Making Dead Things Look Nice
Killing Eve Season 4 Episode 7 begins with Villanelle on her latest mission. She’s been given another location from Konstantin of the assassin who shot her in the back with an arrow. Villanelle is determined to find and kill him, no matter what the cost. ..
As they wander through the forest, they come across a small cabin. The assassin opens the door and starts to kill the occupant, but Villanelle manages to shoot him in the head. She then takes his body and leaves, leaving behind a bloody trail.
The pair have a lot in common. They both lost their parents and their village was destroyed due to someone poisoning the water. Despite moving to Paris, Gunn found herself longing for the country again. Helene gave her this island as a reward for being part of The Twelve. Only, she realized that Helene was just using her – as does Villanelle – so the pair connect and start kissing.
Meanwhile, Eve reels over what to do next after Helene’s death. According to Yusuf, her mission has been completed so she’ll have to try and find something ordinary to do. ..
Eve decides to take Yusuf out for a karaoke night, but she quickly realizes that he can’t focus on the music because he’s still thinking about the ghosts from his past. Eve is struggling to move on and she confirms this to Yusuf, admitting that she’s still hung up over what happened.
Yusuf leaves the room, kissing her on the forehead before he does.
Eve’s journey of self-discovery sees her pore through Helene’s phone for clues. Within this, she notices several pictures of a postcard. One of which has a picture of a swallow. She visits Konstantin to figure out what it means but Konstantin simply refers Eve to Villanelle.
Konstantin tells Pam that she needs to leave because he wants to keep her safe and get away from The Twelve. ..
Pam has been given an alternate assignment from Helene to kill Konstantin. That night she slashes him several times but as Konstantin bleeds out, he reveals that Helene is actually dead. Pam panics and struggles to stop the bleeding, realizing she’s made a massive mistake.
In Konstantin’s dying breath, he tells Pam to send a letter in his bag to Carolyn whom he’s always loved.
Carolyn continues her search for The Twelve in Salzburg, Austria. She follows clues from Lars’ notebook and ends up in a hotel which happens to be a bird hotspot. She’s also vigilant over a potential assassin coming after her and she has the man taken away.
Vlad arrives to see Carolyn but their chat about betrayals and assassins gets the latter thinking. She scribbles down “Barn Swallow MI6 Pub”, believing she’s in the wrong place, and hurries back to London to “face what must be faced.”
Eve also faces her past, heading off to the Scottish island where Gunn and Villanelle happen to be. Helene’s death changes nothing for Gunn, who points out that she works for The Twelve not Helene. ..
Villanelle decides she wants to leave, but as she hurries away Gunn sighs and grabs a machete, deciding to chase her down. Unfortunately she finds Eve instead, whom we saw earlier head up to the island on a boat of her own. Gunn changes her target and tackles Eve to the ground, pinning her down. She raises the machete… as everything fades to black.
The Episode Review
Season 3 of Killing Eve was a great start to the series. However, this year the show has fallen flat. The plot revolving around The Twelve could have been interesting but the execution has been poor. ..
The show is struggling to make use of its two main characters, Villanelle and Eve, and it’s actually made both their characters play second fiddle to supporting characters like Pam. The reason is that the show doesn’t have a clear focus or purpose.
The show has been building up a lot of tension this season, but it’s been building in a way that feels like it’s going to be too much for anyone to handle.
Helene was built to be a big, antagonistic force for most of the season and then she just dies. Likewise, Konstantin looked to be doing something interesting with his elections and then he’s slumming it in Margate. Oh and then he’s just killed in the most underwhelming way possible.
The writers seem to have decided that they don’t want to use Villanelle as a protagonist, so they’ve given her a killer role. This makes the story feel like it’s being written by someone who doesn’t really care about the characters.
This year, Eve has been butchered. Whilst the interesting juxtaposition of having her a cold, relentless woman early on was interesting, running parallel to Villanelle trying to be good, we then get an extended period of time here where she’s mopey over her over/enemy, going to karaoke and then running in a straight line through the woods, only to be pinned down by Gunn. A character I may add, we’ve had less than an episode to get to know.
Personally, I think the season would have benefited from Villanelle and Eve working together, taking out members of The Twelve rather than what we’ve got. Instead, we’re served up a weak cliffhanger (Come on now, Villanelle is going to save Eve at the last second) and what looks to be a weak ending to a weak season. What a disappointment. ..
