Killing Eve: Is Eve Moving on From Villanelle?

This Killing EVE article contains spoilers.

Killing Eve Season 4 Episode 3

Eve has finally done what she has long seemed completely incapable of doing on Killing Eve: she has fully betrayed Villanelle by turning her in to the police. It doesn’t even seem like it was a hard choice to make. Strangely, Villanelle has become so sloppy in this odd period in her life that if it hadn’t been Eve, it may have simply been someone else, considering her picture is on the front page of the paper. Nevertheless, Eve’s indifference is a radical change in their power dynamic.

It’s nice to see Villanelle once again sneaking in where she doesn’t belong by dressing as overlooked female service workers, a theme reinforced by Pam or even Fernanda. In this case, the most shocking thing about Villanelle’s hotel maid is that there’s no wig, kerchief, accent, funky costume or outlandish mask – just her dressed down self, complete with frazzled blonde hair and bare face. It’s a side of Villanelle we’ve rarely seen before, if ever. Even after her shower, Villanelle looks washed up, dejected, put through the ringer. She’s not the self-possessed, effervescent assassin we once knew.

Meanwhile, Eve’s hair looks amazing as always. Eve continues to rise and come into her own as Villanelle falters, and in a way that feels strangely grounded. Eve has become an eerily good investigator, using tricks she learned from the assassin but applying a welcome sense of self-preservation. She plays Fernanda so expertly that you have to feel bad for the woman, who once again finds herself used and abandoned, even if this time it’s only after an afternoon of too much wine.

Villanelle goes to see Martin, the therapist who treats incarcerated psychopaths and helped profile her for MI5, for therapy, an action made possible by Eve visiting him recently for help. Her menswear evokes Blake Lively in A Simple Favor, as she lounges throughout his home, at times pretending the visit is voluntary while occasionally tying Martin up and almost accidentally killing him. Through Martin and this uncharacteristically chatty version of Villanelle, we are granted perhaps the most insight into her mind the show has ever allowed us, though by now none of it comes as much of a surprise.

Eve’s own best counseling seemed to come from Fernanda, the Cuba wife of a Russian high roller who caught Hélène’s interest after he disappeared. Eve claimed she wasn’t turning Villanelle in for her latest murders because it was no longer her job. Holding Martin hostage is certainly an escalation, however, thanks to Fernanda, Eve recognized it as one of Villanelle’s games, a play for attention that likely would not be the last.

In a way, sending Villanelle to jail is more damning than killing her. It involved less passion, and leaves Eve without the kind of lifelong guilt or cosmic ties between them that Villanelle might wax poetic about in her final moments. Worse still, there’s no real fanfare, no final showdown; Eve isn’t even the arresting officer. Of course there will be more to come, but at this moment in their story, Eve is Don Draper in the elevator telling Villanelle she doesn’t even think about her at all. V will be left to pine away in prison (at least until someone breaks her out for this battle against The Twelve) while Eve keeps working away with the other grown ups.

Eve carefully evades Villanelle’s questions that might lead to her encounter with Hélène, and while she could be protecting that investigation, it’s hard not to think that she’s also very aware of how jealous V would become of their dynamic. The last thing Eve needs is Villanelle messing up her path to The Twelve by attacking Hélène in broad daylight or something, but whenever that inevitable confrontation does take place, it will surely be charged.

It seems that Eve, Hélène, and Carolyn are all hunting the same guy, a Russian agent working for The Twelve in Cuba, now in FSB custody. It would be good to see them all bouncing off one another, especially while Villanelle is locked up. Pam the mortician is a promising character, even if her brother Elliot was comically villainous, so it’s good to see she’ll be sticking around and adding to the mix.

Who will Eve trust, other than herself and possibly Yusuf? Will Konstantin finally come off the bench, and who will he help? Did anyone ever feed Martin? Here’s hoping the guy got a meal and some medical attention, because I have a feeling he has a patient to visit in prison.