Killing Eve Season Two (Spoiler-Filled) Review

Note: This article will contain spoilers for seasons one and two of Killing Eve. If you haven’t watched either season, might I recommend dropping what you are currently doing and starting? Season one is available on Hulu and season two is on demand from BBC America/AMC.

I absolutely loved the first season of BBC America’s spectacular drama Killing Eve. I even named it my number one show of 2018 (and spent most of the year begging everyone I know to watch it). Considering how wonderful the first go-round was, I was suitably worried about how season two would pan out. After all, season one showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge had left her post (to work on the exquisite second season of Fleabag, which is the early frontrunner for the top spot in my 2019 Top Ten list), which meant she wouldn’t be around to navigate the series out of the cliffhanger she left it with (Waller-Bridge is still an Executive Producer on the series, even though she doesn’t work on it day-to-day). And, to a point, season two proved that my fears were founded. However, despite some shakiness along the way, Killing Eve managed to charm me in ways I didn’t expect.

Under the command of Emerald Fennell (who will be replaced, in what is now the official process for the show moving forward – a new female showrunner will be appointed each season –  by Suzanne Heathcote as the showrunner for season three), the season pushed Eve and Villanelle closer and closer together, which changed the entire make-up of the series. What made season one so great was that we went through long stretches where our two leads were simply ships passing in the night. Remember how exquisite the scene of Eve finding that Villanelle had replaced all the clothes in her suitcase was; the air of danger and the feeling that Eve was getting ever closer to the edge through accepting that gift? When the duo finally met for the first time (at least for the first time where both were aware of it), it was electric. And, unfortunately, the series has been chasing that same high (much like Eve) ever since.

So, from that perspective, season two was never going to be able to live up to the heights of season one. But what we got was still delightfully exciting throughout most of the eight episodes. Sure, waiting for Villanelle to escape from the prison of her own creation early in the season was a tad tedious (this show works best when she’s available to be the foil – or, as Villanelle corrected us in the finale, the mirror – to Eve), but those episodes did provide a showcase for Jody Comer to really get into some vulnerable places that Villanelle doesn’t like to go. Once Villanelle was out and about and trying to lure Eve back into her orbit, the show fell into its same old rhythms (for good and for ill). Villanelle gifting Eve the tube of “Love in an Elevator” lipstick was a smart callback to that suitcase (and the razor blade hidden within a bit on the nose reminder of the extreme danger of this game Eve insists on playing). But, it’s a been there, done that, sort of situation; fun in the moment, but lacking in the same excitement of the game of chase in season one.

Ultimately, it was obvious that the goal of the season was to get Villanelle working alongside Eve and the rest of her team, placing a mongoose in the hen house. What was less clear, at least until the final two episodes, was why Constantine and Carolyn would be willing to sacrifice their two agents on a mission that was doomed from the word go. Everyone (save for Eve – and major props to the always amazing Sandra Oh for showing us every moment of Eve’s revelation that she’s been played by the best) knew Eve was in over her head and that she wouldn’t be able to extricate herself from the quicksand that is Villanelle. While it was interesting to watch Eve believe she had the upper hand in her relationship with Villanelle, it was also strangely disheartening to watch someone who was so sure of herself succumb to an attraction that spiraled out of control. But, that’s the thing with obsession: it clouds the judgment of even the most even keeled individuals, leaving them susceptible to their blind spots.

While season one could be classified as a cat-and-cat game, season two was most definitely a cat-and-mouse encounter, with Villanelle leading Eve exactly where she wanted her to go. From setting up kills intended to let Eve know she was still out there, to manipulating the Aaron Peel mission to get Eve to show up just in time to see her remove Peel from the game board (which was what Carolyn wanted to happen the entire time – making her the biggest cat of them all), Villanelle held nearly all the cards in season two. And when Eve played the only card she had in her hand – denying Villanelle the one thing she wanted: the confirmation that she had found her counterpart in Eve, and that they would run away like Bonnie and Clyde – Eve realized the hard truth: this was always Villanelle’s game. Villanelle’s manipulations may have molded Even into a killer, but she’s a killer with a conscience. And feelings. Things that Villanelle doesn’t want to interact with, and elements that she didn’t account for in her game plan. A bullet in the back isn’t the best follow-up to a declaration of love, but for someone like Villanelle, it makes perfect sense. If she can’t play with her toy, no one else is going to.

We’ve always known that wanting these two women to be together was going to cost one of them everything, and it certainly seems to be Eve who has paid the highest price so far. Yes, we know she’ll be back on her feet in season three (the show would not work without Oh, nor should we ever have to contemplate that future), but Eve sacrificed an awful lot in season two only to lose everything in the end. She’s without a job, having spurned MI-6 and Carolyn (which Carolyn expected, after she used Eve to get what she wanted with little regard for her safety or sanity). She lost Niko – and got Niko’s coworker/girlfriend killed. She lost her perspective on pretty much everything. And she lost whatever fantasy she had that she could control Villanelle. It was all fun and games until the reality of who Villanelle was crashed down upon her (Villanelle goading Eve into killing, even if it was to kill a decidedly bad man, will fundamentally change the character in ways I suspect we haven’t even begun to contemplate). Considering how broken up Eve was when Villanelle killed Bill in season one (something Eve conveniently forgets about on the regular, needing poor Kenny to remind her of the fact this season), it’s amazing how mired Eve has become in the spider web of Villanelle at this point in the story. Now that the scales have been pulled from her eyes (and the bullet lodged in her back), where will the series take Eve for season three?

As I said earlier, the most successful elements of the show have come from the suspenseful dance between its two leading ladies. The dance was present in season two, but it wasn’t as successful when the duo was working alongside one another, largely because we knew it would end in tragedy (even as we – against our better judgment – hoped for a happy ending). Season three will likely see a bruised and broken Eve driven by revenge to catch Villanelle, which, on paper, comes across as dull when compared to the past interactions between the pair. A revenge story has been done many times before and putting these two vibrant characters into a standard revenge plot would suck all the life out of them. There was a time where I couldn’t imagine a version of Killing Eve where the deep, resonating attraction between the two characters wasn’t the driving force behind their encounters. Now, after all that’s happened, I cannot see a version of the show where Eve can be drawn in by Villanelle yet again without completely betraying her character in the process.

My hope for season three is that Heathcote and her writing staff take a page out of the other great serial killer/agent television series Hannibal and find reasonable ways to shore up the relationship between the show’s leads. There’s got to be a way to get Eve back under Villanelle’s spell without sacrificing what has made the character great. BBC America is certainly hoping the series runs for several more seasons. For this to happen, Heathcote will have to tread lightly come season three. The Killing Eve narrative is more delicate than ever now. But, I, for one, am excited to see if the writers can pull the rabbit out of the hat one more time.