Killing Eve recap: Villanelle is alive, but [SPOILER] is very dead
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After a long, hard week of waiting to find out if Villanelle (Jodie Comer) had been fatally wounded by an arrow, this week's episode of Killing Eve kindly gives us the good news right away: she's alive! And not only that, she's barely injured… unless you count her broken heart.
Yeah, about that. Turns out, Eve's (Sandra Oh) betrayal hit her hard, and she's not about to forgive and forget just because Eve is so very sorry that she had her arrested. There's a series of tense exchanges as Eve tries to help the wounded assassin get dressed, and then another as they engage in a low-speed chase along the sea wall (Villanelle limping along in the lead, Eve in not-so-hot pursuit on a grocery store scooter trolley), but in the end, they go their separate ways.
Villanelle's next stop is a meeting with Gunn (Marie-Sophie Ferdane), the lady assassin who shot her on Helene's (Camille Cottin) orders. The woman gives Villanelle some painkillers and, hidden inside the bottle, some useful information: the location of Helene's hotel in Berlin. The note inside says it all:
H wants you dead, but I don't.
Meanwhile, after discovering last week that Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) was present at the inception of The Twelve back in 1979, Eve is now convinced she's part of the conspiracy. But if so, Carolyn is hiding it well, especially as she tries to negotiate with Lars (formerly Johann) to find out who killed her son. Lars (Ingvar Sigurdsson) drives a hard bargain, demanding Carolyn not only reveal that Helene is the one hunting him but meet with her in his stead. It's a gamble — Helene just tried to have Carolyn killed, after all — but Carolyn agrees, and the two women meet in Berlin. The exchange doesn't last long and doesn't accomplish much, except that it creates a handy lead for Eve to chase later, which she'll need, because of reasons. Hold tight.
But first: Pam (Anjana Vasan) is making big strides in her work as an assassin! After patching up Villanelle post-puncture, she receives her first assignment. And like most first kills, this one is designed to test Pam's mettle — and ours. Because remember Fernanda (Monica Lopera)? Fun, sweet, hilariously drunk Fernanda?
This one hurts, you guys. Fernanda was so nice! So full of joy! So good at selling ham sandwiches! Even Pam doesn't want to see her dead. But when Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) gives Pam an ultimatum — "Walk away or kill her, your call" — she chooses to finish the job.
It's pretty horrible and messy, and even Konstantin seems surprised. Unlike Villanelle, Pam isn't a psychopath and a sadist whose only real skill is killing people; she could have had a different life. But if this is the path she's chosen, he tells her, she needs to take joy as it comes. And Pam, who is good at taking advice, immediately makes out with the carnival worker who's been following her around like a lost puppy for the past three episodes. This, too, is messy. But joyful! And it's nice to see the poor, lovelorn carnie finally have his day.
There's just one problem: the woman who gave Pam her new job and new path is, uh, not going to be available to provide further employment.
Because here it is, the episode's biggest shocker. Helene, the French femme fatale, the sexiest sapphic sadist, has apparently not developed the survivor's instinct befitting a woman in her position — which is to say that after her meeting with Carolyn, she goes back to her hotel room, puts on a fetching jumpsuit, and starts drinking champagne without ever bothering to check that there isn't a vengeful monster hiding under the bed.
AND THERE IS.
Anika Molnar/BBCA Jodie Comer as Villanelle
As Villanelle wriggles on her belly in the direction of Helene's exposed ankles, Eve shows up and demands to know where Carolyn is. Helene, smug as ever, pats the spot next to her on the bed and suggests she and Eve get down to business before, you know, getting down to business. And Villanelle, who's heard enough, uses the knife she's holding to slice through Helene's achilles tendons, and then her throat, in that order.
This time, Eve doesn't try to stop her. But if she thought this meant that she and Villanelle might team up after all, she'll have to think again.
"I'm done with you," Villanelle says, and leaves.
This is bad news for Eve. Not only is her relationship with Villanelle on the rocks again (granted, when is it not?), but it seems like she might miss her chance to track down Carolyn, too. Lucky for her, Carolyn took a taxi to her pointless meeting with Helene earlier that day, and her cab driver is willing to talk. After tracking Carolyn back to Lars's cabin, she confronts her with what she knows (or thinks she does): that Carolyn is in the Twelve, that she's been playing both sides from the beginning. Carolyn tries to explain herself, but when Eve pushes back, her calm exterior cracks: "I am this close," she hisses, then begs Eve to give her the evening to try to extract the information she needs from Lars.
But she doesn't. As Carolyn sits with Lars, asking him once again to give her the name of the person who killed her son, Eve strides in with a gun and shoots him dead.
"Well done," Carolyn says, looking utterly defeated. "You've killed one. They'll just replace him."
Anika Molnar/BBCA Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri
Eve doesn't seem to care; she's collected a scalp, and that's good enough for her. (Maybe she's even happy to know that Lars will be replaced, seeing as she seems to have developed quite the taste for shooting people!) And Carolyn, though she didn't get the answers she was looking for, doesn't have to give up hope just yet: after Eve leaves, she discovers a little black book in the dead man's pants that might yet hold the key to Kenny's murder.
And Villanelle? With Eve in her rearview, and Helene dispatched to the next realm, it's the perfect time for her to form a complicated new attachment with someone who's tried to kill her. When we see her last, she's freshly arrived at Gunn's off-the-grid location on an island in Scotland, where the two women perform the traditional assassin's greeting, recreationally fighting until both are exhausted.
"Can I stay here?" Villanelle asks.
The credits roll before we can hear Gunn's answer, but until next week, this is where we leave our lady killer: footloose, fancy free, and with the taste of sweet vengeance still fresh on her tongue.
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