“Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey” – Aired on April 12, 2020
Writer: Suzanne Heathcote
Director: Terry McDonough
Grade: 4 out of 5
Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers
One should not underestimate the complicated nature of the challenge faced by Killing Eve’s third-season showrunner Suzanne Heatchote. How to maintain – or improve upon – the success of a show that largely depended on the narrow parameters set during the two previous seasons? How much more can you milk out of a particularly restricted milieu of storytelling, mainly confined to the close proximity of two characters alone? How much longer can you depend on close-ups of the same two character’s faces, as fabulous as they may be in expressing emotions, to add to the drama?
A brand-new show with an innovative style of narrative, embellished via brilliant, quirky dialogues, can hit the jackpot with that type of restricted formula under the helm of a talented, creative storyteller like Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Season 1 essentially began with the 100% of the focus directed on the lead duo during its stellar pilot episode and ended with the spotlight shining brightly, and solely, on the lead duo again in its finale.
Already in season 2, the new showrunner Emerald Fennell loosened those parameters a tiny bit, rightfully in my opinion, and expanded beyond the cat-and-mouse game between Eve and Villanelle that had blanketed the first season from one end to the other, to avoid possible redundancy. She did so by having the two main characters drop the long-distance cat-and-mouse game for the most part and collaborate in close proximity toward a common goal without disrupting – and this is where Fennell succeeded with flying colors – the vibrant nature of complicatedly dangerous rapport between them. It was a clever way to expand the Eve-Villanelle polarity before it ran into the danger of turning myopic, while still maintaining its demarcation line with the outside universe. By the time season 2 finale’s climactic sequences filled the screens, we were once again left alone with Villanelle and Eve just like at the end of season 1 — and in my opinion, with a more coherent finish, battle me if you will!
Yet, that was still not good enough for some critics who concluded that the second season was a step down from the first.
As for me, based on the season opener, I remain optimistic about the show’s direction under the helm of yet another new showrunner, Suzanne Heathcote. As noted above, I don’t believe there is much left to squeeze a full season out of the synergy between two characters alone. That drum has been beaten to death and it may prove more efficient to put the remaining fuel in that tank to use in adding layers to the A, B, and C stories, or in supporting them, rather than exhausting it via the burden of being the driving force for all substrates yet again, and thus, flirt dangerously with redundancy.
Sure, it will (and perhaps should) ultimately be Eve and Villanelle co-occupying the larger role of being the locomotive for the long arc. But if the pattern of “Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey” is any indication of season 3 (read: multiple storylines advancing all at once with one or more developing outside of Eve or Villanelle’s influence; substantial time allocated to the growth of characters via scenes not involving the lead duo), we may be in for another treat. I take my hat off to Heathcote for moving beyond the strict parameters established in the first two seasons, if (a big “if”) that had indeed been part of her plans and that the premiere was not just an anomaly.
Who would have thought, for example, that we would have a Villanelle assassination that did not, for once, exist solely for the purpose of showing how innovative and dexterous she is when killing her victims? Didn’t we have that for two seasons, almost every episode? Don’t get me wrong, I watched those scenes with great interest and admiration for the most part, but it’s time to move forward, and her execution scene of the “agitator” (more on that later) in this episode does just that. It actually carries the purpose of foregrounding her connection to another character, with undertones of portraying Villanelle as the fruit of someone else’s labor, rather than that of putting her assassination prowess alone on a pedestal. I’m all for this type of tweaking-the-narrative, yes please! Time to expand the show’s characters and universe, which in return, should actually help Villanelle and Eve remain nifty and fresh as the lead duo.
This is not to say that “Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey” clicks on all cylinders. There are nods back into well-known tropes such as the one where a sympathetic character kicks the bucket for the hook-the-viewer effect via the use of the emotional jump-start to the season. A couple of inconsistencies also pop up, beginning with the character portrayal of Carolyn (more on this below) who has so far been Killing Eve’s most enigmatic and endearing personage beyond the lead duo. Without further ado, let’s delve into the outing.
The opening act shows a young Soviet gymnast named Dasha (Catalina Cazacu) practicing in a gym in Moscow in 1974, under the tutelage of a coach who simultaneously pushes and scolds her in the way that only male coaches beyond the iron curtain are stereotypically known for doing back in the Communist era. After practice, Dasha takes out her frustration, lethally, on a young male gymnast back at the locker rooms, finishing him off by pouring a sack of hand powder down his upturned face and open mouth. That is essentially our introduction to the present-day Dasha (played by the seasoned and highly skilled Harriet Walter) who, as we learn quickly, used to be the young Villanelle-Oksana’s mentor.
Next, we find ourselves at a wedding in a lavish chateau in Spain featuring Villanelle and a top drawer named Maria (Carmen Montero) as the two brides (Villanelle first appears on screen following a dramatic – and terrific – panning shot ending on her). Maria is giving a speech to the invitees during which she praises how the first words out of Villanelle’s mouth when they first met at an airport were, “I’m going wherever you are going.”
You would think that her soon-to-be-wife would return the favor with an equally romantic speech, right? Of course not! This is Villanelle, so chuck ‘conventional’ out the window! In fact, she gives the type of speech that you’d want anyone but your fiancé to give on your wedding day. She starts by telling everyone that Maria’s “great shoes” were the first thing that she noticed at first sight. She then moves on to praise her future wife’s “great house, pool, tailor, hair-dresser,” and just what an “all-around excellent package” she is! Isn’t that lovely to hear, hmmm Maria?
As if that were not enough, she goes off on a tangent about her “bad break-up” with her “ex” (we can guess who that is) culminating in the chilly anecdote, “I’m so much happier now that she is dead.” Did I also mention that she keeps on getting distracted during her speech by someone moving in the background through the corridors, thus sounding even more cringeworthy? If you feel ill at ease just by remembering the scene as you read this, imagine how people at the party felt listening to her. Or, instead of imagining, you could just re-watch and observe their faces at the end of Villanelle’s speech when her bride is the only one laughing and clapping. Priceless! Kudos to the commitment of the extras in that scene!
After getting unsettled twice more by the passing mysterious figure in the back corridors, Villanelle notices Dasha standing by one of the doorways and charges her screaming like a maniac. They start fighting and mayhem follows as others join in and fight each other in a modern-day version of a fight scene in a crowded bar similar to those found in pre-80s action movies (except filmed with better equipment and using modern techniques). Villanelle and Dasha are eventually kicked out of the party and driven away in the wedding car imported from the 1960s of America. Needless to say, Maria will not be Villanelle’s wife anytime soon. This whole scene is a hoot, and frankly, a perfect re-introduction to Villanelle.
A later conversation between the two at Dasha’s place in Barcelona serves as the info-dump scene with regard to their relationship’s background. Dasha asks Villanelle – to whom she refers by Oksana – to come and work for her organization. “We have been watching you since Rome,” says Dasha to convince her ex-student. “I can get you more of everything. Money, travel, apartment. All better than you’ve ever had,” she affirms. Villanelle, who was not born yesterday, suspects that Dasha has a hidden agenda behind convincing her to work for “them,” whoever that is (the Twelve, likely). She is not wrong! Dasha’s hopes of returning to Russia rest on her convincing Oksana to work for “them.” She confesses to being ready to do anything to achieve that goal. However, Villanelle does not come cheap. She wants to be a “Keeper.” We are left wondering what being a “Keeper” really entails, but we do learn that it refers to a higher position in the echelon than the one held by Dasha or the one that Konstantin used to hold back in season 1. She cannot promise Oksana the position, but she’ll “work on it.” Villanelle has one unshakable condition: Dasha must drop Oksana and call her Villanelle.
The more we spend time with Dasha, the better we understand how Villanelle has turned into the prolific and eccentric assassin that she is today. It is the episode’s most entertaining couple of minutes during which the viewer is treated to two Villanelles, the one we already know, and her older version. They are extremely similar in how they manifest their penchant for infantile behavior while engaged in psychopathic tricks and games. Even their methods of killing resemble as we see both finishing their respective killings in this episode with the dumping of powder-y substances down their victims’ upturned faces and throats.
Let’s leave the two loonies for a moment and catch up with the others, starting with Carolyn who walks into some type of a meeting where she is being demoted!
Yes, you read it right.
The very Carolyn who seemed quite pleased with the outcome of the Rome operation in the 2nd-season finale, out-smarting just about anyone and everyone in the ordeal, including Villanelle and Eve, the same Carolyn who appeared to stand above office politics and oh-so-smoothly remain a step ahead of everyone for two seasons, yes that Carolyn, is now suddenly getting demoted!
A muck-a-muck named Diane (Maria McErlane), above her in MI-6’s hierarchical structure, has apparently been “waiting for years to strike” Carolyn down, and now is her chance. We witness Diane scolding Carolyn with disdain, listing the infractions committed by Carolyn and those under her, most of which we know from season 2. Carolyn had evidently not accounted for all possible outcomes and planned accordingly, contrary to Carolyn’s versions of season 1 and 2 would have led one to believe. Diane seems to enjoy rubbing salt to Carolyn’s wound when she asks, “Well, Carolyn, what on earth do you have to say for yourself?” Caroline sighs and stares blankly.
Making matters worse for Carolyn is the appearance of Paul (Steve Pemberton), a pestilent “Whitehall Warrior” (Carolyn’s term) with whom she obviously shares some bad blood from the past. He has been called upon to “run” Carolyn’s desk, although Carolyn promptly corrects him, saying that he is there to merely “oversee” it. The delightful Pemberton is on fire portraying the annoying male character Paul during their sarcasm-filled conversation here, as he cracks misogynist jokes and constantly invades Carolyn’s personal space, patting her shoulder, etc.
Then begins the our peek into Eve’s piss-poor daily grind, starting with her visit to the grocery store followed by one of her bags popping open and its contents spilling onto the sidewalk as she is returning back to her flat, not to mention the contempt flowing her way via scornful stares or brief snarks from other pedestrians. Her living standards have fallen by the wayside and she works in the humid, smelly kitchen of a Korean restaurant managed by a friend of her aunt.
Nonetheless, she wants neither MI-6 nor Carolyn back in her life. Certainly not Villanelle! She left all that behind… or, so she claims!
Thankfully for Eve, there is always Kenny who is sticking around. He now works as a journalist – “open-source investigator” is his official title – for a publication named Bitter Pill, with an emblematic nerd named Bear (Turlough Convery) as his closest buddy and colleague. He also keeps a file on his computer about (read: investigating into) the Twelve.
Kenny visits Eve in her messy little apartment in a scene that is meant to serve as info dump more than anything else. We learn the backstory of how Eve made it back to England after Villanelle left her to die in Rome as the curtain came down on the 2nd-season finale. We also learn that she visits Niko** every few days. Kenny mentions his digging into the Twelve but gets shut down quickly by Eve exclaiming that she has no intention to go “down that road again.”
**We briefly catch up with Niko when Eve visits him in what appears to be a rehab center/resort for… what exactly, I am not sure (depression?) In any case, he is not doing fine and he is bitter toward Eve. I mean, lemon-lime bitter. Why they are not already divorced, I don’t know, nor do I care to.
An ironic exchange takes place as Kenny is leaving when he tells Eve, “I think you could do with people, or something […] You just don’t seem very happy, that’s all.” How quickly has Kenny forgotten that Eve alienated everyone close to her including Kenny, intentionally or not, with her actions throughout the first two seasons!
And then, there is Konstantin who, for the moment, seems to be “there” and nothing more, not that you will see any long-time fans of the show complain about having him back. He is in a souvenir shop managing several phones in his pockets that ring non-stop while trying to buy a gift for his daughter Irina – remember her? We can tell from the message he receives on his phone later at his place, and the hidden note in his food delivery order, that he is in cahoots with Russians, although he is still in England for some strange reason and not in Russian with his family.
Table set, menu served, moving forward.
Dasha later tells Villanelle that she contacted her superiors, so to speak, and that they are open to the idea of giving Villanelle “full benefits.” It’s just that she must prove herself again, meaning, show them that she has lost nothing of her skills as a bona fide assassin. It’s a “process,” confirms Dasha who then informs Villanelle of her next target, a political agitator (played by Carolina Valdés) running a coffee-tea-spice shop in Girona. Villanelle, who apparently speaks Catalan too, visits the shop disguised as the local package delivery person and fulfills, moments later, her own long-running quota of committing at least one outlandish murder per outing.
A second murder back in England closes out the episode in a shocking way, and by doing so, launches one of the season’s main storylines, I presume. While this is not a new method in TV storytelling as noted above (ending the season opener by killing a main or a recurring character), the sequence works well thanks to solid camera work and a harrowing score accompanying the scene during which Eve enters the murky office floor to meet Kenny, except that Kenny is heard landing fatally on the ground outside, after falling off the building’s rooftop!
Although we do not know the who, the why, or the how, we can safely rule out two possibilities: (1) Kenny did not commit suicide, because it would not behoove anyone involved with Killing Eve to even suggest that narrative, (2) someone surreptitiously entered Kenny’s office floor while he was working at his desk, prior to Eve’s arrival, which was telegraphed via the earlier scene at the office when Kenny was alerted by a sound (which, I must admit, partially ruined for me the whaaaat effect Kenny’s death was intended to produce).
Are you ready for the rest of Season 3? I am. Bring it on!
Last-minute thoughts:
— Hugo is suing MI-6 for injuries incurred in Rome. I have a feeling that will be the last time we will hear of him, at least this season.
— In case you are new to the show and noticed Kenny’s strained relationship with his mom, it was not jovial prior to this season either.
— Nods to past characters Frank and Fat Panda on Kenny’s computer, two of Villanelle’s first-season victims.
— Maria is noted as “Spanish bride” in the credits, although her name is mentioned in the episode.
— One bit of info about Carolyn revealed (unless I missed it in the first two seasons): she has gotten married and divorced multiple times.
— Noteworthy dialogue pick:
Agent Mo Jafari (Raj Bajaj) about Paul: “So we’re basically been overseen by a massive wanker.”
Carolyn: “Precisely.”
Until the next episode…
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