*NOTE – This review may contain spoilers.
I will admit I've been procrastinating about writing my review for the Season 2 finale of
Killing Eve- You're Mine. It wasn't because the episode was bad, just the contrary. It was because the show has been so good this season, I'm not ready to say good-bye to Eve (Sandra Oh) and Villanelle (Jodie Comer) yet. The twists and suspense this season have been off the charts, the writing and acting unbelievably exceptional. I know I must do it, but I am sad knowing it's going to be almost a year before we see them again!
A year is going to be a very long time to wonder, what happens at the semi-surprising end of the episode where Villanelle shoots Eve. Now we know that there will be a Season Three and that Eve is going to survive, but the question is how? Truthfully, Eve shouldn't have been that surprised that Villanelle shot her, considering she stabbed the assassin in the Season 1 finale. And what about poor Niko (Owen McDonnell)? Are we really going to have to wait a year to find out if he will keep his sanity being locked up in that storage unit with Gemma's dead body that long? Yes, that's right the season finale episode is so intense and filled with so much intrigue and betrayal that Niko isn't even shown and barely mentioned despite him being pictured awakening to death at the end of the previous episode.
The overriding theme of the episode is betrayal. Hats off to Carolyn (Fiona Shaw), as she turns out to be the smoothest spy and the master manipulator of them all. She manipulates Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) into betraying Villanelle by promising him the location of his family in witness protection. She manipulates Eve into pulling the assassin into an unsanctioned mission, not to retrieve Peel's (Henry Lloyd Hughes) dangerous data mining weapon, but to point Villanelle and Eve at the man like a loaded weapon and pull the trigger. You can't say Jess (Nina Sosanya) didn't warn Eve about the dangers of a mission with no paper trail and official sanction, earlier in the season. And she even manipulated her own son, Kenny (Sean Delaney) onto the cleanup team so there would be no evidence of her machinations. Shaw has been an absolute delight this time around. She has made Carolyn a calm, cool and collected customer who seemingly has ice-water in her veins.
Previously it would seem that Konstantin was more than a handler to Villanelle. He was a partner, a father figure and calming authority to the volatile assassin. But he was also a man who loved his family and when it came down to a choice between his family and Villanelle, he chose his family. Bodnia was masterful in his payoff scene with Shaw in his disgust for the position Carolyn and M-I6 had put him in. His final scene with Comer, where despite betraying her, Konstantin did his best trying to protect Villanelle by providing a getaway vehicle was one of their best together.
His hesitation and genuine remorse were so visible. He truly regretted hurting Villanelle but deep down one must think he knew it was time for him to push his little bird out of the nest to fly on her own. The question remains, can she? Comer's stunned reaction to his betrayal and emotional farewell again highlighted that vulnerable side to this complex character that has been revealed this year. Can she survive on her on? In her mind yes, because apparently, she now has Eve by her side. Or does she?
This is where the ultimate betrayal comes. When Eve comes racing to her rescue after Villanelle utters the safe word after seeing that her old handler, Raymond (Adrian Scarborough) is Peel's next customer, she is convinced that Eve cares for her. She chooses Eve over Peel, dispatching him as only Villanelle can, despite the billionaire offering her everything to come work for him. She's even further convinced that she and Eve can run away and be together when she meets Eve at her hotel where the latter has gone to collect the evidence of the operation and is attacked by Raymond. Eve comes to her rescue finally crossing that line and killing him in gruesome fashion. But how much was that Eve's final turn to her darker side or Villanelle manipulating Eve because the entire time Raymond was attacking her Villanelle had a gun in her pocket? Bottom line is Eve and Villanelle killed for one another in this episode.
You can see the glee in Comer's expressive face when Eve strikes the fatal blow. Villanelle becomes even more excited and convinced she and Eve are the same while watching the woman as they make their escape through the catacombs of Rome and seeing Eve's delayed visceral reaction to her kill. But then once free of the catacombs, her fantasy of going to Alaska is shattered when Eve rebuffs her declaration of love and says she can't go with her. That's when an angry and confused Villanelle shoots her.
While this season has truly been Comer's to shine, this episode was, by far, Sandra Oh's, best performance of the season. From her slight comedic turn as Eve pretended to be a hotel desk clerk following the attack on her and Hugo's (Edward Bluemel) operation to her clever deception getting into Peel's villa was a clear showcase of her range. However, the defining moments for her in the episode came when Eve takes that final step into darkness and buries an ax into Raymond's shoulder to save Villanelle. Oh's shocked but not surprised reaction to her actions was brilliant but then she took it to the next level when she took a firm grip of the ax, pulled it out, and then delivered the fatal blow to Raymond's head, splattering both her and Villanelle in his blood. Later in the catacomb's, she continued to release all that pent-up rage that has been building in this character from the beginning by attacking the wooden wall that blocked their escape.
And then, there is that stunning final confrontation between Eve and Villanelle. Their final confrontation, set in a Roman ruin is a master class in staging, lighting, and acting. As the sun begins to set the two women face off in the penultimate moment of the entire season. Eve, finally feeling strong and in charge despite reeling from all that has just happened, stands up to Villanelle, and tells her, "No" she does not love her, and they can't run away to Alaska. She's going back to get to the truth. And this time it's Villanelle who is reeling, watching all her fantasies be shattered and reacting as the childlike emotionally aged individual she is, lashing out at the person she loves most. This will become iconic television brilliance and a lesson on how you take a complicated scene, put it in a clean, simple setting, give it dramatic lighting with plenty of shadows and light, and let your two amazing stars with electric chemistry do what they do best with the inspired words of the show's writers. It was the perfect way to end the season.
The ending of Season Two of
Killing Eve, You're Mine, has left so many questions to answer in Season Three, the only slight problem is can fans survive waiting another 11 ½ months to find out. What were your thoughts on the finale of
Killing Eve? Share them in the comments below.
