Killing Eve Season 2 Episode 3 Review: The Hungry Caterpillar

This Killing Eve review contains spoilers. 

Killing Even Season 2 Episode 3

Konstantin is back, Villanelle chafes under her new handler’s reins, Eve makes a play to salvage things at work and at home, Kenny feels underappreciated, Niko keeps secret(s), and Carolyn becomes very sleepy. There is, as ever, so much going on in this episode and not nearly time enough to dissect it all, so let’s dive right in. These are reviews not recaps, so I won’t hit up every detail – keep the conversation going in the comments!

Eve puts in some time this episode trying to be a good wife, whatever that means, and feeling like a failure. When she makes him breakfast, it freaks him out, even if it is gross – a character note that I love. Not many shows would allow a woman to be a “bad wife” (again, whatever that means) in the first place, and they certainly wouldn’t allow it to continue, or for the audience to probably not care too much. But Eve’s not really a cook and that’s fine, which is why he was so freaked out in the premiere when she chopped a million carrots. We also get to see her wearing the blue dress Niko liked when she pretended to be online shopping as cover for searching for Villanelle, and their flirtation in his maths classroom is a reminder of why their relationship is so refreshing and wonderful.

Unfortunately, there are definitely cracks in that relationship. Eve is not the only one keeping secrets, and Villanelle is targeting Niko. I don’t know if she intuited that something was wrong or if she simply wanted to do away with him. It’s painful to watch Niko not believe his wife, when we can see the facts as clear as day: Villanelle is here. Just like knowing Gemma is actually flirting with her husband, this is something Eve can see that her husband cannot. The fact that he cannot see it makes him think he’s right and she’s wrong and widens the distance between them.

Why not trust her? Why not trust that a woman knows how women act when they’re into a guy and trying to cover for it? Why not trust that his wife, who chases serial killers for a living, knows when this specific one is afoot? Then again, why doesn’t Eve trust Niko a bit more and let him know just how very urgent the danger is, how close at hand? I know her almost-touching Eve was meant to be creepy, but Villanelle not showing her face was worst thing she could do at that moment for Eve/her marriage. V had no way of knowing it, but by not appearing she made Eve doubt her instincts and believe Niko’s version of events.

The apple has become something of Villanelle’s calling card for Eve, and I love it. Another great development: dropping her accent as a pre-death power move. I can’t wait for it to fail and for her to have to deal with the fallout. What I can’t quite make sense of yet: putting a razorblade in the lipstick for Eve. The best I can come up with is that she wanted to be able to know, when she saw her next, whether she wore it. Most concerning? Seeing Eve finger the blood the way Villanelle did her stab wound. If you ever doubted it, these two are on a collision course that’s more tractor beam of obsession than hate.

read more: Everything to Know About Killing Eve Season 3

Raymond’s particular brand of malice is note-perfect for the world of Killing Eve. He looks like this oafish, ineffectual soccer dad which belies a steely, discomfiting coldness – and if Killing Eve had a central thesis it’s that appearances are deceiving and men are trash. He knows precisely how to get to Villanelle: let her know that Eve is seeing other serial killers. Where Konstantin is rogueish and somehow adorable, almost teddy bear-like, Raymond has this wisp of whimsy. But both pull the rug right out from under Villanelle and the audience whenever necessary, reminding us both that the entire thing is a show, an act of control.

Really, so much of everyone’s actions on Killing Eve is a show, an act of manipulation. While the fun of season 1 was this feeling of tracking down the killer, even as we followed her perspective directly, the thrill of season 2 lies in parsing her intentions. Will she stab Konstantin at the end of the hallway? I can’t imagine anyone expected that hug, least of all him. Then the game becomes, does she mean anything she says to him, or is she just trying to make the best of the fact that he’s standing right in front of her, while she assesses the situation? On the other side of the coin, does he care for her, or did he simply take the opportunity for freedom and a possible way back to his family and run with it?

Perhaps the most thrilling possibility of all is that it’s a little bit of both. Villanelle does care for the man who shaped huge aspects of who she is, but she values Eve and her freedom more. (I couldn’t possibly evaluate which ranks higher, herself or her freedom, at this point, but I cannot wait until she is forced to choose!) Konstantin made clear back at Carolyn’s house and at the end of last season that his own family is a much larger priority than Villanelle would believe, teaching an excellent lesson about perspective: just because we don’t see something on screen doesn’t mean it didn’t happen or isn’t important. After all, this show is about Eve and Villanelle, so we really only see things insomuch as they impact those two.

This episode made the most compelling case yet for the idea that Villanelle and Konstantin really are cut from the same cloth. He called her out on her BS apology about shooting him so he’d live. She immediately turned it around into a compliment about his skills as a teacher. It’s fascinating because they’ve never seemed so similar before – Nadia warranted more comparison, and of course Eve – but perhaps that’s because Konstantin had the upper hand. Now that they both have their backs against the wall, they both must lie, double-cross, and manipulate, including doing it to each other at a level we’ve never seen before. All this is to say: I cannot wait for this assassin road trip.

Other notes:

God love Villanelle for calling out fake Hermes even as she kills a guy

Scottish school girl villanelle is gonna make a dent in some fanfics

I don’t think Villanelle knows the meaning of “boring and discrete”

The ghost doesn’t work for The Twelve

The dead hedge fund guy was putting together a deal to buy the Peele company. Hmmm…

It was awful watching Eve mistreat Kenny and do such damage to their relationship. Is she becoming more like Villanelle as she works to catch her?

This episode in Villanelle fashion includes her spying on Niko in a black silk blouse with statement shoulders, making glitter macaroni necklaces and going full-scale art teacher in clogs, wide-legged trousers and a flowing orange kimono, and those miraculous silver pants she wears in her perfect final look

I LOVE this show for capitalizing on the intersection of glamour and horror that is face masks and having villanelle do one at her shitty hotel

Villanelle being mooney over “listen to your heart” is amazing