The Ghost.

The lyrics also illustrate Villanelle’s motives for how she carries out the Amsterdam kill. She knows Eve is intrigued and interested in the style and flamboyancy that she uses in her kills, so through the Amsterdam kill she’s trying to provide all of this for Eve to get her to “remember” her.

For the Amsterdam kill, Villanelle dresses up in a dirndl dress and wears a pig mask. She wears the pig mask because she tells Konstantin “you know he’s into farmyard animals”, and so she knows the man will be intrigued by it. She also wears the dirndl dress, which is a traditional German dress that was originally worn by peasants or servants. The word dirndl is a diminutive of the German word “derne”, which originally meant “young woman” but in modern usage has come to mean a “prostitute”.

The origins of the dirndl dress, as well as it being the colour pink (often associated with being a very feminine colour and often a colour for children, but also suitable for the pig theme), shows how Villanelle is cleverly using her costume to make herself seem vulnerable and for her target think that he is superior and in control.

After the Amsterdam kill, Villanelle asks Konstantin “can we go home now?”, to which he replies “home. What do you mean ‘home’? Where is that exactly?” and Villanelle says “I’m going back to London”. Through this exchange we can that Villanelle obviously considers London, and therefore Eve, as her home now.

The central positioning of Villanelle in the shot, the sofa, the blue wall panels behind Villanelle (like the blue windows behind her in the psychological evaluation scene), the colour choices, the glass table, Villanelle’s hairstyle and her outfit are all very similar to the psychiatric evaluation scene from S1E2. The mirroring of the two scenes implies that Konstantin is again evaluating Villanelle and deciding if she’s okay to work, which is further emphasises by Konstantin’s positioning in the scene - he’s stood to Villanelle’s right (out left), in the same position where the psychologist was sat in the psych evaluation scene (and therefore taking the place of the psychologist in this instance).

It’s also a reminder that Konstantin does care about Villanelle and is constantly monitoring her to check that she’s okay. It also indicates that Konstantin is concerned about Villanelle’s ongoing obsession with Eve, as the last time Villanelle was evaluated was when Konstantin was worried that she was being affected by her memories of her relationship with Anna.

While Villanelle is waiting for Eve in a house, on the opposite side of the street to where her kill took place, Unloved’s ‘Her’ is playing. Over the scene we can hear the lyrics:

“I gave my heart to her.

She has my heart”

The lyrics of the song show how much Villanelle loves, or thinks she loves, Eve. As well as this, it also illustrates why Villanelle is so upset at the end of the episode, after Eve doesn’t show up the the crime scene - she feels like she’s given her heart to Eve and thinks Eve has just moved on from her to The Ghost.

When Eve and Hugo are talking outside of the takeaway chicken restaurant, Hugo says to Eve “I got this job for exactly the same reason as you did” and Eve asks what the reason is, which Hugo says was so “I didn’t die of boredom”. This draws yet another parallel between Villanelle and Eve as in Villanelle’s speech as Billie in S2E6, Villanelle similarly remarks that “I’m just so bored”.

During this conversation Hugo also asks Eve “do you like watching her or being watched”, to which Eve replies that it’s “both”. This applies to both Eve and Villanelle as they both like to pursue each other but also like to be pursed, they both like to be the cat and the mouse at the same time.

Yet another parallel between Eve and villanelle is that they both have also resorted to taking substances as a result of being involved with each other. Eve smokes a cigarette with Hugo, which she says she hasn’t done “since college”; and Villanelle takes drugs, which she never does and initially calls “rat poison”.

The scene where Villanelle is choking the girl in the club toilets after she’s taken the drugs, is shot using the same angles as when Villanelle chokes Rhian in S3E8. The choice to use the same angles for the shots link the two scenes through Villanelle’s relationship with Eve. In the club scene Villanelle is choking the girl because she’s upset and taking out her anger from Eve not turning up; and in the scene on the Tube platform with Rhian, she’s choking her to protect Eve.

The parallel between these two instances also serves to show us the progression of Villanelle’s own feelings of killing. In this episode she is willing to kill the girl she is choking for no reason other than she cut in the line for the club toilets; but in contrast in S3E8, Villanelle is visibly upset by having to kill Rhian and is only doing it to protect her and Eve from being killed by The Twelve.

When Eve is preparing to interrogate The Ghost, she is wearing the “sweater attached to a shirt” from S1E5 and has her hair out at first. The sweater and the hair out reminds us of Eve’s encounter with Villanelle in the kitchen in S1E5, however she then ties her hair up in a bun - perhaps showing that she may have lost a little bit of interest in Villanelle, as she goes against what Villanelle told her to do in S1E1 and does not “wear it down”.

In this scene we also get Eve contrasted with Villanelle. They are both looking at themselves in the mirror, however, Eve is the more emotionally strong one who is chasing another assassin and preparing for an interrogation. However, Villanelle is shown as the emotionally weak one, looking at herself in the mirror after a night of taking drugs, and is crying because she thinks Eve doesn’t care about her now.

Villanelle also smiles as she is crying in the mirror. This might be because she realises that she’s finally feeling something. She said to Eve in S1E5 that “I don’t feel things”, she says in S2E6 that “most of the time, most days, I feel nothing”. We are also reminded of this in S2E7 when Eve asks Villanelle “you don’t feel anything?” and Villanelle replies that “I feel things when I’m with you”; so this moment of Villanelle looking at herself crying in the mirror could be the first moment that she truly realises that she doesn’t feel things but she really does feel things when she’s with Eve (and so this is why she starts smiling) - for her to be genuinely crying and to be actually feeling something over Eve (that isn’t just lust or obsession) is probably a revelation for her.

You can read my previous Killing Eve posts here:-

First Introduction to Villanelle

First Introduction to Eve

S1, E1 - Nice Face

S1, E2 - I’ll Deal With Him Later

S1, E3 - Don’t I Know You?

S1, E4 - Sorry Baby

S1, E5 - I Have a Thing about Bathrooms

S1, E6 - Take Me to the Hole!

S1, E7 - I Don’t Want to Be Free

S1, E8 - God, I’m Tired

S2, E1 - Do You Know How to Dispose of a Body?

S2, E2 - Nice and Neat

S2, E3 - The Hungry Caterpillar

S2, E5 - Smell Ya Later

S2, E6 - I Hope You Like Missionary

S2, E7 - Wide Awake

S2, E8 - You’re Mine

S3, E1 - Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey

S3, E2 - Management Sucks

S3, E3 - Meetings Have Biscuits

S3, E4 - Still Got It

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 1]

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 2]

S3, E6 - End of Game

S3, E7 - Beautiful Monster

S3, E8 - Are You Leading or Am I? [Part 1]

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starring-movies · 4 years ago

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Killing Eve: Episode Analysis

*SPOILERS*

Season 2, Episode 8 - You’re Mine

The finale of Season 2 begins with the continuation of the operation in Rome. Hugo comes back with coffee for himself and Eve, after they slept together the night before, and he calls Eve, “Mrs Robinson”. This is a reference to the 1967 film, ‘The Graduate’; which is about a young college graduate (just like Hugo), who is seduced by a much older woman, called Mrs. Robinson (like Eve).

While Eve is in the hotel room, listening through the earpiece, she hears Villanelle say the safe word, “gentleman”; after Villanelle sees that Raymond is one of the buyers coming to look into the weapon that Aaron Peel is selling.

After hearing Villanelle say the safe word, just as Eve is about to tell Hugo, she hears him being shot and she hides from the shooter by lying under the bed in the room. After the shooter has left, Eve goes to help Hugo, but she just tells him to put pressure on his wound and then decides to leave him behind, so that she can go to help Villanelle. As Eve is walking away and Hugo is shouting for her to help him, ‘Her’ by Unloved can be heard in the background. Some of the lyrics of the song are:

“There were no candles lit,

The room was dark as night,

Just like the corners of my mind,

I gave my heart to her,

She has my heart”

The last time this song was used was in S1E4, but in that instance it was used for Villanelle, while she was waiting for Eve to come to the crime scene, but Eve doesn’t show up. When the song was used in S1E4, it was to illustrate how Villanelle had given her heart to Eve, and so Eve was the one who had Villanelle’s heart. Whereas this time, it is used to show how Eve has given her heart to Villanelle, and so now Villanelle is the one who holds Eve’s heart. In fact Eve’s heart belongs to Villanelle so much so, that she is willing to leave Hugo (who for all she knows might die) just so that she can go and ‘save’ Villanelle, who is perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

When Eve arrives at Aaron’s palazzo, Aaron tells Villanelle “I’ll give you everything you want”, which echoes when Villanelle asked Eve “will you give me everything I want?”, in S2E5. In saying this (in the same way that we are reminded of what Villanelle said to Eve), Aaron might have similarly reminded Villanelle of what she had previously asked Eve - and in turn, reminded her that Eve is actually everything she wants. So when Aaron asks Villanelle to kill Eve, she knows that if she does kill Eve like he’s asking her to do, she will never be able to have “everything” she wants.

After Villanelle kills Aaron, she and Eve decide to split up because Eve needs to get the recordings from the hotel room and Villanelle needs to find them a way to escape. When Eve arrives at the hotel room, everything has been cleaned up and Carolyn is waiting in the room to speak to Eve. Eve tells her that Aaron is dead and Carolyn asks her “did you kill him?”, indicating that she has obviously been observing Eve’s behaviour and thinks that she is capable of killing. Eve indignantly, and rather taken aback, tells Carolyn “of course not” when she is asked this, which foreshadows the argument that she and Villanelle have at the end of the episode - everyone else (Villanelle, Carolyn, The Ghost) can see her darkness, but Eve herself is still unwilling to accept it.

While Eve is speaking to Carolyn, and Villanelle is speaking to Konstantin, we can see the trust that Villanelle and Eve have in one another, as well as how they both are aware of how much they mean to each other. The two paralleled conversations are almost mirrored with one other: Eve says “you don’t know that” to Carolyn, when she tells Eve that Villanelle “wouldn’t do the same for you”; and Villanelle says “she wouldn’t”, when Konstantin says “what if she’s left with Carolyn already?”.

The entire goal of Villanelle and Eve’s characters’ journeys in this season is encapsulated when Konstantin asks Villanelle “what is it about her?”, and Villanelle tells him that it’s because “we’re the same”. For the entirety of Season 2, we have been shown how Villanelle and Eve are two sides of the same coin, and especially how Eve has been becoming more like Villanelle in her behaviour; so Villanelle saying this, just ties together everything they’ve done throughout the season that has made them become more “the same” as each other.

As Villanelle is waiting for Eve outside of the hotel, she gets anxious and goes to look for Eve inside. When Villanelle climbs the stairs of the hotel, she finds that Raymond has been waiting for her so that he can kill her (like Konstantin warned her). A fight ensues and Raymond starts choking Villanelle, nearly killing her. But when Raymond sees Eve with his axe, he says to Villanelle that “she’s not going to do it is she? She doesn’t have it in her”, which parallels when Villanelle said to Eve in S1E8 “you can’t”. In both of those moments, Eve was being underestimated and surprises the person who was underestimating her by following through and doing what they claimed she couldn’t - by stabbing Villanelle in S1E8 and killing Raymond in this episode.

While Villanelle is trying to encourage Eve to finish killing Raymond, she shouts “imagine he’s a log” at her. In S3E5, Villanelle tells Pyotr “I used to do woodwork”, so her knowledge in woodworking is probably why the first things that comes to her mind is to tell Eve to imagine Raymond is a log.

When they escape to the Roman ruins, after Eve has killed Raymond, Villanelle tells her that they could go to live in Alaska and that “we’d be normal”. We can see that normality and a mundane life, like that which Eve lives, is something that Villanelle has been yearning for since Season 1. In S1E5 she tells Eve “I know I’m not normal”, in S1E8 she says to Eve that she wants “normal things” and in S2E1 she tells Gabriel “I’m not normal you know”. She also offers to make dinner for her and Eve, and tells her “I’ll look after you”, which similarly shows her desire to have a normal and domestic life with Eve.

After Eve finds out that Villanelle manipulated her into killing Raymond, Villanelle tells her “I wanted you to know how it feels, how did it feel?”. In doing this, Villanelle is actually answering one of the things which Eve tells Villanelle that she thinks about in S1E8. In S1E8, Eve says to Villanelle, “I think about your eyes and your mouth, and how you feel when you kill someone”. So by getting Eve to kill Raymond, Villanelle probably thinks she’s being caring and doing something helpful for her, so that now Eve will have an answer and get to know for herself “how you feel when you kill someone”.

Eve goes on to tell Villanelle that “I’m like you now”. This is probably true, as although Eve had already been displaying a number of similarities to Villanelle, she had not gone as far as to cross the line to kill someone. But crossing that line is most likely what allows Eve to start to accept her “monster” and the existence of her “darkness”, becoming the most like Villanelle, in Season 3 - while she is holding onto denial regarding these aspects of herself, she can not truly be like Villanelle.

We also see Villanelle’s confusion at Eve’s reaction to killing Raymond, which is what she thought would help Eve, telling her “it’s what YOU wanted”. Villanelle can see Eve’s darkness (and has done for a long time), just like The Ghost did in S2E5 when she asked Eve “do you want to do it yourself?”; and so Villanelle can also see that this actually is what Eve wanted, and in turn she can’t understand why Eve does’t see what she sees. However, because Eve hasn’t come to terms with, nor accepted her darkness, she rejects Villanelle (and therefore also rejects her own darkness) - which is a problem we see repeated in S3E5, and why Villanelle similarly decides to kill her mother just like she shoots Eve in this episode.

Villanelle goes on to tell Eve that she loves her, but Eve says to her that “you don’t understand what that is”. Villanelle then possessively tells her “you’re mine”. Villanelle saying this proves that, although she may have deep feelings and an obsession for Eve, it’s not until S3E8 that we can see that Villanelle has found out what loving Eve really is - when she’s willing to let her go and never see her for the rest of her life, rather than claiming Eve as an object which belongs to her (like her clothes or money).

Villanelle also says to Eve that she “thought you were special”. Villanelle thought that Eve was different from her mother, Anna and Nadia; all of whom either weren’t able to do the things that Eve can or wouldn’t accept the darkness they had inside of them - Anna and Nadia weren’t able to shoot Villanelle like Eve was able to stab her, Anna wasn’t able to admit her feelings for Villanelle to herself and Villanelle’s mother wasn’t able to accept her darkness (like Villanelle thought Eve would be able to accept her darkness). Konstantin’s prophetic warning about Villanelle to Eve in S2E3, that “she’ll love you to death”, has indeed come true.

You can read my previous Killing Eve posts here:-

First Introduction to Villanelle

First Introduction to Eve

S1, E1 - Nice Face

S1, E2 - I’ll Deal With Him Later

S1, E3 - Don’t I Know You?

S1, E4 - Sorry Baby

S1, E5 - I Have a Thing about Bathrooms

S1, E6 - Take Me to the Hole!

S1, E7 - I Don’t Want to Be Free

S1, E8 - God, I’m Tired

S2, E1 - Do You Know How to Dispose of a Body?

S2, E2 - Nice and Neat

S2, E3 - The Hungry Caterpillar

S2, E4 - Desperate Times

S2, E5 - Smell Ya Later

S2, E6 - I Hope You Like Missionary!

S2, E7 - Wide Awake

S3, E1 - Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey

S3, E2 - Management Sucks

S3, E3 - Meetings Have Biscuits

S3, E4 - Still Got It

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 1]

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 2]

S3, E6 - End of Game

S3, E7 - Beautiful Monster

S3, E8 - Are You Leading or Am I? [Part 1]

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starring-movies · 4 years ago

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Killing Eve: Episode Analysis

*SPOILERS*

Season 2, Episode 7 - Wide Awake

The episode begins with Eve visiting Villanelle’s apartment, to get an update from her on the Aaron Peel operation. Just before Eve sits down on Villanelle’s bed, she looks at herself in the three mirrors behind the bed; just like in S1E8, when Villanelle looks in the three mirrors at her dressing table before sitting on the bed.

The last time this happened (S1E8), Villanelle was contemplating what she wanted in life and was looking more into her future, and perhaps even considering a future with Eve. However, this time Eve is the one contemplating her life. Eve is trying to come to terms with her feelings and future surrounding Villanelle, as well as the existence of her darkness and her increasing struggles in hiding that darkness.

The two girls, from the kebab shop the night before, leave Villanelle’s apartment and Villanelle tells Eve “don’t be jealous”. This contrasts with when Eve told Niko in S1E1, that he should “always be jealous”. Regarding Eve and Niko, Eve tells Niko that he should “always be jealous” to keep him on his toes and maintain the excitement in their relationship (that is starting to become stale and boring).

Whereas with Villanelle and Eve’s dynamic, although Villanelle is sleeping with other people and she isn’t in a ‘relationship’ with Eve, like Eve and Niko are; Villanelle still reassures Eve that she shouldn’t be jealous of the other women, because she tells her that “I’m not with them, when I’m with them”.

Villanelle telling Eve that “I’m not with them, when I’m with them”, is also a veiled way of her reminding Eve of her interest of her. Villanelle’s saying in a roundabout way that although she might be with these other people in a physical sense, she’s not with them mentally because she’s thinking about Eve when she’s with them.

A small little thing to notice is that after Villanelle has had her meeting with Aaron Peel, she checks her phone when she gets back to her apartment. The screen of her phone shows us that she received 9 missed calls and 3 voicemails from Eve, 9 + 3 = 12.

As they’re all preparing for the Rome trip, Carolyn tells Eve and Konstantin tells Villanelle that the safe word that’s been chosen is “gentleman”. Villanelle says she doesn’t know how she would get the word “gentleman” in a sentence, but she actually uses it in S2E2 when she says to Julian, “you’re such a gentleman”.

When Carolyn is speaking to Eve in preparation for the trip, she asks her if Villanelle has had “any escalation, increased attention-seeking, recklessness”. Carolyn also asks the exact same question regarding Eve herself.

The fact that Carolyn poses the same question for both Villanelle and Eve herself, indicates that she also sees what Villanelle sees - that they’re the same as each other. This is also highlighted again in S2E8 when Carolyn asks Eve “did you kill him?”, meaning that Carolyn thought that Eve was capable of killing.

Before leaving for Rome, Villanelle visits Niko’s storage container to speak to Gemma and Niko. She picks up a snow globe of Alaska and asks if she can keep it, and Niko tells her that she can. The snow globe is of a wood cabin in Alaska and it’s where Villanelle gets the suggestion, at the end of S2E8, saying to Eve that “I was thinking we should go to Alaska... we could get a cabin”.

While visiting Niko, Villanelle also tells him “I want the recipe to your Shepard’s Pie” because “Eve likes it, so”. However, we know from S1E1, when Eve does a lunch swap with Bill for his sushi, that she doesn’t really like the Shepard’s Pie at all. Villanelle only wants the recipe because Niko makes it for her and she thinks that Eve likes it; and so if she can do all the things Niko can do, like make the recipe he makes for her, then she thinks she’ll be one step closer to being able to replace him in Eve’s life.

The snow globe which she gets the suggestion to go to Alaska from, is in Niko’s storage container and amongst all of his belongings; so we also know that the snow globe was most likely his and not Eve’s - in the same way as the Shepard’s Pie, Villanelle thinks she knows Eve and thinks she understands what she wants but she doesn’s really. Villanelle also thinks she loves Eve, but it isn’t until she shows that she is willing to let Eve go in Season 3, that we see she has figured out how to truly show Eve that she loves her.

When Eve goes to speak to Martin, the psychologist, he asks her “are you two in a relationship?”, and Eve tells Martin to “define relationship”, which Martin clarifies for her by asking “are you two having sex?”.

Eve’s request for Martin to “define relationship” means that she considers that she is in a relationship of sorts with Villanelle, and she probably would have said ‘yes’ to him if his definition of a relationship was non-sexual.

After arriving at Rome, and finding out that Villanelle doesn’t have the microphone on her, Eve tells Hugo to get the backup microphone so that she can deliver it to Villanelle by hand. As Eve leaves the room to go see Villanelle, she quickly looks in the mirror to check her appearance, a small action that shows us that she cares about her appearance when seeing Villanelle (just like how Eve was concerned over the photo Hugo sent for Villanelle in S2E5).

When Villanelle puts on the backup microphone from Eve, she starts to sing the song ‘One Way Or Another’ by Blondie. The lyrics that she sings are:

“One way or another,

I’m gonna find ya,

I’m gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya,

One way or another,

I’m gonna win ya,

I’m gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya”

When Villanelle is singing she knows that Eve will be listening, so she’s singing the song for Eve to hear her. The lyrics mirror Villanelle’s own determination that “one way or another” she will find a way to “win” Eve from Niko, and eventually ‘get” her for herself.

When Villanelle and Aaron are talking after having dinner with Ivan, one of the potential buyers, she asks Aaron “do you ever get lonely?... You don’t want to talk to them, touch them, sleep with them?”. Villanelle also asks the same thing as this to Tony (the hotel worker from S2E5), she asks him “are you lonely?”. This not only demonstrates to us that Villanelle is lonely herself, but also highlights the difference between her and Aaron.

Villanelle and Aaron might both be psychopaths, but Villanelle isn't as far towards the ‘psychopath’ end of the ‘scale’ as Aaron; as unlike Aaron, she has a strong desire for human connection and to be with people, to touch them and sleep with them.

And this small exchange also starts to set up the character development that we see Villanelle go through throughout Season 3, when she has much more humanity and seems to be feeling more and/or deeper emotions.

You can read my previous Killing Eve posts here:-

First Introduction to Villanelle

First Introduction to Eve

S1, E1 - Nice Face

S1, E2 - I’ll Deal With Him Later

S1, E3 - Don’t I Know You?

S1, E4 - Sorry Baby

S1, E5 - I Have a Thing about Bathrooms

S1, E6 - Take Me to the Hole!

S1, E7 - I Don’t Want to Be Free

S1, E8 - God, I’m Tired

S2, E1 - Do You Know How to Dispose of a Body?

S2, E2 - Nice and Neat

S2, E3 - The Hungry Caterpillar

S2, E4 - Desperate Times

S2, E5 - Smell Ya Later

S2, E6 - I Hope You Like Missionary!

S2, E7 - Wide Awake

S2, E8 - You’re Mine

S3, E1 - Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey

S3, E2 - Management Sucks

S3, E3 - Meetings Have Biscuits

S3, E4 - Still Got It

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 1]

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 2]

S3, E6 - End of Game

S3, E7 - Beautiful Monster

S3, E8 - Are You Leading or Am I? [Part 1]

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starring-movies · 4 years ago

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Killing Eve: Episode Analysis

*SPOILERS*

Season 3, Episode 1 - Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey

The first episode of Season 3 begins about 6 months after the events in Rome, from the end of the last season, and starts with Villanelle getting married to a woman named Maria - now Villanelle doesn’t have a job, she needs a way to support herself financially so she does this via Maria.

During her wedding speech, Villanelle refers to Eve as “my ex”. In S2E1 when she was speaking to Gabriel in the hospital, she also referred to Eve as “my girlfriend”. Both of these instances show us how Villanelle has considered that she and Eve were in a ‘relationship’ of some sort for all this time.

When Villanelle finds that Dasha has turned up to her “special day”, the same shots are repeated from S2E3. Villanelle runs up to Dasha and then tackles her to the ground, which is shot in the same way as when Villanelle runs up to Konstantin and then hugs him in S2E3. The choice to repeat the same shots is implemented to emphasise the difference in Villanelle’s relationship with Konstantin and Dasha (both people who had a big impact on Villanele while she was growing up) - after being separated from Konstantin, Villanelle fondly hugs him; but after being apart from Dasha for so long, Villanelle feels nothing but anger towards her.

When Villanelle is reunited with Dasha, after Dasha crashed Villanelle’s wedding, she keeps calling Villanelle “Oksana” and so Villanelle tells her ��you call me, Villanelle”. This is small but clever little detail. Through just this act of Dasha calling Villanelle the wrong name, we are told that Dasha, like Anna, (who also calls her Oksana) is obviously someone who Villanelle knew a long time ago in her past, before she adopted the name ‘Villanelle’.

We are then reintroduced to Eve, who is doing her shopping in a Korean supermarket in New Malden, London. Not only is Eve buying junk food to stress eat, like she did with the sweets in S2E1, but the convenience food also has a deeper significance. When Eve was with Niko he was always the one who cooked, but now that they’ve separated, Eve doesn’t have anyone to cook for her, so she has to buy things like instant noodles because her lifestyle has changed.

While Eve is paying for her groceries, the woman at the checkout of the Korean supermarket is having a conversation with her friend, where she says “nothing says Romance like Rome” and that she wants to eat “spaghetti” the whole time she’s there. “Spaghetti” is what Eve told Villanelle she’d like her to cook for dinner in S2E8, and the comment that “nothing says Romance like Rome” could have been true for Villanelle and Eve, but for them Rome means tragedy and heartbreak instead.

We also find out that Eve has taken a job in a Korean restaurant. She’s decided to recoil back into the comfort of her culture, where people speak her mother language and eat food that she’s familiar with (and probably associates with home and family). In the restaurant her job is making the dumplings, which is a repetitive, mindless task, just like when we saw Eve chopping the vegetables for the roast chicken in S2E1.

Eve copes with her trauma in the same way as she did in S2E1, after she shot Villanelle. Not only does she do the repetitive tasks, but she also watches “It’s Not Just Shopping”, which is a teleshopping programme, just like how she listened to Armando trying (and succeeding) to sell her some “really expensive windows”.

However, although she is coping with the two situations in the same way, there is also a big difference between the Eve we see in the beginning of Season 2, and the Eve we see in the beginning of Season 3. In Season 2 Eve allowed herself, and was eager, to be sucked back into chasing after Villanelle when Carolyn recruited her again; whereas in Season 3, Eve is stronger and has a certain defiance in her actions. In Season 3 Eve tells her boss she doesn’t want to work in the front of the restaurant, but wants to remain in the kitchen, even though that means less money and more work. Eve also tells Carolyn, when she comes to see her at the restaurant, that she has no interest in Villanelle and trying to find her again, and it is only to investigate Kenny’s death that she decides to return to working with her.

In the office of the boss of the Korean restaurant, a Korean programme where a man gets shot in the head by a woman in playing on the TV behind her. When Eve is on the bus, there is also someone reading a book called “Vixen’s Bite”, with a woman with a gun on the front cover - Eve cannot seem to escape being reminded of Villanelle and of being shot by her.

We are then reintroduced to Kenny, at his new job being an investigative journalist at the ‘Bitter Pill’. Kenny has a conversation with Bear, where he says “well, remind me not to rely on you for anything”; which turns out not to be true, as in S3E8 Bear is the one who finds out Konstantin came to visit Kenny on the day he died.

When Eve is at home, she sends a message to Kenny of a picture of a loo roll. This is a call back to S1E2 when Kenny shows Eve to the toilets at the Trafalgar Office and tells her “it’s best that you bring in your own [loo roll] or it just disappears, how many sheets do you need?”.

After receiving Eve’s message, Kenny goes over to Eve’s apartment and during their conversation he asks her “are you still in touch with, er...” (meaning Niko), and Eve immediately thought Kenny was referring to Villanelle. Eve’s trying to convince herself (and everyone else) that she’s over Villanelle, not interested in her and not thinking about her; but the fact that Eve immediately jumps to thinking that Kenny is referring to Villanelle, and not her husband, shows that this is definitely not the case.

In this scene, she is also wearing the grey T-shirt with birds on it that belonged to Niko, he is seen wearing it in S1E1. However, we only see Eve wearing it when she wants comfort; like after Bill’s death in S1E4, and now in this episode when she’s recovering from what happened to her in Rome.

Later on, when Eve goes to visit Niko at the psychiatric facility, she brings him a bag of fruit pastels, but tells him that she already “ate the green ones for you”. Although Eve probably did this as a caring gesture (since Eve ate them, it’s implied Niko doesn’t like the green ones), it emphasises how Niko still can’t manage to gain control over his own life. Niko wasn’t given the opportunity to try the “green ones” (he may have changed his mind and started to like them) or leave them in the bag himself, Eve had already made the executive decision for him and he wasn’t given the choice to eat the bag of sweets how he wanted to eat them.

Eve eating the green fruit pastels for Niko could also be an indication that this was something that she used to do for him when they were first married/more happily married. If you take this view, then it could be that Eve is trying to simulate how things were previously, or she is being presumptuous that Niko wants things to go back to how they were - but he goes to Poland without telling Eve, so we can see he wants a new start.

Whilst working in the Korean restaurant’s kitchen, there are two men working behind Eve, who’s conversation mirrors Eve’s relationship with Villanelle. One of the men initially says to the other man, “first it was infatuation, this is love”. This definitely reflects how Villanelle’s relationship with Eve was portrayed; it began as Villanelle’s obsession with Eve because she had hair like Anna, but by the end of Season 2 she claims that it has gone beyond “infatuation” and that she does truly love Eve. This was probably also true for Eve, also beginning as an “infatuation” in Villanelle because she is an assassin, but then developing into a deeper sense of love; but at the end of Season 2, Eve was not ready to come to terms with her feelings, and Villanelle hadn’t reached the point of realising what loving Eve really is.

The next time the two men are having a conversation, Eve interjects by telling the man “you’re not even crying because of her, you’re crying because... because you feel stupid, because you were stupid”. This is obviously how Eve feels about what happened with her and Villanelle - she’s not upset because of Villanelle necessarily, but more because she feels that she was stupid. The same thing most likely applies to Villanelle as well, she probably feels stupid for loving Eve, and admitting to loving Eve, when she thought that she was someone “special”.

You can read my previous Killing Eve posts here:-

First Introduction to Villanelle

First Introduction to Eve

S1, E1 - Nice Face

S1, E2 - I’ll Deal With Him Later

S1, E3 - Don’t I Know You?

S1, E4 - Sorry Baby

S1, E5 - I Have a Thing about Bathrooms

S1, E6 - Take Me to the Hole!

S1, E7 - I Don’t Want to Be Free

S1, E8 - God, I’m Tired

S2, E1 - Do You Know How to Dispose of a Body?

S2, E2 - Nice and Neat

S2, E3 - The Hungry Caterpillar

S2, E4 - Desperate Times

S2, E5 - Smell Ya Later

S2, E6 - I Hope You Like Missionary!

S2, E7 - Wide Awake

S2, E8 - You’re Mine

S3, E2 - Management Sucks

S3, E3 - Meetings Have Biscuits

S3, E4 - Still Got It

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 1]

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 2]

S3, E6 - End of Game

S3, E7 - Beautiful Monster

S3, E8 - Are You Leading or Am I? [Part 1]

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starring-movies · 4 years ago

Text

Killing Eve: Episode Analysis

*SPOILERS*

Season 3, Episode 2 - Management Sucks

The episode begins with Eve, who is attending Kenny’s funeral. While she’s standing outside trying to have a smoke, she sees a bus with an advert on it saying “worry, grief, regret, let it all go...”, which is exactly what Eve needs to, and is trying to do - yet there is something, or more accurately someone, who she just can’t manage to let go of.

While Eve is standing outside, the song ‘Boy And Girl’ by Unloved plays through the scene. The lyrics that can be heard are:

If I was old,

When I was young,

What I’d known,

I’d do,

But I'm old,

And not so young,

But still I cry,

For you,

But what’s left to say,

Except that time heals all,

So I will wait,

And wait”

The lyrics of the song exhibit how Eve is reflecting on her life and her experiences, as well as how Kenny has died when he still “was young”. She is also thinking about the tragedies she has endured and how she hopes that “time heals all” she has endured, but it hasn’t happened yet so she “will wait and wait”.

This episode is also one of two episodes in Season 3, where the title credits are different. We get the cast’s names in black drops on a red background; the second instance where this is used is in S3E7, and the background is Green for that one. The red and green backgrounds are a nod to the outfits that Eve (green) and Villanelle (red) wore in the Season 2 finale, in Rome. The red for Villanelle is used in this episode, because it focuses on her character development the most.

In this episode, Villanelle starts trying to climb up the ladder of The Twelve through a managerial assignment, and it is this episode that is the beginning of the end for Villanelle. It is in this episode where she starts on a path that leads to her realisation of her own lack of freedom, and her discontentment in working for The Twelve - as she later realises that she has been manipulated by Dasha and Hélène (when she’s made a keeper and it doesn’t turn out to be what she was promised).

When Carolyn tries to return to work, before entering a meeting, Mo says “your blouse is, erm...”. This seems like an insignificant, passing comment, but Carolyn is a woman who is always immaculately dressed. Carolyn’s state of dress usually reflects the internal organisation and focus that she has in her work and personal life. So Carolyn’s blouse being untidy shows us how, although she is trying to do her job and be at work physically, she is not as mentally focused as she usually is.

Later on Carolyn goes to visit Eve at the Korean restaurant she works at, and when Eve comes to meet with her, she starts to drink a can of coke; which is a reference back to S1E2, when Carolyn is showing Eve the Trafalgar office and tells her “I once saw a rat drink from a can of coke there”. In the scene in S1E2, Carolyn is recruiting Eve to work for her, to try and track down Villanelle. Similarly in this scene, Carolyn is once again trying to get Eve to start working for her again; except unlike in Season 1, Eve has lost all the enthusiasm she once had for searching for Villanelle, and this time she turns Carolyn down.

After Carolyn has told Eve “she’s back, Eve, and she’s working”, a song (presumably another unreleased Unloved song) almost perfect for the scene plays. The lyrics of the song that can be heard are:

“Two minds,

What’s this,

Why do I care,

It’s over,

It’s done,

Yet it’s still there,

I don’t wanna go there,

I’ve been there before,

And I already know how it ends”

This song perfectly encapsulates what is running through Eve’s mind, and although Eve is saying nothing herself, the song is saying exactly what she’s thinking. Eve is in “two minds” about being reminded of Villanelle and being told that she’s working again. She also questions herself as to why she does “care”, as it is “over” and “done” between the two of them. However, like the song says, Eve knows “it’s still there”. She is obviously, and visibly, effected by the news about Villanelle; and despite the fact that she’s been “there before” with her and “already knows how it ends”, there’s still something so strong there that won’t allow her let her let go of Villanelle.

The song is an ideal choice, especially paired with the shot of Eve’s reflection being mirrored - showing us visually the “two minds” that Eve is in regarding her feelings for Villanelle.

Moving on, we see Villanelle being introduced to Felix and from their conversation we can see that Villanelle still thinks about Eve and is still hurt by what happened in Rome. When Felix is telling her about his boyfriend, he says “when you love somebody and they don’t love you back, it’s worse than, it’s worse than... I don’t know what its worse than, it’s really” and then Villanelle finishes his sentence by saying “shit”. Villanelle is clearly thinking about Eve when she says this, as her profession of her love for Eve was rejected in Rome, and we can see she’s visibly upset at thinking about this.

When Carolyn meets with Audrey, to ask her about Kenny, she tells Carolyn that Kenny used to sing on the toilet. This is why in S2E3 Kenny says to Eve “you weren’t listening were you?”, when he comes out of the toilets. At the end of their conversation, when Carolyn’s talking about grieving, she tells Audrey about how the “ancient celts used to mourn their loved ones with wailing and shrieking, such a public ritual for them, they weren’t embarrassed about it in the least, don’t be embarrassed, will you”. Audrey doesn’t seem like she’s embarrassed about grieving for Kenny at all, especially since she was seen crying in the toilets at Kenny’s funeral, so the comment that Carolyn makes is made because she is actually the one who feels embarrassed about grieving publicly.

When Mo finds Carolyn sitting in her car in MI6’s car park, she is eating her sandwiches and listening to ‘Dido’s Lament’ by Henry Purcell, from the opera ‘Dido and Aeneas’. Dido is a character from Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’, who dramatically kills herself by setting herself on fire when her lover, Aeneas, leaves her to sail back to his homeland. Carolyn is contrasted with Dido, as she doesn’t show her grief in such an over-the-top way as Dido does - in Carolyn’s opinion, Dido is comparable with Geraldine, both of whom are comparable to the Celts who “weren’t embarrassed about it [public mourning] in the least” (but Carolyn isn’t like them and she is embarrassed).

Carolyn also comments to Mo, “what a way to go, what a terribly death. Dido, abandoned by Aeneas, dies of grief”. Although Carolyn may not relate to Dido’s public display of her grief, she does relate deeply to (and is going through) the same intensity of grief that Dido felt.

At the end of the episode, when Konstantin goes to visit Villanelle at her new apartment in Barcelona, he says “look, now you are back with The Twelve, especially now, you have to know you're not safe...”, Villanelle interrupts him by saying “I’m fine” and he continues to tell her “you think you’re in control, but you’re not”.

Konstantin was most likely trying to warn Villanelle that Dasha and The Twelve were manipulating her, and he already knew they weren’t going to make her a keeper, like she asked for. We can see that (just as Konstantin goes on to tell Villanelle “you know I care about you”), that he does seem to genuinely care about her; as he was trying to warn her about what she was getting into, but she couldn’t focus on anything he had told her because the news that Eve was alive took the forefront in her mind.

Just like the stylistic choice to use the ‘Two Minds’ song and a mirrored shot, for Eve’s reaction to the news about Villanelle; a Dutch Angle shot is used for Villanelle’s reaction to the news that Eve is actually alive. The Dutch Angle is a stylistic choice that is often used to reflect disorientation or an unsettled feeling.

The Dutch Angle, paired with the blurring of Konstantin in the background, similarly reflects Villanelle’s disorientation and surprise at finding out Eve, who she still has deep feelings for and thought she had killed, is actually alive.

You can read my previous Killing Eve posts here:-

First Introduction to Villanelle

First Introduction to Eve

S1, E1 - Nice Face

S1, E2 - I’ll Deal With Him Later

S1, E3 - Don’t I Know You?

S1, E4 - Sorry Baby

S1, E5 - I Have a Thing about Bathrooms

S1, E6 - Take Me to the Hole!

S1, E7 - I Don’t Want to Be Free

S1, E8 - God, I’m Tired

S2, E1 - Do You Know How to Dispose of a Body?

S2, E2 - Nice and Neat

S2, E3 - The Hungry Caterpillar

S2, E4 - Desperate Times

S2, E5 - Smell Ya Later

S2, E6 - I Hope You Like Missionary!

S2, E7 - Wide Awake

S2, E8 - You’re Mine

S3, E1 - Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey

S3, E3 - Meetings Have Biscuits

S3, E4 - Still Got It

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 1]

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 2]

S3, E6 - End of Game

S3, E7 - Beautiful Monster

S3, E8 - Are You Leading or Am I? [Part 1]

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starring-movies · 4 years ago

Text

Killing Eve: Episode Analysis

*SPOILERS*

Season 2, Episode 3 - The Hungry Caterpillar

This episode begins continuing straight on from S2E2, with Eve and Konstantin in Carolyn’s house. Eve asks Konstantin where Villanelle is and Konstantin warns her to stay away from her, saying that Villanelle is like The Hungry Caterpillar and will consume her. He warns her of the path she will go on if she continues to pursue Villanelle, telling her “you still have something worth having, don’t let her take it”. Konstantin is right when he says this, as in S3E8 Eve even says herself that she’s lost what she had as a result of her obsession with Villanelle.

When Eve goes to Niko’s drinks night at the school he teaches at, she wears the blue dress that she ordered when Niko commented that he liked it, when she was searching online to see if she had killed Villanelle or not. The blue dress also has another connection with Villanelle, as it is a reminder of the black and white dress Eve wore in S1E5 that was from Villanelle. It is also notable that Eve doesn’t dress up, and S1E5 was the last time that she wore a dress.

When Villanelle is dressed up as Kim (pretending to be a member of the school’s staff) and talks to Gemma, she asks Gemma if Niko is her husband and she says “he’s married, sadly. Yeah it sucks” and Villanelle replies saying “I know exactly how you feel” - because she does know exactly how Gemma feels as she had the same problem with Anna (who was married to Max) and now Eve (who is married to Niko).

Villanelle also tells Gemma “maybe he just needs a little push. Squirt your perfume in his room so it always smells like you. Flatter him. Make him doubt his wife”. All the advice that Villanelle gives Gemma is probably things that Villanelle did herself when trying to seduce Anna and is also trying to do with Eve.

When Eve goes to speak to Kenny, to ask him to find the location of Konstantin’s family, when Kenny comes out of the toilets he says to Eve “you weren’t listening were you?”. Kenny’s question to Eve doesn’t really make any sense until S3E2, when Carolyn goes to speak to Audrey, and Audrey tells her that Kenny “used to sing to himself when he was on the loo” - so when he came out of the toilets and found Eve waiting outside, Kenny was worried that Eve had heard him singing to himself on the loo.

Eve is also very off hand, condescending and pulls rank over Kenny when he initially says that he won’t help her. One reason for Eve’s behaviour towards Kenny might be from what she tells him in S1E8, that “it makes me enraged how efficient things are when you’re a dick to people”, and she is similarly implementing this approach that she used with the hotel reception worker with Kenny.

However, Eve’s behaviour is more likely to be in line with the question Carolyn asks Eve in S1E7, “any escalation, increased attention-seeking, recklessness?”. From the beginning of Season 2 up to S2E3 alone, Eve has exhibited these things. When Eve goes behind Carolyn’s back to offer Konstantin his family’s location, she has escalated and is being reckless. Eve is also being attention seeking at the teachers’ drinks party, when she asks Niko to take her to his classroom and seduces him after she sees that Gemma likes him (never mind all the things Eve had already done in Season 1).

When Eve goes to Carolyn’s house to make the deal with Konstantin, she also rings the doorbell repeatedly out of impatience. This reminds us of the similarities being made between Eve and Villanelle through their shared impatience, as Villanelle does the same thing when she and repeatedly rings the bell at the hotel desk. This is also just like how they both played with the handle of the glove box of Konstantin’s car.

When Villanelle arrives at the hotel in Paddington, where The Twelve keep their assets in London; Larry, the man behind the reception desk of the hotel, says to Villanelle that she “must be Miss Thomson”. This is referring to the 1953 movie ‘Miss Sadie Thompson’, where the title character gets engaged, but her past haunts her relationship. This is just like Villanelle in Season 3, as when she becomes discontented with her life, she can’t escape what she has done in her past and she also can’t escape her past with her family and mother.

After Konstantin has escaped with Villanelle, Carolyn tells Eve “I don’t normally get angry, Eve. It makes me feel sleepy”; and when she’s finished speaking to Eve she yawns, subtly showing that empire trying not to, she had indeed gotten angry at Eve.

When Villanelle and Konstantin are driving away after agreeing to be 50-50 partners, Villanelle hums and sings along to ‘Listen To Your Heart’ by Roxette, which is playing on the car’s radio. Villanelle is giddie and sings because she knows that Eve is still interested in her and still trying to find her. Villanelle’s singing is again showing another similarity between Eve and Villanelle, mirroring S2E1 when Carolyn tells Eve “don’t get all giddie and start singing to the radio in my car”.

In the final scene Eve puts on the red lipstick from Villanelle and gets cut by the small blade that was inserted into it. Villanelle knows Eve, and knew that she wouldn’t be able to resist putting on the lipstick that she dropped in her bag (just like the clothes she put in Eve’s suitcase), which is why she puts the knife in the lipstick - just to “screw” with her. As the song used in the scene, ‘Screw You’ by Ramases and Selket, reflects.

The knife embedded in the lipstick is also Villanelle’s reminder to Eve of her stabbing Villanelle as well as her own playful little ‘stab back’ at Eve.

You can read my previous Killing Eve posts here:-

First Introduction to Villanelle

First Introduction to Eve

S1, E1 - Nice Face

S1, E2 - I’ll Deal With Him Later

S1, E3 - Don’t I Know You?

S1, E4 - Sorry Baby

S1, E5 - I Have a Thing about Bathrooms

S1, E6 - Take Me to the Hole!

S1, E7 - I Don’t Want to Be Free

S1, E8 - God, I’m Tired

S2, E1 - Do You Know How to Dispose of a Body?

S2, E2 - Nice and Neat

S2, E4 - Desperate Times

S2, E5 - Smell Ya Later

S2, E6 - I Hope You Like Missionary!

S2, E7 - Wide Awake

S2, E8 - You’re Mine

S3, E1 - Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey

S3, E2 - Management Sucks

S3, E3 - Meetings Have Biscuits

S3, E4 - Still Got It

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 1]

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 2]

S3, E6 - End of Game

S3, E7 - Beautiful Monster

S3, E8 - Are You Leading or Am I? [Part 1]

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37 notes · View notes

starring-movies · 4 years ago

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Killing Eve: Episode Analysis

*SPOILERS*

Season 1, Episode 4 - Sorry Baby

We start the episode at Bill’s funeral where Frank is speaking in behalf of Bill’s colleagues. Frank’s speech about Bill is particularly comfortable as Frank gets everything wrong about him, Frank says;

Bill’s colleagues “really really liked him” - there’s absolutely no sentiment in this and only says Bill’s colleagues really likes him, he doesn’t even include himself in that statement. He’s just saying the most generic things you could possibly say in a eulogy about someone you didn’t know at all.

Bill was “a very loud man” - not appropriate to say at a funeral at all really, he’s insulting him more than anything.

Bill was “a man who had time for everybody” - Eve say this isn’t correct, “no he didn’t”.

Bill “was truly a traditional man” - from Bill’s conversation with Eve about kinks, falling in love with many men and marrying his wife because he “really wanted a baby”, we know Bill was definitely not traditional

He continues to talk about Bill’s leadership and how he’d be lucky to “get a chocolate finger by lunch” because Bill “liked his biscuit Wednesdays” - again not appropriate and more of an insult than anything.

Not only does he get everything wrong but it was evident in S1E1, when Frank wasn’t invited to Bill’s birthday karaoke and Bill wanted to call Frank a “dick swab”, that they were not friends at all.

When we see Villanelle back in her apartment, she’s decorated with a big cake and balloons for Konstantin’s ‘birthday’. She did this big display to try to distract Konstantin from the fact that she had been “naughty” and gone against what he had ordered, and she did a similar thing in S1E1 when she asked him if he’d had a haircut.

The cake and balloons is also exactly what Anna said in S1E7, that Villanelle did for her after killing her husband, Max, she said “there were balloons everywhere and a huge cake and she was jumping around”. We can see that there is another parallel between these two moments; that Villanelle is pleased to have gotten rid of the person (Bill) who was standing in the way of her getting close to Eve, just as she got rid of Anna’s husband who was standing in the way of her getting closer to Anna.

We also get another example of Villanelle not just putting on a mask when shes in disguise, but her completely inhabiting whoever she’s disguising herself as. When they go into Villanelle’s bathroom to talk, Konstantin asks her “who are you?”, she says that she’s “Konstantin” but when he rips off her beard, she replies that she’s “Villanelle”. Konstantin knows he can’t speak to Villanelle properly until she’s fully out of character, which also serves to show Konstantin and Villanelle’s bond - he doesn’t just get angry with her, but instead he knows what she’s doing and goes along with the rules of her ‘game’

During Eve and Niko’s argument after Bill’s funeral about Eve being in danger at work, there’s a poster behind Niko in one of the shots. The poster seemed to be not only an odd choice of artwork for Eve and Niko’s to have in their house, but also that the poster is only in frame in one shot of Niko - right after Eve berates him saying, “I know you care. We all know you care. Sometimes I think it’s all you have”.

The artwork depicts a man inside a black bird/crow’s beak, trying to hold the bird’s beak open. This imagery seems fitting for this moment as Niko is like the man and Eve is like the bird, with Niko desperately trying to keep their life and marriage together and to not to get swallowed, but Eve ultimately ends up ‘consuming’ their marriage and crushing Niko along the way. The moment in the poster imagery though, is Niko not yet being ‘swallowed up’, as he gets by Season 3, but him still desperately trying to make their normal life work, cope with Eve’s behaviour and keep her safe.

After searching for the poster, I found that it’s a poster by the Polish artist Andrzej Pagowski for the 1985 Martin Scorsese film, ‘After Hours’. I’ve never seen the film myself but after googling it I found that the main character’s goal is just to return home despite a number of events happening through the night (just as Niko is just trying to fight for his life with Eve, despite Villanelle and all the danger she brings). The film also has a heavy theme of emasculation, which is also fitting as Eve essentially just emasculated Niko for showing his emotions of care and concern for her; where stereotypically men aren’t supposed to be vulnerable and show emotions, Eve has just insulted him for having and showing them.

When Eve goes to the butchers to meet with Carolyn, to tell Carolyn the evidence that Frank is the mole, there is a close up of a sheep statue that’s sitting outside the doorway of the shop. It’s this conversation that Eve has with Carolyn, that leads to Frank’s capture and questioning in the safe house. In this way, as soon as Eve and Carolyn have had their conversation, Frank has now become a ‘lamb for slaughter’. Eve says to Carolyn in S1E5 that Villanelle “took my phone it has the interview with Frank on it. And she’ll have the location of the safe house”. If Eve had never recorded the conversation they had with Frank at the safe house he may not have been killed as there was no proof that Frank told them anything about The Twelve and Villanelle also might not have been able to find the location of the safe house from Eve’s phone.

The sheep could also be symbolism referencing Frank being a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’. Since Frank is the mole, he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing as he’s been collecting information from MI5 amongst those who trust him and giving that information to The Twelve.

The symbolism could also be that Eve is the ‘lamb for slaughter’, as she’s getting deeper and deeper into her investigation and this breakthrough with Frank is what leads Eve, and subsequently Villanelle, to finding out that an organisation called The Twelve even exists.

The sausages in the butchers counter also foreshadows Frank’s death and castration, as well as when we find about Anna’s husband’s death and castration later on.

Villanelle is now working with Diego and Nadia after she was told in S1E3 that she isn’t allowed to work alone anymore and she arrives “a bit late” because she stopped to “deliver a package”, which was delivering Eve’s suitcase to Eve’s house. She asks Diego is he checked the sights on the gun, he cockily replies that he used it to shoot a politician so it works, but Villanelle was right he should have checked the sights because when she tries to shoot Frank she misses.

When Nadia chose Villanelle by shooting Diego in their three way stand off, it’s not really surprising that Nadia chose Villanelle over Diego. Diego wasn’t just incredibly annoying and condescending; but we saw that Nadia still liked Villanelle as when Villanelle grabbed Nadia’s wrists before they went into ‘Frank’s house’, Nadia touched her wrist where Villanelle had just held them and looked over to Villanelle walking towards the house.

We can also see how much more Villanelle considers Eve to be “special” than both Anna and Nadia, both people who Villanelle had been in ‘relationships’ with. Unlike Anna and Nadia, Eve isn’t nearly as easily manipulated. Anna must have been fairly easy to persuade into a relationship (considering all the letters that were sent between her and Villanelle), despite her having a husband and Villanelle almost certainly being underage at the time (and even if Villanelle wasn’t underage the relationship was certainly inappropriate as Anna was Villanelle’s teacher and much older than her). Nadia also only needed a little bit of persuasion for her to kill Diego and choose Villanelle, despite the fact that Villanelle betrayed Nadia by taking her place as the person who The Twelve was going to break out from prison. Whereas Eve doesn’t fall for any of Villanelle’s manipulation but sees straight through it, like in S1E5 when Villanelle says she’s trapped and doesn’t want to kill anymore, Eve says what Villanelle is saying is “bullshit”. Eve stabbing Villanelle in S1E8 shocked Villanelle, but Villanelle later tells Gabriel in S2E1 she did “to show how much she cared”, as if admiring what Eve did and considering it an act of love that no one else has done for her.

After Villanelle has convinced Nadia to trust her and then runs her over with the van, the camera shots visually show us Villanelle’s skill as a manipulator and ability to turn the tables on a situation. When Villanelle first meets Diego and spots Nadia in the wing-mirror of the van, it is Nadia in the front seat looking behind her to Villanelle - Nadia is in the position of power and has Diego’s protection, so Villanelle is outnumbered if she were to try and kill them. Then when Villanelle is running Nadia over with the van, we now get a shot of Villanelle from the wing-mirror - now Villanelle is in the position of power, she has turned Nadia against Diego and tricked Nadia into trusting her.

You can read my previous Killing Eve posts here:-

First Introduction to Villanelle

First Introduction to Eve

S1, E1 - Nice Face

S1, E2 - I’ll Deal With Him Later

S1, E3 - Don’t I Know You?

S1, E5 - I Have a Thing about Bathrooms

S1, E6 - Take Me To The Hole!

S1, E7 - I Don’t Want to Be Free

S1, E8 - God, I’m Tired

S2, E1 - Do You Know How to Dispose of a Body?

S2, E2 - Nice and Neat

S2, E3 - The Hungry Caterpillar

S2, E4 - Desperate Times

S2, E5 - Smell Ya Later

S2, E6 - I Hope You Like Missionary!

S2, E7 - Wide Awake

S2, E8 - You’re Mine

S3, E1 - Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey

S3, E2 - Management Sucks

S3, E3 - Meetings Have Biscuits

S3, E4 - Still Got It

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 1]

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 2]

S3, E6 - End of Game

S3, E7 - Beautiful Monster

S3, E8 - Are You Leading or Am I? [Part 1]

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starring-movies · 4 years ago

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Killing Eve: Episode Analysis

*SPOILERS*

Season 2, Episode 1 - Do You Know How to Dispose of a Body?

The first episode of Season 2 begins immediately with the aftermath following the end of Season 1, after Eve stabbed Villanelle in the Paris apartment.

We can see that Eve is shaken, and her judgment is off, through a number of moments in this episode. First Eve has the misunderstanding with the woman in the station who thinks she’s a drug addict, then Eve panics when she thinks Oliver is Caroyln’s child and being kidnapped, and finally her general worry that she’s killed Villanele by stabbing her.

The song playing over the scene as Eve panics that she’s killed Villanelle is ‘It’s Not You, It’s Me’ by Unloved. Some of the lyrics of the song are:

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate it,

It’s not that I don’t care,

It’s not you,

It’s me”

The lyrics reflect Eve’s motivations for stabbing Villanelle. Eve didn’t necessarily stab Villanelle through anger or that she didn’t “care” about her, but more her feeling that she had to fulfill a personal desire to prove herself.

When Villanelle gets to the french hospital, and is speaking with Gabriel, he tells her “women don’t stab”. This initial thought of Gabriel’s is part of the reason that makes Villanelle so successful as an assassin, people don’t pay any mind or suspect her, because stereotypically “women don’t stab”. Gabriel’s comment also draws attention to the fact that Eve had the opportunity to shoot Villanelle with the gun, which is a much more distant and removed method to kill someone; however, she chose to stab Villanelle, which required her to be far more intimate and closer to Villanelle, and is a much less emotionally removed way to kill someone.

Villanelle tells Gabriel that Eve “did it to show me how much she cared about me” and also says “sometimes when you love someone you will do crazy things”. Both of these things which Villanelle says shows that she thinks she understands why Eve stabbed her and also identifies with Eve’s actions, especially seeing how she similarly shoots Eve in S2E8 for not loving her back. Villanelle’s feeling that she understands Eve more now is also shown when she tells Gabriel that “I know her better now, I know her better than anyone, better than she knows herself”.

When Eve returns to her home she is dealing with her many varying emotions, and we can see she deals with the aftermath of traumatic events in the same way, as she does similar things after she is shot by Villanelle at the end of S2E8. She is doing the mechanical and repeated action of cutting vegetables, just as she works in the Korean restaurant in Season 3 (we can see from the massive piles of the vegetables that she’s been distracting herself and as been completely zoned out as she’s cut far too many). Eve also listens to Armando, the widow salesman, to be distracted, just as she watches the telescoping channel in Season 3.

When Carolyn meets with Eve, she tells her that she thought she’d “draft in the head of the fan club”, which reminds us of S1E2 when Eve tells Carolyn at the Purple Penguin that she’s “just a fan” of Villanelle’s.

Despite Eve dealing with these two events (the stabbing and being shot) in similar ways, we do see her character growth in Season 3. In this episode she allows herself to be sucked back in by Carolyn getting her back in the chase for Villanelle; but in Season 3 she stands her ground and doesn’t allow herself to get sucked back in for Villanelle, she initially only agrees to get back into the investigation to find out who Kenny’s killer is.

When Villanelle is talking to Gabriel again, she tells him “never trust people on their looks, Gabriel. You can see scary people a mile away. It’s the good people you have to worry about”. This comment can be applied to Villanelle herself, Eve and Julian (from S2E2). Villanelle doesn’t look outwardly scary, but she is able to do her job so effectively because of the ‘nice face’ facade she puts on. The comment also foreshadows the character arch that Eve goes on, she lives a normal life and looks unassuming but has a darkness deep within her. Similarly, Julian in S2E2 seems like a perfectly friendly man on the outside, but this is soon found to be not the case.

During this conversation, Villanelle also tells Gabriel “I’m not normal, you know”. This reminds us of Villanelle’s kitchen conversation with Eve in S1E5, where she tells Eve the same thing, “I know I’m not normal”. Although the things she told Eve in the kitchen scene were most likely to manipulate her, we can see from the fact that Villanelle repeats to Gabriel that she’s not “normal”, that there must have been some truth in what she said to Eve, even if she didn’t realise it herself.

Near the end of the episode, Eve and Niko have another discussion about Eve’s job. Niko says he’s accepted that Eve needs her job but tells her that she needs to open up and talk to him more. This conversation is shot in the same location and using the same shots as Eve and Niko’s conversation from S1E4; where in that scene Niko was unaccepting of Eve’s job, but now through the use of the mirroring scene structure we are shown that he has now come to accept her job, but still needs Eve to talk to him in order to make the marriage work.

Although given the opportunity to meet Niko half way and fix their marriage (since Niko is trying to make it work by telling her he’s accepted that she needs her job), Eve doesn’t take the opportunity to tell him that she stabbed Villanelle in Paris. Eve’s decision to conceal her actions is also reflected in the scene of Villanelle speaking with Hélène in S3E7. In the scene with Villanelle and Hélène, Hélène is attempting to get Villanelle to try and tell her what happened with her mother, just as Niko is trying to get Eve to tell him what happened in Paris. However, just like how Villanelle side-steps the truth and tells Hélène “I took a shit in her shoe when I was three”; in the same way Eve avoids talking about what happened and tells Niko “I bought a shit tonne of really expensive windows”.

In the final scene as Eve is lying awake in her bed and Villanelle is lying awake in the back of a car, we are visually shown how they are still being drawn to each other, still thinking about each other and are two halves of the same whole/each other’s soulmates (a theme explored in Season 3). In Eve’s shot, she turns from facing the left hand side of the frame, to look straight up; and in Villanelle’s shot, she turns from the right hand side of the frame, to look straight up - in these two separate shots they are creating a mirror of each other. ‘Sombre’ by Unloved also links this scene with the scene at the end of S1E7, as it is used in the background in both of these scenes. The scene at the end of S1E7 was a very similar scene to this one, showing that Eve and Villanelle were thinking about one another.

You can read my previous Killing Eve posts here:-

First Introduction to Villanelle

First Introduction to Eve

S1, E1 - Nice Face

S1, E2 - I’ll Deal With Him Later

S1, E3 - Don’t I Know You?

S1, E4 - Sorry Baby

S1, E5 - I Have a Thing about Bathrooms

S1, E6 - Take Me to the Hole!

S1, E7 - I Don’t Want to Be Free

S1, E8 - God, I’m Tired

S2, E2 - Nice and Neat

S2, E3 - The Hungry Caterpillar

S2, E4 - Desperate Times

S2, E5 - Smell Ya Later

S2, E6 - I Hope You Like Missionary!

S2, E7 - Wide Awake

S2, E8 - You’re Mine

S3, E1 - Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey

S3, E2 - Management Sucks

S3, E3 - Meetings Have Biscuits

S3, E4 - Still Got It

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 1]

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 2]

S3, E6 - End of Game

S3, E7 - Beautiful Monster

S3, E8 - Are You Leading or Am I? [Part 1]

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starring-movies · 4 years ago

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Killing Eve: Episode Analysis

*SPOILERS*

Season 1, Episode 3 - Don’t I Know You?

Episode 3 begins with Eve giving a description of Villanelle to an e-fit (Electronic Facial Identification Technique) worker. From Eve’s detailed description it’s evident how much she managed to take in about Villanelle from their short initial encounter. To give such attention to the small details of Villanelle’s appearance that Eve does, shows how Eve must have been attracted to Villanelle when they met. Bill picks up on this attraction from Eve’s description too, as he mentions it to Eve when they’re in the hotel room in Berlin, asking her is she’s “ever been interested in women? Not even ones with delicate features...”. Eve giving a deeper description, talking about Villanelle’s demeanour and interpreting her expression - the “lost look in her eye” and her inaccessibility - also shows how Eve has repeatedly been going over their meeting in her head.

WHile she is killing Zhang Wu [aka Fat Panda], Villanelle tells him to “look at me” so she can watch the spark drain from his eyes, just as she has done for all her kills up to this point. Just like the other kills we also watch Villanelle’s delight in this moment.

When Niko and Eve are examining whether the egg their chicken has laid is safe to eat, at the same time they are also having a second conversation about the risks at Eve’s job. Throughout the conversation Niko and Eve keep getting the egg and Eve’s job confused between which of the two subjects they are talking about. Eggs symbolise new beginnings, new life and unhatched potential, and these things are also descriptions that could be given to Eve’s job - it’s giving her a new start and is ‘unhatching’ her potential to allow her to pursue what she’s passionate about, and as the series continues she does begin a new life. However, Eve questions if the egg is too risky to eat, just as her job is risky and ultimately results in the ending of her marriage and life with Niko.

Bill’s line to his baby saying “Daddy’s going to die, isn’t he”, before he and Eve leave for Berlin, is possibly the only moment that I thought was too on the nose and too blatant in its execution.

After finding and bringing back to her room, Pamela, a woman with as many similarities to Eve as she could possibly hope for, the first thing Villanelle tells Pamela to do is take down her hair. Throughout the scene Villanelle seems to be more focused on the woman’s voluminous curly hair than anything else. The reason for which we obviously know is because women with thick, curly hair remind Villanelle of Anna, however, in this instance Villanelle seems to be purely going for Pamela’s resemblance to Eve. The woman has an American accent, is middle aged, has similar hair, and is dressed in similar clothes to Eve.

If it weren’t already clear that Villanelle was seeking out a stand in for Eve, Villanelle blatantly tells Pamela “I’m going to call you Eve, okay”. Villanelle tells Pamela that she’s going to call her Eve because of a “little biblical fantasy” she has, and it may be stretch but coincidentally Villanelle is wearing a shiny green top like the serpent that tempts Eve in the story of Adam and Eve. Villanelle is a bit like the serpent in the bible story as well, she tempts Eve away form the perfectly happy life that was already laid out for her with the promise of more and something better, just like the serpent.

After Bill apologies to Eve for losing her suitcase, she tells him that it was fine because she hated all her clothes anyway, but the scarf Niko gave her was amongst those clothes. The scarf is the green one with zebras on it, which Villanelle wears later on and is the thing that allows Bill to recognise her when he sees her at the U-Bahn.

Since Eve says she hates all her clothes, we can also assume she hated the scarf and was only upset at losing it because Niko gave it to her, but not because she actually liked it style-wise. Bill’s comment that he was doing Eve a favour from losing the scarf in the suitcase also indicates that even Bill is aware that the scarf is not Eve’s style. This shows that maybe Niko doesn’t know Eve as well as he thinks he does, and contrasts with the scene where Villanelle put out the belt for Eve to try with the blue dress - Villanelle knows Eve’s style better than Niko and she’s hardly met her. Villanelle and Eve’s connection is also shown as Eve says to Elena “you know when your outfit is missing something but you just don’t know what?”; Villanelle knows exactly what the outfit is missing and so not only does she know Eve better than Niko, but she knows Eve and what Eve herself wants better than Eve knows herself.

In Bill and Eve’s conversation with Jin, the Chinese attache, Bill say that kinks are “about someone else taking control”, which is most likely what Eve initially liked about Villanelle when she met her. Considering she was a stranger to Eve, Villanelle was so authoritative when telling Eve to “wear it down”, and Eve let Villanelle “take control” by doing as she said and leaving her hair down.

While Villanelle is listening in on Eve’s video chat with Niko, she rewinds the recording when Bill knocks on Eve’s hotel bedroom door and Niko asks if it’s Bill. Eve later tells Bill that she thinks Niko is jealous of him, and this is something that Villanelle also picked up on, evident from her rewinding the recording to listen to the exchange again. Villanelle takes a mental note of this because if Niko is Eve’s husband and even he is jealous of Bill, then Bill must be more important in Eve’s life. As a result of this, Bill has now also come in the way of Villanelle entering and having importance in Eve’s life. Bill’s interference by stopping Villanelle from following Eve onto the train at the U-Bahn, is also Villanelle’s solidification that he will continue to get in the way of her getting close to Eve and so she might as well just get rid of him now.

During Eve’s dinner with Jin, we also get a refreshing take on what is usually a pretty standard ‘someone needs information out of someone else’ scenario between a man and a woman. Often a scene like this would be entirely of each party just seducing the another throughout the whole thing; in order for one party to get the information out of the other, and for the other party to eventually be willing to give up the information. With Eve, however, she is completely no-nonsense with Jin, who is being rather heavy handed in his attempt to seduce her. Eve wears a nice dress, which was mainly just due to the fact that the place they were meeting was a nice restaurant, but she never returns Jin’s advances or uses her sexuality to get the information out of Jin. She stands her ground and is completely professional and clear from the moment she arrives, saying to him “listen, I’m going to be very upfront here... why did you want to see me, Jin? What do you know?”, continuing to add “I’m not here to entertain you. I’ve got a lot fo work to do”.

It is clear that Villanelle is playing a game with Bill when he’s perusing her after she leaves the U-Bahn. She is more than capable of shaking him off, but she purposefully walks out in the open and continuously checks behind her to make sure he’s still keeping up, so that she can make him think that he has the upper hand. The most clear moment that she does this is when she crosses in front of the tram. She quickly crosses in front of the tram to make Bill think that he’s going to lose her, but once the tram has passed we can see that Villanelle was stood still on the other side of the road waiting, and only begins to walk again once Bill is able to cross the road to catch up with her.

We can see the moment that Villanelle stops the cat and game with Bill when they’re in the club, Funklen, she stops and turns round to look at Bill deliberately, she smiles and then once again becomes focussed and makes a bee line towards him. It was also clear that Villanelle was playing the cat and mouse game earlier when she purposefully bumps into Bill, in the street outside the clothes shop, so that he could see her face.

You can read my previous Killing Eve posts here:-

The First Introduction to Villanelle

The First Introduction to Eve

S1, E1 - Nice Face

S1, E2 - I’ll Deal With Him Later

S1, E4 - Sorry Baby

S1, E5 - I Have a Thing about Bathrooms

S1, E6 - Take Me To The Hole!

S1, E7 - I Don’t Want to Be Free

S1, E8 - God, I’m Tired

S2, E1 - Do You Know How to Dispose of a Body?

S2, E2 - Nice and Neat

S2, E3 - The Hungry Caterpillar

S2, E4 - Desperate Times

S2, E5 - Smell Ya Later

S2, E6 - I Hope You Like Missionary!

S2, E7 - Wide Awake

S2, E8 - You’re Mine

S3, E1 - Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey

S3, E2 - Management Sucks

S3, E3 - Meetings Have Biscuits

S3, E4 - Still Got It

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 1]

S3, E5 - Are You From Pinner? [Part 2]

S3, E6 - End of Game

S3, E7 - Beautiful Monster

S3, E8 - Are You Leading or Am I? [Part 1]

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