“Are You Leading or Am I?” – Aired on May 31, 2020
Writer: Suzanne Heathcote & Laura Neal
Director: Damon Thomas
Grade: 4 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

Third season of Killing Eve comes to an end with an episode that can feel satisfying or come across as a mixed bag depending on your personal expectations. If the Eve-Villanelle romance is the central reason why the show tickles your fancy and all else matters little, “Are You Leading or Am I?” probably delighted you, especially considering its stellar closing scene. If you enjoy the show for its unique brand of quirkiness and humor astutely embedded in otherwise contentious story arcs, you are likely to be satisfied with the outing assuming you can overlook couple of mediocre scenes. If your main interest lies in the intricacies of storytelling and sensible pay-offs to the various plotlines, you may find yourself near the mixed-bag end of the spectrum.

Although I deem all three components mentioned above essential to the success of Killing Eve and gladly pay attention to each, I stand somewhere between the second and third components in terms of my personal staples of interest. “Are You Leading or Am I?” is a passable hour of TV by the show’s high standards, assembling the storylines explored throughout the season in a plausible manner. In doing so, however, it resorts to shortcuts more than once, resulting in jerry-built resolutions to some narratives that showed promise earlier in the season. The best thing that the finale has going in its favor – and this is paramount because first and last impressions carry clout in forming opinions – is that it’s bookended by a pair of top-notch scenes with regard to acting, directing, and cinematography.

As for the third season in its totality, I expressed my early thoughts after watching the episode 1 – see the beginning of my review for that one – and they were confirmed by mid-season, as noted in my episode 4 review. I will not repeat them again but now that the season reached its conclusion, I stand by them with the utmost conviction. Simply put, hats off to showrunner Suzanne Heathcote!

The outing kicks off with a surprise meeting between Carolyn and Villanelle at the upper lobby of an opera house. Carolyn is aware of Villanelle’s activities, including her association with Hélène. Villanelle apparently initiated the meeting because, she states, she is “looking for a new challenge.” She is not interested in killing anymore and expresses her desire to do “spy stuff, fake moustache, codes, information.” She is ready to accept Carolyn’s job offer – reminder: we learned from Carolyn in last week’s “Beautiful Monster” that the job offer was the reason why she met Villanelle at the Russian prison back in “I Don’t Want to Be Free.”

Except that not only does Carolyn swiftly dismiss the idea but makes Villanelle feel like the village idiot seeking a job downtown at a prestigious firm’s ritzy penthouse office. In the snidest way possible, as only Carolyn can, she tells Villanelle, “You’re trained to do one thing and one thing only. If you can’t do that, what use are you to me? To anyone?” She has to leave a few moments later because, you see, Mahler’s 10^th symphony is on and she cannot not miss “the end of the first movement.” Donning a smug little smile, she wishes the fuming Villanelle “good luck.”

This excellent opener represents the best that Killing Eve has to offer to its fans and viewers. By that I mean, well-scripted and substance-filled one-on-one dialogues foregrounding and exposing the characters’ intricate temperamental traits that they otherwise manage to shield skillfully, coupled with five-star performances by the actors charged with conveying those complex inner substrates across the screen. Director Damon Thomas’s tailor-made camera work and the opera functioning as the score provide the icing on the cake for this beautiful introductory scene lasting 3 minutes and 20 seconds.  

It’s unfortunately followed by a stale one in which Konstantin decides to leave the hospital while Dasha, seemingly coming in and out of consciousness (is she heavily dosed with medicine? too injured? one cannot tell), utters a few sentences that delay his leaving a couple of times. Ultimately, he turns around to leave for the third time at which point Dasha dies from a heart attack, or something, I guess. Talk about building a fascinating character throughout the season only to fizzle her out of existence in a dull scene at the heels of a pedestrian conversation.

Villanelle and Eve meet at a retro-looking dance room where the former, once upon a time, launched her career as an assassin by killing a high-ranking police officer. Villanelle, seemingly in the mood to philosophize about life choices, asks Eve if she ever thinks about the past. Eve’s answer, “All the time. That’s all I think about,” comes across a bit ironic considering that she is talking to the very killer who brutally murdered her best friend in front of her eyes back in “Don’t I Know You?” Not sure if remembering that had an impact on my viewing experience of this scene, but this particular exchange between Eve and Villanelle did not resonate with me as much as past one-on-one scenes involving the two. Howbeit, their ensuing dance struck all the right chords. Until Rhian arrived to crash the party, that is.

Villanelle quickly slips into Eve’s hands the piece of paper (the money trail) that she got from Konstantin at the train station and tells her to leave. Few seconds later, she is spotted by Rhian and the two head for the tube station. It’s not important where they are going, nor is it mentioned. Why should it be? It’s irrelevant because the purpose of this sequence is quasi-telegraphed the moment Rhian crashed the party. In my review of last week’s “Beautiful Monster,” I questioned if Rhian would serve any purpose other than being a plot device to kill Mo Jafari. Negative! Not only is her character somewhat botched (her frenetic and insecure portrait put forth in the finale conspicuously contradicts the one painted in “Beautiful Monster”), but Villanelle disposes of her following an infantile scuffle scene that ends with Rhian backing up and accidentally falling to the rails as the train approaches. The only worthwhile shot in this lackluster sequence is Villanelle’s confident strut in the station to the tune of “Get Out of Town” by Fireflies.

Next, the umpteenth encounter between Carolyn and Geraldine takes place, in which the daughter attempts yet again to “reach” her mother on an emotional level only to be rejected in return. I cheered – not out of appreciation but out of relief – when Carolyn finally told Geraldine, “it’s time you left,” and solidified it later with, “you’re no longer welcome here,” which probably all sounded to Geraldine like, “Enough is enough. Get the fuck out of my house.” I was hoping the writers would spare us another dose of this cloying dialogue in the season finale, but alas.

Fortunately, the outing improves significantly from this point forward. It starts with a side-splitting sequence at the betting shop that I can only refer to as “Bruce 100 meets Tallulah Shark,” when Eve collects a package kept by Konstantin in a box.

Jamie and Bear invite Carolyn to Bitter Pill to show her the footage captured fro Bear’s secret camera that he installed to catch the culprit who’d been stealing his tangfastics (go ahead, click on the link, Carolyn did not know what that meant either). The “pilfering bastard,” in Bear’s words, is – was – Kenny!! But the bigger revelation is Konstantin appearing in the footage and leaving the room with Kenny on the day he died.

Speaking of Konstantin, he meets Eve to collect his package. She refuses to hand it to him, as if anyone expected otherwise, which gives him another mild heart attack (I lost count). He wants Villanelle to come and convince her “friend” to change her mind.

Villanelle, however, is on a mission of her own searching for Eve, which leads to a riotous set of dialogues at Bitter Pill between her and the trio of Audrey, Jamie and Bear. They are petrified once they recognize her and Villanelle milks every second of it. Bear wonders, from inside Jamie’s office as he stares at Villanelle, what she does with all the penises as Jamie shushes him. When they muster up the courage to talk to her in the waiting area, the image of Jamie approaching Villanelle with one shoulder hanging forward, and Audrey and Bear cautiously following him with trembling legs, is a sight for ages, not to mention that I guffawed at Bear and Jamie’s faces when Villanelle described what she does with the “good ones” and the “bad ones.”

While Danny Sapani and Turlough Convery are splendid in this scene, the fact that their characters have been reduced to the function of comic relief in comparison to how they began the season, especially in Jamie’s case, represents one of those times where I wish some series were more generous with the number of episodes per season (also looking at you, dear showrunners of Star Trek: Picard and Barkskins). I believe that in a season such as this one, where storylines are no longer restricted to the narrow radius of the Eve-Villanelle relationship, as was the case in seasons 1 and 2, Killing Eve could have benefited from airing ten episodes instead of eight.

Konstantin gets a call from Paul telling him to come to his house. He knows that the Russian is the one who stole the Twelve’s money from his account. Except that, as we quickly find out, he is held at gun point by Carolyn and that is how Konstantin and Eve find them when they arrive. Villanelle arrives shortly after to complete the circle and begin the denouement. As for the reactions of everyone as they see each other arrive… priceless!

The conversation veers in all kinds of direction with Carolyn standing up and holding the gun while everyone else is seated. Konstantin outs Paul as part of the Twelve. Villanelle asks Paul if he knew Hélène, and Eve demands to know if he ordered Dasha to kill Niko. Paul scoffs at the Twelve reference and does not seem to recognize any of the names mentioned.

When pressed by Carolyn who saw the tangfastic footage, Konstantin claims that Kenny died because of Paul. He claims that he and Kenny left the room to go to the rooftop where they could talk in private. He tried to convince Kenny to stop pursuing the Twelve and to work for them instead. Papabear Konstantin was merely trying to save Kenny, you see? He adds that Kenny “got scared” and began to step back. Heck Konstantin even tried to stop him but it was too late as the young man toppled over the edge and fell. “You have to believe me,” Konstantin begs. Carolyn is not buying it. She orders him to kneel and puts the gun on his forehead. After some tense moments during which, frankly speaking, Konstantin should have had his conclusive heart attack, Carolyn switches targets at the last second and shoots Paul in the head. She tells Konstantin to leave, which he happily obliges, but not before grabbing the package from Eve’s purse and asking Villanelle if she is coming. She is not, and her reason is the same one that he gave her in the second-season finale to explain his betrayal: “You’re not family.”

The scene could almost be considered a take-off from dark-crime satire. While the five actors perform at the top of their game, it’s highly predictable (except to the characters, I suppose) that Paul is the one who will not survive this encounter, rather than Konstantin. At the end of the day, it is not clear if Konstantin really killed Kenny or not. His explanation seems far-fetched and he is obviously a chronic liar. At the same time, he has never killed before, at least to anyone’s knowledge. The uncertainty surrounding Kenny’s death is never fully eliminated. Some may find that frustrating or underwhelming, but I am on board with the idea of adding some ambiguity to a regular character who is highly likely to reappear in season 4.

Following Konstantin’s departure, Carolyn also tells Eve and Villanelle to leave. She advises Eve to go cold turkey on her pursuit of Villanelle, I presume (but I cannot be 100% certain), before finally calling Hugh to report Paul’s “suicide.”

The show cannot end on that note, naturally, especially on a scene during which Eve and Villanelle had background roles. The denouement was for the sake of Carolyn and Konstantin who played larger roles in this season. The closing scene is reserved for the two leads, and it’s a splendid one.

Placed on London Bridge and steered by the polished camera work of Thomas, the final scene begins with Villanelle and Eve delving into the meaning of their existence in function of each other. What is nice here is that much of what is said only qualifies as foreplay to what remains unsaid, yet intuitively understood, by both women. They appear calmer than in their past one-on-one encounters as they pause to contemplate the consequences of their bond, and whether to keep it intact or not. This serene discussion is a stark and welcome contrast to the two disastrous (and bloody) endings of the two previous finales. They finally decide on a plan (walking away from each other), knowing entirely too well that they will never be able to bring that plan to full fruition (the last shot). And they do not appear scared of that outcome either. These closing shots seem to usher in a new phase in their relationship, one that I hope to see probed deeper during season 4.

I noticed a couple of naysayers around social media ask, “What was this season about?” What an unfortunate question! It makes me wonder if they only watched a portion of the season. Consider the following taken from the prism of the two leads for instance. The first season centered on a cat-and-mouse game between Eve and Villanelle that led to calamity at the latter’s Parisian apartment. The second one marked their attempt at working together, a chaotic partnership that culminated in the catastrophic shooting in Rome. This season saw them trying to pursue other avenues at first, only to come to the realization that they cannot remain apart forever and that their paths will eventually cross. They must accept living with that reality. This season was also about developing Konstantin and Carolyn, two main characters, and allowing Killing Eve to let loose of the constricted narrative space in the immediate surroundings of the two leads that was extensively dissected for two seasons. Kudos to Heathcote and the writing room for overcoming that tremendous challenge – again, for more on my thoughts on the season, see the third paragraph above.

Last-minute thoughts:

— Kate Bracken appears for the second time playing the doctor at the hospital without being named, although end credits indicate that her character’s name is Dr. Greer Barrie.

— As wonderful as the closing scene was, I would have loved it even more if it did not include another pretentious gripe by Eve about “what happened” to her, as if she did not know exactly what she was doing when making one selfish decision after another throughout three seasons. Don’t get me wrong, I love the character, but it’s hard to overlook her repeatedly feigning concern for herself and people around her when she consciously chooses paths that she knows will put herself and close ones in the line of fire (literally and figuratively).

— Is Hugh coming back next season?

— When the camera shows Paul being held at gunpoint, the frame only shows him and the barrel of the gun before cutting to another scene to create suspense, I presume. Did anyone doubt that it was held by Carolyn? Probably not.

— See the contrast between Eve and Villanelle during the denouement scene as they sit together on the couch and observe. Villanelle’s facial expression during the tense moments resembles that of a curious child, almost excited, whereas Eve remains panic-stricken throughout.

— Jack Chissick was fabulous as Bruce at the betting shop.

Until the next season…

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“End of Game” – Aired on May 17, 2020
Writer: Krissie Ducker
Director: Shannon Murphy
Grade: 4 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

Wait, Niko is alive? What?!? A double pitchfork was thrust through the back of his neck, coming out in front and almost pinning him face-first to the barndoor, and he survived? You mean, a renowned ex-KGB assassin, with the experience span of four-plus decades somehow failed her task completion of killing an ordinary dude? A load of codswallop is what I call on both accounts.

Having said that, I would also like to thank the writers for inserting that load into the script, thus allowing the “Piss. Off. Forever” scene to exist because I laughed harder than I can recall in recent memory as Niko typed those words into the speech synthesizer so that the metallic voice could spit them out at Eve. An immediate second wave of laughter ensued when the last word, “Forever,” flickered a few times across the screen in big letters as Niko and Eve stared at each other (and I just chuckled again while writing this sentence).

What follows that idiosyncratic opening is a well-performed dialogue between Villanelle and Hélène who first appeared in “Still Got It” as a member of the Twelve. The way Jodie Comer conveys Villanelle’s state of despondency upon hearing the next assignment is spot-on as usual and the splendid Camille Cottin is captivating in her portrayal of the newly introduced member of the Twelve.

Villanelle is at first elated to learn that her promotion to being a “Keeper” is now confirmed and the two women celebrate with a glass of champagne. It goes awry for Villanelle, however, when Hélène informs her of the “very exciting” first assignment she gets as a Keeper, one that “will cause a great stir,” and hands her a postcard indicating Romania as the location of her next target. It feels eerily similar to what Villanelle was doing as an assassin while taking orders from handlers of the Twelve. Yet Villanelle “was told,” you see, that she would be the one “giving orders.” Hélène swiftly nips that argument in the bud with the question “by who” that a flustered Villanelle cannot answer. Hélène basically lays down the law, telling Villanelle to love it or leave it, driving her point home with a smirky send-off, “Enjoy Romania.”

Back at Bitter Pill, Eve is astutely beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle together in a sequence that Sandra Oh sells well as the razor-sharp-minded, intuitive investigator that she is, with an assist from director Shannon Murphy foregrounding just what is needed to show in order to bring alive the intricate thought process taking place in Eve’s mind.

For starters, there is the note attached to the pitchfork by Niko’s assailant, which does not fit with Villanelle’s modus operandi. Had Villanelle intended to kill Niko, he would not have made it alive. Secondly, she notices photos of Bertha Kruger’s dead body (killed by Villanelle in the zaniest assassination of the season in “Still Got It”) which seem to represent, in Eve’s mind at least, the note’s actual point of reference. Her suspicions are further confirmed when Bear shows her pictures of Dasha as the one responsible for the 1974 murder of the gymnast in Russia, seen in the cold open of this season’s premiere. The rumor is that the “Chalk Kill” impressed the KGB enough to recruit Dasha as a youngster back in the days. She now lives in Barcelona teaching “wee kids to do roly-polies” (Bear’s quote, the guy’s hilarious in every way). You can sense the wheels in Eve’s head turning with increased speed, probably visualizing a trip to Barcelona already.

Eve is first is headed to Carolyn’s house to learn everything about Dasha because Eve knows, and probably does everyone else, that if there is a person of interest in the Killing Eve universe, there is a great chance that Carolyn had a drink, coffee, dinner, sex, or a combination of those, with that individual. Sure enough, Carolyn is a fountain of information on Dasha. The first time she met her was long time ago at a café in Sorrento, Italy, when Dasha was first kicked out of the KGB and exiled for killing one of their own.

It doesn’t take long for Carolyn’s sensory radars to detect Eve’s intention to leave for Barcelona. She sternly warns Eve about Dasha, underlining that she was one of KGB’s top assassins before her fallout. This is when Eve spurts out the biggest lie of this season to justify her pursuit: “Someone tried to kill my husband, I intend to find out who.” Sure Eve, everyone believes that Niko is the catalyst behind your desire to go to Barcelona. Wink-wink, smile-giggle, eye-roll.

This was also about where I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked heavens that Killing Eve is back (after last week’s detour), with its cherished bravado of clever dialogues, five-star acting by the ensemble, meaningful character growth and plot advancements on multiple fronts, and doing so without resorting to lunacy with little gist for the sole purpose of eccentricity.

Assuming that one is able to hand-wave the absurdity of Niko still being alive (I was), all of the above takes place within the first 12 minutes of “End of Game” and serves as a much-needed recalibration of the overall arc, and recovery from the uncalibrated hour that “Are You from Pinner?” was, bringing it back on the right track.

Writer Krissie Ducker packs a lot in these initial scenes, without making anything feel rushed, and the rest of the episode greatly benefits from it. Consider for instance the following scene where Villanelle shows up in Russia to talk to Konstantin during Irina’s ice-hockey practice. Thanks to the efficiency of the first 12 minutes, we are aware of the reasons behind her wish to join him and do not need to be brought up to speed, which allows time for the dialogue to include those quirky lines that are part of your quintessential Konstantin-Villanelle exchange.

Her new position within the Twelve no longer tickles Villanelle’s fancy after the meeting with Hélène and Konstantin’s idea of “getting out” suddenly sounds more appealing. Except that Konstantin is not gung-ho about Villanelle joining them. Not one bit! One nutcase in the form of his daughter is more than he can handle during years of secret retirement. The addition of a second nutcase in the mix is the last thing he needs, I reckon.

He refuses to reveal where he is planning on going with Irina and attempts to sway Villanelle by saying that the Twelve would find out if they left together. When that explanation does not wash with Villanelle, he offers to go first and send for her later. She is not swallowing that cookie either. He tries one last card (you guessed it, the ‘Eve’ card) by asking Villanelle if she is really ready to “leave everything” behind, “the clothes, apartment… and her.” She replies, “I know.” Seeing that his efforts are in vain, Konstantin urges her to at least not say a word to anyone because “they” will kill them if they find out. “The plan only works if nobody knows there is one,” he emphasizes.

Speaking of Irina, Villanelle meets her after school and listens to her complain about her mother’s boyfriend (Ion Grosu) for either acting creepy toward her or for making her mom really happy, or both! But Villanelle only met with her because she needs information and what better way to crawl into a kooky fourteen-year-old’s good graces, in order to milk that information, than letting her drive a car, quite wildly in fact, on a vast, empty driveway, while laughing and screaming together? Just don’t ask how, where, or whose car, that’s all. Using subtle lead phrases to manipulate Irina (who is not as clever as she thinks), Villanelle eventually gets her to spit out the location of Konstantin’s secret location for retirement: Cuba!

Another scene that benefits from the efficient set-up of the first dozen minutes is when Eve confronts Dasha in the bowling alley in Barcelona. There is no need for introductions or explanations on the reasons behind the unplanned meeting, thus leaving room for the humor resulting from the underlying bowling competition taking place while the two women launch metaphoric verbal jabs at one another. I admit that the dialogue’s content has less substance than others in the outing and requires a bit of hand-waving** on the viewers part. Yet, the scene still works well because the subtle nuances and inflections used by the two women cumulatively add up to a crystal-clear viva voce to one another: “I know you, and now you know me. Don’t mess with me, or you’ll regret it.”

** Would a life-long assassin like Dasha casually confirm or divulge any information about how she created Villanelle, or that she is working with the Twelve, or that Villanelle has gotten promoted, less than 60 seconds into a conversation with someone she never met before? I doubt it, but I rolled with it, and so should you.

We catch up with Villanelle in Romania, lackadaisically preparing to complete the task assigned to her by Hélène (and fulfill her own quota of at least one murder per episode). It involves the killing a local politician (Calin Bleau) and she is posing as the make-up person to prep him up for a TV appearance. It does not end well for him, of course, but never mind for a second that his head gets electrocuted and fried in the big hair dryer. What is of consequence here is that Villanelle’s apathy results in sloppy work.

Before dying, the man manages to stab Villanelle in the arm with nail scissors. Her DNA is virtually begging to be found by the first forensics expert on scene because she drops the scissors on the floor after pulling them out of her arm, then steps in her own blood as she leaves in physical agony. We later see her in psychological agony as well – I don’t want to do this anymore,” she mutters with teary eyes – as Dasha arrives and stitches up her injury.

Carolyn meets a man named Mike (Vincent Ebrahim) from the Metropolitan Police at a park to collect Kenny’s phone records. He apparently called the meeting because he had emailed the report to her desk over a week ago when the initial request came through and Carolyn has yet to receive it. He wanted to hand it to her in person this time. This raises all kinds of red flags for Carolyn who has been told multiple times during the week by Paul, the pestilent Whitehall Warrior, that “Scotland Yard has been dragging their feet” in responding quickly.

Carolyn wastes no time in squaring up to Paul at the office, point-blank asking him if he works for “them.” Paul, realizing that Carolyn caught on to his lies, repeats the same question back: “Are you, Carolyn?” Neither gives a straight answer and the verbal stand-off ends with both laughing it off (I kid you not) and Paul mockingly informing Carolyn that she is actually standing in her office, not that she could tell!  

Lo and behold, it appears that Paul does work for “them” because he shows up at Konstantin’s home later to put pressure on him to find the culprit behind the missing money from the Twelve’s account in Geneva. Things go from bad to worse for Konstantin when Paul tells him that it was not Charles, apparently, who siphoned money from the Twelve’s account, and that to find the culprit, Konstantin must uncover the identity of the person (read: himself) who ordered the hit on Bertha Kruger. Paul warns, “If there is a breach, we’re both to blame, but believe me, you will be the one who’ll take the fall.” In other words, Konstantin must catch himself and bite the dust or pretend to fail at finding the culprit and still bite the dust. Catch-22 galore!

When it rains it pours, they say, and Carolyn is next in line put the heat on Konstantin. It appears that Kenny’s records show them talking to each other on the phone in the 24 hours leading to Kenny’s death. She tricks him into going for a friendly drive, but soon begins to drive like a maniac, threatening not to stop unless he answers her question, “what did you want with my child?” Carolyn is talking about Kenny of course, but Konstantin thinks that she means Geraldine, so he blurts out, “I swear, I try nothing. She kissed me.” As Carolyn hisses through gritted teeth, “Geri kissed you,” I cannot decide which is funnier: Konstantin involuntarily volunteering too much information or Carolyn receiving information that she never asked for, and probably wished she never heard.

In any case, she insists on knowing why Kenny called him the night before he was murdered. Panic-stricken due to Carolyn’s increasingly erratic driving and fluctuating mood, Konstantin spills out the truth. Kenny wanted to know if Konstantin was his father! Carolyn, utterly shocked, wants to know how he responded. Konstantin says, “I told him I didn’t know.” Whaaat?!? That ambiguous quote opens up more can of worms than I can imagine. To be continued.

Carolyn arrives home and somehow manages to remain lusterless in tone and expression through another mother-daughter reckoning talk initiated by Geraldine. But, she gets the last word in this one. She bluntly, but firmly, describes the nature of their intra-family dynamics, saying that she and Kenny had a connection that Geraldine could not begin to understand, and that Geraldine had a connection with her father that she never understood. Carolyn prefers honesty between them rather than lying to her daughter: “I know other parents do, they tell their children they’re wonderful at this and great at that, but I just…I don’t have that gene.”

Geraldine seems to appreciate her mother’s candor, especially when Carolyn agrees with her that they only have each other left. Yet, Carolyn always has an agenda, doesn’t she? She has one here too, and it comes out at the end. Having prophesied about honesty and how she is unable to lie to her daughter, she turns the tables on Geraldine and puts her on the spot: “You can tell me exactly what’s been going on between you and Konstantin. Where you’ve been, what you’ve done, and why he came to visit you. Because it seems while I’ve been unable to lie to you, you’ve had no problem lying to me.”

As for Konstantin, the consequence of inadvertently jabbering away about Geraldine to Carolyn earlier is probably the last item on his list of worries after Paul’s visit. Feeling his arms twisted from all sides, he sees only one solution. Pack up his luggage, get Irina, and disappear into the horizon at once! He asks Irina to get ready over the phone and leaves for Russia where he has yet one more bad surprise waiting for him.

As he awaits Irina outside the house of his ex-wife’s creepy boyfriend, he notices her in the driving seat of the car parked at the entrance. She turns on the car and drives it straight into her mom’s boyfriend who just dumped the trash bag in the bin outside! She rolls the car over his body one more time for good measure while laughing, as Konstantin’s jaw drops a few more inches toward the ground, before the end credits begin rolling.

Last-minute thoughts:

— Back in my review of “Still Got It,” I wrote the following sentence: “Major characters rival Candide or Odysseus with the frequency and celerity of their travels from one geographical location to another.” Yes, I did the unthinkable and quoted myself because in this episode alone, (1) Dasha went from bowling in the afternoon in Barcelona to catching up with an injured Villanelle in Romania that same evening (wearing the same outfit), (2) Eve went from bowling in the afternoon in Barcelona to stopping by Niko at the hospital in London before dark, (3) and Konstantin went from London in the evening to meet Irina in Moscow later in the same evening.

— Here is my crackpot speculation for what is still to come in season 3: Konstantin will somehow manage to kill two birds with one stone by figuring out a way, with an assist from Villanelle, to pin Bertha’s death and the missing funds on Dasha, causing her demise.

— I could live without Konstantin’s remark on how “everyone’s mother deserves it,” in the same way that I could live without Dasha ditching a baby in the trash bin back in “Meetings Have Biscuits.”

— It appears that Villanelle’s blunder in Romania also cost Dasha her definitive trip back home. I am beginning to suspect she may never get there.

— Ironic that Irina scolded Villanelle for being a bad role model during their drive, yet appears to get so much pleasure from killing someone at the end.

— Bear’s references to “pitchforking” and the glares of Jamie and Eve toward him each time he does so… Priceless!

— Villanelle screaming “Cubaaaaaa” in the car before the switch to Konstantin coming out of a store in London with “Not Cuba” flashing on the screen… Priceless!

— The monologue by Bear as Eve abuses the vending machine with kicks and punches… Priceless!

Until the next episode…

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“Are You From Pinner?” – Aired on May 10, 2020
Writer: Suzanne Heathcote
Director: Shannon Murphy
Grade: 2 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

Highs and lows are inevitable, they often say, and successful TV shows running over multiple seasons are not immune to that problem. Killing Eve is an exceptional case in the sense that it has remained on the high end of the spectrum through most (if not, all) of its existence. “Are You From Pinner?” represents the irritating reality that even the cream of the crop in the industry cannot completely escape the above cliché.

This is a pedestrian, unremarkable hour of TV drama, unless…

— you happen to be an unwavering fan of Jodie Comer and watch anything showcasing her in some form or fashion, or…
— you are a variation of the above, in the sense that you could not care less about the rest of the cast and are here for Comer alone…
— you feel like consuming, along with an alcoholic beverage, an hour of schlock-caricature portrayal of a town in “Mother Russia,”** or…
— you are an fanatical follower of Killing Eve and as such, you chalk it up as an acceptable loss even if a particular episode is composed of a dreary plotline featuring pallid characters with little wit, or…

… Okay, I’ll stop here and recapitulate. Unless you are one of the above, your experience as a fan of Killing Eve will not skip a beat if you never saw this one.

** Thankfully, “Grizmet” is fictitious. Had it existed, not a single resident would have been amused by the doltish portrayal of their town to a global audience.

If you have been reading my reviews for this season, you know that I have been a staunch supporter of this Suzanne Heathcote-led version of Killing Eve and praised the tonal and narrative shifts that have so far marked season 3.

That being said, “Are You From Pinner?” strays too far!

Instead of the intriguing, layered narratives centered on the main characters, we have a simple-minded, single progression of events leading to a painfully predictable climax. Instead of the usual witty dialogues and clever satire, we are subjected to dumbed-down, slapstick humor. Instead of the usual world-building via beautifully shot multiple locations where events tie into each other, working toward a worthy pay-off, we have the narrow scope of a single location in ‘Absurdistan’ where this-n-that happens with hardly any substrate or cultural depth (no! Mother Russia is not Grizmet!)

The previews and trailers, as well as the closing seconds of last week’s terrific “Still Got It,” hinted at the possibility of this hour shining the spotlight on Villanelle’s familial background. While we get to meet her mother Tatiana (Evgenia Dodina) and her brother Pyotr (Rob Feldman), I must question the choice to explore Villanelle’s past as a child in a household where four other individuals with zero ties to Oksana (as everyone refers to her) occupy a considerable amount of screen time and provide little-to-no insight to her “story,” so to speak.

The only saving grace in this context is a boy named Bor’ka (Temi Blaev), whose father Grigoriy (Pedja Bjelac) is now married to Tatiana, which makes him Oksana’s half-brother, not that she even heard of him prior to her arrival. He is an obsessive fan of Elton John and his one goal in life is to collect enough money to see him perform live. Others ridicule and mock him, Tatiana scolds him and calls him “stupid,” the local cook Nadege (Virginia Rogin) refers to him as a “weird asshole,” cumulatively shattering his self-esteem. He has already formed a habit of banging his head against the wall when he feels ashamed or as a failure, as well as smacking it repeatedly with his palm.

His only ally seems to be Pyotr who is treated like an outcast himself, receiving no affection from his mother, not to mention his half-brother Fyodor (Dimitrij Schaad) harassing him, calling him names like “puppy dog,” “idiot,” and “mummy’s boy.” Pyotr tends to sleep at the barn where he ferociously beats the worn-out couch with a baseball bat for his daily anger-management exercise.

The interpersonal dynamics between the three above (Bor’ka-Pyotr-Tatiana) at least provide some clues – because, not much else does – as to what Oksana may have gone through growing up with an abhorrent mother like Tatiana. On a stodgier level, it makes Villanelle hate her mother even more which only makes sense because, frankly speaking, this is a painfully predictable hour, and murder(s) to come need to be appositely justified. It is telegraphed, fairly early in the episode, that we are inevitable on our way to witnessing some type of a climax where Villanelle kills Tatiana to fulfill her quota of at least one murder per episode before leaving town.

Sure, we learn a couple of historical tidbits in the process, such as Oksana being placed in an orphanage at a young age by her mother, or that Oksana used to punch Pyotr in the face, or that her parents had some sort of a fall-out when she was very young because he is nowhere to be found in the family pictures (Pyotr doesn’t even remember him), or that she started a fire at the orphanage.

Yet, nothing in this clunker amounts to any intuitive understanding of Oksana’s upbringing or any substantive anecdote on her childhood. There are no flashbacks to add to our insight on her formative years, no reliable sources from which to gain any knowledge.

Instead, the episode wastes inordinate amount of time on otiose banter flowing from inconsequential individuals like Grigoriy, Fyodor and his girlfriend Yula (Natallia Bulynia), not to mention the unoriginal festival occupying around four minutes of screen time during most of which Yula and her two sidekicks dance for the crowd and sneer at Oksana, and locals participate in run-of-the-mill contests (Villanelle wins hers, whoop-de-doo).

Even the accusations Villanelle and Tatiana launch at each other don’t carry enough clout. They are perpetual liars, so one can never be certain whose version is closer to the truth when confronted by conflicting statements. According to Villanelle, for example, her father was “better” and “stronger” than her mother. Tatiana claims, for her part, that Oksana ruined her father with her “darkness.” Can anyone firmly tell which is the truth? I doubt it. We enter the hour knowing zilch about her father, and exit the same way.

The orphanage told Tatiana that Oksana died in a fire, or so says Tatiana. Is she telling the truth? Why would the orphanage lie?

The orphanage told Oksana that her family died in a car crash, or so says Villanelle. Is she telling the truth? If she were, why did the orphanage lie? Or, did the orphanage receive erroneous information and passed it on? Or, did Tatiana ask them say so to Oksana and they complied (unethically) with her request for some strange reason?

The bottom line is, we spend an hour supposedly focusing on Villanelle’s background (the official synopsis even says so in different words) and come out of it knowing hardly anything more than we did before.

Taking my personal experience of being a regular watcher of Killing Eve into account, I can comfortably say that there is something wrong if, 40 minutes into an episode, I feel that the only memorable scene is Villanelle guffawing at the flat-earth theories of Fyodor and Yula (compared to my usual several-chuckles-per-episode rate thanks to delightfully witty dialogues) and the only thing left to wonder is how Villanelle will discard her victim(s) at the end.

She does not stop with her mother either, does she? She commits mass murder. Oh wait, was I supposed to cheer for her on when she left money for Bor’ka? Sorry. I must have missed that particular nuance.

Until the next episode… and quickly please!

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“Still Got It” – Aired on May 3, 2020
Writer: Elinor Cook
Director: Miranda Bowen
Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

“Still Got It” is yet another strong entry to season 3, once again challenging viewers to adapt to the shift in tone and style in comparison to the first two seasons, and doing so even more unabashedly than any the previous three outings did. Showrunner Suzanne Heathcote and the writing room are taking risks, and you better not get left behind.

Sure, you may have already noticed from the first three episodes that the narrative no longer operates within the narrowly confined parameters of the two leads, while the rest of the characters merely contribute as figurants. Sure, characters other than Eve and Villanelle now get regular chunks of minutes per episode dedicated solely to them. Sure, the quirk-o-meter keeps climbing higher. Heck, we even had an opening-credits theme appear out nowhere for the first (and only) time in “Management Sucks.” So, yeah… it is not as if you have not noticed the changes…

But “Still Got It” takes a step further by bluntly plonking that reality in front of the viewers, explicitly integrating those shifts in question into visual and narrative cues. It is non-linear in structure, featuring not one, but two stories told in circular time, one embedded into the other, mind you? It shows in big letters the names of the characters on whom the scenes center and not the locations where they take place as has been the case in the past. Its color correction and frame editing are quite distinct. It showcases two adult women behaving like toddlers high on sugar (or insane-asylum regulars, take your pick) for almost a minute before the obligatory at-least-one-per-episode murder quota by Villanelle is fulfilled (hey, at least some things remain the same). Major characters rival Candide or Odysseus with the frequency and celerity of their travels from one geographical location to another. The only one not traveling does not appear until late in the episode, and when she finally does, she remains on screen for four successive scenes lasting six minutes. In short, “Still Got It” represents the unapologetic confirmation of season 3’s sui-generis nature, in terms of style and storytelling.

In case you have not read my past reviews and think that I am pointing out the above to criticize the show, allow me to state unequivocally that, halfway through the season, I find this Heathcote-led version of Killing Eve absolutely fantabulous. The entertainment value is high. Having settled into their roles, the cast members appear to genuinely have fun performing. More importantly, the threat of lapsing into redundancy in the name of combing through every strand of the old formula is dexterously thwarted. Well done, dear showrunners.

The hour begins with Niko in the countryside of Poland, settled into the routine of daily life in his hometown. He is delivering bread to an old woman named Milena (Anita Poddebniak) who is happy to see him “make it home” where he belongs. He is later having a beer at the local bar when he notices a slew of texts from Eve wanting to talk. He leaves his phone on the bar as he gets pulled off his seat by the locals for a group toast, allowing a mysterious woman nearby (okay, not-so-mysterious if you look closely, it’s Dasha) to snitch his phone and leave the establishment without anyone noticing.

Back to London where Eve wakes up on the couch at the offices of Bitter Pill. She smashes her covers behind the couch in the most unsanitary way possible before getting up and spending the rest of the working day sporting a foul odor and munching on Bear’s Coco Pops, not to mention her panties peeking out of her pant leg. Okay, I’ll stop. She did, after all, brush her teeth (!)

It also happens to be her birthday, not that anyone at Bitter Pill knew until a birthday cake is delivered in a box. A smile forms on Eve’s face as she realizes that Villanelle must have sent it. She opens the box on the roof and finds the cutest birthday cake inside, in the shape of a London double-dutch bus. Then, Eve suddenly turns angry (I’ve heard at least four different theories as to why), hurls the box down from the side of the roof in a fit of rage, and watches the cake get splattered all over the ground in the parking lot below, much like Kenny did, I presume, when he fell (or, was chucked down) from the same spot. Maybe Eve also thought of Kenny at that moment, because her expression of anger turns to shock and regret as she stares at the smashed cake on the ground below.

Sprinkling the eccentric sequence above are ephemeral moments of plot sobriety, such as Eve finally receiving text replies from Niko (or, so she thinks) accepting her request to talk. There is also something familiar, Eve claims, about the crime-scene photo on Bear’s computer of the murdered political agitator in Girona, Catalonia (Villanelle’s spice-shop victim in “Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey”). The way her face is upturned and buried under a sand of paprika reminds Eve of a murder in Russia that was never solved, one where a young gymnast preparing for the Olympics was found dead in a similar position in the locker room, covered in hand chalk (seen in the cold opening of season 3).

Shortly after the cake’s demise, Jamie joins Eve on the roof to inform her that she cannot be “camp out” at the office. Next thing you know, she is a temporary guest in his house, which leads to a brilliant dialogue between them over a couple of bottles of beer. It starts with Jamie chuckling at Eve obsessively looking at her phone and behaving, according to him, “like a sad teenager, waiting for a ‘like’ on Instagram.” Eve soon strikes back with a derogatory remark of her own, thus launching a verbal duel of mine-beats-yours in terms of having a “chequered past.”

It begins benignly with Jamie citing taking a piss in the shower that morning and Eve admitting to never having bought The Big Issue, but quickly escalates into a series of severely grave confessions, with Jamie ultimately coming out on top when he mentions his best friend dying on the drugs provided by him. The broader lesson, courtesy of Jamie: “Do not think that you are the only self-loathing arsehole in the room, ever,” and “it’s all about choices.” Frankly speaking, the excellence of the scene rests less in the content of the dialogue (we already knew about Eve’s bad deeds) than Sarah Oh and Danny Sapani’s outstanding deliveries of their lines.

On the following day, Bear shows Eve the photo of the gymnast killed in 1974 that he found in his research. There was never an arrest made but Eve believes that attaching an identity to the killer in Russia four-plus decades earlier may lead them to the copycat killer in Girona, and to the Twelve. Eve is distracted though as she keeps receiving texts from “Niko” (wink, wink). He must be insisting on her coming to Poland to have their talk because, just like that, Eve drops the conversation with Bear and Jamie in midstream, grabs her purse, and exits the office reminding Jamie with a smile, “Choices, It’s all about choices.”

She is Poland next, surprising Niko who appears to be repairing Milena’s barndoor when Eve arrives at the entrance of the property and waves at him. Niko looks oddly stupefied though, as he waves back at her. The rest of the episode establishes, in a long-winded flashback, that Niko had no idea about Eve’s arrival, and that those texts were sent by Dasha who nicked his phone in the opening scene in order to execute her far more sinister plan.

The satisfying part in all this, story wise, is that when the camera cuts to Moscow for the next scene with Konstantin and his daughter – welcome back, Irina! –, viewers are unaware that a flashback has begun. The pay-off is well worth it as we discover, one scene at a time, the intricacies that took place within the previous 24 to 48 hours (I reckon), until the moment of Eve’s handwave to Niko at Milena’s place. That does not even include the eleventh-hour shocker, instigated by Dasha who, unseen in that initial hello scene, was lurking a few meters away from Niko, holding a pitchfork.

Having failed miserably in his efforts to convince Irina that he was not “full of shit” and that he had “a plan,” Konstantin returns to London in hopes of faring better with Kruger’s widow, played by Rebecca Saire (familiar to fans of BBC’s Vanity Fair from the 80s). She is “in such a muddle” in the aftermath of her husband’s murder that she cannot stop shaking and choking as she talks. Needless to say, Konstantin’s theatrical act (Kim Bodnia’s expressions are a delight to watch here) of the ‘concerned friend’ works wonders.

Charles left his wife an email with an attachment that she is supposed to forward to someone. He also mentioned something about a large sum of money that went missing and that “he’s worked out who’d taken it.” She will forward the email to Konstantin instead, and move to their family holiday house for safety reasons, because Konstantin the concerned friend advises her to do so while cupping her hands in his for comfort!

Next destination in Konstantin’s journey is Barcelona where he startles Villanelle in the street while she is staring at a store window. The next cut shows Villanelle in her lavish mansion dancing and baking a cake, which is in fact the beginning of the second, and shorter, flashback submerged within the prime one already in motion. Dasha stops by with good news. “They” are ready to meet Villanelle for a new contract. Villanelle is ecstatic to hear about the possible promotion and her ensuing triumph dance by herself after Dasha leaves is probably more delightful than any that you and I have ever attempted on our own, but don’t care to admit. She goes out shopping to further celebrate her joyful mood but Konstantin cuts it short by startling her in front of a shop’s window. There! We are now caught up with the prime flashback.

He needs a personal favor from Villanelle, “off the record,” he specifies, as Villanelle echoes his words because she had evidently heard him say this before. She must eliminate the unstable, fragile Mrs. Kruger. In return, he will give her the location of her family in Russia that she had asked him to find in “Meetings Have Biscuits.” That is all the motivation Villanelle needs to fulfill her obligatory quota of at least one murder per episode, which takes place in a riotous sequence that needs to be seen rather than described.

Carolyn takes center stage in a succession of scenes focusing on Geraldine’s angst resulting from what she perceives to be her mother’s apathy toward her following the emotional suffering caused by Kenny’s death, and on Carolyn’s opportunistic nature as she makes a calculated attempt to use the recent calamities (Kenny, Kruger, her own close call with death) to her advantage during a cafeteria conversation with the annoying Paul in order to reclaim control of her office.

The final piece of the puzzle, before we catch back up with the original timeline where Eve waves to Niko, involves the introduction of a new character, an icy-toned, high-heeled, dressed-to-kill member of the Twelve (played by the French actor Camille Cottin, a star in her native country). She criticizes Dasha for letting Villanelle get distracted by Eve and wants the matter resolved because, as if it needed reminding, Dasha can only go home when the Twelve say so. Dasha proposes to kill Eve but that would attract too much attention according to Madame 12, so she tells her to “drive a wedge” between Villanelle and Eve – am I the only one who chuckled at that quote and thought, “Good luck with that”?

Apparently, part of Dasha’s plan to drive a wedge between them involves going to Poland and posing as Magda, the “oldest friend” of Milena. When Niko makes his regular bread-delivery stop and wonders where Milena is, Magda replies that her friend’s appendix got “grouchy” and that she had to go to the hospital, but that it’s “nothing serious.” She asked Magda to take care of her place and her “favourite bread man” until her return. None of it is true, as suspected. Dasha killed Milena and fed her to the pigs. Literally! Sweet ol’ Magda wonders if Niko would be gracious enough to help her with the broken barndoor. He offers to stop by the next day to fix it.

Dasha’s master plan consists of having Eve witness the brutal murder of her husband, and arranging it to look like Villanelle committed the heinous act, which brings us to the present moment as Eve waves to Niko from a distance upon arriving at Milena’s place.

Dasha first attaches a note to the pitchfork that reads, “Still Got It.” Then, in a chilling sequence during which she carefully keeps herself out of Eve’s view, she savagely sticks the pitchfork to the back of Niko’s neck, almost pinning him face-first to the barndoor while Eve, who had the widest smile on her face up to that moment, collapses to her knees in terror as she watches her husband writhe in agony on the other side of the barn and expire in a matter of seconds. The excellent camera work by director Miranda Bowen and the emotive score combine together to convey the miasmic intensity of the sequence with maximum impact.

The ending shot of the outing shows Villanelle alighting from a train in Grizmet (fictitious town in Russia) seemingly ready to meet her family.

Closing thought: I must again question the wisdom of Dasha’s plan, considering the negligible impact of Villanelle’s barbaric slashing of Bill in “Don’t I Know You?” had on Eve’s obsession over Villanelle. Bill was, after all, Eve’s most cherished friend for whom, frankly speaking, she harbored far more affection than she ever did for her husband, and even after Villanelle executed him with multiple stabs, Eve’s infatuation with her never skipped a beat.

Last-minute thoughts:

— The ‘chequered past’ duel between Jamie and Eve was a hotly contested one. I am not convinced that Jamie’s conclusive mention about his friend dying on the drugs he gave him is the worst one I heard in that conversation.

— Villanelle touches her neck anxiously for a moment as she gets off the train in Grizmet. I’ve heard several different interpretations to this, ranging from her somehow feeling Eve’s pain upon witnessing Niko get stabbed in the neck (what? telepathy?) to her feeling closer to Eve when wearing a turtleneck.

— Carolyn is surprised to see Konstantin walking along the sidewalk as she is returning home from work in a car. Curious to see the significance of that fleeting moment in future episodes.

— Irina’s diagnosis of her father during her diatribe is spot on. She is simply not buying his lies to cover up the fact that she has never been a priority for him.

— Did anyone interpret Villanelle baking a cake as her attempt at surprising Eve on her upcoming birthday, thus decisively cluing in the viewers on the fact that they are watching a flashback?

— Mrs. Kruger weeping and saying, “I don’t want to be free,” as she hugs Villanelle is an adequate nod to the title of episode 7 of season 1, where poor Agniya says the same thing before suffering a similar fate at the hands of Villanelle.

— The sound of frogs croaking to help you sleep? Carolyn sure believes in it.

— Rest in peace Niko, but I honestly did not think you would even make it this far.

Until the next episode…

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“Meetings Have Biscuits” – Aired on April 26, 2020
Writer: Laura Neal
Director: Miranda Bowen
Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

One could almost argue that Villanelle is the only assassin in the Killing Eve universe operating at private châteaux or lavish mansions, because the episode begins at one located in Andalusia where she poses as a piano tuner, and is about to fulfill her obligatory quota of at least one murder per episode, first of three in this particular one.

Her initial target is the woman of the house, but the nanny/maid also catches the unfortunate ride when Villanelle notices her holding a baby in the back room. Once both women are eliminated via the use of her tuning forks used as darts aimed at their cranial units, Villanelle kidnaps the baby as a bonus prize, just out of curiosity, just for fun.

Dasha ditches that same baby later in a trash bin in a public square when she finds the baby irritating while having lunch with Villanelle who, in turn, finds the baby getting dumped in the trash bin so hilarious that she is absolutely in stitches, as I begin to question, is this supposed to be funny? Or pat levity for the sake of singularity? Or downright bad taste? The most (only) noteworthy part of the scene comes at the very end, when Dasha gives Villanelle a postcard indicating her next target’s location: London!

The oddness of the above scene put aside, “Meetings Have Biscuits” is a wonderful outing that continues the praiseworthy calibration observed in the directional tone of the show in episodes one and two, with increasingly compelling plot developments injected into the mix this time. Writer Laura Neal packs a boatload in 42 minutes, yet nothing comes across rushed or stilted. Every major character takes a considerable step forward in terms of both depth and plot contribution, and the episode features what may soon be referred to as an iconic moment in the Killing Eve lore; the lead duo’s first kiss. Add to the mix several zany-funny dialogues serving as the icing on the cake, and the result is the most riveting hour of season 3 so far.

Next on the agenda, after the opening in Spain, is Agent Mo and Carolyn going over the coroner’s report on Kenny’s death with Eve walking in to join them. It is recorded as a suicide, much to Carolyn’s dismay, but she has managed to get hold of Kenny’s thumb drives, much to Eve’s delight. Jamie also happens to walk in at one point before being rapidly shoved back out by Eve. Did I mention that the setting is the bathroom at Carolyn’s house with her taking a bubble bath while stark naked?

Zany-funny dialogue:
Eve [walks in, bewildered]: “Wow.”
Carolyn: “Oh, get over it, Eve. I have all my best thoughts in the bath. If Mo can manage, you can.”
Mo [sitting on the toilet, dressed in an impeccable suit]: “I haven’t looked up in ten minutes.”

Jamie joins them at the table downstairs, a much more suitable setting, with Carolyn dressed more appropriately. Animosity erupts between those two (feel free to take the “investigative journalism vs government agency” angle), forcing Eve to step in and assume the role of the adult in the room, to which an observing Geraldine reacts in a tone replete with sarcasm, “Wow. That is literally the most parenting this household has ever seen.” Her target audience of one, Carolyn, rolls her eyes.

As Bear and Eve go through the financial statements found in Kenny’s thumb drives at Bitter Pill, Eve notices a payment that has a strange name: “R-U-R’ U2 F’.” Bear, the ultimate nerd, recognizes it as a notation for Rubik’s Cube and when they apply it to the one next to the desk, the letters on one side of the cube align to read, “Panda.”

This leads to a meeting in Jamie’s office with Eve giving Jamie and Bear the full scoop on the Twelve and its connection to the word “Panda.” I have always believed that one of the signs of great writing is the attention paid to minute details in ensuring that they remain coherent at the granular level. In short, the answer to the question of “how we got here” should at least have a passable answer. “Meetings Have Biscuits” succeeds with flying colors here, thanks to nods to previous seasons and episodes, and an intricate trail concocted by the writing room.

For those who may not remember, Fat Panda was a Chinese intelligence officer killed by Villanelle (thus the Twelve) in first season’s “Don’t I know You?” because he was tracking down a double agent for the Twelve who happened to be Frank, Eve’s ex-boss. An account located in the Cayman Islands was used by the Twelve to pay Frank at the time. After Frank was also killed by Villanelle in “I Have a Thing about Bathrooms” two episodes later, the account’s balance had been moved to Geneva and gone dormant until recently, when three payments totaling 6 million euros took place. Kenny was tracking this account and named it “Panda.” You may also remember noticing briefly some photos of Frank and Fat Panda on Kenny’s computer screen in this season’s opener “Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey.” Kenny had indeed been a busy boy digging into the Twelve.

Zany-funny dialogue:
Eve [emphatically warning Jamie and Bear as she is about to discuss the Twelve]: “But before I go on, you have to understand that once I tell you about them, your lives are in danger.”
Jamie [rolling his eyes and saying firmly]: “Then don’t tell us…”
Eve [interrupting]: “They’re called the Twelve and they’ve infiltrated governments and organizations all over the world.”

A man named Charles Kruger (Dominic Mafham), an old friend of Konstantin (calls him Kostya) whose real name is Sergei, needs Konstantin’s help because someone has been “siphoning money” from the Geneva account, 6 million euros to be exact. He needs Konstantin to “tide him over” until he catches the “scoundrel.”

Zany-funny dialogue:
Charles [affectionately, while hugging Konstantin]: “How’s Irina these days? Still a little shit”
Konstantin [smiling]: “She is like a little shit, taking a shit on a big shit, the three shits combined into one enormous shit.”
Charles [nervously laughing, patting Konstantin on the shoulders, and yelling]: “That’s wonderful! Kids!”

Is someone operating outside the confines of the Twelve and daring to steal their money to do so? That would explain the anxiety of Charles who probably has prolonged nightmares about what the Twelve might do to him with regard to the missing money!

Meanwhile, Villanelle is in London for her next job, which can only spell chaos. She first stops by a perfumer and describes to him the eccentricity of the perfume she seeks with such intensity that the old man, stunned and slightly frightened, can barely get the words out of his mouth when he suggests, “Maybe something more woody.” Next, she visits a toy store and behaves as if she discovered the joys of stuffed animals for the first time ever, until she becomes fascinated by a booth where she can record voice messages that can be played in a stuffed animal.

Carolyn, for her part, is having a busy time, or a busy night, more specifically. Although her daughter Geraldine at home, and the bartender where Carolyn is sitting by herself, may naively believe that she is out for a date, we know that Carolyn Mertens is not one to make evening plans unless she has a meticulously calculated agenda lurking beneath the surface.

Zany-funny quote: Geraldine [yelling date-advice to her mom as she walks out the door]: “And don’t talk about Stalin. He’s strictly third date.”

It becomes quickly obvious that Carolyn’s target is in fact a man named Henrik (Alexander Hanson) sitting with his friends at a table in the same establishment. She ‘happens’ to walk by his table and acts oh-so surprised to see him. She launches the warmest fake hello donned with her widest smile (because, let’s be honest, ‘our’ Carolyn is not the huggy-lovey kind of woman), and manifests self-pity for having been stood up on her date. Mission accomplished. Henrik’s mind has turned into mush and he has all but forgotten about his friends, already asking Carolyn to accompany him to another restaurant. Once there, Carolyn’s busy picking his brain, fishing for “salacious financial gossip” because, lo and behold, Henrik works for a bank… in Geneva. Ah! Got it Carolyn. Wink wink.

Despite needing a glass of ice held against her temple while laying down on the couch the next morning, in the name of alleviating the pain of the splitting headache resulting from a night of ‘hard work,’ we learn that Carolyn successfully, and unsurprisingly, squeezed the information out of Henrik. The “Panda” account is under the name of none other than Charles Kruger, original name Sergei Korchmarev, whom Carolyn also happens to know from her days in Russia!

Zany-funny dialogue:
Carolyn [getting up, handing the glass to Mo, sighing, and heading for the shower]: “Oh, God. First Henrik, then Sergei. It’s not fun, Eve, using the people you once loved. It’s all rather painful, really.”
Mo [to Eve]: “Do you believe a word of that?”
Eve: “No, I think she loves it.”

Eve visits the rehabilitation center to see Niko, except that he apparently checked himself out the previous week without leaving a note and the only information Valerie (Esther Hall) working at the center is willing to give Eve is that he said “something about Poland.” Eve is stupefied and one could almost – almost – believe that she genuinely cares about him, but reality strikes immediately when we see how quickly thoughts of Niko totally evaporate once Villanelle, out of nowhere, appears in front of Eve in the bus!

This is when the aforementioned first-kiss scene takes place, but not before Eve first charges Villanelle like a raging maniac and nails her on the nose, and not before Villanelle neutralizes her afterward by pinning her down on a seat and saying, “Smell me, Eve. What do I smell of to you?” Eve’s lips then lock onto Villanelle’s, followed by a head butt that leaves both of their foreheads purple, leading to Villanelle exiting the bus. Director Miranda Bowen, as had previous directors done, takes full advantage of the two most valuable assets of the show, the recognizable and expressive faces of the lead duo, by finishing this potent encounter with splendid close-up shots of each.

My thoughts on the significance of the first-kiss: The fact that they lock lips at the heels of a physical tussle in front of shocked London bus riders, while Eve’s eyes are bulging out of their sockets, makes the scene outlandishly unique. Personally, in terms of sensual intensity or erotic steam, and of iconic stature in the show’s lore, I would nonetheless rank higher the kitchen encounter in first season’s “I Have a Thing about Bathrooms,” or the phone-sex between the two with Hugo filling the figurant role in second season’s “Wide Awake,” or even the peephole-breathing sequence in “The Hungry Caterpillar,” despite none of them featuring an actual kiss.

Later in Jamie’s office at Bitter Pill, Eve informs him of Villanelle and while doing so, begins to realize that Villanelle must be in London to kill someone on behalf of the Twelve. She told Eve during their scuffle that she was not here to kill her, so Eve deduces that Carolyn must be the target because she located the Twelve’s accountant! She frantically tries to contact Carolyn and Mo to alert them, but they are not picking up their phones.

Interwoven with the progress of the sequence above, with the utmost efficiency and a fine score to create a resounding crescendo effect, are intermittent scenes of Carolyn and Agent Mo staking out Kruger’s apartment, apprehending him once he comes out, and driving away with him in the back of the car, with Villanelle tailing them, posing as a police officer on a motorcycle, and ordering them to pull over a bit later.

Both scenes culminate in an explosive unraveling when Eve finally gets a text through to Carolyn’s phone who reads that Villanelle is after her, except that it’s too late because when she looks up to the officer standing outside her window, Villanelle is staring at her with a silencer gun pointed at her face. She fires and the screen goes dark bringing about probably one of the longest waits (if not, the longest) through commercials that any Killing Eve fan had to endure until then.

We first see Carolyn from Mo’s point of view, with blood on her forehead, her eyes closed, and her head tilted to the side, except that she is not dead. The bullet (must have) scraped her forehead and nailed Sergei/Charles sitting in the back, smack in the skull. Yeah, Villanelle is that kind of punctilious assassin!

Carolyn arrives home from the encounter with blood on her face and visibly shook, yet still shows no affection toward Geraldine (treats her almost as a nuisance, I’d say) who is obviously scared for her mother and simply wants to hug her. Come on Carolyn… Really? Can’t you even fake it like you did with Henrik? Ah yes, that was for work and this is your daughter, and it’s obvious which one is more worthy of the effort. Do I sound bitter?

Konstantin is at home getting ready for a serene night of sleep, or so he thinks. Hiding under the covers is Villanelle who spooks him at such a visceral level that he jumps out of bed at warp-speed nine, screaming his guts out, in the most uproarious moment of the hour. Following some small talk about what Konstantin thought of her looks as a baby – “You had a strange head. Bulbous, Unnatural,” says an annoyed Konstantin –, Villanelle asks for his help in locating her family. He shows no signs of agreeing to help, but it is safe to bet that he will, not to mention that Villanelle informing him of her murder of “some accountant” may have spooked him just as much as her under-the-covers ruse.

Eve is not as lucky as Konstantin in that she has to settle for a stuffed bear hiding in her bed. It does contain a red-heart shaped recorder though, with Villanelle’s soft voice playing in a loop: “Admit it, Eve. You wish I was here.” Eve is startled at first and turns it off. Then, she starts rubbing the heart, turns it back on, puts it close to her ear, and closes her eyes, as the screen goes dark and the curtain comes down on the episode.

Brilliant!

Last-minute thoughts:

— What is the deal with Sergei/Charles? Can the guy seriously not even run more than 30 meters before he needs emergency oxygen? Not that it matters anymore!

— Carolyn speaks Russian. Is anyone surprised?

— Little hints at the possibility of Villanelle’s increasing desire to find her family were dropped during the episode, such as her reaction to seeing how much the nanny cared about the baby, or how happy the baby’s father was on the news on TV after being reunited with his kidnapped child, found at a trash bin in a public square!

— Does Villanelle know that the 6 million euros Konstantin referred to at the end is connected to the accountant she just assassinated? I cannot be sure!

Until the next episode…

PS1: Click on All Reviews at the top to find a comprehensive list of my episodic reviews.
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“Management Sucks” – Aired on April 19, 2020
Writer: Anna Jordan
Director: Terry McDonough
Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Notice: All episode reviews contain spoilers

Well, what do you know? It turns out the season 3 opener was not just an “anomaly” – see my review – and that showrunner Suzanne Heathcote and the writing room are indeed exploring the outer edges of the parameters established in the first two seasons. I reiterate what I noted in that review; good for them, good for Killing Eve!

There is a good chance that most viewers never thought they would see an episode of Killing Eve where the star of the hour is someone other than Eve or Villanelle. Would they even believe that such an episode would succeed if the showrunners dared ‘go there’? Probably not. Be that as it may, I present to you, “Management Sucks.”

To be clear, this is neither a groundbreaking hour of TV drama nor one that features startling revelations. In fact, one can easily frame it as a slow-burn outing. You know there is not much happening when the biggest twist of the hour is the opening credits theme because the show had not had one since it debuted two seasons and one episode ago. No significant plot advancement gets achieved here, I dare say. For instance, nothing moves forward story wise during the opening eight minutes and 30 seconds taking place at Kenny’s wake. It is also only at the very end of the outing – 1/4^th of the season done, for perspective – that Villanelle finally learns of Eve being alive, just to mention another example. Heck, forget about slow burn. This is snail’s pace!

Having said that, it is also brilliant!

“Management Sucks” has a ton of delightful particularities. It excels in character growth with subtle details astutely tagged to characters. It showcases multiple deliveries of witty lines, each putting a smile in your face. It is a fresh, entertaining, and fulfilling hour of TV drama, with zero dependence on action, led by superb performances starting with that of Fiona Shaw whose character Carolyn takes center stage. Naturally, Shaw is up to the task, expanding the character’s portrait beyond the scope of the mechanically stiff, socially awkward, yet efficient investigator that she had thus far been. Carolyn solemnly sitting in the car with glistening eyes while eating a sandwich is a stand-out, dazzling close-up sequence, in a show that already features two of the best faces in the business as the lead duo.

In case you forgot, and you are wondering what on earth is the cause of such display of emotion by Carolyn (because, let’s face it, glistening eyes for Carolyn is the equivalent of frantic bawling for most people), let us remember that her son Kenny died horrifically in the closing moments of “Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey,” falling from the rooftop of a building.

The hour begins at his wake at some pub (yes, the British do occasionally mourn their loved ones by holding ceremonies at pubs) where Eve is mansplained by Jamie (Danny Sapani), who happens to be Kenny’s boss – unknown to Eve at that moment. He annoys her so much that she ultimately has to exclaim, “Are you always this much of a dick?” before he finally leaves her alone. That leads into the first-ever opening credits in the show’s history.

Konstantin is next in line, after the opening credits, to irritate Eve. He seems to readily accept that Kenny committed suicide which deeply bothers her. After getting away from him, and briefly running into Jamie again (Eve is just having a bad day, in case you cannot tell), she strikes up a conversation with Bear, Kenny’s nerdy colleague played by Turlough Convery, in hopes of learning more about Kenny. Barely has Bear said a word that Jamie reappears, presenting himself to Eve as the “Founder and Editor of Bitter Pill,” but sounding like he is the creator of this part of the galaxy. It all ends with Eve finally finding some piece in the loo, sitting by herself and reminiscing about Kenny while looking at his photo on the lock-screen of his phone that she still has in her possession.

In the meantime, Konstantin strikes up a conversation with Kenny’s sister Geraldine (Gemma Whelan – also played Yara Greyjoy in Game of Thrones). She remembers Konstantin fondly from a dinner back when she was a child. Carolyn interrupts the mood, when she arrives complaining about the music being played. As she and Geraldine bicker back and forth in front of Konstantin, it becomes painfully clear that the mother-daughter relationship is no rosier than the one Carolyn had with her son.

Carolyn notices Eve leaving the wake and catches up with her at the door, as if Eve needed to talk to the one person who is likely to make her hackles rise the most considering the last conversation between the two back in Rome in the 2^nd-season finale. It does not go well here either, ending with Eve screaming to Carolyn’s face, followed by her singular and quirky hand-wave gesture dismissing Carolyn before exiting the pub.

The 8-minute-plus scene is emblematic of the episode’s bravado, with febrile character traits and a unique brand of humor on display at a pub during a wake. Again, no significant plot advancement occurs, and yet, it is such a smashing sequence that you do not even feel the eight and a half minutes flow by.

Villanelle is first seen exploring and cherishing the exquisite house-mansion in Spain that the Twelve got for her. Accompanying her is the ex-mentor and current handler Dasha who is busy lavishing herself with accolades for her ability to take “best” care of Villanelle. During a lunch in town later, Dasha warns Villanelle about getting into a serious relationship, the obvious reference being Eve, because “winners win alone.” Villanelle responds with “I dealt with it” twice, the second delivered with more fervor than the first, signaling that she has definitely not dealt with it, at least not in the cranial-unit department.

Villanelle must pay her dues to the Twelve, Dasha reminds her, which includes her mentoring a young prospect so that he can sharpen his skills as an assassin. Unfortunately for Villanelle, on top of the fact that she visibly despises the idea, her apprentice named Felix (Stefan Iancu) is a fledgling teenager who claims to be 19 but looks 10 (as Villanelle points out), when she meets him in Côte d’Azur, France, for an upcoming job.

Poor Felix’s destiny is written on the wall, almost telegraphed from the moment he appears. He is poised to serve as Villanelle’s next victim to fulfill the quota of at least one murder per episode by her. He does so when he totally botches his assassination attempt of some rich dude at his summer house and Villanelle, dressed up as a clown to supposedly entertain the kids at the garden, must step in and clean the mess, after a hilarious sequence, by shooting both of them in the head.

In the meantime, Carolyn, the star of this hour, is having a rough time. She first takes part in a meeting with subordinates present during which she continuously gets interrupted by Paul, the pestilent Whitehall Warrior from last week who is under the impression that he is taking over Carolyn’s job. Paul tells her later when they are alone, attempting to sound concerned but failing massively, that she needs time off to grieve the loss of her son. To gauge how far that gets him, all you need to do is watch closely Carolyn’s expression when he says, “I know you think I’m a self-serving prick. And… well, maybe I am.” Priceless!

Carolyn’s problems do not end there. When she visits Eve at the Korean restaurant to see if she can convince her to assist in solving Kenny’s murder (because they both know that Kenny did not commit suicide), Eve rejects the collaboration, reminding Carolyn of her betrayal back in Rome. Being the slick manipulator she is, Carolyn next pulls the “Villanelle is back” card by showing Eve a photo of the murdered agitator back in Girona. Although Eve stands firm at that time, it is clear after Carolyn leaves that she is shaken by the news. She takes ginger steps to the back of the restaurant and pukes her guts out. She is not over Villanelle, and Sandra Oh makes sure that viewers are aware of that with a striking performance in this silent sequence.

As Eve sits at a bar later, Kenny’s phone rings. She does not pick up the unknown number, but a message follows saying that they know she has Kenny’s phone and that she needs to pick up. Lo and behold, it is Jamie calling and he wants Eve to bring the phone to his office at Bitter Pill so that he and Bear can tap into the sensitive information contained in it.

Once there, Eve demands to have access into Kenny’s laptop in return for the phone. A deal is struck, or so Eve believes, and she hands the phone over to Bear who first cracks pictures of Kenny cuddling up to Audrey (Ayoola Smart), a colleague at work. Bear confirms that Kenny “had started wearing deodorant.” Jamie adds, “It’s good to know he was getting some before he died.” Eve scoffs.

According to Bear, the rest will take a while to recover. And by the way, Eve my dear, you got played by the nerd gang, because the police took the thumb drives to Kenny’s laptop. Jamie still manages to get the angry Eve to think twice about collaborating with them in order to get to the bottom of the mystery. Will they be working together? That would make Eve, Jamie, and Bear a team, with Carolyn being the potential outside member. Oh dear.

Carolyn meets Audrey on the street to learn more about her son. Putting aside the irony of the mom having to meet her son’s girlfriend to learn about her boy, Audrey tells Carolyn that Kenny was happy at his new job (he used to sing in the loo, she adds) but also missed his mom. Carolyn, in her socially awkward way, attempts to comfort Audrey with some weird anecdote about how Celts used to mourn the deaths of loved ones, which leaves Audrey puzzled to say the least.

This is when we get to the scene noted earlier, with Carolyn solemnly eating a sandwich in the car. Agent Jafari spots Carolyn and tries to cheer her up, or at least to come up to the office. His plea falls on deaf ears as Carolyn seems to be lost in her world while chewing on a bite, murmuring sentences to nobody in particular. She feels useless at work because her “hands are tied.” She laments the loss of her son by uttering, “What a way to go. What a terrible death,” and later, “It’s my son. And I can’t solve it.” It’s the centerpiece of the episode, a unique and powerful moment during which, for the first time ever in Killing Eve, Carolyn comes across completely human, swept in emotions, and riddled with bona fide regrets.

Konstantin, for his part, finds out much to his dismay, via a messenger posing as a cab driver, that he is not to travel to Russia to join his family yet, because “they” need him to remain in London and keep an eye on that “old MI-6 friend” of his. How will Konstantin do that? Why, through scheming and lying of course!

He feigns running into Geraldine on the street as he is about to send a bus magnet as a gift to his daughter. After faking a friendly smile and telling Geraldine a memory or two about his daughter, Geraldine begins to weep about Kenny which gives Konstantin the opportunity to offer a “moment of kindness” and giving the magnet to her as a gift instead of sending it to her daughter. Geraldine accepts it, not knowing that once she places it on the refrigerator back at home, Konstantin can listen in on their conversations through the mic hidden in it.

It does not take long for his scheme to bear fruits as we see Eve walking into Carolyn’s house toward the end of the hour, and asking for her help in investigating Kenny’s murder. The camera shows the magnet on the refrigerator and someone is already listening. Eve needs access to Kenny’s thumb drives and Carolyn may be able to pull some strings to get them. Never mind what Eve said at the restaurant to Carolyn earlier. She is in!

The episode ends with Konstantin unexpectedly dropping by Villanelle’s mansion-house in Spain to give her the news that Eve is alive and kicking. Villanelle,who had been bitter with Konstantin due to his betrayal back in Rome (she knees him in the crotch to vent), does not believe him at first. She cannot hide her shock nonetheless (great camera work here besides Comer’s five-star performance) because, as Konstantin reminds her, she is painfully aware of the fact that she did indeed neglect to check Eve’s body after she had shot her in the ruins back in Rome!

Last-minute thoughts:

— Carolyn’s first words out of her mouth when she notices Eve’s working conditions at the Korean restaurant: “Thirsty work, I imagine.”

— Clever rhetorical question by Jamie, playing to Eve’s vanity when she is about to storm out of his office after getting fooled into a deal: “This is never gonna be solved without you, right?

— Aimless observation: While sitting in the car, Carolyn mentions Dido, the Queen of Carthage, who died of grief when Aeneas left her in Virgil’s poem Aeneid.

— “Management Sucks” is a vintage Killing Eve episode in the sense that it features multiple silent close-up shots of faces that tell a thousand words. I already noted in depth Carolyn’s car scene above, but there is also the commencing shot of the hour as Eve stands in the rain, Villanelle’s hundreds of expressions as she listens to Dasha’s instructions on mentoring, and again Villanelle when Konstantin reveals to her that Eve is alive.

— Carolyn tells Eve that MI-6 thought Villanelle was dead because they had not heard from her in months. Why would that be reason enough to think Villanelle is dead? Jump to conclusions much?

Until the next episode…

PS1: Click on All Reviews at the top to find a comprehensive list of my episodic reviews.
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