TV Plus (South Africa)

Never say never...

Let’s get Villanelle and Eve back together!

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Season 3 Thursdays (from 22 September) SABC3 (*193) 21:00

Killing Eve season 2 ended with the ugliest break-up in TV history when psychopath­ic assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer) shot the object of her romantic obsession and fascinatio­n – MI6 investigat­or Eve (Sandra Oh) – after Eve tried to walk away from her, realising that Villanelle had deliberate­ly lured her into her first kill. It was a tit-for-tat revenge for the season 1 finale in which Eve stabbed Villanelle as they lay in bed together.

“From our study and our research into psychopath­ic behaviour, psychopath­s fall desperatel­y and passionate­ly and deeply in love. And it can be intoxicati­ng, but they can also turn it off like a light switch. So if at any point Villanelle feels it’s not reciprocat­ed, we knew that was a really dangerous moment,” explains the series’s season 2 executive producer Sally Woodward Gentle.

At the start of season 3 we have three big questions: Can Villanelle flip that switch back on? Can Eve make peace with who she has become? And how long will it be before that red string of fate (yeah no, that’s just a trail of blood) brings them back together?

HARD FEELINGS

Suzanne Heathcote, who takes over as Killing Eve executive producer in season 3, hints that the pair will be drawn back together like a brilliant artist finding their perfect critic. “For Eve, there is that speck of darkness that she can’t remove from herself. And it’s that which has drawn her to studying these murders in the first season, for years before she was discovered by Carolyn Martens (head of the Russia Desk at MI6, played by Fiona Shaw, Coleman in drama series Mrs Wilson). For Villanelle, it’s almost the opposite. It’s like she has this speck of light inside her. I think, as a result, there’s a completene­ss when they’re with the other. They know that they recognise each other in a way that no one else has ever before. It’s very hard to walk away from that.”

HARD WORK FOR FATE

Getting back together will be half the fun. Eve has left MI6 behind in favour of working at a Korean restaurant, so no spy nonsense for her. And Villanelle is about to be married to some random lady when her former trainer Dasha (Harriet Walter, Veronique in British medical dramedy series This Is Going to Hurt) crashes the party to invite Villanelle to join sinister murder-for-hire organisati­on The Twelve (the organisati­on that Eve was investigat­ing in seasons 1 and 2). It’s a powerful position as an assassin handler and “keeper” that will allow Villanelle to finally uncover the identities of the organisati­on’s leaders. Can any wedding present match up to that gift? Not likely… or not until she finds out that Eve is still alive.

Then when Carolyn’s son Kenny (British-born Sean Delaney in his first TV role), who’s investigat­ing The Twelve as a journalist, supposedly commits suicide shortly after asking Eve to come meet him, Eve becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened. And with Carolyn willing to back her, Eve is soon hot on Villanelle’s heels again. Let the chase begin!

“I saw my mother in Betty and I was very moved by that and the women in that generation. Revolution­s had happened all around them but they’d made a pact to live for their husbands’ ambitions and to support them,” says Michelle. And these sacrifices were often the catalysts that led to their husbands’ success as the ultimate ruler – and finally we get to these First Ladies with their gloved hands in iron fists, smiling for the camera.

According to Viola who also serves as the show’s executive producer, they took liberties and dramatised some of the scenarios researched because there was no informatio­n other than the outcomes. “There are some elements that we made our own. But I’ll tell you what, the most difficult thing for me was perfecting Michelle Obama’s walk. It’s the opposite of mine and I studied it a lot!”

 ?? ?? Villanelle (left) and Eve (right) are bound by blood.
Villanelle (left) and Eve (right) are bound by blood.
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