In one of Killing Eve’s more controversial storylines, Villanelle flirts with Christianity. After feeling the first fluttering of conscience last season, our favorite sapphic serial killer is looking for a way out. And at first glance it looks as if Villanelle has changed. She’s given up a life of material luxury to live with a pastor and his daughter. Her designer wardrobe has been replaced by tie dye t-shirts and the kind of cargo shorts a butch might wear to the cookout. The Villanelle we first met would tear strips off her future self.
And yet, thanks to Eve and the feelings she evokes in Villanelle, this twist was inevitable. She wants to start again. And she likes the idea of being born again and having her many sins washed away by baptism. But, as the pastor points out, this show of goodness is all about impressing Eve.
Villanelle makes fancy cards and invites Eve to her baptism. She works out exactly where Eve needs to sit in order to see the angel wings in the church’s mural sprout from her own back. In her flowing white robes, Villanelle wants to project an image of purity. And this is the fatal flaw in her character. For Villanelle, it’s all about how she looks. She’s desperate for other people to see her as a good person. Eve especially.
Faith is a costume, just like the iconic clown suit Villanelle wore to infiltrate a child’s birthday party. And in the past and present, Villanelle can’t fight her own violence. She kills a cat and lies about it. She half drowns the pastor’s daughter, only to change her mind at the last second. Villanelle is as impulsive and cruel as ever. She’s also totally self-centred. The only reason Villanelle has won Parishioner of the Week so many times is because she made up the competition to reward her own good deeds.
But the ultimate proof of Villanelle’s vanity comes through her visions. Villanelle sees Jesus as herself in drag. Complete with thigh high gold boots. Like all psychopaths, she has an inflated sense of self-worth. And so it makes a twisted kind of sense that Villanelle sees the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as her twin.
Drag Jesus is a crude example, but religious symbolism has always been a part of the show. Those of us who did Bible Study will know it’s not a coincidence that Eve Polastri is named after the first woman. In the Book of Genesis, Eve eats the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge. And in sharing the apple with Adam, Eve creates the original sin.
Mankind is banished from paradise. Destined to know suffering. And this mirrors Eve’s character arc. She cannot resist the temptation of Villanelle. It doesn’t matter how many people Villanelle hurts or kills – Eve is hooked. She travels continents and crosses countless moral lines to uncover Villanelle’s past. And this knowledge leads to her downfall.
Eve loses her mentor and friend Bill, murdered on the dancefloor by Villanelle. Her marriage to Niko falls apart as she puts the search for Villanelle first every time. Niko cuts Eve off completely after he’s attacked to drive a wedge between her and Villanelle. Eve loses her job to this obsession. And she has also lost her status as one of the good guys.
In all the promotional photographs for Killing Eve’s final season, Villanelle wears white and Eve wears black. Villanelle started off in darkness and is now struggling towards the light. Whereas Eve compromises her morals again and again. Like Villanelle once did, Eve goes undercover, lying to people to extract the information she wants. She’s manipulative. She steals. Giving in to vengeful impulses, she shoots Konstantin in the hand.
Eve no longer sees the world in terms of good and bad. Her fixation with Villanelle has left her numb to violence. She tracks down Hélène, a high-ranking member of the Twelve (another piece of religious symbolism, as there were twelve apostles). But instead of taking Hélène down, Eve gets in the bathtub with her. They even share a kiss. Eve is drawn to darkness. But will she return to the light before the series ends?
Killing Eve is now streaming on BBC iPlayer and AMC+
