I did say that Eve and Villanelle should have run away, changed their names, and seen the good and bad in each other a long time ago. The final episode is a glaring testament to that: the pair continue going after The Twelve but are united now. Villanelle wouldn’t have died if they stayed loved up in the campervan they stole off some overbearingly nice campers. Destiny was theirs for the taking. Love wasn’t enough.
Villanelle and Eve finally drop their guards and show how much they love each other in this episode. We didn’t need a sex scene. The intimacy was so much deeper than anything the creators could have done while the pair go down on each other. VillanEve’s strength as a couple is epitomized by Villanelle’s observation that the overbearingly nice campers shared a pair of kidneys but couldn’t watch each other piss. Villanelle and Eve share the cutest make-out session right after they piss next to each other.
As they walk back to the campervan, they stand in the middle of the road – a winding road where somebody could run them over – and kiss, passionately. They continue kissing as they walk back to the campervan. They can’t get enough of each other. Villanelle is about to hop in the driver’s seat when she decides to go to Eve’s side for more. It’s implied they could have had sex in the campervan. They’re squealing in delight before it cuts to Villanelle driving again. We’re not sure exactly what happened.
The intimacy isn’t only detectable in the make-out scene, either. It’s not news that the pair instinctually know each other. But, in this episode, silent communication and predicting what each other will say and do next reveals a mutual surrender to what already existed. The fact that they kissed on a windy, dangerous road showed that their destiny, like the tarot reading, was theirs for the taking. Spirit/God–whatever you believe in–had their backs. They chose the devil of revenge. That’s why Villanelle died. The number one rule of tarot readings is that you can change the predicted course, it’s just what’s likely with the path you take right now.
Perhaps Villanelle figuratively looked in the mirror this episode and that’s what got her killed. Eve has completely surrendered. She pretends to be a marriage celebrant on a boat while Villanelle goes below deck to kill who she thinks is The Twelve. Eve only has to draw on her relationship with Villanelle to advise and bless the couple. But after Villanelle kills who she thinks is The Twelve, and returns to the wedding, she doesn’t join in the dancing. She walks out on the deck. Eve follows.
Villanelle claims the murders. She downplays Eve’s role. Villanelle’s partly joking, sure, but claiming the glory of killing The Twelve meant she looked in the mirror instead of at God. While Pam rejected Carolyn’s assassin job, someone else accepted it or she changed her mind. Because bullets start flying towards the deck. Villanelle’s been shot and Eve is, eventually, too. Eve’s still alive at the end, however. Villanelle’s clearly dead.
I’m not surprised Carolyn’s behind The Twelve. It was already hinted, back in episode five. True villains know how to charm and rarely violate with their own hands. The Twelve started out as a meaningful socialist response to an authoritarian government. Carolyn came along with daddy’s money and got them hooked on the finer things. She even named them. Low and behold, years later, The Twelve isn’t going against a corrupt government at all. They are a corrupt government. They all live in their fancy houses and use the assassins–underprivileged girls they’ve groomed since a young age–to commit their own acts of revenge.
The Twelve are unbeatable because they’re always below deck. They’re grimy, below-ground sewer rats. Did VillanEve make a mistake by insisting they end The Twelve, instead of prioritizing their love, their safety? Was killing The Twelve always going to lead to their own murder? Treating The Twelve like a lump to be removed, rather than an embedded, malignant tumor that’s spread, was a bit idealistic, come to think of it.
Fans aren’t too happy with the way the show ended. I won’t lie, I don’t think it was a mic drop. But it wasn’t bad, by any stretch of the imagination. If it’s the sex scene you wanted, then remember the characters we’re dealing with: Villanelle and Eve spent four seasons choosing pride over vulnerability. What makes you think they’re going to strip off and fuck each other for your entertainment? They did it in the campervan. We didn’t deserve the right to watch.
Was Villanelle and Eve’s love enough to make them happy, without going after The Twelve? Or was it a case of ‘we can’t live safely while The Twelve exists – we need to kill them’? Would they simply have found another entity or force to go after, afterwards? Would the pair ever have relaxed? Is Villanelle’s death as hard to cope with, knowing the women are much more apt at anger and revenge than they are at marital bliss?
