In episode 2 of the final season of Killing Eve, “Don’t Get Eaten,” Villanelle literally abandons God. Well, her version of God: herself dressed up in Jesus drag. Her time repenting and rebirthing herself to catch the attention of Eve, who doesn’t believe Villanelle’s changed, is short-lived when Villanelle stops believing that she is good, or can be good, herself.
The entire Killing Eve series has revolved around the mythologization of Villanelle. Eve’s attracted to Villanelle’s unpredictability, her apparent brutality, her aloof disrespect. While, in the first episode of this season, it was obvious that Eve was touched by Villanelle’s return, it seems as though she doesn’t want to acknowledge Villanelle’s complex personality… is she most attracted to Villanelle when she’s perceived as purely evil?
Villanelle has touched on the idea that she’s viewed as a bad person because one person believed it and the idea has spread like a virus to everyone she meets. Clearly this “one person” was before she met Eve; Villanelle was already performing “evil” when they met. She’s casually mentioned her poor upbringing filled with neglect, abandonment and, recently, she even mentioned child slavery. The first person to believe “Villanelle is bad” was probably a parent, perhaps her mother, because Villanelle’s identity crisis is more like an old, deep, aching wound than it is an acute problem.
This episode brought up a lot of questions about Eve’s intentions with Villanelle. In the first episode, when Villanelle rocks up at Eve’s place of work, Eve slaps Villanelle after she says she’s trying to be good, she’s trying to change. Was the slap to spring Villanelle back into being evil, to stop her trying to be good? Is that when Eve is attracted to her most? When Villanelle can be conceived as “bad”? Is Eve merely a masochist and, now Villanelle won’t be sadistic, their sexual tension fizzles out?
Well there’s a couple of hints that could be true. First of all, despite stalking the St. Mark’s Church website for images of Villanelle, Eve seems a bit disappointed at proof Villanelle has changed. She seeks advice to figure out if it’s possible and there’s the vibe she hopes it’s not. By the end of the episode we know Villanelle is still a violent murderer when she kills Phil and May, for questioning her goodness, as well as abandoning her vision of God: herself dressed up in Jesus drag.
Secondly, there is a touch of sexual tension between Eve and Hélène when Eve walks into Hélène’s home and offers to cook shepherds pie – the same thing she fed Villanelle on their “first date.” This new interest in Hélène comes right after Villanelle attempts to clean her act up. However, Eve’s motive with Hélène could quite simply be what she said it is: to join forces and figure out who leads the Twelve together. Eve’s currently just as evil as the next person. In all honesty, I think she could be the head of the Twelve somehow.
The flip-side is that Eve’s love or lust–we’re not really sure yet–for Villanelle could be good because she loves Villanelle’s flaws, unlike the Christian congregation (and their cat Lucifer), who sense there’s something off about her. That all depends on whether Villanelle is actually good, but acts the way people perceive her because she lacks a secure identity, or whether she’s naturally fairly “bad” and Eve likes it.
More recently, Eve’s admitting her own “bad.” She’s not trying to play the innocent victim anymore. She’s even trained for combat now. But Eve’s obsession with Villanelle, which wavers the less evil Villanelle behaves, does feel like a mythologized fetish–like the people who write to serial killers–more than it is an “I love you for all your faults.” Eve’s chemistry with Hélène proves that.
Is Villanelle doing Eve a disservice, also, by fantasizing about her as “all good,” in a similar way Eve fantasizes about Villanelle as “pure evil”? If the pair already vowed to part ways at the end of last season then this season has to end differently. Do they find a way to live together or die like the Romeo + Juliet foreboding suggests?
