‘Killing Eve’ leading ladies as riveting as ever in return
The deliciously dark humor of the “Killing Eve” trailers is just an aperitif for when the BBC America hit returns Sunday.
What began as a cat-andmouse crime story affair between MI6 agent Eve Polastri (a wonderfully high-strung Sandra Oh) and ruthless assassinfor-hire Villanelle (played with chilling relish by Jodie Comer) takes on new layers in season two.
“Why are you and Villanelle so interested in each other?” says British agency vet Carolyn (Fiona Shaw), who knows the answer, but wants to see if Eve can get better at lying about it.
“No need to play the reluctant ingenue with me; save that for your husband,” adds Carolyn.
They are television’s strongest trio of female leads (and no, we haven’t forgotten there’s a little show called “Game of Thrones” also returning, the following week).
The action picks up less than a minute after the conclusion of last season’s cliffhanger. Eve, having discovered Villanelle’s apartment in Paris, had admitted her mutual fascination with the psychopathic killer.
As they lie on Villanelle’s bed like two bestie schoolgirls, Eve pulls out a knife. Villanelle taunts her, saying she’d never have the nerve to use it.
Sense of duty overcomes Eve, who stabs Villanelle, then ducks for cover when the killer pulls a gun and takes a shot at her.
When Eve emerges from the next room, Villanelle is gone. Then, things get even crazier. Ms. Oh has won Golden Globe and SAG awards for her portrayal of Eve, and Ms. Comer is equally up for new challenges. Add showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who adapted the series from Luke Jennings’ “Codename: Villanelle” books, and there’s another iron lady in the mix.
“Killing Eve” is thrilling, emotionally complex and damn
hilarious. Eve, trying not to panic as she tells Carolyn, “I think I might have killed her…” stops talking on her cell phone long enough to realize she’s just stumbled onto a man proposing to his girlfriend in the park. She pauses an awkward beat, adding “Congratulations.”
Villanelle might be a wounded animal, but Ms. Comer still gets to have the most fun. Whether the fashion-conscious killer is reluctantly stepping into a pair of stolen Crocs or stepping out in a pair of horrible, print pajamas, she always seems delighted by her psychotic self.
“You’re funny,” a hospital patient tells her. “Yes,” she deadpans. “I am.”
She’s also a sociopath with a shattered moral compass. Her one act of “compassion” in two seasons thus far is both violent and warped. Wait for it.
We witnessed in season one that Villanelle has a penchant for falling in love with women, then eliminating their partners. For now, Eve’s husband is still alive. But is her marriage? It’s clear Eve’s attraction to Villanelle has not waned. A clever setup in Sunday’s episode has Eve drinking at a bar when another patron assumes she’s an addict of some sort: “I get it. You may not think you have a problem now. Most addicts don’t. It takes one to know one.”
Eve laughs it off, not realizing she addicted: to the hunt, the danger, to Villanelle.
Other mysteries are yet unfolding: Who are Villanelle’s employers, “The 12”? Is her handler, Konstantin, really dead? Is it possible there is another operative out there working for The 12?
Can Eve and Villanelle come to terms — forgiveness, even — for what they’ve done to each other?
BBC America is running “Killing Eve” simultaneously, on AMC, on Sunday nights. That means a wider audience for one of the best, if not the best, dramas on television.
As it happens, White Walkers and the walking dead have nothing on Villanelle.