Killing Eve Season 3 Finale

The last episode of season three of Killing Eve almost reminds me of a bruise you don’t even remember getting. When you finally figure the cause of your pain it leaves you with more confusion than satisfaction. This season’s finale didn’t horrify or devastate us like the last two, in fact, our two leading ladies barely lost a drop of blood, all it did was leave us wounded.

We start with a clandestine meeting between Villanelle and Carolyn. It seems that for once Carolyn wasn’t lying to Eve, she actually offered Villanelle a job, and now Villanelle is here to accept. One condition, she won’t kill anymore. Yes, the great Villanelle, the Picasso of assassins, is ready to retire. Too bad Carolyn can’t seem to think of anything for her to do other than kill, so it looks like that deal is dead. But if Villanelle is cutting loose from The Twelve and can’t join MI6 where does that leave her?

Well for now it looks like we’re not done with her past just yet.

And by that I mean her two sarcastic and harsh surrogate parents, Konstantin and Dasha. After ending up in the same hospital in Scotland they exchange some terse words as Konstantin checks himself out, mostly about Villanelle. The scene ends with Dasha dying as Konstantin begrudgingly holds her hand, and for a character we’ve only known for such a short time, you can’t help but feel a little sad that she never made it back to Russia to see her son. You can however feel a little relieved for her, now she’s at least free of this mess. In a certain way, I’m sure Konstantin almost envies her because we have so much more nonsense coming.

Cut to an Eve/Villanelle scene. They meet at a club where Villanelle did her first kill in England and begin slow dancing together. It’s awkward at first since neither of them knows who is leading, which is a little too on the nose of their relationship in general, but eventually, they get into the swing of it, and before long they’re talking about how it would be to grow old together. Even if Eve thinks they would consume each other before they got that far, Villanelle still thinks it would be nice. Now, this scene was equal parts sweet and fulfilling. Watching Eve and Villanelle do normal couple things and be close, that’s all we wanted.

And then an assassin shows up. Specifically, Rhian.

Villanelle immediately hands Eve a note and tells her to leave, saying she’ll meet her later. Now it’s just Villanelle and Rhian, and since they met last episode when Helene suggested Rhian replace Villanelle on a mission, it’s been clear that these two are going to have it out. This time Rhian’s been tasked with bringing Villanelle to a meeting with Helene like she’s a puppy who might wander off. Tension builds as they wait for the train until Rhian grips Villanelle, telling her to behave, and a fight ensues, and while we never doubted Villanelle would come out on top against this nobody it’s the way she won that makes it clear that things have changed. Villanelle actually cries real tears as she’s hitting her when she throws her on the train tracks and Rhian’s begging for help she looks like she’s seriously contemplating saving her. This is the same joyful assassin we know, it’s been happening since the start but it’s more clear than ever that Eve has changed her.

Likewise, she’s changed, Eve.

After leaving the club, Eve goes to the address on the note which turns out to be a bookie. In the office above the shop, she learns Konstantin has a security box there, and after insisting he sent her she withdraws a package. For a second it looks like Eve holds all the money Konstantin stole, but not quite. As Konstantin explains when he shows up just as Eve is leaving the store, the package is a set of nesting dolls of Russian leaders but there is a barcode that opens another box that has all the passports and money. Naturally, Eve refuses to hand it over, not without Villanelle.

Unfortunately, for Konstantin that will have to wait. He gets an abrupt call from Paul telling him to meet at his house immediately, ignorant of the fact that someone is pointing a gun at him.

Here’s where it comes together.

There was a break in Kenny’s case. Carolyn is summoned to the Bitter Pill office where Bear explains the hidden camera he keeps in the office to protect his candy from poachers. It seems that he’s had footage on it of the day Kenny died, why he didn’t check it for months still doesn’t make sense, but either way, Carolyn can see on the tape that just before Kenny fell off the roof, Konstantin shows up.

And that’s who is pointing the gun at Paul.

So Paul brings Konstantin, who brings along Eve, who leads Villanelle to join them at Paul’s house. Carolyn immediately sidelines both of the women. This is the finale and they are literally sitting on a couch watching the action go down because Carolyn is now demanding an answer about what happened to her son. Konstantin mumbles a lame explanation that Kenny was getting too close to The Twelve, that he was trying to save him and he just backed off the roof on his own, and that Paul actually is The Twelve.

None of this appeases Carolyn, mostly because it makes no sense, but just as it seems she’s about to kill Konstantin she turns the pistol and kills Paul instead. She tells Konstantin to run before she changes her mind, and he does, but when he asks Villanelle if she’s coming he declines because “[he’s] not family.” Eve is flabbergasted that Carolyn would kill Paul when he could lead them to The Twelve, but as Carolyn has realized nothing good comes from investigating The Twelve, no one survives, and it looks like she’s one once and for all which probably explains why she’s not investigating that pathetic explanation for her son’s death. Looks like that’s all we get on who killed Kenny, which was supposed to be the mystery of the season and gave us no definite realistic conclusion, but whatever at least we still have Eve and Villanelle.

Eve is so upset she runs out and of course, Villanelle follows her. They meet at the bridge, discuss their future, Villanelle asks Eve if she thinks she is a monster, Eve tells her we all have monsters inside us most other people just hide them. Eve tells her when she thinks of the future she thinks of her but her monster is encouraged by Villanelle and she wants it to stop. Villanelle has a solution. She tells her to turn their backs to one another and start walking in opposite directions and never look back. It’s heartbreaking for a second it really looks like they’re about to walk away from each other once and for all, but then they both just stop and quietly look back at each other, and the episode ends there.

Now was it a terrible episode of television? No, even if the Konstantin and Kenny plot was a dud, the scenes between Villanelle and Eve were so honest and tender they were worth watching, but as a whole, it did not accomplish what it needed to accomplish. Villanelle literally gave Eve the note that held all the money for her escape and she gave it with complete trust, she refused to join Konstantin, her father figure, because he wasn’t family, Eve was. Now after all that they suddenly decide they have to walk away from each other?

They’ve already tried that! Multiple times. Eve started the season bitter and broken by Villanelle shooting her and still, she came back to her, and they couldn’t even give us a definite beginning to this relationship we have been waiting three seasons to see? Villanelle fell in love with Eve when she watched her try and tame her wild hair in a hospital bathroom and since then she’s alienated or straight up killed any other connection in her life and she was just going to walk away? What is that?

If they’re not going together then they just need to make it definitively clear, this cat and mouse game was fun at the start but it’s gotten stale. At this point, sign Eve up for Tinder (because she is NOT going back to Niko) and let Villanelle become a stylist who verbally dresses down her clients as she dresses them up in her signature over the top style.

But if they are meant to be together, really together, then let it happen already. I want to see them bickering over what to bring to a dinner party and going to the farmers market together. I want Villanelle to make Shepherds pie for Eve and have her say it was the best one she ever had. The complicated and undeniable attraction and compatibility of Eve and Villanelle are literally what carried this series and here we are three seasons in and they’ve kissed one time. It’s not fair to either of them or us for that matter.

Frankly, the finale had to wrap up a lot for this season and did so in a clumsy, truly clunky sort of way, but worst of all it sidelined the most important development we needed. Fans might check into season four just to see whether or not they’ll be together but if not it will be hard to continue with a series that just drags on again and again to the same disappointing place. We’ve been hurt enough.