Killing Eve is finally back. Here are 6 mind-blowing twists you might have forgotten about
Killing Eve season 2 took Villanelle and Eve to Rome. (BBC)
Killing Eve season 3 returned with a surprise wedding and an even more shocking death. But before that, here’s everything you need to know to get caught up.
Villanelle and Eve return for another game of sexy cat-and-mouse in the third instalment of the hit BBC drama.
Killing Eve season 3 picks up six months after the season 2 cliffhanger, which left Eve’s life hanging in the balance and Villanelle on the run, again.
Jodie Comer, who plays the assassin, said that the new episodes will delve deeper into her psyche, exploring the strange fascination she has for Eve (Sandra Oh).
She told EW: “As we tap into this woman’s emotions more or getting into the psyche of what she does feel and what she doesn’t feel, it’s: what is it about this woman that has such a hold? Does she, in fact? There’s so much to delve into in regards to that.”
With Killing Eve season 3 available to watch on BBC iPlayer from Monday (April 13), and on AMC and BBC America in the US, here’s a quick recap of season 2’s most outrageous twists.
1. Villanelle went undercover to investigate a billionaire – and killed him.
The main thrust of last year’s story was Villanelle’s undercover mission investigating creepy billionaire Aaron Peel for MI6.
Posing as vacuous socialite Billie, she ended up accompanying Peel to Rome, where she discovered his penchant for luring young women to the city and murdering them.
None of this particularly phased her – until when she learned that her unhinged former Russian handler Raymond would be attending a meeting with her and Peel.
Frantically she uttered her safeword, with Eve, who was listening in nearby, coming to her rescue and forcing her to break character.
Impressed, Peel asked Villanelle to join him. Instead, she killed him.
2. Eve slept with Hugo, then he was shot.
Accompanying Eve on the Rome mission was her colleague, the personification of white male privilege, Hugo.
While cooped up in close quarters Eve warmed slightly to the Etonion, and wound up sleeping with him in their hotel room (while Villanelle goaded her on through an earpiece, of course).
The next morning he sarcastically thanked her for the threesome and left their hotel room, rejected. Seconds later, when she heard Villanelle utter the safe word, she ran out only to find Hugo bleeding out on the hallway.
3. Carolyn is one shady lady.
When Eve returned from her ‘save Villanelle’ mission, she found that Hugo was no longer bloodying up the hotel, and that their room had been cleared out.
Suddenly the penny dropped: Carolyn’s instructions for Villanelle to not kill Peel were a ploy all along, she was counting on the assassin to get rid of him for her.
4. Eve turned axe murderer.
Just as Villanelle had been warned, her violent ex-handler Raymond turned up at the hotel intent on killing her.
But as he had his hands around her throat, he was stopped by Eve, who swung an axe into his shoulder.
As Raymond struggled, Villanelle told Eve to pull the axe out and hit him again, this time in the head.
With the handler warning that The Twelve would come after Eve, Villanelle and everyone the know — and with Villanelle screaming at her to do it — Eve swung the axe into Raymond’s head repeatedly, committing her first bloody murder.
5. Eve broke up with Villanelle, the Villanelle shot Eve.
After fleeing the hotel Eve and Villanelle found themselves in a set of ruins where Villanelle revealed she’d been carrying a gun the entire time, meaning she’d tricked Eve into committing murder.
Hurt by her deception, Eve announced she was ditching the pair’s plan to go on the run together, instead returning home to face whatever came next.
Villanelle pleaded with Eve, telling her that she loved her, but the compliment was not returned.
With her Bonnie and Clyde fantasy up in smoke, the assassin pulled a gun on her friend-nemesis-crush and shot her in the back, leaving her crumpled in the ruins, alone.
6. Eve and Villanelle didn’t sleep together.
Can you believe it! After two seasons and 16 episodes full of fraught sexual tension, masturbation teases and almost-encounters, Eve and Villanelle’s relationship remains effectively platonic.
Despite the apparent queerness, Sandra Oh has dismissed the idea of a full-blown sexual relationship, telling Gay Times: “You guys are tricky because you want to make it into something… but it just isn’t.”
Whether this will change is season three remains to be seen.
