“God, I’m Tired” – aired on May 27, 2018
Writer: Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Director: Damon Thomas
Grade: 3 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

In the beginning of my review of “Sorry Baby” (episode 4), I raved about how efficiently Phoebe Waller-Bridge and her crew moved the narrative forward through the first half of the season, the last one ending with the promise of an upcoming face-off between Eve and Villanelle.

I also posed the following question: “Can the Eve-vs-Villanelle duel, by itself, carry the last four episodes?”

Then came “I Have a Thing About Bathrooms” (ep. 5), featuring that terrific one-on-one scene between the two leads that took place in Eve’s house. It was the zenith of season one, 12 minutes of sublime performances by Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer that left the viewers breathless. Yet, we still had three more episodes to go.

I was further alarmed following the airing of “Take Me to the Hole” (ep. 6). It was the weakest episode in the season leading up to the season finale. The storyline stumbled more than once in it, which led me to note that the show could risk falling victim to its own standards of excellence set by the first half of the season.

As I feared, the season finale “God, I’m Tired” failed to deliver the smooth landing that Killing Eve’s otherwise outstanding season deserved. I could claim to have seen this coming – I expressed it more than once since ep. 4 – due to the narrative structure of the season that was bound to leave the finale with little capital other than another showdown between Eve and Villanelle, but I would be partially lying because “I Don’t Want to Be Free,” the penultimate episode, assuaged some of my concerns by setting the stage for what I perceived, at the time, to be a strong finish to the season.

I turned out wrong, but the episodic structure of the overall narrative was only a small part of the problem. Although not devoid of great moments, “God, I’m Tired” single-handedly misfired on several fronts.

The episode ignored a couple of important arcs, wrote off (if we are to believe Carolyn) a main character in a bizarre scene, dismissed from the screen, less than thirty minutes into its running, the only other fascinating one left in the show (Fiona Shaw’s Carolyn) since Bill’s death in the third episode, and reduced the roles of three other ones down to little or nothing. It drove deliberately toward an extended Eve-Villanelle showdown when it did not have to – see the end of my episode 7 review.

It was a risky move to put all the eggs in one basket, because we already had a first-rate face-off between Eve and Villanelle three episodes ago. If another such face-off was going to occupy the season finale’s final minutes, it needed to eclipse the thrill of the first one. It did not. It was not even close.

It’s unfortunate because the beginning of “God, I’m Tired” showed promise when we joined Villanelle and Irina, Konstantin’s daughter, played delightfully by Yuli Lagodinsky, as they were squabbling over how they wanted each other dead. Never mind that Villanelle had a gun pointed at Irina’s face as they were bickering back and forth, because their dialogue was hilarious and worth every second. Irina was supposedly Villanelle’s hostage, but she is so “annoying,” as her dad confirmed, that it became hard to tell which one of the two was the real hostage. Kudos to Lagodinsky and Comer.

That was followed by another superb scene involving Eve and Kenny showing up in Carolyn’s hotel room unannounced. They catch Konstantin holding a hairdryer and Carolyn walking out of the bathroom as she clips her earrings on. Everyone is momentarily shocked to see each other and what follows for the next 30 seconds is a masterpiece dialogue, between four characters with their jaws on the floor, consisting of a succession of whaaaaat? type of questions coming out of their mouths, most of them going unanswered. Having watched the scene several times, I still marvel at the its brilliance; it is nothing less than Killing Eve at its best.

It should not go unnoticed that throughout the season when Eve and Carolyn are part of the same conversation, Oh and Shaw steal the moment with their brilliant ability to sound so natural while delivering the quirkiest lines (remember, for example, their first meeting at a café in “I’ll Deal with Him Later” and the awkward one as they come out of their hotel rooms and run into each other in “I Don’t Want to Be Free”).

Villanelle and Irina eventually arrive at Anna’s house because Villanelle (Oksana as Anna knows her) wants to reclaim the passport and money hidden in a jacket that she sent to Anna years ago. Instead, she finds a note in the jacket saying, “Sorry Baby,” surely left by Eve who, as we know from the previous episode, had found the jacket and taken possession of the passport and money.

This is also the first time Anna and Villanelle see each other since the tragic event that caused Villanelle/Oksana to get imprisoned years ago, leaving both of them emotionally scarred. Apparently, Anna carried a heavier emotional baggage than her Oksana did, because with Villanelle leading the “I-point-my-gun-at-you” count by 2-1, she decides to shoot herself, stifling the narrative potency of her storyline that had been so cleverly built until that point.

This is also around the time in “God, I’m Tired” when the writing begins to suffer (and this is coming from a huge Waller-Bridge fan). For almost seven full episodes, we reveled in Killing Eve’s ability to maintain a perfect balance between elements of quirk, comedy, and story development. The first half of the finale seemed to live up to that expectation until Anna’s death. From that point forward, while the quirk factor still remains in high gear, the comedy one loses steam, and the storyline turns clunky.

Konstantin and Eve have conversations which amount to a little more than nothing as they are driving toward Anna’s house. Eve asks pointed questions to Konstantin and it leads to back-and-forth chortles. I cringed every time Eve did it, not because Oh cannot chortle, but because it appeared so out of character for Eve (not for Konstantin though).

Konstantin summarizes the driving sequence well when Eve points a gun at him and asks for information while he is taking a piss (and ‘treats’ her – not us, thank heavens – to a view of his penis because, well, Eve would not let him put his hands down at first to “put it back”): “All I know is, that I want my daughter, they want me, and you want them. So, bring me to Irina and they will come to us, ok?” Thank you, Konstantin, for echoing my thoughts at the time: Can we please get on with this?

But “they” never show up when Konstantin and Eve meet up with Villanelle and Irina in a fairly crowded café. “They,” by the way, represents another story arc that seemed to be cleverly built throughout the season, only to have its potency fizzle out in the finale. We never learn anything about “they,” and unless the writing room decides to provide a worthy pay-off in season 2 with regard to who “they” or “The Twelve” are, this incomplete storyline will remain a thorn in season 1’s side.

Another (possibly) dropped storyline is the letter that Katia slipped under the door in prison. There was a considerable amount of attention focused on it in the preceding episode, so I refuse to believe that it will not play a role in the second season. The brief moment in this episode when Kenny notices the guard picking it up on closed-circuit footage gives me hope.

Speaking of Kenny, poor chap may have as well not been in this episode considering how insignificant he is in the few scenes that he appears. He is basically a bystander listening to others speak, barely a few words coming out of his mouth, not to mention that he gets scolded by his mom on the street. For good measure, Carolyn also tells him (and Eve) at the airport to “pack up the London office” when they arrive, because she plans to see the Villanelle case through on her own.

Eve, of course, has other plans because she just received a voicemail from Elena, another main character that does not even get to appear on screen in the finale (hey, at least we hear her voice which is more than we can say about the hapless husband Niko). Elena, through some impressive investigating, obtained Villanelle’s address in Paris, and you know that is where Eve plans to head. In a typical plot-device move, Carolyn and Kenny walk ahead of Eve into the plane from the gate, so that Eve can conveniently decide not to board behind them. Carolyn, one of the smartest characters in the series who should be well aware of Eve’s penchant for ignoring directives, apparently did not think of that possibility.

Konstantin, Irina, Anna, Carolyn, all dismissed from the screen within the first 30 minutes. Just like that we are left with Eve and Villanelle for the extended face-off part deux.

I know that many critics who are enamored with the show found some deep meaning in these last 10 minutes to justify the mayhem that took place in Villanelle’s apartment. Don’t get me wrong, I am also a fan of Killing Eve. It is one of my top three favorite shows of 2018 so far. Nevertheless, I cannot comfortably dismiss my impartiality when I put my reviewer hat on. The profound intellectual interpretation made through the narrow philosophical angle of one person with an emotional attachment to the show in question, especially with regard to the actions taken by characters in it, carries less weight for me than the coherence of the actual narrative.

Eve’s trashing of Villanelle’s Parisian apartment while downing a bottle of champagne is neither narratively coherent, nor gripping. One could say that she was possibly overwhelmed by the sense of power that she felt for the first time over Villanelle. After all, she got to be the one to invade the assassin’s personal space for a change (or… something). Okay, so what’s new? We already knew that she was totally obsessed with Villanelle, and vice-versa. She had sacrificed her marriage, her job, put her colleagues in harm’s way, and lied to her boss and others, all in the name of getting close to her “girlfriend” who, by the way, had savagely killed Eve’s closest friend. I am not sure what this awkward act of wrecking her house adds to that perception. I am with Villanelle all the way when she arrives home and sarcastically asks Eve, “So you trash my apartment because you like me so much?”

The better part of this otherwise lackluster face-off comes in its middle portion when the two women confess their attraction to each other, in their own unique ways. Eve recites the few sentences that we heard a number of times in the promos before even the show began and Villanelle tells Eve that she masturbates thinking about her. It’s brilliant acting by Comer and Oh. Once the confessions are over though, we dive back into the depths of codswallop.

Eve lays the gun down in the bed, the same gun that she had pointed to Villanelle earlier when she told her, not once but twice, that she was going to kill her. Villanelle picks up the gun, holds it, caresses it, and embraces it with both hands as she lays down next to Eve. At Eve’s request, Villanelle promises not to kill her and puts the gun on the floor, out of reach.

Right when things appear to be turning romantic, Eve stabs Villanelle in the abdomen with a knife, driving it deep into her flesh with an expression of hatred in her face. If this is supposed to be a “wow” moment, it succeeded for a split second, only because it made no sense (I actually murmured “seriously?”). The woman who uncontrollably shakes when holding a gun, who had the chance to kill Villanelle more than once in this episode alone (she also pointed a gun at her at the café earlier) but did not, who just got everything off her chest that she wanted to tell Villanelle, and let the gun go out of her hand, allowing Villanelle to pick it up, now decides to turn vicious out of nowhere and kill her via an act that requires a much bigger effort than pulling a trigger? She even gets on top of Villanelle so that she can use her weight to drive the knife deeper for crying out loud.

Oh, but hang on. Our touring of Codswallop City is not yet over. As Eve rams the knife deeper into Villanelle, she suddenly freaks out, exclaims “Oh God! Oh God!” She gets off Villanelle in a hurry, and runs into the kitchen, in order to find something to save the woman she brutally stabbed no more than a few seconds ago. Poor Bill must have been rolling in his grave.

Villanelle, bleeding profusely, falls off the bed as her stomach area turns red, grabs the gun on the floor, and begins shooting at Eve who, for her part, hides behind the wall. And somehow, Villanelle, who was, I repeat, bleeding profusely and rolling on the floor in pain while shooting, disappears from the apartment in a matter of six seconds (literally).

Oh-kay…!

It is an understatement to say that I can’t wait for the second season of this wonderful series. I am just not sure that I feel that way because the first one has been a great ride or because I want to forget as soon as possible the bitter taste left behind by the finale. Okay, I admit, I am exaggerating. Of course, I want more Killing Eve simply because it is a fabulous show. I just hope that season 2 will not lay all its cards down early and exhaust its creative pathways within the early episodes like season 1 did, and as such, will have a better shot at nailing its season finale.

Last-minute thoughts:

– Almost three minutes go by from the moment Villanelle puts a gun to Irina’s head, creating panic in the café, until she finally runs out and away. Thanks to the showrunners for depicting, for a change, a more realistic response time for the police and not ruining the moment. In countless TV shows, cops laughably arrive within seconds of a breaking incident.

– Eve, in an effort to convince a scared Kenny into confronting Carolyn with her, attempts to taunt him with, “Are you frightened of your own mother?” Kenny replies, “Of course! Isn’t everyone?” The brief expression of letdown in Eve’s face is priceless.

– I am glad that Sandra Oh got nominated for an Emmy award, I truly am. But as far as I am concerned, Jodie Comer stole the show, and apparently, there are others who thought so too.

– I missed Bill in every episode since his death. I did not miss Frank one bit. I also hope I will never have to worry about missing Carolyn or Elena for the remainder of the series.  

Until next episode…

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“I Don’t Want to Be Free” – aired on May 20, 2018
Writer: Rob Williams
Director: Damon Thomas
Grade: 4,5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

Phoebe Waller-Bridge and writers have taken us on an exceptional ride since the season began seven weeks ago, and the road continued to get rockier with episode number 7. Nothing is what it seems, and nobody is who they appear to be – except one, more on that shortly. One delightfully executed revelation after another keeps us guessing, not about who the killer is or why the killing takes place, as is the case in most spy thrillers or crime series, but rather about the dubious nature of the pursuers.

As far as penultimate episodes are concerned, you will not find a much better one than “I Don’t Want to Be Free.” It’s not pitch-perfect but it mobilizes all the uncertainties accumulated about the show’s main characters over the six previous episodes, and sets the stage for the season finale that has the potential to go in several different directions.

The most noteworthy shift over the course of the last few episodes is the degree to which the relevance of Villanelle’s identity seems to have diminished. For weeks, many fans of the show obsessed over who she truly is, the place where she comes from, and the reason why she has turned into psychopathic killer. However, by doing so, we may have underestimated her candidness while overrating the intentions of the other characters.

Villanelle is the only character who has remained loyal to her original persona. She is essentially transparent in what she does and in what drives her. She embraces her job, she talks about it with others, and she announces to her victims that she is about to kill them (she did it again in this episode). She certainly lies less than all the other main characters and she does not even worry about showing her face in crime scenes or to the people pursuing her.

She is truly emerging as the only forthright character in the show, so to speak. As viewers, in some bizarre way, we may connect with her simply because she is often in the dark about the people surrounding her, in the same way that we feel when we see them on screen. Take Konstantin, for instance. We learn about Konstantin’s hidden identities and true purpose at the same pace as Villanelle does. Remember when she asked him at the end of “I Have a Thing About Bathrooms” about his connection to The Twelve? We were probably wondering the same thing ourselves. 

Villanelle’s instincts did not betray her. Konstantin is a shady character. He has his finger dipped in every sauce laid out on the figurative table and seems to know everyone sitting around it. He apparently (and masterfully) juggles different identities. He is Villanelle’s handler, a member of Russian intelligence, Carolyn’s contact person in Russia and, it appears, her outlet for sexual relief.

Speaking of Carolyn, she carries quite a few secrets too. She emerges as a double-spy, slash, traitor, slash, high-ranking member of a secret society, slash, je ne sais quoi. Eve, for her part, may not be as skilled as Carolyn and Konstantin in carrying secrets, but she has shown a number of times that, as long as ends justify the means, she is willing to lie, scheme, put her colleagues in harm’s way, or spy on her boss based on flimsy conjecture (that she turned out right at the end does not erase that fact).

And let’s not spare Kenny either who is, for some reason yet unknown, helping Eve spy on his mother to whom he refers to as “Carolyn.” Have I missed something there? He shares with Eve, his mother’s old photos “hidden in a safe behind her bookcase at home.” He also shows her, Carolyn’s “filthy” private correspondence with Konstantin from the late 1970s, that includes the term “butterfly bead.” Kenny says he “decided not to google that.” I concur with him.

As noted before, Villanelle is the only one without a second skin to peel away. Her true self is on display, as disturbing as it may be. She is an undeviating assassin surrounded by fake people. Even her new cellmate Inga (Emily McIllwraith) is a fake. She feigns being catatonic, with a razor hidden in her mouth, waiting for the opportunity to kill Villanelle. Instead, it’s Villanelle who eliminates her by puncturing her jugular vein with her teeth in a spectacularly filmed scene by director Damon Thomas.

By the time the episode ends, it behooves us to relegate our obsession with Villanelle’s identity to a secondary role and pose pertinent questions that point to everyone else. Who really are these people? Who really are The Twelve?

In the meantime, we finally get to meet Anna (Susan Lynch) and learn the details of Villanelle’s back story. Our assassin was an orphan who became fixated on Anna, her French instructor. Anna was her first love, it seems, and her obsession grew to the point where she ended up cutting off the husband’s penis, believing that Anna was staying with him only because he had one. That is why she was imprisoned. Coming up with a backstory as bland as this one must not have required too much brainstorming in the writing room, I presume. Then again, it fits the idea that, at this point, we should be more concerned with everyone else instead of Oksana’s origins.

There are some great dialogues, again, notably the one that kickstarts the episode when Eve and Carolyn run into each other in the morning at Hotel Atlasov where they are both staying. Carolyn certainly acts at first like she was caught with her hands in the cookie jar. Eve can’t help but wonder why her boss is wearing the same clothes as the day before or where she was coming from right at that moment. She literally asks these questions to Carolyn who, in exquisite style, ignores them and goes on with her own narrative. 

Dialogues between these two have truly become the cornerstones of Killing Eve’s “verbal excellence” and this one is no exception. For another example, see the “determined face” back and forth that takes place few minutes later. Sandra Oh and Fiona Shaw deliver their lines so efficiently that we get fascinated not only by the relevant information revealed in them, but also by the dry humor that they unleash upon our senses.

There are a couple of other scenes involving the two of them, one in which they are with Konstantin, the other with Kenny. The former clearly announces the hostility between Konstantin and Eve, the latter shows for the first time that Carolyn is getting annoyed with Kenny and Eve. When Eve reminds her that she was the one who assigned her the task of finding Villanelle, Carolyn responds in a chilling tone: “Yes. And I can take it away.” She is even more dismissive with Kenny: “Go back to London. Traveling makes you rude.” Eve and Kenny are, of course, not going anywhere.

Villanelle is eventually rescued while being transported with Agniya (the inmate she befriended in last week’s episode as part of her plan to kill Nadia) by a man named Anton (Andrew Byron). It is not clear how this was executed since we only see things from Villanelle’s perspective during the frantic scene. Anton rides a motorcycle and one of the guards in the vehicle is his ally. Somehow that results in a three-vehicle accident involving the prison van and police cars. Bunch of officers are killed in the process. We only know this because that is what Villanelle sees when she walks out of her prisoner transportation vehicle. For good measure, the guard also kills Agniya, the cancer-stricken inmate who is confused and says, “I don’t want to be free.”  

Anton takes Villanelle to an abandoned building to inform her that he is her new handler. He is arrogant, irritating, and he talks in a truly patronizing tone throughout the conversation. It becomes quickly obvious that he is nothing more than a plot device, and a poorly written one, frankly.

In one of the dumbest moves of all times by any villain in the history of TV shows, Anton points a loaded gun at Villanelle for a few seconds – as if that were supposed to startle her, it does not – before arrogantly smiling and handing it to her. It’s the gun that she is supposed to use to carry out her next job, which is to kill Konstantin (apparently, he has also become a nuisance to the powers that be).

Villanelle smiles back and asks Anton “are you always like this?” Then, she shoots him, naturally. Anton was evidently the only individual on earth who did not consider that to be a possibility. He duly joins Frank in the ranks of buffoons that make you wonder how they reached their positions in their respective organizations with such low IQs.

It’s the only portion of the hour that stumbles a bit. Once it’s over, we enter the second half of the episode which almost entirely consists of Eve’s visit to Anna and Villanelle’s visit to Konstantin. Eve learns all kinds of details about Villanelle/Oksana’s past through Anna. She also feels obligated to reveal to her, for her own protection, that Oksana is not dead and that she is currently in Moscow. She also realizes that Konstantin was the one who lied to Anna about Oksana being dead. I already told you above that Konstantin had his finger dipped in every sauce possible, remember?

But guess what? The bearded jack of all trades is also in trouble himself…

All cards are laid on the table as Villanelle breaks into his house and holds him at gunpoint when he arrives, claiming that she is also keeping his family “in a cupboard somewhere.” They may get to live if he dies.

Throughout this scene, Villanelle stays true to her nature, she hides nothing. She tells Konstantin that “they” want him dead. When he asks who told her that, she answers, “Anton.” When he asks where Anton is, she replies, “he is dead.” She even confirms to Konstantin that Anton gave her the assignment to kill him. When Konstantin asks what she wants, she replies “I want to do my job.” It means Konstantin must “go.” Villanelle offers no lies, keeps no secrets. Compare that to Konstantin who, held at gunpoint, still tries to scheme his way out of trouble. He does get away at the end, somehow. Never mind his family, I guess.

The episode ends with what is supposed to be a big twist involving Carolyn. Personally, I was not nearly as shocked as I would have been, had that twist taken place two or three episodes ago. By the end of “I Don’t Want to Be Free,” however, there was no revelation about Carolyn that was going to surprise me.

A very promising season finale awaits us and last Sunday’s episode, through solid scripting, excels in building a plausible foundation for it. Outside of the questionable Anton scene, nothing is pedestrian or rushed here. I also applaud writer Rob Williams and Waller-Bridge for not ending the penultimate episode by signaling a season finale that focuses solely on a Villanelle-Eve showdown. It would have been a trap, in my opinion, to reduce so many complex plots and expertly written characters to a season finale that features a prolonged duel of some sort between the two.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adored their face-off in episode 5 – see my review – and I don’t mind seeing some more of that next Sunday. It is refreshing, though, to go into the season finale knowing that there will be more substance to it than just the synergy between Eve and Villanelle.

Until next episode…

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“Take Me to the Hole” – aired on May 13, 2018
Writer: George Kay
Director: Damon Thomas
Grade: 3,5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

After Killing Eve went the extra mile in last week’s “I Have A Thing About Bathrooms” to delight us with the show’s peak scene so far, the 12-minute-long, face-to-face encounter between Eve and Villanelle, I was left wondering where it could go from there, with still three episodes left in the season. After a progressively intense cat-and-mouse game that lasted four and a half episodes, culminating in the Eve-Villanelle collision of last week, “Take Me to the Hole” had to shoulder the difficult task of regenerating viewer energy without coming across as yet another episode chronicling Eve’s quest for Villanelle. In short, it risked falling victim to the high standards of excellence set by the show itself and the narrative structure it chose to pursue – identities revealed early, face-off between Eve and Villanelle a bit more than halfway through the season, major characters already written off, etc. 

It seems that showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge and episode writer George Kay attempt to tackle these challenges by injecting a few brilliant twists aimed at creating new narratives for us to chew on. But in the process of doing so, the episode stumbles more than once in terms of maintaining a tight coherence. 

The episode begins in Moscow, with Konstantin giving directions to a disinterested Villanelle (Oksana) on how to get to Nadia once inside the prison. Villanelle’s instructions are to kill Nadia before she blurts out any valuable information to British authorities. Our assassin is to pose as a prisoner herself who is supposedly locked up because, as Konstantin informs her, she stole some “controversial” hats. Villanelle reacts sarcastically: “Wow! I am dangerous.” She says it tongue-in-cheek, but we know it rings hundred percent true.

When she finishes the job, she will meet Konstantin at a pre-arranged place and time in order to get back out. But until then, she is on her own. Her prison sojourn begins with a somewhat petty scene in which she slaps the female headguard whose assistant clubs her a few times in return. I am not sure what the purpose of the scene is, other than filling some imaginary quota of violence (which Killing Eve does not need because it already “does” violence so well), introducing the headguard, and foreshadowing her doomed fate. On a more pertinent note, Villanelle needs to get to Konstantin’s inside man, the prison doctor in this case, whose primary purpose, as we find out later, is to hand her a knife so that she can kill Nadia, and secondary purpose, to tell her when and where to meet Konstantin once the job is done.

In the meantime, our team has figured out that Nadia is imprisoned in Moscow. They intend to go there and interrogate her, except that Kenny and Elena don’t. When asked by Carolyn and Eve, they weasel their way out of the trip in a hilarious babbling-in-unison dialogue as they list all the paltry excuses they can find to avoid going. It only lasts a few seconds, but it is a riot to watch.

Elena also brings up a valid question. She asks, probably echoing the minds of many viewers, if they should refer to the assassin as Villanelle or as Oksana? Let us know when you get a firm answer to that, Elena.

The character in the spotlight during most of this hour is Carolyn Martens, our highly intelligent MI6 agent. She gets to return to her backyard (she had been stationed in Moscow prior to this assignment) where she has connections and speaks the language. “My bones come alive in this country,” she says to Eve as they ride in a taxi. Her storyline and her conversations with Eve are the intellectual gems of the hour, and the actor Fiona Shaw, as always, is up to the task.

This episode excels in that it leaves you wondering by the end if Carolyn is perhaps not as clever as you previously thought or if she is even more of a gifted mastermind. How much does she know? We are well aware of Eve’s unhealthy fixation on Villanelle, but what about Carolyn’s endgame? Surely, she must have chased and caught many killers before, so why the excessive preoccupation with this particular one?

“Take Me to the Hole” raises these questions efficiently and hints at the possible existence of a larger intrigue involving Carolyn and Konstantin. Could they be collaborating? Are they both members of “The 12”? The big twist of the hour, the revelation that Carolyn and Konstantin have known each other for a long time, leads us to consider the likelihood of certain connections that we would have easily dismissed prior to this episode. Stakes are raised even higher when we realize that nobody seems to be aware of Konstantin’s link to Villanelle. Vladimir and Carolyn appear to believe that he is on their side.

We are not alone, Eve’s curiosity is also piqued. For one thing, she does not like Konstantin, and for another, she observes Carolyn behave in ways previously unknown to her. The usually bland and dry – but witty – Agent Martens puts on lipstick, cares about how she looks, smiles, laughs, even gets giddy about meeting again with Vladimir, her Russian counterpart that she has known for “beyond forever.”

In fact, Eve gets so curious that she calls Kenny and, in what anyone with half a common sense would consider as a major miscalculation on her part, asks him to snoop into Carolyn’s correspondence. She even directs him to search “under her bed, her pillowcases” if necessary. She want to know if she has been in contact with Konstantin. Ok, fine, but it does not change the fact that her directive to Kenny pushes the boundaries of credibility. Would she really trust Kenny, whom she recently met, enough to ask him to secretly snoop into the private correspondence of their boss who also happens to be his mother? On top of everything else, Kenny follows her directive, no questions asked, and I begin to feel like I have seemingly entered the arena of absurdity.

I am not certain what writers had in mind here, but it’s an implausible plot device to say the least, unless consequences arise from Kenny’s action and some explanation is brought forward in the two episodes left as to why he would so readily betray his mother. His search does bear fruit. He discovers important letters that contain revelations that are not yet made clear in this episode.     

Carolyn assures Eve that Vladimir will give them access to Nadia thanks to some “good old traditional tit for tat.” Right then, we arrive at the second brief-yet-hilarious exchange of the episode. Sporting a coy smile, Eve dares to ask Carolyn what she means by that: “And when you say ‘tit’…?” Carolyn responds in a matter-of-factly tone that it’s a British expression and means nothing more, leaving Eve jabbering away in an attempt to cover her embarrassment. The exchange is quick, yet lovely.

Later that evening, Eve and Carolyn are having dinner with Vladimir when Konstantin joins them. Carolyn warmly welcomes him, calling him an “old ass,” as they both have a laughter. It is a wonderfully directed scene by Damon Thomas as the camera switches from one person to the next around the table, but focuses on Konstantin’s whenever he gets surprised by what he hears. Actor Kim Bodnia’s performance is praiseworthy as he perfectly conveys Konstantin’s dismay, first when he learns from Eve that Villanelle broke into her house, and second when he hears Eve pronounce Villanelle’s real name. Konstantin, who seems to know everything and anything, as well as anyone and everyone, feels a step behind for once.

We are left wondering if that is also when he decides to betray Villanelle. Alarmed by what he hears from Eve and realizing that managing a loose cannon like Villanelle is becoming too tedious and too dangerous, it would only make sense if he made that call during the dinner. He does indeed betray Villanelle by the end of the hour, when he abandons her stranded in the “the hole” (solitary confinement).

It is a bit strange that Villanelle, who showed doubt toward Konstantin more than once – the knife on his throat in “I’ll Deal with Him Later,” her revelation that she knows his daughter in “Sorry Baby,” and her probing of his connection to “The 12” last week – would place so much trust him for this elaborate prison scheme. It also does not exactly fit her profile so far. She does not have any friends and does not trust anyone. Yet, she willingly engages in an operation knowing that her fate will largely depend on Konstantin keeping his word once she gets the job done.

Then again, what is Konstantin’s end game in betraying Villanelle if she is not completely eliminated? It makes sense that he would want to seize the opportunity to take both Villanelle and Nadia out of the equation, without ever having to set foot inside the prison. But the one person who should firmly understand that you never get rid of Villanelle unless you kill her – especially once you become her enemy – is Konstantin. Is he seriously counting on Villanelle forever being stuck in prison? He cannot be that naïve, can he?

Eve arranges a secret meeting with Vladimir which begs the question, why would Vladimir agree to meet with Eve behind Carolyn’s back in the first place? She obviously wants him to turn Nadia over to them, but he already refused Carolyn’s request for the exact same thing. Eve has a trick or two up her sleeve though. She promises to share with him a secret concerning him that she learned from Carolyn earlier, which begs another question: does Eve realize the potential fallout from doing this, once Carolyn learns of her betrayal? 

The episode spends most of its time setting up these storylines and revelations. We learn that Carolyn had sex with both Vladimir and Konstantin at some point(s) in the past. We learn that Anna, whose name came up twice in previous episodes, was the wife of the man Villanelle killed before being imprisoned years ago. According to Nadia, Eve and Carolyn need to find Anna if they want to learn more about Oksana/Villanelle. 

There is a lot taking place in the prison and Jodie Comer is absolutely magnificent as Villanelle in those scenes. Unlike the intellectual narrative in Carolyn’s storyline, ViIllanelle’s storyline brings pure entertainment. She befriends a “spontaneously violent” inmate, provokes the female headguard, gets beaten twice voluntarily, all in the name of meeting the prison doctor who is Konstantin’s inside man. She even crosses Carolyn, Eve, and Konstantin, who are walking through the prison lawn to meet Nadia, as she is dragged by the guard with a club-lock on her neck. It is a well-filmed scene, rendered terrific by the haunting score – I don’t believe I have praised the composer David Holmes enough in my reviews for the five-star-quality score he brings to the table for each episode, and this one is no exception.   

It is also in the prison that the action kicks into high gear during the last ten minutes. Villanelle gets to kill two guards in plain sight, walk to Nadia’s cell, find her, talk to her, hug her, and kill her. She gets to do all that after killing the two guards, while the alarms blare loudly for minutes, which makes the prison look vastly underpopulated in terms of security personnel. We give that a pass because the ending scene is next, and it is delightful to watch.

The doctor opens the little window on the door of Villanelle’s cell in “the hole” as Villanelle expects Konstantin to arrive at any moment to get her out. When she asks, the doctor replies, “Konstantin who?” Villanelle realizes in a flash that nobody is coming to get her out of solitary confinement. For the first time in the series, we see our ruthless villain genuinely upset and screaming.

Prior to her death, Nadia does give one important piece of information to Villanelle: Konstantin is collaborating with the British. She also manages to slip a note under the door of her cell (neither its destination nor its contents are clear yet), collected by a guard after her death.

On an unrelated plot to the rest of the episode, we get our weekly reminder scene of the Eve-and-Niko marriage falling apart. What begins as a discussion quickly escalates into an argument, then into a shouting match. It literally turns violent when Niko accuses Eve of “getting off on sniffling a psycho” and she physically assaults him in return. Owen McDonnell represents the emotionally crumbling husband well, but his character’s storyline has been relegated so far down the priority list that this scene feels at odds with the rest of the hour.  ​

Until next episode…   

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“I Have a Thing About Bathrooms” – aired on May 6, 2018
Writer: Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Director: Jon East
Grade: 4,5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

“I Have a Thing About Bathrooms” picks up exactly where the previous episode ended, with Villanelle approaching Eve, Elena, and Frank in the car and taking a hot at them, as Eve is about to drive away. As I mentioned in my review of “Sorry Baby,” it was one of the best cliffhangers on TV in recent years, featuring the two leads coming face-to-face for the first time since becoming aware of each other’s identity. We spent four episodes leading up to this moment and writers cleverly teased us with that electrifying cliffhanger prior to making us wait for a week to see it unfold.

It starts with Villanelle missing the mark and Eve driving away in a rush. Villanelle continues to shoot as she runs after the car. Then, in a seemingly foolish move, Eve stops the car a hundred meters later and informs a horrified Frank and Elena that she wants to “talk to her.”

Frank, the ultimate scaredy cat concerned only with himself, has a far more tenable reaction: “Are you insane? She has been trying to kill me!”

Elena concurs: “Wake up Eve!”; “Stop being a dick!”

As an audience member of the show, I exclaim: Excuse me?

Never mind that Eve is endangering the lives of two other people in the car. Her inconceivable decision to engage in a chat with the assassin who just took not one, not two, not three, but a total of eight shots straight at her and the car she is driving, not only pushes the boundaries of plausibility but defies them. Furthermore, we know that Villanelle will not kill her anyway, although Eve walks right in front of her so that she can take that ninth fatal shot, because we know that Eve cannot die in the beginning of the fifth episode of an eight-episode-long season, in a show that carries her name in the title – “killing” is not pertinent at this point, obviously.

Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer perform well in the scene – we have come to expect nothing less – as they stare at each other. Villanelle toys with Eve for a few seconds, feigning to shoot herself, laughing, and then shooting at the ground by Eve’s feet, before she disappears. Yet, the acting alone is not enough to save a defectively formulated sequence with no apparent endgame. If the idea was to put on display a stare-into-each-other’s-eye moment, we saw plenty of that later in the episode in the most terrific face-to-face scene of the season. So why push the envelope so far – too far – to have one here? Eve is a psycho in her own way as I have noted before, but she is definitely not an idiot. Unfortunately, this scene goes to great lengths to make her appear as one.

Eve and Elena eventually take Frank the buffoon to a safe house where Carolyn Martens awaits them in a stance that only Fiona Shaw can make look that bland and imposing at the same time – kudos to director Jon East for the shot. Frank is not forthcoming with information at first – he claims to be hyperventilating, too weak to talk – but Martens has a remedy: “I know exactly what he needs,” she says to Eve. She hugs Frank to comfort him and the infantile head of MI5 begins to spill it all out with his head nestled on her shoulder and neck.

Time for me to go on a tangent. Thank heavens, we are done with Frank! I questioned more than once how a clown like him ever came to helm such a high-profiled intelligence agency and feared that he would be reduced to Killing Eve’s comic-relief pill. It happened just as I feared, and I found myself almost cheering for Villanelle as she was getting ready to eliminate him forever. Darren Boyd portrayed him formidably – just see how he delivers the line “Priorities!” – but by the fifteenth minute of this episode, it was clear that Frank the buffoon has long outlived his usefulness and was becoming a distraction for the team, as well as a nuisance to the show’s narrative.

Eve and Carolyn learn that the people behind Villanelle call themselves “The Twelve.” These well-connected people knew everything about the condition of Frank’s wife and used it to lure him into their web. Frank’s contact agent is Russian and he refers to them as “Russians,” but he cannot be certain that they are indeed Russians. “They are interested in the big picture,” he says. They are also proud of Villanelle, and Frank adds that there is “a pattern to these kills. They’re destabilizing from the ground up” – whatever that entails.

Eventually Eve leaves the safehouse to go home, not before she breaks the glass at a bus stop for no apparent reason other than being annoyed by a crack on it. Oh’s powerhouse performance elevates the enigma of this solo scene, hinting at the existence of a space hidden deep within her psyche in which a yearning for bliss through violence is brewing.

Dispersed within these initial twenty minutes are wonderful lines dropped here and there, pointing to other developments. Kenny is particularly – and affectionately – concerned about Elena who, for her part, is concerned with Carolyn’s perception of her. As she is leaving the safehouse, she specifically turns to face Carolyn and say with a bitter tone, “Other than that, Carolyn, I had an amazing day.” She turns back on her heels and leaves as Carolyn and Eve, both stupefied, stare at each other. We know Elena is infatuated with Carolyn, but is there something more than that here?

Carolyn, meanwhile, seems to be overly preoccupied with Kenny’s well-being. Eve is confused by that but she reassures Carolyn that she will keep an eye out for him. Little we know, at that moment, that Kenny is her son. We, along with Eve, discover that fact later, after she walks into Carolyn’s house and finds Kenny eating dinner with the family.

In an important background development for Villanelle, we learn that her real name is Oksana Astonkova – I’ll continue referring to her as Villanelle, thank you very much –, that she is either Russian or Ukrainian (not clear), that she was born in 1993 and supposedly died in 2014, and that she was at the time serving a prison sentence because “she chopped [some guy’s] knob off,” all courtesy of the resident tech wiz Kenny who manages to dig up her records somewhere in the depths of Russian and Ukrainian data files.

We finally understand how Konstantin knew instantly what the team was up to when Frank the buffoon tells Carolyn and Eve that he told the Russians about it because he suspected it. For once, Frank’s intuition was correct. It’s a solid pay-off to the nagging mystery of them’s instant awareness of the existence of Eve’s operation since the second episode, one that would have turned into a major plot hole had it gone unexplained (see my reviews of episodes two and three). It would not have even worked if Frank revealed that he simply told them, because he did not know for sure that it existed. By inserting Frank’s line “I thought you were still investigating after you interrogated me,” the writers are making it clear that Frank was simply speculating about the existence of Eve’s team (although he was right) when he told the Russian agent, thus bringing this lingering question to a close, Their attention to detail should not go unnoticed. Well done, writing room!

Apparently, police found only one body where Villanelle seemed to have killed her two assassin-colleagues in the last episode. We will find out later, from Konstantin, that Nadia somehow survived Villanelle’s rolling of the jeep over her twice.

All these tidbits of information are well-paced in their delivery and help overcome the hangover lasting from the baffling opening scene, before the episode peaks with the extraordinary face-off segment between Eve and Villanelle.

This powerhouse scene featuring tour-de-force performances by Comer and Oh deserves to be seen, several times, rather than read in a review. Therefore, too fearful of not doing it justice by a detailed recap, I will simply say that it starts with a petrifying chase scene within the house that finishes in the bathtub, continues with a witty dialogue by the dinner table followed by a stare-down, touchy-feely, knife-to-the-trachae stand off by the refrigerator (not to mention the evocative score), and ends with Villanelle meeting the rest of Eve’s family as she leaves the house. Trust me folks, my summary is only ten percent of all the meaningful messages conveyed in this thrilling 12-minute-long sequence. No wonder why the promos for the show have repeatedly included parts of this scene since they began airing before the show even started.

Remember the following one?

Eve: “Are you a psychopath?”

Villanelle: “You should never tell a psychopath they are a psychopath. It upsets them.”

Eve: “Are you upset?”

[Villanelle purses her lips and nods]

Yes, that one. It’s there. Get to it.

The last third of the episode largely tackles Frank’s doomed fate. Villanelle toys with him for a while before finally, you guessed it, “chopping his knob off.” The special-ops team naturally arrives too late to save Frank who lies dead on the bed with Villanelle’s dress spread on top of his body, the same one that Eve wore earlier, before Villanelle busted into her house.

The hour ends with Villanelle having a conversation with Konstantin. The name Anna, that we heard back in “I’ll Deal with Him Later,” comes up again. She is surprised to hear that Nadia survived but that is nothing compared to the shock that she delivers to Konstantin’s system when she asks him what number he is out of The Twelve. Apparently, they were unknown to her too. Konstantin can only respond with “Oh dear,” as one last shot focuses on Villanelle looking menacingly straight into his eyes. She is a threat to anyone and everyone, and that appears to include Konstantin.

What better way to finish the review than with one of Killing Eve‘s strengths? Here is yet another brilliant one-liner:

Carolyn informs a bewildered Eve that Kenny is her son and adds:

“We have no time for you to react to that, so don’t feel that you have to.”

Until next episode…   

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“Sorry Baby” – aired on April 29, 2018
Writer: George Kay
Director: Jon East
Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

The narrative is moving with deliberate speed in Killing Eve. With only four episodes into the season, a beloved character and several other victims have been savagely executed, an investigation has turned into a pursuit because the assassin’s identity had been revealed, detailed profiles of the main characters have been sketched, and now, by the end of “Sorry Baby,” the face-off between Eve and Villanelle has been announced.

Yet, nothing has felt rushed, contrived, or forced. Showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the writing room, and the two directors featured so far, Harry Bradbeer (episodes one and two) and Jon East (episode three and four), deserve high praises for putting on screen one of the most original shows of the year. Now comes the next challenge. Can the Eve-vs-Villanelle duel, by itself, carry the last four episodes? The question is valid because the set-up for the next one sure feels like a season finale for a detective-assassin show. Yet, judging from what I have witnessed so far, I cannot help but trust that Waller-Bridge will find creative ways to keep the audience preoccupied, and thoroughly entertained, through a ride filled with unconventional loops and revelations.

“Sorry Baby” stays in line with the trend set by previous episodes with regard to plot advancement. It takes unexpected turns, delivers provocative dialogues, and complements the plot with quirky character introductions while building on the emotional frame of the existing ones.

It starts with yet another zoom-in shot on Eve’s face. That is now four out of four episodes that Killing Eve made use on that particular method. I call it a method because I don’t blame the writers for repeatedly turning to one of the show’s most imposing assets, Sandra Oh’s recognizable face that can manage to stir anyone’s emotions on a whim. The scene takes place in a church during the commemoration ceremony for Bill, in the aftermath of his death at the hands of Villanelle.

Eve is deeply anguished over the loss of her trusted colleague and friend. Her grief turns to anger when Frank the buffoon makes a maligned speech in Bill’s memory. She storms out of the church, leaving behind a bewildered Niko. Next, her anger transforms into a desire for revenge as she tells Elena, “I want to kill her with my bare hands.” Oh is simply magnificent in conveying all these distinct emotions in a matter of minutes.

Speaking of Frank, I expressed my concern in my review of episode two about his characterization as a comic-relief figure. I wondered how realistic it is that a buffoon like him could have managed to be in a position to lead an intelligence organization that requires high-IQ above all else from its key employees. My question remains valid, because Frank is not only a clown, but also an idiot, a loser, a degenerate coward, and an asshole, not to mention that he “looks most like rodent,” as Martens cleverly notes.

The big revelation of this episode is that he also happens to be the mole. Thanks to him, Konstantin knew instantly the who, when, and how of our team’s pursuit of Villanelle. Add “traitor” to the list of adjectives for Frank. I am still not completely clear on how he got hold of the information in such a timely fashion. I thought the team that Martens put together, helmed by Eve, was secret, thus unknown to anyone outside the five of them. Did Martens inform Frank of the activity just to appease some unwritten rule of ethics between intelligence leaders? I wish a line or two would be inserted somewhere to explain this discrepancy. Or did I miss something?

Villanelle, in the meantime, is having a ball. This woman possesses an impressive ability to get entertained by mundane scenes and useless banter. We already know she gets pleasure from killing, but her eyes also seem to light up with glee whenever Nadia (Olivia Ross) physically assaults her or tries to, at least. She finds amusement in sitting on the couch at the house of Frank’s mother, eating her hot fruitcake, or in dancing around a wooden Konstantin, dressed up as him. She also drips with mock-sympathy as she brings up her awareness of Konstantin’s daughter in a clear indication of threat to her handler. Villanelle is a thrill-seeker in the fullest sense of the term and Jodie Comer eats the role up.

Speaking of Nadia, she is one of the two doomed guest characters in this episode, the other being Diego (Edward Akrout). Villanelle is ordered to team up with them for the next job which happens to target Frank in the small town of Bletcham where his mother lives.

Representations of Diego and Nadia dangerously border on corniness. They are not only shallow, but highly inept at their job. Nadia cluelessly stares around in the mother’s house, not detecting Franks’ hidden presence – Villanelle naturally does – and amateurishly runs after Frank’s car as he drives away to escape the assassins. She lets Diego treat her condescendingly and swallows every lie fed to her by Villanelle. The frequent-pisser Diego, for his part, supposedly leads the trio, but makes one arrogant decision after another, ultimately leading to his demise. Lowering your weapon under the naïve assumption that Nadia would shoot Villanelle? Really, Diego?

I am fairly certain that writer George Kay and director East meant to make them appear silly – Diego’s overuse of pet names for Nadia is one proof of that –, which then begs the question, how in the world did two such ungainly operatives like Nadia and Diego survive until now in the organization for which Konstantin works? Their lack of IQ glares through the screen as Villanelle toys with them like puppets on a string. We are willing to let that question pass because the scenes involving Villanelle and her companions are donned with fascinating dialogues and dexterous acting.

It is, for example, nothing short of brilliant how the little said between Villanelle and Nadia hints at so much history between the two. Nadia is extremely bitter and keeps on physically charging Villanelle. We learn little by little, through subtle phrases dropped here and there, that they were lovers in the past and that Nadia feels somehow screwed over by Villanelle. Ross and Comer excel in these scenes. The former aptly depicts Nadia’s volatility and the latter plays the collected and calculated Villanelle to perfection.

Other meaningful moments are disseminated throughout the episode. Niko’s patience is wearing thin and we see glimpses of a marriage on the verge of collapse as Eve yells at him, in one scene, to “get out” when she realizes that Villanelle stole her suitcase and returned it filled with expensive clothes, and tersely lets him know, in another, how annoyed she is with the fact that his love for her is all that he has in his life. Ouch!

There are splendid, substantial dialogues such as the one between Eve and Martens in the grocery store and the one between Eve and Elena in the car as they make humorous remarks about Martens and Kenny.

And there is something sublime about the choice of the setting for “Sorry Baby.” For three episodes, scenes filmed in large cities charmed our senses. Eve and Villanelle’s cat-and-mouse game played out in the hustle-and-bustle of night clubs, cafés, subway stations, and avenues in renowned locations like Paris, Berlin, and London, among others. This episode, by contrast, largely takes place in a country-side setting in England and moves to empty fields as it approaches its climax. While looking for each other in London and Paris, Eve and Villanelle ironically find themselves in a face-off at an empty field in the middle of nowhere.  

And what a climactic moment it is! We are almost tempted to cheer for Frank as he is desperately running away from Villanelle in the fields, in an attempt to reach Eve and Elena – I should add “terrible athlete” to the list of Frank-related adjectives. But his character is, in reality, only a vehicle in the closing seconds. The directorial skills of East dazzles in the last 30 seconds as Frank makes it to the car, throws himself in Elena’s arms, Eve and Villanelle establish eye-to-eye contact, Villanelle takes a shot, and the screen turns dark, in one of the fiercest cliffhangers in the recent history of TV shows.

Endnote:

Eve: “Frank, are you running, or are you crying?”

Frank: “Running and crying.”

Until next episode…  

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“Don’t I Know You?” – aired on April 22, 2018
Writer: Vicky Jones
Director: Jon East
Grade: 4,5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

If any individual in the TV-show business theorized that the opening and closing scenes of an episode were paramount to its success, “Don’t I Know You?” would be tucked away in their vault as the defining proof of their theory.

The close-up panning shot of Sandra Oh’s face to kickstart the hour, as Eve describes Villanelle’s physical features, and the brutal elimination of one of the show’s beloved characters to end it, work together to transform the otherwise plot-advancement-oriented episode into a pivotal one for the show.

I have already said it more than once; with Oh playing one of the two leads, the showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge has at her disposition one of the most recognizable faces in the TV-show arena. What better way to make use of that asset than to pan the camera slowly from Eve’s left to her right while she gives details of Villanelle’s appearance based on their fleeting encounter in the bathroom from the pilot episode. Not surprisingly, Oh is up to the task.

Throughout the 58-second-long shot during which Eve says that Villanelle’s “hair was dark blonde, maybe honey,” that “her eyes are sort of cat-like, her lips are full,” and that “she is totally focused, yet almost entirely inaccessible,” it’s difficult to tell if she is simply digging deep within her memory to provide an accurate description, or if she is swooning as she visually reproduces Villanelle in her mind. Her expression oscillates between admiration, fear, curiosity, and obsession. In any case, the director Jon East must have had a field day filming this remarkable sequence that ends with an unintentionally hilarious question by the sketch artist that leaves Eve bewildered – yes, that face again – and makes Bill smile.  

It does not take long to catch up with Villanelle who is in Berlin, ready for her next victim. She poses as a dominatrix specializing in medical-oriented fetishes to “treat” a Chinese client (Simon Chin) who yearns, obviously, to be the patient. Little does he know that his testicles are about to be “clamped,” and that his designated safe word frühstück (“breakfast” in German) will not change his doomed fate.

Thankfully, this murder is not just another one along the string of obscene killings designed to serve no purpose other than putting on display Villanelle’s deranged nature – reference: see my episode-two review. The victim is General Zhang Wu, a hacker working for the Chinese military. The probing into the case eventually leads Eve to meet a Chinese attaché named Jin (Lobo Chan). Unlike in the previous murders, Wu’s death plays a significant role in the episode’s narrative.

Martens and the investigating team are left behind in London as Eve and Bill leave for Berlin where most of the action takes place. Konstantin’s role in this episode is also diminished. He appears once to inform Villanelle, again, of Eve’s presence in Berlin. This is a storyline that could prove to be problematic, unless it is explained in a satisfactory manner in the upcoming episodes.

How does Konstantin know almost instantly, and down to the details, where Eve is and what she is doing? I already posed a similar question last week, when he immediately knew in episode two that there was a small team formed to pursue Villanelle and that it was helmed by “Eve Polastri.” Nobody outside our investigative team knew of either development. Is there a mole inside Eve’s team?** A scene in the later episodes needs to bring a meaningful explanation to this riddle, or else this storyline risks falling into the confines of arbitrary plot devices.   

** If so, I nominate Kenny.

The story is almost entirely focalized around the Bill-Eve duo’s pursuit of Villanelle. On the upside, the dialogues are entertaining and there is substantial character development for Bill, the one delightful male in the show. Perhaps, that played into what Waller-Bridge and the writer of the episode Vicky Jones intended to do during this hour. They aimed to augment Bill’s “lovable” factor and lure viewers into forming a deep bond with the character, only to amplify the gut-wrenching impact of his brutal assassination by Villanelle in the closing scene. Perhaps, it was also meant to eradicate any shred of admiration held for Villanelle by the audience, in case some still lingered on.

On the downside, I am not sure how much of those two goals were reached, although I would venture to say that it worked 100% for the latter. Villanelle is, at this moment, officially despised by the show’s followers. As to the impact of Bill’s death, I am not so certain. Not because Bill’s character growth was anything less than phenomenal throughout the first three episodes, but rather because there were too many signals screaming his character’s write-off during the episode, as well as prior to its start.

First, I have reservations about the wisdom of tweeting, via the show’s official account, that “we’re saying bye-bye” to someone “this week” and adding an emoji of a knife to it, several hours before airtime. It does not take a genius to figure out that Bill is facing his last minute alive as Villanelle stares at him at the night club and pulls a knife out of her pocket. That is, of course, if you hadn’t already figured it out when Bill jokingly said “Daddy is going to die” to his cute infant daughter before his departure to Berlin. We are further cued of his doom as the storyline centers on him and he emerges as the first to notice Villanelle. The alarm bells are ringing loud and clear by the time he begins to pursue her with no back-up, naturally.

It’s a risky move to eliminate a treasured – and multi-faceted – character so early in the season.  The writing fails if the character’s elimination does not mean much to the audience. Jones and Waller-Bridge, however, succeed on all cylinders, despite the above-noted signals sent prior to Bill’s death. The murder is carried out so efficiently – and barbarically – by Villanelle that watching the ending sequence, as Eve pushes the dancing crowd apart in an attempt to reach him as he expires, perfectly conveys the sense of helplessness that invades her.

This event takes us past the point of a simple cat-and-mouse game between an assassin and her pursuer. The duel between the two women has now conclusively become personal and the terms of the shift in dynamics were dictated by Villanelle. She stalked Eve and Bill, tricked Bill into following her alone, and by killing him, struck Eve where it hurts the most. I should underline “most” in the previous sentence because Bill appeared to be, by all accounts, the person for whom Eve cared more than any other, including her ever-confused husband.

Villanelle’s risk-taking, though, is out of control. At this point, I am inclined to believe that her official job has become a nuisance to her – Konstantin is increasingly worried – and that her addiction to toying with Eve has taken over that of the pleasure she used to derive from the simple act of killing. As is the case with all addicts, she is willing to take tremendous risks in order to get that next “hit” which consists of devastating Eve via tease-and-denial (another form of fetish, not mentioned in the show, yet).

The middle portion of the episode is filled with brilliant dialogues, especially between Bill and Eve. Their conversation after meeting with Jin – “he wants to fondle you,” says Bill with a wry smile – and the one in the hotel-room scene during which Bill reveals his sexual preferences through a delightful combination of metaphors, are simply magical. We are going to miss Bill.

Last-minute thoughts:

– Nit-picking time: how does Villanelle get to cut the line and enter the night club? The doorman who stops her at first did not know her. If the implication is that she is eventually allowed in because she is a single woman, why was the one in the front of the line required to wait? She was not the only one either.

– Villanelle gets to view the Skype conversation between Niko and Eve. I am declaring at this point that MI5, MI6, CIA, FBI, and SVR have nothing on Konstantin and Villanelle in terms of surveillance skills!

– The subway sequence is splendid from start to finish. The acting, directing, and score combine to form the most haunting scene of the episode, undeniably announcing the beginning of the end for Bill.

– The characterizations of General Wu and attaché Jin were not meant to box Chinese men into a certain stereotype, I am assuming…  ​ 

Until next episode…

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“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…

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“Nice Face” – aired on April 8, 2018
Writer: Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Director: Harry Bradbeer
Grade: 5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

Critics are having a ball trying to ascribe a genre to BBC America’s latest series Killing Eve and I don’t blame them. Showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge has indeed framed a spy thriller in a unique way that is bound to fascinate them. The story has been billed as an “epic game of game cat and mouse” by the network itself, while others have called it anything from a “spy vs. assassin” based thriller to a “dark twist on the glamorous international espionage thriller.”

In any case, judging from the pilot episode “Nice Face,” Killing Eve should dazzle viewers. There are rankings of best pilots to TV shows floating around the internet that are fun to browse through. However, if you care to actually watch one, look no further than “Nice Face.” It is brilliantly written by Waller-Bridge, well-executed by director Harry Bradbeer, and carried to perfection with fierce and efficient performances by the female-dominated cast.

The story pits two psychos against each other. Villanelle, the professional assassin played by Jodie Comer, emerges as the bad psycho, while Eve Polastri, the MI5 security officer played by Sandra Oh, portrays the good psycho, so to speak. But they are psychos in their own ways – “Nice Face” leaves us in no doubt of that reality in the first two scenes of the episode.

In a café in Vienna, Villanelle notices a little girl who is looking back at her from a neighboring table while having an ice cream with her mother. The girl’s attention turns to the bartender and they smile back and forth. Villanelle’s expression turns sour as she observes that exchange, but when the girl looks back at her and smiles, she smiles back and gets up to leave. As she walks out, she knocks the little girl’s ice cream on her lap. She exits with a sadistic smile in her face, as she hears the mother scolding the little girl behind her. I am not a big fan of too many close-up shots of actors’ faces, but here, Bradbeer makes it work so splendidly that the sequence feels violent without any actual violence in it.

The next shot is Eve screaming her lungs out in her sleep. Her husband Niko (Owen McDonnell) is panicking and trying to wake her up. Her ear-piercing screaming lasts several seconds, but Niko succeeds eventually. Eve explains rather calmly, less than two second after she wakes up, that she “fell asleep on both arms.” She adds matter-of-factly, “oh they’re coming back now.” Her husband chimes in: “You’re a freak.”

Yep, the two leads are psychos. If you still had doubts on that after the first two minutes, the rest of the episode will confirm it for you.

Wait until you see Villanelle the second time she appears, as she mocks an old woman who is struggling to walk down the stairs in her apartment building in Paris. It is obvious from the woman’s replies that Villanelle has tormented her before. You will later get to see her perform her professional duties, for good measure.

As for Eve, wait until she calmly gives her husband a lucid account of how she would proceed if she wanted to kill him, the details of which would put demented serial killers to shame. How did they start that conversation? Niko walked in on Eve while she was busy puncturing her leg with a knife – blood rolls out – in an effort to simulate a murder that she is investigating.

Oh excels in portraying Eve, the bored MI5 officer who seems obsessed with her work, notably with female assassins. She dons that universally recognizable “what?” expression to perfection – see my preview for more on that – as she cleverly digs for clues and seeks answers. Nothing escapes her attention to detail, and if necessary, she cuts corners without hesitation.

It appears that Eve has found her dream match in Villanelle. Our professional assassin lives luxuriously in Paris, surely thanks to the ample income from her line of work. Her handler is Konstantin, played by the Danish actor Kim Bodnia, and the two appear to know each other inside-out, to the point of finishing each other’s sentences.

Their two dialogues in the episode lay the ground work for understanding how Villanelle operates in her job. She is methodical, ruthless, untraceable, and effective. She is also very athletic (she climbs up the pipe of a gutter with ease to the third floor of a house) and perhaps a contortionist (she hides inside a suitcase). She completely lacks empathy and takes genuine pleasure in killing.

She also takes risks. As pointed out by the head of MI6’s Moscow operations, Carolyn Mertens (Fiona Shaw), “She is starting to show off.” Mertens is not wrong. In Tuscany, Villanelle leaves the murder weapon on the scene, firmly planted in the victim’s eye. She does not wear gloves or mind the little boy who sees her on the scene. Konstantin later expresses concern and urges her to be more diligent. He tells her to eliminate the possible witness to her earlier job, currently laying in a hospital bed.

That eventually leads to the hospital scene in which we get to fully appreciate Bradbeer’s directorial skills in a terrific sequence that begins with the focus on Eve’s face. Her expression changes to inquietude – did I say how well Oh does that? – as she senses something is deeply wrong. The camera changes and we follow her from behind. She looks inside the room and switches to panic mode. We see her rush in the room as she begins to yell. The camera approaches the open door and slowly puts on display the gruesome scene inside. The sequence is exceptionally well filmed and Oh performs wonderfully in conveying the horror she is feeling as she tries to revive the patient in the following shot.

Eve’s penchant for cutting corners ultimately catches up with her and her boss Bill (David Haig). They get fired by Frank (Darren Boyd), Bill’s superior, in a subtly humorous scene that will bring you a whole new appreciation for the insult “dick-swab” and will have Mertens deliver the funniest line of the episode to Frank – “Clearly, there is going to be some reshuffling in your department” – in the flattest tone possible.

The episode makes it clear that Villanelle and Eve are on a collision course. They even come face to face, in a quasi-silent but powerful bathroom scene, each without yet knowing who the other one is.

The background music, the locations, and the guest stars of international backgrounds contribute to a five-star pilot in an episode that will leave you yearning for next Sunday to arrive rapidly. It is evident that women lead the way here. Eve, her colleague Elena (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), and Mertens will be chasing Villanelle throughout the next seven episodes. “Nice Face” includes scenes from Vienna, Paris, London, and Tuscany, and apparently with more to come, we gladly tag along for the ride.

Last-minute thoughts:

– Interesting that they could not cast a Frenchwoman for the role of the old woman in the stairs when, unless I am mistaken, they had all other guest stars speaking in native language. Or is that nit-picking? Actually, it is.

– What was Kasia on during the interrogation scene? Wow!

– I love how every minute detail is meticulously considered by the writers and the director. Eve faking the “poor thing” line and telling the guard to get Kasia some tea, so she could interrogate her without his presence, is brilliant! Villanelle, carefully flattening out the bed spread before laying on it to add to her methodical and obsessive nature, is also brilliant!

– When the writing and the directing are phenomenal, you don’t need lines by characters to feed viewers information so that they understand what is happening. Nor do you need their monologues to hold them by the hand. You show them, they get it. That is what “Nice Face” does, that is how good TV works. 

– A lot of Polish was spoken in the episode, but I only retained one expression: “ale decha.”

– Speaking of ale decha, Elena telling Eve on the phone that the female killer on file “appears to have massive, pendulous breasts” and then asking her, “Does that do it for you?”, is the second funniest moment of the episode.

– In case you missed it, BBC America has made “Nice Face” available on its website.

– Apparently, the network feels so confident about Killing Eve that it has already given it the green light for a second season.

Until next episode…

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