A Rainbow In Beige Boots

In the third episode of Killing Eve Season 4, Villanelle works as a maid in a hotel. This episode starts with a massive block of text reading VILLANELLE.

Throughout the episode, it feels like the show is trying to condescend its audience by flashing back to different characters. This happens often and it feels like the show is not intentional about it. ..

Eve walks into the hotel room where Villanelle has stripped down out of her bloody clothes and asks her for help. Eve is completely nonchalant to the whole affair though, getting dressed and leaving while telling Villanelle to be gone by the time she returns. ..

Villanelle, dressed in a suit, visits Martin, seeking therapy and his help to straighten out her woes. Villanelle admits that she doesn’t like the way that she feels right now. Villanelle is on a depressive downward spiral and wants Martin to help her “fix that.” ..

Villanelle talks about her thought process in a way that makes it clear that she has a lot of thought going on. Martin believes that she could be in the middle of morphosis, which explains why she feels so bad right now – she could be on the cusp of something better down the line.

Eve and Yusuf head back to Fitztovia Garage, where they decide to stake out the place. They are able to find out that Helene is part of the conspiracy and must be stopped.

Eve overheard someone talking about Helene and decided to play the pity party, pretending to be a desperate person. It seemed to work as Fernanda agreed to be her friend. ..

Eve and Fernanda drink all afternoon, discussing the woes of her ex-husband and how he was cheating on her. After listening to her story, Eve finds the information she needs courtesy of Fernanda’s ID, which she spies while the woman is using the toilet. There’s also a newspaper in her bag too, confirming Villanelle has killed two people.

Pam is working her job, getting another body prepped for a family visit. Her superior (and brother), Elliot, is really not helpful and condescends her the whole time. He  calls her a waste of space and bemoans that she was even born. Eventually he turns off the lights and keeps her in the dark.

Helene meets Pam and tries to convince the big boss to take her on to work properly as an assassin. Pam is still hung up over Eve tracking her down though and believes that Helene is extraordinary, but not ready just yet.

Pam believes she needs to prove herself, so she takes a stand against Elliot. After he makes a move on her, she ends up killing him. She leaves the place in a bloody mess, even bragging about it to Helene later on. ..

Helene is completely shocked and furious when she realizes she disobeyed orders and had to leave. When she does, Helene receives a call from her superiors confirming that one of her victims, Rustem, has survived. ..

In the middle of all this drama, we cut across to Carolyn who’s still trying to piece together who’s responsible for killing members of The Twelve. Eventually she receives some crucial intel, realizing this whole affair links back to Scotland.

Eve investigates the disappearance of her friend Fernanda and finds that her husband, Lars Mayer, is responsible. When she returns to her hotel room, she finds Villanelle gone but in her place is a tablet with messages to Martin prompting Eve to show up at his place herself.

Eve and Villanelle sit down and discuss their situation. They compare it to that of the scorpion and the frog, saying that they are both in a difficult situation.

Villanelle was arrested after being outsmarted by the police. ..

The Episode Review

This season, Villanelle has taken on a new role as the show’s fashionista. She’s now the one who knows how to dress like a celebrity and make everyone look their best. Her wild outfits and outrageous behavior have made her one of the show’s most popular characters, and we can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

The writers’ decision to sideline Villanelle for a story about the shadowy Twelve feels poor and shows how much of this series has rested on the shoulders of both Villanelle and Eve. Without that chemistry or same danger there once was, everything just feels stagnant. ..

That, combined with the constant text-telling us who each character is (I mean, maybe for episode 1 but 3 episodes into the show? Did we really need that?) feels like a stylistic misstep. Hopefully things can pick up going forward but right now it’s hard to see where that inspiration is going to come from. ..