Villanelle is in need of a signature scent before she can meet Eve. Photosource: BBC America
With a title like “Meetings Have Biscuits” our expectations for the plot of Killing Eve to pick up the pace with this third episode and bring that demanding energy into the relationship between our two favorite almost-lovers only get higher. After tuning in week to week to see our favorite pair of women straddle the line between love story and horror story, we have to once again hope that this week will be the time they at least get to confront one another in the epic showdown we have been waiting for and thankfully they did not disappoint.
We open with Villanelle back in Spain tuning an ancient piano for a very condescending client who also happens to be her next target. Never one to be subtle in her revenge, Villanelle makes the tuning instrument her weapon of choice and with one smooth motion buries it into the demanding woman’s head before she can even see her. Another job well done for Villanelle.
Until the baby monitor goes off. Because it turns out the woman had a baby there. And a nanny. By now you can guess how Villanelle chooses to handle this turn of events. Yes, she reuses the tuning fork but what she does next is a surprise.
Killing the musician? Of course. Killing the nanny who pleaded for the baby’s life? Naturally. But taking the baby with her to meet Dasha? An unexpected joyful surprise.
Unfortunately, Dasha didn’t find it as cute as the rest of us and literally picks up the baby and puts it in a nearby trash can walking away without a second thought. Just as a side note, with all the back and forth and murder we’ve seen so far it’s glad to know that this show has lost none of its trademark humor. It’s still a treat to watch.
Anyhow, Dasha assigns Villanelle a new target in London, where of course you-know-who lives and while Villanelle’s initial reaction is that she’s not ready for that mission, she quickly backtracks herself and assures Dasha she can handle it. And so it begins. Just a matter of time now.
But before we can get to the reunion we have to check in with Eve. After two episodes of basically being depressed Eve is completely reenergized by joining with Carolyn and Jamie to investigate Kenny’s death and his work leading up to it. Yeah, I for one was never buying that whole “gave up” on her old life thing, so it’s good to see that they’re not dragging that out anymore. Especially since Eve is an amazing investigator, proven once again after she and Bear came across a bank account Kenny was looking into code-named ‘panda.’ It belonged to Frank Haleston, who Villanelle killed back in season one. Only now it appears that there have been recent withdrawals from it and a transfer of funds to a bank in Geneva. Since that kind of information is far above the clearance of Bitter Pill, Eve turns to Mo at MI6 to look into the matter. However, it is ultimately Carolyn who retrieves the necessary information after brilliantly engineering a ‘chance’ meeting with an old friend Henrik who just happens to work at that bank. They learn that the owner of the account is one Charles Kruger, who just met with Konstantin and may be the accountant for The Twelve. Say what you want about Carolyn but she really has not let her grief slow her down.
Eve, on the other hand, is back to being sidetracked, by Nico of all people. When she tries to visit him at the mental facility she is informed that he checked out last week and mentioned moving back to Poland. Now Nico has been pretty much just a dull roadblock since the beginning and hopefully, this is the end of his place in the story, but even if the rest of us are glad to see him gone Eve is still shocked. As she barrages him with a slew of texts she doesn’t even realize what’s going on around her on the bus.
Mainly that Villanelle is now right beside her. In an amazing grey pinstriped suit that is worth mentioning. The wardrobe department on this show have really been delivering.
What happens next is unexpected, to the other bus passengers at least, but for us is pretty much what we would imagine. Eve launches at Villanelle and attacks her, which ends with Villanelle pinning her down on a bus seat pretty quickly, and then Eve seems to surprise herself as she kisses Villanelle and then in the next second headbutts her. Villanelle gets off the bus and can’t help smiling while Eve makes it back to the Bitter Pill office and refuses to discuss what happened.
Jamie is not so easily dissuaded and forces her to confess what she knows. Villanelle said that she didn’t come to London for Eve, meaning she’s here to kill someone else and their best guess is Caroyln who happens to be at a stakeout with Mo, waiting for Charles Kruger to appear. After a briefly hilarious scene where Charles is too winded to run away the pair detain him in the car just as Villanelle pops into the scene in a police uniform, all before Eve can get a hold of any of them. From there Villanelle shoots directly into the car.
When we get to see into the aftermath of the shot it appears like Carolyn is dead, her eyes are closed and she’s not moving but Mo manages to shake her awake as the two look into the back seat to see a very dead Charles Kruger. So there goes that lead.
The investigation may be stalled after this setback, but meanwhile, Villanelle is moving on to a new personal project. After breaking into Konstantin’s home and hiding in his bed to scare him, she informs him she wants to find out more about her family and wants him to take up the task. Where this is headed we can’t really begin to guess at this point but there had better be baby pictures of Villanelle included if this goes on.
In general, despite the somewhat underlying all-over-the-place feeling of this episode has made a major step forward in the Eve and Villanelle relationship. As far as long-awaited rivalries and romances go the bus scene was pretty anticlimactic. We had this lead up to the scene where Villanelle goes into a fragrance shop to pick a scent that smells powerful, like a Roman centurion coming across an old foe, and then to Eve and throughout the episode, she kept asking people to smell her which felt like a build-up to a more prolonged and significant confrontation with this woman she’s been obsessed with for so long. But, instead, this felt more like the first spark of real physical desire between the two.
The episode ends with Eve finding a stuffed bear with a recording from Villanelle. “Admit it, Eve. You wish I was here,” and while this initially terrifies Eve she continues to replay the message again and again. Between the brief kiss and the playback of Villanelle’s voice what we got was Eve finally showing and acknowledging her desire for Villanelle, who has always worn her passion for Eve on her sleeve. Now we have two professional rivals in deep and open desire for one another squaring off in uncharted territory. The only comfort left for us is that both of these women are now in the same boat as us, with no real idea what comes next.
