I AM Women to the front in this hard-hitting anthology drama.
6 THE WRITING IS AS TIGHT AS EVER.
New head-writer Emerald Fennell does right by the series and creator Phoebe Waller-bridge, keeping Killing Eve’s most identifying DNA trait — quick, surprising dialogue — intact. Plot-wise, there are more deus ex machina moments than before, but as the entire series has become an exercise in suspending disbelief, you’ll hardly mind.
7 SO. MANY. ACCENTS.
Jodie Comer is a Brit playing a Russian playing lots of other people, and she’s famously good at it (watch her Bafta acceptance speech for a reminder of what the Liverpudlian actually sounds like). This season Villanelle code-switches constantly, and it’s a goddamn delight to watch.
8 EVE AND VILLANELLE’S PSYCHES BEGIN TO MERGE.
At this rate, by Season 3 they’ll be trading faces à la Travolta and Cage in Face/off. Season 2 is still a cat-and-mouse game, but it’s now harder to decipher which one’s the cat and which the mouse… or if they’re both some other animal entirely (one whose bloodlust and regular lust are in equal supply).
9 WE FINALLY UNDERSTAND WHERE CAROLYN’S ALLEGIANCE LIES. SORT OF.
OK, things are still muddled, and the MI6 boss’s ties to The Twelve remain confusing at best. But that aforementioned phoenix who rises from the ash? Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) is connected to him (or her).
10 YOU’LL SEE A SOFTER SIDE TO VILLANELLE.
Perspective, people: she is, after all, still a homicidal maniac. But her Achilles’ heels are boredom and unrequited attention and they soon get the best of her, resulting in moments of vulnerability and one epic bender. She just wants Eve to love her (and to be allowed to grotesquely assassinate anyone who annoys her) — is that so wrong?
11 EVE’S GOT A NEW GANG.
MI6 newbies Hugo (Edward Bluemel) and Jess (Nina Sosanya) are more types than characters — the posh, sex-obsessed antagonist and the wise, pregnant woman — but that may be intentional. Trying to populate the screen with anyone who could compete with Eve or Villanelle would be a fool’s errand, so best clear out the distractions.
12 MEN ARE STILL BESIDE THE POINT.
Though the dudes try their best to keep the women at bay, they’re toast. In Killing Eve, men are husbands who don’t understand their wives (Niko), impotent nice guys (Kenny), adversaries (Season 2 all-round dick Aaron Peel) or sidepieces (Carolyn’s friend with benefits). They are to be used, sidestepped, ignored or obliterated. The only guy who ever understood a woman — Bill — was quickly dispatched, care of Villanelle’s Season 1 dancefloor bloodbath. Serious business requires women, and the show knows it.