Are You Leading or Am I?
Killing Eve is one of those strangely endearing shows that manages to do a pretty good job of hiding its plot and editing issues behind a talented cast of characters, a good dose of tension and some lovely dark humour dotted throughout. Season 1 began with a really solid opening before ending on a slightly sloppy note. The second season felt like a natural extension of the first though, doing well to juxtapose some of the events from the first season and end things on a lovely poetic note as Villanelle short Eve. Season 3 however, has felt like a very different show this year both tonally and structurally. While the final scenes offer up a beautiful meeting between Villanelle and Eve that will certainly go down as one of the highlights in season 3, it’s not enough hide some of the glaring issues in this finale and the season as a whole. The season 3 finale for Killing Eve begins with Villanelle meeting Carolyn at the Royal Albert Hall, who asks our assassin just what she wants. Villanelle wants to switch sides and work with MI6 but as Carolyn asks who killed Kenny and Mo, Villanelle doesn’t have the answers. Scoffing at her proposal, Carolyn walks away. Konstantin meanwhile gets dressed and prepares to leave hospital. Before he goes, he speaks to Dasha about Villanelle’s actions but midway through Konstantin promises she’s going to die in that room. As the monitors start blinking, he walks away from her. Villanelle and Eve both find themselves sitting together at the Hall where Eve reveals what happened with Dasha and Niko. Villanelle admits she wants to feel alive and after some gentle persuasion, they both head to the dancefloor and awkwardly dance together. Unfortunately their happiness is short-lived when Helene’s lackey, Rhian, arrives demanding Villanelle meet Helene. As they head to the underground, Rhian promises to take her position in the company prompting Villanelle to kick the young assassin into the train tracks – right in the presence of a security camera directly behind her. In the morning, Eve heads to a betting shop and after an awkward exchange with the cashier Sharon, heads upstairs to talk to the owner Bruce. She infiltrates his safe and takes the belongings within before walking away. Meanwhile, Jamie and the others greet Carolyn at their work and it turns out they had hidden cameras set up to try and catch the Tangfastics thief. Only, the footage itself caught Konstantin talking to Kenny the day he died. As Eve heads outside, she runs into Konstantin who starts suffering from heart palpitations. At the same time, Villanelle heads to Kenny’s work and admits that Kenny’s death wasn’t her. When Jamie catches wind of this, he cautiously approaches her but their conversation is cut short by Konstantin ringing and demanding she meet him. As Villanelle leaves, Paul from MI6 rings and tells Konstantin to meet, given he knows he’s been stealing the money. As the camera pans out, it’s revealed that someone is holding a gun up to his face. All of the big players from this season meet that evening, with Paul, Villanelle, Eve, Konstantin and Carolyn all in the same room. Carolyn holds the cards though, pointing a gun at Konstantin and Paul. It turns out Konstantin has been stealing money from “The Twelve”, and in particular Paul who claims to be an undercover spy. Eve learns Dasha has died in hospital and seemingly The Twelve didn’t order Dasha’s hits either. Carolyn confronts Konstantin and asks just what he was doing at Kenny’s work the day he died. It turns out he propositioned Kenny and asked him to join The Twelve but as he kept stepping back on the roof, he fell to his death. Carolyn hears enough and pulls the trigger, pointing it at Paul just before she does and killing him instantly. Villanelle decides against leaving with Konstantin as he walks away from the conflict. Eve and Villanelle leave too, as Carolyn calls in a suicide hit for Paul. Outside, Villanelle and Eve both discuss Dasha’s death on a bridge together before eventually turning their backs and walking away, which is where the episode and series draws to a close. With the exception of the final few scenes of the finale, Killing Eve’s disjointed storylines and multiple character threads all come together to deliver something that fans will love but those after conclusive answers will not. The camera footage inside Kenny’s office is a particular problem and the fact it’s taken 6 episodes for this plot McGuffin to come forward feels like a very sloppy way to reveal Konstantin was the one there that day. We still don’t know who The Twelve are and even worse, don’t know for definite what happened to Kenny. Konstantin’s word is hardly reliable and as we’ve learned from his season, he has his own agenda and only looks out for himself. Paul had little characterisation either so his death isn’t that shocking and yet it’s difficult to know whether he really was an undercover spy or not. Eve and Villanelle have a decent enough change in fortunes while the Villanelle-centric episode will probably go down as one of the best the series has conjured up in quite some time. Unfortunately Killing Eve slips up with Villanelle’s motivations and this year her kills have felt less shocking and more sloppy than they perhaps should be. Villanelle kicking Rhian infront of a train on a busy underground tube right in view of the security cameras is incredibly careless and with no police involvement through the series, it loses credibility as her being a competent assassin. It also leaves us to assume Rhian killed Mo but this isn’t explained fully either. Ultimately then, Killing Eve bows out its third season with an enjoyable enough piece of drama but one riddled with plot holes and inconsistent editing. Fans will love the reunion and the undoubted chemistry between Villanelle and Eve but beyond that, there just isn’t enough here to whet the appetite and match what we’ve seen this show produce in the past. Published: 01 June 2020 at 09:43am on TheReviewGeek.com
