Killing Eve is an electrifying, award-winning, spy thriller series starring two female leads, Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer. They play Eve Polastri and Villanelle respectively, who have a cat and mouse, love-hate relationship throughout the series. Since its premiere in April 2018, it's been on for three seasons with a fourth and final season said to premiere in 2022.
The series is based on a compilation of e-book novellas by Luke Jennings called Codename Villanelle. The series is big on femme power as each of the four seasons has a female head writer. Having two females as lead characters for such roles is unusual but also unique, and from the four episodes I've seen so far, I can say the leads delivered excellently.
Eve Polastri is a British intelligence investigator who is fascinated by female assassins and their methods. In the first episode of the series pilot, she links a recent assassination to a series of similar high-profile killings that she had been researching.
On her visit to the hospital where the only witness was admitted, she goes to the restroom where she is met by Villanelle dressed as a nurse who compliments her hair. Eve goes back to the witness' hospital room only to find the witness, a nurse, and guards murdered.
Her unauthorized involvement with this case gets her and her partner fired by the MI5. The Russian section of the MI6 soon after hires Eve to track the killer, having been impressed by her theories about the killer.
In the second episode, Villanelle is cautioned by Konstantin and informs her a British investigator by the name of Eve is on to her. Villanelle kills yet another high-profile individual, a successful parfumier in Paris.
Eve realizes the nurse she met at the hospital bathroom is actually the killer and she traces her down to Berlin with her partner Bill in the third episode. Bill notices Eve is being followed by Villanelle and he blocks her from getting on the same train with Eve. Thereafter, he follows Villanelle closely in the streets.
Bill continues trailing her while he calls Eve to meet him up. The trail leads him to a crowded nightclub where Villanelle eventually looks at him straight in the eyes, letting him know she had been aware of the trail. She stabs him repeatedly in the midst of unaware dancers just before Eve could get to Bill.
In episode four, Villanelle's superior makes her work with two other assassins as a form of punishment. Their target is Frank, Eve's former boss at the MI5 who got her and late Bill fired. Eve on the other hand together with Elena was trailing Frank after finding out he's a mole at the MI5.
The three assassins go looking for Frank at his home where he manages to escape and they go after him. Eve who's also on Frank's trail realizes it is Villanelle who's after him and tries to get him away from the assassins.
Villanelle makes Nadia, one of the assassins who is clearly in love with her, kill the other, Diego who is a control freak. Villanelle then promises to change for Nadia, and it is obvious the two used to be lovers. She then runs Nadia over with a car. She sees Frank running off in the distance and goes after him, meeting Eve again as she tries to save Frank.
My Thoughts
The obsession between the two women is amazing to watch. They both seem to be fascinated with each other and I can't tell if they want to kill each other, share a moment like old friends or maybe have sex with each other. I think there might be sexual chemistry between these two even when it isn't physical.
Each woman is fascinated by the other and the events leading to their meet-up are filled with turns and suspense. The show has undertones of queerness, Villanelle being bisexual, admiring Eve at the hospital bathroom and even sending her expensive clothes as if teasing her.
They seem to mirror each other only one is a psychopathic killer and the other an investigator. They both have tasks to fufill but their obsession to kill each other or whatever it is they want to do with themselves might come in the way.
I've enjoyed each episode and Villanelle's precise killings will have your lady parts screaming. Although the murder at the nightclub was just crazy. What type of possessed dance would make people not realize a murder was happening right beside them? Why couldn't Bill run through the crowd but Villanelle could? I know she's a psychopath assassin but Bill was an intelligence agent.
Eve now has a couple of scores to settle with Villanelle after her partner was murdered by her and also her witness. I'd love to see how she intends to kill this psychopath 'with her bare hands' as she said in episode four.
Villanelle is interesting to watch and I look forward to her next kill and what she intends to do to Eve in the next episode.
