“I’ll Deal with Him Later” – aired on April 15, 2018
Writer: Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Director: Harry Bradbeer
Grade: 4 out of 5
Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers
In the series premiere “Nice Face,” Killing Eve’s showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge painted a fascinating portrait of the two leads, Eve and Villanelle, and complemented them with a few other singular characters, thus building the internationally flavored ensemble that is bound to take us on a thrilling ride for the remainder of the season. Last night’s episode, “I’ll Deal with Him Later,” focused more on plot-advancement, getting us to the point where the duel is staged, and the participants are ready for combat.
We sensed from the pre-season promos that Eve and Villanelle were going to become aware of each other’s identities and come face-to-face early in the series. The latter took place in the pilot episode, the former in the second one. It’s a gusty call by Waller-Bridge, and a refreshing one. Unlike in most other crime-driven serializations, Killing Eve is not centered on one major crime and features no mysterious killer(s) to identify through tedious evidence-searching sequences.
The primary theme seems to lie less in the who or the why than the how. More specifically, how quickly can Eve stop Villanelle? Because our assassin’s killing spree switches to high gear, adding three more victims to the ranks of the fallen.
Before I delve into the details, may I pause for a moment and underline the stellar performance by Jodie Comer in this episode? A sociopath, a psychopath, a maniac, a skilled nutcase, a deranged killer, an infantile lunatic, you pick one, and Jodie Comer makes sure you see that Villanelle on your screen. She is terrifying, yet charming. How is that possible? you might ask. Her first and second victims in the episode could tell you, if only they were still alive – one did not even care to talk to her at first. In their dying moments, both victims stare directly into the eyes of their killer who is either shivering with pleasure or smiling at them with a wondrous look.
At least, Sebastian (Charlie Hamblett), Villanelle’s newfound boy-toy, gets to expire without ever discovering the horrifying side of the woman by whom he was smitten.
Konstantin, Villanelle’s handler, and alive for now, could also tell you all about it. “I’ll Deal with Him Later” builds on the rapport between the two and it is not as chirpy and harmonious as it appeared to be in “Nice Face.” She easily tricks him with a hug to pick a card out of his pocket. She also does not hesitate to put a knife on his throat while acting as playfully – yet menacingly – as Villanelle only can. Konstantin, you see, is expendable, as Villanelle calmly reminds him.
Konstantin, for his part, is leery of Villanelle’s mental condition – I am glad someone is – to the point of requiring her to get “assessed” by a psychological evaluator. This brings us to the most petrifying scene of the hour. It is not so because there is any violence in it – although there are a few morbid images on which Villanelle is asked to comment. It is not so because the dialogue between the three characters reveal any shocking secrets either.
It is petrifying because Comer as Villanelle nails the part, and because the director Harry Bradbeer makes sure the camera angle oscillates at the right moments between the faces of Konstantin and Villanelle, and the larger shot of the three talking. The presence of the masked anxiety dominating the interview is skillfully conveyed to the viewers.
Having observed Villanelle laugh at her own cynical joke about the picture of a dead dog hung by the throat, the evaluator concludes that “she is fine” at first. We are not completely sure if the evaluator means that she is stable enough or that she is indeed a bonified psycho. Her behavior during the interview points more to the latter, not to mention the dress she chose to wear for the occasion.
Konstantin, however, is not convinced. He says “wait” and takes out one last image from his pocket. The evaluator hands it to her and asks, “do you still have dreams about Anna?” Villanelle appears to take it lightly, but the evaluator has now changed his mind: “I won’t sign you off.” The closing shot of Villanelle’s face shows that she is not pleased.
We do not know who Anna is for now. I certainly hope that future episodes will add context to that name and not leave it there because, for all the excellent acting done by Comer in this episode, Villanelle’s character-growth flirted a little too close for comfort with that of a comic-book villain. I understand that we are not supposed to focus too much on how the victims are chosen – at least that is what the first two episodes seem to encourage us to do – but if the murder scenes settle into the pattern of existing solely for the purpose of putting on display the twisted mind of Villanelle, Comer is facing an uphill battle.
She has already shown us more than once – wonderfully I might add – Villanelle’s idiosyncratic behavior in action. The opening scene in Bulgaria and the later murder of Carla De Mann are executed to perfection by the showrunners and the actors, but we have no idea why these people are picked by the organization employing Villanelle. Comer’s performance and good directorial skills can only carry so many of these murders, if they only continue to exist as procedural expositions.
Speaking of dangerous paths for characters, I am also a bit concerned with Frank’s growth as one. We find out that the boss at MI5, who fired Eve and Bill at the end of the first episode, had recently lost his wife. Bill and Eve feign running into Frank and Elena at a bar. It was actually set up by the three of them so that they could probe the boss for information. The scene is absolutely hilarious. Frank, who naively thought that Elena asked him out because she felt sympathy for him – Elena clarifies that she did not ask him “out out” – eventually catches on the ruse and murmurs, “God! I’m a knob.”
In his ensuing anger, Frank reveals that he never saw the CCTV for a previous murder because there was not any, and furthermore, that he did it because he was sick of Eve “piping up” her theories “any time there was a sniff of conspiracy in the air.” He calls her a “tiresome think-bucket.”
Kudos to Waller-Bridge for squeezing numerous droll-mockery quotes into each episode. Other than the ones in the above scene and those in the earlier scene between Eve and Martens, “dick-swab” and “monkey-dick,” also deserve honorable mentions, just to mention a couple.
Unfortunately, the scene also makes one wonder how a buffoon like Frank came to helm an organization that demands a high-degree of intelligence and acumen from its employees. It certainly makes me wonder if he is the right character on which the spotlight should shine for comic relief. I truly hope that this particular characterization for Frank is unique to this episode and not the beginning of a pattern.
In the meantime, Martens, probably the smartest and the most composed character in the show, recruits Eve and forms a small, secret team around her, composed of Bill, Elena, and a certified computer geek in Kenny (Sean Delaney). Just like that, Eve is fired by MI5 and hired by MI6. Fiona Shaw is at the top of her game as Martens. The way she dryly engages Eve in a dialogue at the café is something to behold.
Both Eve and Villanelle experience their a-ha moments to discover each other’s identity. Eve’s moment is telegraphed a minute or so in advance as it arrives at the heels of her discussing with the team the possibility of a blond woman’s presence in the previous murder scenes. At that moment, she needs to go to the bathroom. And of course, as she lets her hair loose and looks at herself in the mirror, she suddenly remembers the blond “nurse” she met in the bathroom at the hospital while doing the same thing in the previous episode. Villanelle did, after all, advise her to keep her hair down.
Somehow, Konstantin knows immediately that not only “a woman in London is leading a department just to find” Villanelle, but he even knows her name. Enough for Villanelle to get on the internet and find a picture of Eve and have her own a-ha moment.
The impact of this closing sequence, with the back-and-forth focus on Eve and Villanelle as they become aware of each other, is played magnificently by the two women. It does, however, come across as a time-saving plot device, unless the show explores it further in the future. To our knowledge, the team of four, led by Martens, are the only ones aware of their existence since less than 24 hours ago.
How did Konstantin get a hold of this information so quickly? Could Elena, Bill, or Kenny be a mole? At this point, this possibility seems far-fetched. Then what? Even if one of them were the mole and supplied the information, it sure traveled at warp-speed through the grapevine to reach Konstantin, and finally Villanelle. For whom does Konstantin work anyway? Bill wonders that too, but Eve is fixated on Villanelle. “I’ll Deal with Him Later” poses these questions but leaves the answers to the later episodes.
Last-minute thoughts:
– Sebastian says to Villanelle after sex, while affectionately rubbing the bruise on her eye, “I’m never going to hurt you.” Oh, my dear Sebastian!
– As Eve is fumbling one word after another in the café, Martens waves her right left and right and speaks: “Say it!” Brilliant!
– Martens saying “You seem to know a lot about female assassins” to Eve is the understatement of the year. Eve stutters in response, eventually justifying it with the following sentence, the only complete one among her utterances: “I am a fan.” Sandra Oh rocks!
– Whenever Villanelle faces a sticky situation or a pointed question, her go-to-phrase relates to menstruation. Well played Madame Assassin!
– The reaction of the woman in the bus when she notices the brutal scene in progress in the window of the building in Bulgaria is peculiar. I would love to know what Bulgarians thought of that scene.
– Elena glancing at Bill with an accusatory look after Eve leaves the room and Bill feigning innocence with a “what?” should make you chuckle.
Until next episode…