Three words to sum up this week’s episode of Killing Eve: “This. Is. Bullsh*t.”
The show’s sixth episode, appropriately titled “End Game” gave us all the angst, but not the sexually-charged kind between Eve and Villanelle … no, this time we’re watching our happy-go-lucky assassin having full-on emotional breakdowns and her ex-government lover Hulking-out on unassuming vending machines. This is a show about spycraft and organized killing, so murder is always on the menu, but this latest episode’s assassination didn’t feel as important as it’s build-up — and aftermath. Let’s dig in.
The Bathroom Breakdown
First, a bit of good news. Niko, despite being pitchforked by Dasha just two episodes earlier, is alive. He’s recuperating in a London hospital because his larynx didn’t fare so well. Still, he’s found a way to destroy Eve emotionally when she comes to visit.
Eve spends the episode hunting Niko’s would-be killer, and while it’s fascinating to see her agonize over the possibility that her ex-girlfriend is responsible before settling on Dasha as the true culprit — and then confronting her during the tensest TV bowling match we’ve ever seen — the biggest drama follows Villanelle, who’s still strung out over that whole “killed-my-mom-and-burned-her-house-down” thing.
She has a meeting with Elena, the woman who’s been threatening Dasha this season, who reveals that Villanelle is finally getting that promotion she’s been gunning for. She’s officially a Keeper, but kids, achieving your dreams isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and the new title doesn’t mean Villanelle won’t still be sent on jobs — like the one in Romania where she’s ordered to kill a high-profile politician.
Fed up with being the psychotic, bloodthirsty lapdog of a secret organization that can’t even spring for top-shelf champagne, Villanelle goes to Konstantin, asking to flee with him once he finally breaks free of the group. He’s reluctant, for obvious reasons, but when he learns Villanelle killed her own mother, he settles with a clear “Not gonna happen.”
So Villanelle bonds with Konstantin’s daughter Irina, suggesting she kill her irksome step-father while learning Konstantin intends to head to Cuba.
She’s got a trip to Romania planned, though, where she poses as a stylist to get close to the politician. You’ll never feel comfortable going to a salon again after watching this scene — even if this pandemic one day ends.
But Villanelle is careless, and the politician manages to put up a bit of a fight before having his brains fried, which leaves Villanelle escaping a bloody crime scene and having a pity-party in her hotel room’s bathroom afterward. She breaks the one rule Konstantin advised her to follow and reveals to Dasha that she wants out of this life of crime. Dasha suggests ordering a pizza.
Same Villanelle, same.
And just like that, we’re left wondering where this show will go next. It’s clear that, despite having said this before, Villanelle is done with working for The Twelve, but we think she also realizes that vanishing, as Konstantin plans to do, just won’t work for her. With Eve also on a warpath, “End Game” felt like the emotionally-draining build-up to their partnership, if only because they’d both be served by getting rid of their mutual enemy. The only problem? Dasha, who’s still around, threatening to kill Eve and wield her influence over her protege.
Oh, and we can’t imagine Konstantin will be too pleased with Villanelle once he discovers it was her hand puppeteering this shocking kill:
Imagine raising not one, but two deranged murderers. Yikes.
