A lot has happened since June 2020, when BBC America’s Killing Eve‘s third season finale aired. And with humanity at various stages of losing it over the past few years, the back-and-forth attraction (sometimes violent, always chaotic) between an assassin and a former MI6 agent seems downright civilized. The fourth season is upon us within days, so let’s refresh what happened last time around when the cat-and-mouse game took some detours.
In the season finale, Villanelle followed up her origin story by killing her would-be successor, Rhian. Villanelle then realized that her time with The Twelve had come to an end, and she no longer wished to be an assassin, even while propositioning Carolyn to hire her at the MI6. That proposition did not end well for Villanelle, all while her biggest tie to the past, Dasha, finally passed away after Villanelle’s attack. The former toast of the KGB perished while Konstantin left the hospital (mostly) in one piece.
In the meantime, Villanelle also spooked the Bitter Pill staff, all while they worked to uncover what Kenny was digging (too far) into before his untimely death. There was a discussion (led by Bear) about what Villanelle does after killing men, and perhaps that she “pickles” their penises. Then Konstantin felt the pain of his surrogate daughter (also Villanelle) deciding that he’s “not family,” and following all of this drama, a living room showdown took place.
In this showdown, Carolyn showed herself to be more violent than suspected by killing Paul (her MI6 boss who’d gone dirty). This put an interesting twist on her dynamic with Konstantin, given that the two are ex-lovers, and Carolyn pretended like she was going to kill him before taking Paul out instead. And then there’s the twist that Konstantin allowed Kenny to die, or at least, he couldn’t stop him from (as Konstantin claimed) falling off the edge of a building. Then Carolyn explained away Paul’s death as a suicide, and before continuing to pursue vengeance for Kenny, I hope she enjoys a nice bath.
And I do hope the same for Niko as well, after he told Eve to get lost, and who could blame him? The guy got pitchforked and nearly died, and it seems that he can no longer speak. Hopefully, he recovers that ability, but at least we know that he regained dignity.
With this, Niko fully freed himself from his estranged wife and declared that their marriage is over. I hope he’s on a nice beach somewhere, since his attempt to find relief in farming life took a violent turn. It’s remarkable that he made it out of the Eve-Villanelle cycle alive, and hopefully, no member of The Twelve will ever be able to find him again. Godspeed, Niko. As much as I will miss him, he needs to get the hell out of this show for his own good.
The biggest development, however, arrived in the final moments of the finale:
This was the scene where, once again, Eve and Villanelle went their separate ways. Or did they? Villanelle determined to take control of the situation while in London, and the scene only proved that (at least emotionally) they can’t let their connection go. They’ve bot got inner monsters, they danced together, and then they realized that they’re not going to see eye-to-eye on daily life. Can you imagine? Villanelle’s totally the type that would refuse to close cabinet doors, and Eve needs some order in her life.
They walked away from each other and turned back, proving that they can’t quite quit each other, meaning that there shall be followup in the Season 4 premiere. But we don’t know how much time will have passed, or if things have happened that we don’t see onscreen when the action picks up. The newest trailer showed that Villanelle declared her intent to stop killing and become a good person, but whether that’s even possible (she is an overgrown and deadly toddler) is anyone’s guess. More Konstantin, please!
Killing Eve‘s fourth and final season debuts (with two episodes) on Sunday, February 27 on BBC America and Monday, February 28 on AMC.
