One of the more unexpected focuses emerging over the course of this season of Killing Eve has been parenting, and the struggles faced by both kids and their parents as they strive to forge connections and share the things that matter. Last week, Villanelle tried and failed to figure out what her relationship with her mother should mean, and this week, Konstantin and Carolyn both try to connect with their daughters, to decidedly mixed results.
Well, Konstantin finds mixed results. Carolyn comes closer to an understanding with Geraldine, one that Geraldine at least has been seeking all season, only to make clear at the end of the conversation that it was all a precursor to interrogating her daughter about her relationship with Konstantin. The whole speech is very Carolyn—yes, she struggles to understand her daughter, but she’s still trying in her own way to be there for her, even if it means eating a stew of deformed vegetables instead of the pot pie she’s been craving. And while it’s been easy to sympathize with Geraldine throughout the season as Carolyn refuses to grieve with her, Carolyn is also right that Geraldine has kept something pretty major from her. The counterpoint, of course, is that Geraldine might not have been driven to seek comfort from Konstantin if not for her mother’s aloofness during a terrible time in her life.
It’s just more bad luck for Konstantin that Carolyn is feeling “galvanized” right now, since it means that he gets taken on a terrifying car ride (one of two for the episode) while she interrogates him about his connection to Kenny. And for any of us who wondered way back when the Konstantin/Carolyn romantic history was first teased, it turns out Kenny also thought there was a chance Konstantin was his father. In another deeply Carolyn moment, when Konstantin says he told Kenny he did not even know himself if he was Kenny’s father, she doesn’t respond to either confirm or deny. Instead, she tosses his various possessions out of the car and goes about her business. And when Konstantin finally makes it back home again, presumably after a very long walk back to find his wallet and phone, it’s to discover yet another nemesis hiding in his room. This time, it’s the obviously-a-stinker-from-the-start Paul, who Carolyn has recently pinpointed as a likely member of the Twelve thanks to his stonewalling on releasing Kenny’s phone records. Paul’s there to force Konstantin to figure out who had the Twelve’s accountant’s wife killed, all in service of finding out who’s been stealing money from the group. Since all of that is apparently Konstantin himself, he’s basically one collapsed lie away from death here. And none of that is even the worst thing that happens to Konstantin in this episode!
That would, of course, be seeing his daughter murder her harmless stepfather for no reason other than dislike for him, a very unfortunate hobby she has clearly picked up from spending time with Villanelle. Which he will probably blame Villanelle for, but of course it’s his own choice of career that brought Villanelle into his life. He’s also the one who made sure Villanelle stayed on assignment as an assassin, so the fact that murderous behavior has now become part of his own life is as much his own doing as anyone else’s. It’s not particularly possible to keep your hands clean in the business he’s in, and his hope that he could get his daughter out unscathed was always a pretty hopeless one.
Villanelle, meanwhile, is clearly still reeling from what happened with her mother in the last episode, and finds herself starting to struggle with the career she’s chosen. It all makes her go from her biological mother straight to her surrogate mother, Dasha, who may have had an illustrious past but is clearly a bit of a screwup now. The most obvious sign that Villanelle didn’t attack Niko is that he survived.
Which all brings us back to Eve, who is now once again demonstrating the keen investigative skills that made her a good candidate to track down Villanelle in the first place. Eve has been so caught up in her own messes on the show that it’s easy to forget that she’s supposed to be brilliant, which is something that Dasha herself is clearly underestimating. Everyone knows Villanelle is obsessed with Eve, but no one else seems to have questioned why too deeply. If Dasha had given Eve the tiniest bit of credit for being smart, she would have come up with a much better plan to drive her away from Villanelle. To put it in a metaphor that is also actually what happened, she used a blunt instrument when something subtler was needed.
But an oblivious Villanelle, fresh out of options after a misfire of an assassination in Romania, still needs her surrogate mother, even if she only needs her to help stitch up an injury. It’s too bad she also uses the time to break the one rule Konstantin has set for her: making it very clear that things aren’t going on as usual. Is she going to get another meeting with Hélène now?
Stray observations
- Since this is now at least the third time I thought we’d seen the last of Niko this season, I’m going to refrain from gauging the likelihood that Eve will now “piss off forever.”
- Carolyn’s extremely competent effort to go around Paul to get what she needs about Kenny is also why it’s very odd to me that the Twelve went after her son. Why attract the attention of someone as well-connected and smart as her?
- Ready for an entire other subplot about Eve’s apparent secret bowling league.
- Hard to tell for sure, but it seemed like the camera really focused meaningfully on the abandoned, bloody hair cutting scissors in the botched assassination scene. Is this a suggestion that Villanelle has made a mistake by leaving them behind? Because it’s not like she’s ever tried, at all, to conceal her murder efforts before. She doesn’t wear gloves.
- Dasha threatening Eve fell a little flat. Eve knows her number could have been up at any point by now. Why would she believe Dasha’s threat is real? Or rather, why would that make her more worried than anything else?
- Now that everyone else’s family life is in tatters, will we see more of Eve’s?
111 Comments
I must say, I don’t think I’ve ever seen people spar over bowling before. Where’s the James Bond movie with that scene?I was surprised when Nico turned up alive, but then I remembered that I had predicted that he would survive the entire series while getting shit on more and more as it goes on. I’m betting that he loses a limb the next time he shows up.Maybe I’m misreading things but it seems that Villanelle is getting tired of the killing. Maybe she can actually become a better person after all. Maybe not.
I think Villanelle is feeling lost. Konstantine is getting ready to flee and the family that she was seeking turned out to be a disaster. She has no plan to try to get Eve to be there for her so what does she really have. What she thought she wanted she is not going to get. I do wonder what is going to happen because if both she and Eve have nothing left to loose what won’t they do if they decide to take on the twelve.
I don’t think they’d fight the Twelve, I don’t think either of them has ever given a shit about the Twelve.
Villanelle was bummed and upset that the promotion she was promised really isn’t one. That she still has to go on assignments instead of directing and planning them like she wants, because they only see and want her as a mindless assassin and nothing more, so she’s tired of them and her job. Between this and all that just happened with her family, she just can’t take it anymore. I don’t think she knows what she wants exactly, but she knows she needs to get out of the suffocating mess that she feels that she’s in.
It hasn’t made any sense why Villanelle wanted to be a Keeper when it couldn’t be clearer she lacks the temperament and judgment to be the one who gives the orders instead of taking them.
It was nice to see Eve make an appearance, and she apparently has more upper body strength that she lets on because she wrecked Dasha during the bowling match. Must come from all that pushing around of snack machines trying to cheat her out of a moldy muffin.
With Irina letting her inner psychopath out to play, will she run off with Villanelle and Eve to make it Two Psychos and An Asian Woman with Amazing Hair?
Well, she isn’t any better than Dasha who botched killing Niko, isn’t exactly stealthy with her methods, and can’t bowl for shit. Between this and the rookie she had to kill earlier in the season, the other assassins she dealt with and killed in past seasons, it doesn’t seem that The 12 cares much for competence and efficiency. Just get the job done and get paid.
I think she’s frustrated that the Twelve just see her as a weapon to break out when they need someone killed. She wants to show she’s more than that, even if she’s not actually sure she is.
Oh, poor, pitiful, remorseless asassin feels bad. Boo Hoo!
I was half expecting Eve to smash Dasha in the face with a bowling ball.
predicted that he would survive the entire series while getting shit on more and more as it goes on. I’m betting that he loses a limb the next time he shows up. …and now I find myself openly rooting for an eyepatch; pretty sure the actor could pull it off.
It’s certainly more badass than doing it over golf, like in Goldfinger.
niko is just a punching bag this seasoni liked his character i thought we might get a Thin Man kind of thing goingso much for that
James Bond will return in … ‘Gutterball’.
*Jame Bond kills a minion with a razor blade ball gadget*“Talk about getting a split.”
Shades of Dr. Chilton from the Hannibal TV series? Dr. Chilton’s ever increasing grotesque suffering became more and more absurd, with the punishment he endured being totally disproportionate to his petty misdeeds.
Did you read Moonraker? There’s a long-ass dinner-and-a-game-of-bridge scene to start off the action. The Bowling here was better.
Of course I haven’t, I saw the movie with Snake Punching and Space Battles.
Right? James Bond may not have snarky bowling, but there is still a distinct lack of snake punching in Killing Eve.
My best guess at anything that comes next is that Eve will have to seek out and find Villanelle in order for them to come together. Perhaps Eve is still in Barcelona staking out Villanelle’s home? And if this reunion does happen in Villanelle’s place and they have a discussion about Niko, I’m thinking Dasha ain’t long for this world.
This episode moved the plot forward so fast and had so much information. It feels like 1/3 of that info could have been revealed earlier, in ep 3-5 for example. That being said, while it’s not a groundbreaking spy stuff, it’s also not jarring. All reveals made some sort of sense, I especially like the fact that it’s Konstantin who is stealing the money. We know that The 12 has people everywhere, so I like that we got that unceremonious scene when we find out that Paul is one of them, because yeah…of course he is.
Overall, I have no idea how this season might end. And who will die. lol
I would’ve liked the Paul reveal to happen for us in Konstantin’s house. I’d rather find out Carolyn knew as a result of her cleverly taking him out later than having that weird confrontation in his/her office.
He is in trouble. Geraldine works for the 12 and is on his case!
Fucking Niko.
I did NOT expect him to survive that pitchforking.
I liked Bear’s repeated use of the word “pitchforked”, plus one swap-out with “punctured”.
Indeed. Tho “PISS OFF FOREVER” line was spectacular.
Forever!!!! lol
Says a lot about Eve that even after everything Niko has been through because of her she still keeps turning up like, “But I love you, you’re good for me, let’s work this out.” Like, Eve, do you not see the parallel with Villanelle’s pursuit of you?
I like Eve showing as much regard for Nico’s heartfelt “piss over forever” as she has for every other sentiment he has shared with her over the course of the series
I have to say, Villanelle’s development over the course of three seasons. Risky as hell, but honestly? I like it how they are doing it. I don’t think we realized or cared just how much of a pupppet she was. It was all there from the beginning, we just didn’t care, and neither did Villanelle. The persona of Villanelle was a shield, a fancy lie that helped her to feel free, but she was never free.I was a bit scared that they will shrug off what happend in ep 5, but if if you have said A, you must also say B.
Do you watch Barry? Because Barry is the killer-for-hire who came to mind as I watched Villanelle unravel the last few episodes.With Barry, he can’t understand or accept that he’s a bad guy. So he goes around killing first for money and then out of self-preservation and then out of anger. Dude has killed friends just to avoid being held accountable for his crimes, but he still thinks it’s enough that he wants to stop killing and be better. Like, he thinks he’s owed a chance at normalcy regardless of all the blood on his hands. Maybe the show is building up to saying flat out that we’ve been watching a psychopath all along. But Barry’s self-denial is why I don’t enjoy him nearly as much as I do Villanelle. Killing Eve started off with Villanelle as a gleeful, self-aware psycho assassin. She’s wired differently, she knows that, and she relished it. Her development over these three seasons, especially this season, has been fascinating. I have absolutely no idea what’s going on with her or where this season will end for her, and I love that. Is she bored? Lonely? Heartsick? Does she resent being objectified (as a weapon) by her handlers? Is she frustrated that the things about her that fascinate Eve also repulse her? Is she on the verge of a Barry-style massacre? Murdering her Mom didn’t help anything, so maybe there’s a different killing itch she needs to scratch? Does she just need a good cry in the arms of her sweetheart? Have I been watching a love story all along?! All of the above?!?! I hope we get some articulation by season’s end of what the heck has been going on with Villanelle. In the meantime, I’m just enjoying Jodie Comer’s incredible performance week to week.
It’s definately, 100% the “Does she resent being objectified (as a weapon) by her handlers?” She wants to be like a Dasha and Konstatin as far as being a planner and handler, but instead The 12 want to treat her like the way Fuchs treats Barry: as a money making killing machine forever. And like Barry, she’s aware of that, over it, and wants to get away from their handlers and be free. Between this and that situation with her mom, she’s seemingly tired of being used and abused by everyone and just wants to be seen and rewarded as the smart, unique person she is and not as a tool that no one really likes.
Which sucks for Villanelle, right? She’s too damn good at her current job. If workplace dissatisfaction is really the problem here, I’d love for the show to tell me why. Villanelle liked her job at the start of the series, didn’t care who she was working for, and didn’t care if they were exploiting her psychopathy. Some of that still holds true, I think. If respect is what she’s really after, then The Twelve have deeply misjudged her by simply throwing more money at her and telling her to keep doing the same damn thing. And isn’t the organization supposed to be savvier than that? This season might argue otherwise given Dascha’s continued employment, Konstanin’s skimming, and how bad Villanelle’s protege was.
This whole season has been telling us why between her getting married, her liking and wanting to keep the baby, that nice villa she had in Spain, and her going home to see her family. Like Barry, she’s starting to miss and want normal life and normal people, and is tired of having to answer and listen to people like Dasha and the 12. And its not just her. Konstatin and Geraldine are starting to feel the same way. They’re all tired of playing this game and answering to less than scrupulous people who see them as nothing more than efficient tools, and want out. That seems to be the theme of this season.
I mean, I think you nailed it when you said “workplace satisfaction.” Have you ever had a job where it was really great starting out, and then a year later, you were feeling constrained by the role? Villanelle does her job very well, but after a certain point the thrill is gone. And her realizing that she doesn’t actually have a path for advancement in her “company” has to be demoralizing.Hell, I sort of love that this season is just “Person finds dissatisfaction in corporate role; learns her management wants to keep her in the role forever.” Of course, I imagine Villanelle’s resignation is going to be much more stylish than my standard “I wish you all the best and look forward to the chance to work together again in the future” resignation letter.
Dead-end job.
ba-dum-ching!
When she won the fan for throwing cowpats – it looked genuinely like the happiest she’d ever been.
I agree with you, but I’d be enjoying Jodie Comer’s performances a lot more if some of them were in scenes with Sandra Oh’s performances, because that is still a thing. Or at least it was.
i feel this season is weak the first four episodes meandered so much that the increased pace just seems designed for the number of episodesand this year they did have a new showrunner and writersfrom what i readsame producers, however
I know it probably has nothing to do with anything, but the slam-on chapter & location titles have gotten a little loosey-goosey these last two episodes.Fiona Shaw monologues are the best.
I agree that the location cards have gotten too clever by half.
I liked “Not Cuba,” but the “This is bull…” title card pushed the limits a bit too far.
The location cards were stylish-as-hell and a major part of what made the show so great. So to see them used this way feels like a bit of a betrayal.But they are nowhere near as bad as AMC playing pointless deleted snippets from the episode in the middle of their ad breaks.
I haven’t formed an opinion of the deleted scene snippets. They’re a bit of a head fake during the commercial breaks. Weird comparrison, but they’re like the Rick and Morty Wendy’s/Pringles commercials airing within the show. The little antenna in your head says, “Hey, the show’s back on. Oh, wait … no it’s not.” I’m behind AMC promoting the show and want them to succeed. With only 8 episodes per season, AMC should really replay S1 & S2 back to back in the same timeslot through the summer.
AMC has been absolutely putrid. The commercial breaks come so frequently and then so suddenly it looks as though the film was edited with a dull machete.
The trouble is that most TV dramas intended for broadcast on commercial channels are written with a rhythm that anticipates advert breaks. But when you get a BBC drama that is then shown on a US commercial channel, it’s actually quite difficult to place the breaks- like when a movie is broadcast on television (although I suspect more care and attention is paid to finding the best break points for a movie which is likely to be shown repeatedly)..
So here’s the thing though, it’s not a BBC show. It’s a BBC America show that was designed and created for BBC America (ad breaks and all) and is being simulcast on AMC. The odd ad breaks are a choice.
That’s interesting – because it certainly looked like there was no effort to make the breaks fit to the story, or vice versa.
Big agree. I just binged the season this past weekend, and it’s distracting. It made me think something was wrong with Hulu. I had to go back and watch a season 1 episode to confirm it wasn’t just me.
i can only agree
I loved Carolyn’s story about Dasha: “I first met her when she had been just kicked out of the KGB. Sorrento. The weather was unusually hot for that time of year, and I waited for her at a cafe. And before she sat down she plucked a lemon from a tree and took the most enormous bite out of it, rind and all.”
Sooo badass!
Maybe it was an Amalfi lemon. My Neopolitan friend eats those whole.
I want a narration of the entire Cold War done by Carolyn, hopefully just chock full of digressions like that.“I was back-channelling with the East Berlin cultural attache. We were eating strawberries…”
Fuu-uuck. I hope she does the audio book narration for the Villanelle Novels.
Even better to read it in the voice of J. Peterman, but only just.
Carolyn speaks my truth.
Niko’s totally becoming Rickety Cricket
Villanelle is clearly still shaken up over everything with her mother. Interesting reaction from Konstantin to the news of her killing her. Villanelle does seem kind of lost and I’m not sure Dasha is going to be her best comfort. She made a mess of the politician in Romania so the 12 might not think of her such a keeper. Plus now Irina has started her own proto-Villanelle psycho killer path, Cuba is probably out.Is the business with Kenny going to be as low stakes as ‘who is my dad?’
This goes for this show and pretty much every other show not on network tv.: I have really fucking had it with the gratuitous sewing up the open wound scenes. Why? WHY?? Do you think we want to see it? Are you punishing us? And tonight’s was especially long. I can usually get away with looking away for a second or two, but again and again I looked back and it was still happening!! WTF!It’s right up there with how, when there’s a scene with a junky, we can’t just see them shooting up, we HAVE TO see the overly long close up shot of the needle entering the vain and the plunger going down. We’ve seen it! We know what’s happening!
Calm down crazy!!!
I mean I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything!
Niko alive made me gasp. That was funny. Poor Niko.The number of conversations this episode made me reflect on the show’s style thus far. S1 and to an extent S2 conveyed information largely sans conversation: postcards, Villanelle’s wardrobe, her gifts to Eve, Eve’s behavior (chopping veggies, drinking), work mission and general scheming. (Oh, and music). An actual productive conversation was a shock to the system, and as such, very exciting. This season, putting characters in conversation has had a jarring effect (for me anyway) because we don’t know most of them in that way, and this show hasn’t moved forward like that before. The only conversationalist really was Eve, whose ability to ask naive but intelligent questions created action because everyone else was trying to stay mum. I like seeing Carolyn open up, and Eve finally on the case. But it often feels like there’s a lot of going in circles before the last 10-15 minutes of every episode that finally crank up the tension.
The Romanian politician is dead, right? After Nico managed to survive a pitchfork through the neck I guess we can’t ever be sure about these things, but he looked pretty toasty when Villanelle fled.
Sidebar: that politician was quite hot.
Literally?
Niko’s gonna look like the bazooka’d woman from Austin Powers by the time the series ends.
that will just be a flesh wound
The show has been fantastic this season, but I do have this lingering fear that no one in the writer’s room really has a good plan as for what The Twelve actually is or what the payoff is going to be. IOW, another backstory that ultimately gets horribly in the way, like X Files and aliens and goo and who knows what. It’s like an idea just thrown out there when the show was about the moment and was a complete riot, then it inexorably moves towards being a bad Ian Fleming story. I hope not, becssue the show is “Killing Eve”, not “Killing the Twelve”.
The writing, direction, and staging of this season have been phenomenal (especially compared to other big-budget fails like Westworld). To me Sandra Oh is excelling as an ensemble member rather than commanding a leading presence as in the first seasons. Comer is just phenomenal show after show. The way she is portraying her disassembly week by week is award-worthy. This role could have been butchered by many a swaggering “action” actor, but she nails it.
The one misfire – Nico lives. I mean, maybe there’s some level of parody like Monty Python’s Knight who slowly gets chopped to pieces, but I just don’t see it working here. Let him go.
The absolute worse decision of the Suzanne Heathcote era has been to reduce the title character of the show to merely another ensemble player. Sandra Oh is a commanding leading presence, which was why she was cast as the lead character by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. She deliberately chose an Asian woman to play Luke Jennings’ British and White supporting character and flip her into the Number One spot. If Jodie Comer had performed poorly in her table read with Sandra Oh, we might have seen another pretty young blonde woman as the part of the assassin.
Since PWB’s departure, neither of her showrunner successors, Emerald Fennell or Heathcote, have indicated any facility of writing Eve Polastri as anything but a lovesick fool or a day-drinking, foul-tempered loser who occasionally wanders into the frame to dump some exposition before we get back to Villanelle’s designer duds to dispense death in.
The choice made to exclude the woman of color from the center of her own show and shuffle her to the sidelines is not a plus, but a waste of Oh’s talents. What it does show is the failure of White critics to recognize and White fans to acknowledge the erasure of Eve is even happening because time away from her is okay just so long as they are still getting all their Villanelle goodness.
It isn’t always about me getting what I want, but it shouldn’t always be about you getting what you want either.
I am more interested in a show being of highest quality and most entertaining, not necessarily being a “star vehicle”. I just think it’s working much better since we have more of everyone else and less Eve and her issues. I never found Oh and her character to be all that compelling, at least as it was handled in the previous to this seasons. I think she is coming across much better in her limited screen time this season, and the show is better for it. Not slighting her personally. I think she’s really good as it’s constituted now, as compared to earlier.
If you’re uninterested in a show being of the highest quality and most entertaining, and not necessarily being a “star vehicle” then you must share my dismay at “Are You From Pinner” which excluded everyone from the regular KE cast, except Comer’s Villanelle. That standalone episode featured 32 minutes of stupid Russian White trash splendor to set up for 10 minutes of Comer becoming emotionally wrecked over having to murder her mean ol’ mommy.The only reason for this was to provide J.C. with a “for your consideration” submission for the next Emmy awards. But it’s not the overt pandering for another trophy for Jodie that offends me as much as does an KE fandom which glorifies Villanelle as they erase Eve.This show is still called “Killing Eve” and without her this is only another star vehicle for a young up-and-coming actress at the expense of marginalizing the mature-and established actress. If sidelining Sandra Oh to be Jodie Comer’s Asian sidekick is how the show is “better” then I hope the S4 showrunner recalls Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s words that “every moment in this show exists so that these two women can end up alone in a room together…” or pulls the plug on this mess.
We don’t get closer to that moment by taking Eve out of Killing Eve.
We’re all talking about a show that Sandra Oh stars in and you are apparently desirous of a Sandra Oh film festival. No, I have no problem with Comer getting an episode because 1) Her backstory is an interesting element of the show (and you KNOW you will have a great payoff at the end of a story arc) and 2) Comer / Villanelle is an entertaining watch to most people, but not you. It’s about the show, not an actor. Had they switched the casting of Comer and Oh in the roles, the same thing might have happened if Oh was pulling off the Villanelle role as well as Comer, and Comer was the anxious neurotic agent.
Oh is great in this show, but too much of her Eve character did not make for as compelling or interesting as it is now. She’s excellent in the show now, but her fumbling anxious routine and boring home life with Nico was not all that compelling in previous seasons. Her measured screen time and performance now seem perfect to me and the show has really ratcheted up in quality. She has played her disassembled character excellently this season- and in good amounts. Comer is a great talent. You should let go of the racist agenda thing and just enjoy the show. I don’t read anything about Oh being upset with the direction. She’s a producer.(And Nico really should be dead by now. Now they’ll be stuck with another episode to do something with him. They can’t just leave him lying ambiguously in a bed forever, or if so, they might as well have let him die in Poland.)
I really could not care less what “most people” consider to be “an entertaining watch.” My likes or dislikes have never been measured by a herd mentality, but your mileage may vary.
I was waiting for the “Sandra is a producer” line as if that means she has script approval and the power to hire and fire talent. Neither you or I or anyone else who isn’t in the room with the other five or six executive producers has any idea of what they do or what responsibilities they have. You have no idea who thought the Villanelle solo episode was a good move or a rotten one. When you do know that, you’ll be informed. Right now, you’re only opinionated.
But since you were so kind as to show your hand and try to invoke Sandra Oh’s name to support your own indifference to the racial politics of the show, you might be interested to know in a recent cover story for Elle Canada, she spoke directly to the types of roles she is interested in.
“I decided that I’m only going to play characters that are essential
to the plot, that conduct the narrative and therefore can’t be cut
out.,”
Then along came Killing Eve season 3, and Eve
ceases being essential to the plot, no longer conducts the narrative,
and has largely pushed to the periphery of the show which bears her
name.
Perhaps there is an argument to be made that the best way to make Killing Eve a better show is to have less Eve in it, but you have not come close to making it.
Jesus Christ you are insufferable. Her quote describes her presence in “Killing Eve”. Just because every damned episode doesn’t revolve around her presence doesn’t mean she isn’t the core and integral to the plot. And it also doesn’t meant the other talent in the cast are lesser scrubs as born out by the very popular reception of the show. And stop playing everything both ways. You can’t bitch that I am a bullshit final arbiter because I have a favorable opinion of the show, but you have YOUR opinion of the show and that makes you the f***ing Messiah of drama. You can’t complain that Sandra Oh is such otherwordly talent that she demand the sole focus of the entire show, then turn around and claim that poor Sandra Oh with a production credit doesn’t have ANY say in the direction of the show. Bull. I think Oh is a consummate professional who realizes they have a fantastic series going and is willing to put aside her ego for the betterment of the show. You’re just obsessed about some made up racial / cultural outrage over a fictional TV show.
Jesus Christ you are insufferable.
It’s a gift from God, so who am I to question Her will? However, as you chose to evoke the name of God’s only son, try being like J.C. and forgive me.
Her quote describes her presence in “Killing Eve”Wrong. Sandra Oh’s quote doesn’t even reference Killing Eve:
In fact, it was playing another thorny and complex woman, Dr. Cristina Yang on the hugely successful medical drama Grey’s Anatomy,
that made Oh a household name. “I decided that I’m only going to play
characters that are essential to the plot, that conduct the narrative
and therefore can’t be cut out,” she explains. Of course, the crucial
step, she adds, “is that you have to get to a place [in your career]
where you can say no.”
Just because every damned episode doesn’t revolve around her presence doesn’t mean she isn’t the core and integral to the plot. And it also doesn’t meant the other talent in the cast are lesser scrubs as born out by the very popular reception of the show.
Well, I certainly never called Fiona Shaw or Kim Bodina “lesser scrubs” or anything like that, and it’s kinda mean you did. But as regards the talented actors who play Paul, Moe, Jamie, Helene, Dasha, Irina, Bear, Audrey, and Geraldine, none of them are part of the core or integral to the plot.
What all these characters are is a time suck on a show which only runs 42 minutes and airs eight episodes a year. See the problem?
And stop playing everything both ways. You can’t bitch that I am a bullshit final arbiter because I have a favorable opinion of the show, but you have YOUR opinion of the show and that makes you the f***ing Messiah of drama.
Once again you are accusing me of saying things I never said, so I feel no need to defend remarks which were never made. I also have a favorable opinion of the show, which is why I have watched “every damned episode,” but I have unfavorable opinions of the show as well. Nothing you have said has disproved the easily verifiable fact of how Eve Polastri has been pushed aside from star to co-star to just another featured player.
You can’t complain that Sandra Oh is such otherwordly talent that she demand the sole focus of the entire show, then turn around and claim that poor Sandra Oh with a production credit doesn’t have ANY say in the direction of the show. Bull.
Indeed, but you’re the one flinging it as you have not quoted a single instance where I demanded Sandra Oh be made “the sole focus of the entire show.”
What I did do was point out the sad fact how the Korean American lead actress of Killing Eve is struggling for screen time on the show that carries her name. Something which had been pointed out in the first reviews for the new season and others are picking up on now.
Yet out came the torches and pitchforks from the easily triggered, overly sensitive and highly offended defenders of the norm where women of color like Oh have to fight to be seen by an industry and its consumers who are used to ignoring them as anything more complex than the White lead’s minority token/buddy.
You have no more of an inkling than I do of what powers, responsibilities and clout do or do not come from Oh being an EP. You have an assumption and frankly, the assumption she is a willing and happy collaborator in her own erasure is spectacularly specious.
You have a lot of trouble communicating about normal shit with people don’t you?
Not really. I’m actually an excellent listener but I don’t need to be loved by total strangers on the world weird web and I figure you don’t either.
Let’s stop boring the shit out of everyone, agree to disagree and let it go at that. Nobody wins at this.
I’m late in the game, and my comment will probably stay grey, but I just wanted to say I 100% agree with all the points you made. It’s frustrating to watch the WOC lead or co-lead be sidelined in favor of villanelle, and carolyn, konstantin etc (so many POV character now… all white). And it’s even more frustrating how the other commenters responded to you pointing that out.
Eve Polastri as anything but a lovesick fool or a day-drinking,
foul-tempered loser who occasionally wanders into the frame to dump some
exposition before we get back to Villanelle’s designer duds to dispense
death in.
Yeah, having two of your dearest friends killed, your husband almost killed, and your career and marriage destroyed will do that to you which is the point you’re missing here. Getting involved with Villianelle and the whole spy/assassin game has destroyed her life and reduced her to being a drunk and foul-mouthed loser (as it has destroyed Villianelle’s life too) and we’re seeing how it went down.
Yeah, this season hasn’t been the greatest as far as Eve’s character, but to insinuate it was to do with intentional racism on the behalf of the showrunners is a bit of a reach. The show is about both characters. Not just Eve. As it seems that they’re focusing on Villianelle this time around.
“Intentional racism” are your words, not mine, but if you’re cool with erasing the Asian woman of color whose name is in the title to turn the emphasis on the White woman whose name was on the novellas, then at least be honest enough to rename the show, “Killing Villanelle” and end the ambiguity.
None of what you’re saying makes any sense or is even relevant to the discussion and show. You just inserted yourself into this to make up some nonsense about racism to justify that you’re mad that Eve isn’t doing much this season. If you actually bothered to watch this show, its about both of them and always has been. Not just about Eve. If you don’t like it, watch something else.
Then again, this is a G/O media site, and you woke trolls on here have to invent things and create flame wars just to give yourselves something to do.
No, what you meant to say is it makes no sense to you and sorry to remind you, but you are not the final arbiter to what is or is not relevant to a discussion or this show. You’re the one screaming into the void about racism. I’ve never used the word. I simply stated what is demonstrably true and that is the Asian woman whose name appears in the title of the show is being sidelined as the focus has shifted to the Caucasian woman whose name was featured on the source material novellas.
Nobody said the show was just about Eve, but it sure isn’t just about Villanelle either.
I don’t engage in flame wars with people I do not know, will never meet and have no impact upon my life for good or ill. Being a fan of Killing Eve doesn’t mean you have to march in lockstep and accept bad characterization, lazy writing, or even the deliberate erasure of one of the two leads because the new showrunner has a clear bias in favor of one over the other.
But if calling a dissenting perspective “trolling” or “a flame war” I don’t expect you to grasp any of this anyhow.
So much salad so little words. Nobody said the show was just about Eve, but it sure isn’t just about Villanelle either.
I could’ve swore I said the show is about both of them twice to you now. But since you’re too busy trolling your woke agenda for no reason at all, not surprising that reading things and making sense is not your forte.I do not know, will never meet and have no impact upon my life for good or ill.You aren’t either, so why the hell are you typing up non-sensical rants trying to convince me that the show is racist because you’re totally delusional? Can’t you share this on over with your friends at The Root where they dig this sort of imaginary race baiting nonsense?
Or better, as i’m now saying to you again, which you’ll inevitably ignore again to type another rant, if you don’t like this show and how its treating Eve, turn it off and watch something and fuck off and move on with your pathetic life.
Nonsensical rants? There you go again with your projection. Sad.
I do like Killing Eve, but I don’t like everything about Killing Eve, up to and including how shitty the Killing Eve showrunner and writers are treating Sandra Oh who plays the lead character of Eve Polastri.
I do enjoy the small amusement that comes when some some snowflake like you rears up on your hind legs, turns into a keyboard commando and starts issues orders to “turn it off and watching something [else] and fuck off and move on with my pathetic life.”
It is almost as if such a overly sensitive soul such as yourself is incapable of conceiving how anyone could possibly come to a different conclusion than you. Shock and awe, my friend, but I regret to inform you slave days are over and nobody is going to call you to find out what their opinion is supposed to be today.
Is that clear or was I typing too fast for you?
You have obviously forgotten, but I’m happy to remind you that you are not a tough guy, you are not a bad-ass, you do not run this forum, and you can demand anything, but you will get nothing.
At least not from me. Go ask your mother. See you around after “Beautiful Monster.”
Me projecting and being the snowflake? Have you been reading what you’ve been ranting over the past two days? No? Because you’re a severe mental case that clearly doesn’t watch the show you’ve been complaining about?
Right then. Carry on typing your nonsensical garbage that I and no one is going to bother reading and replying to anymore. Last time: Stop watching the damn show if it bothers you so much and find something else to whine about. I guess Sandra Oh fanboys do exist, and they’re as mental as your typical one.
Right then. Carry on typing your nonsensical garbage that I and no one is going to bother reading and replying to anymore.
I think it has been established you aren’t the boss of me, but are you such a boss of everyone else that you can make them stop replying and reading too?
You typed that so confidently, it made me mildly curious where that confidence was coming from?
Last time: Stop watching the damn show if it bothers you so much and find something else to whine about.
I would, but I actually like the show, and unlike you, I’m able to hold conflicting thoughts simultaneously.
We both know this isn’t the “last time” you’re going to stop issuing these hollow and impotent orders. That would be totally contrary to your privilege.
I’m not a Sandra Oh fanboy. I’m a Sandra Oh fan. I’m nobody’s “boy.” Certainly not yours.
The antagonist in an entertainment product often times becomes the more fascinating character than the protagonist. Call it the Hannibal Lecter equation. So focusing in on Villanelle, who has become equally if not more interesting than Eve, makes narrative and production sense. Do not project your ideas of supposed ethnocentrism onto a piece of entertainment who’s endgame you have no idea of. Granted the show runners probably don’t have a solid plan but I’m sure intentional racism is low on their itinerary. I started watching the show solely because Sandra Oh as a lead. Not because she is asian but because she is a great actress. Her current screen time does not detract from it being ultimately her character’s story, hence the show’s title. Also, Niko surviving is almost comically distracting. Let him die already.
Not Monty Python’s Black Knight but Dr. Chilton From Hannibal (TV version). Chilton just kept getting more and more grotesquely abused as the series went on.
Put a fork in him, he’s…Oh, never mind.
The guy who got butchered worse and worse and ended up burned to a crisp (survived!) was Dr. Chilton from Hannibal.
This show is fun. I thought it was great that Eve wasn’t fooled by Dasha’s ruse, there’s so much going on that she can kind of get lost in the sauce so it’s good to see her taking initiative in the latter acts of the season.So…when is geraldine mounting the iron throne?
Camille Cottin. I’m begging you, KE writers, do not kill her character. I know you are trying to force us to care about Geraldine or Bitter Pill dudes, but you have this enigma here that has such strong, unforced presence. Do not lose her!
[V. will probably kill her next week]
What exactly did Konstantin think was going to happen to his phone and wallet when Carolyn had already started to open her window?
The newspaper guys repeatedly tastelessly referring to Nico being pitchforked and Eve ignoring them while actually figuring out what happened was great. Also they are probably going to end up being collateral damage of Eve’s investigation into Villanelle/ The Twelve as much as Nico or Kenny, but I won’t find it nearly as tragic
Carolyn was great in this episode, interrogating a visibly intimidated Konstantine, telling her weasel colleague to his face that she suspects he is a traitor (he deflected surprisingly capably, but has to know that isn’t going to deter her), and having a belated heart to heart with her daughter that may or may not actually have improved their relationship in any significant way
I’m still super suspicious of Geraldine. I have a feeling she’s playing everyone around her, especially Konstantin.If I were Paul, I’d be looking for an escape route now, because Carolyn is coming for him, and that’s a terrifying prospect.
The fact that Paul is not more terrified of Carolyn being onto him than he seems to be, is evidence enough that he is an idiot
what i want to know is:is there a Mirror World or not? where’s the remaining two copies of delores?
“Go Irina! She’s really good.”“That’s the other team!”“Really? Go other team!”So how do we think Konstantin is going to handle his newly minted Murder Daughter?
He’ll have about as much success getting through to her as he does Villanelle. Konstantin is weirdly ineffective, and sometimes I question how he got to where he is
I might have said Konstantin is where he is because he is unflappable, but that’s clearly not true — he was definitely shaken by Villanelle and then Paul turning up unannounced.But not for long.
So instead, I think he recovers well after the initial shock of whatever event befalls him. Even after Carolyn booted him out of her car, presumably to go search for his stuff in the ditch, he wasn’t so much angry or upset, but doggedly resigned to it.Seeing his daughter run over the step-dad seemed like a big moment, though.
Why does everyone hate Nico? Is being boring now the ultimate sin a man can commit?
I figured The Twelve killed Kenny because he was going to write an article about everything and they wanted him silenced. Someone also got him up to the roof without struggling or drugging him. My money is on the girl he was seeing from work. I think The Twelve threatened her with something to make her get him up there. But I often have incorrect theories about what is happening in TV shows so maybe don’t listen to me.
My money is on his sister to be his killer. Jealous of his relationship with momma, she goes to the enemy side and discovers Kenny is getting close to discovering her. It would explain his apparently non-combative exit from the roof leaving his phone behind. It will also explain Carolyn needing to execute her remaining daughter – her “father’s daughter’ because she took “her Kenny”.
I never even thought of her. My reasoning for the girl in the office is that she could have easily gotten Kenny to the roof (but so could his sister), but she’s also showed up early to the office when Eve was sleeping there and talking to someone on the phone, and that seemed like a detail that could fit with her having to deal with The Twelve. And maybe her grief and crying to Carolyn at the funeral was largely about her being the one who did it.
Geraldine seems a bit too much of a soft petal to be a killer, especially with how she is acting around Carolyn and how she has behaved around Konstantin. But the energy of this entire season is different than the previous two, and it is doing some unexpected things, so maybe she is. I don’t hate this season, but it does feel a bit like the writers are somewhat lost in the weeds.
I just suspect that the payoff for Kenny’s killer has to be a major character. His girlfriend kind of dissolved and never made much of a presence, but is also a valid option. When Carolyn set up that Kenny was hers and the sister was Dad’s, I took that as foreshadowing of a showdown. I might even buy that CArolyn “allows” her daughter to kill HER rather than kill her own child, but she’s just too great a character and actor in the show to kill her off this season. But never say never.
I hope it doesn’t come to that, Fiona Shaw is just too amazing in this part. I love it. Her performance is enough to make up for Harriet Walter’s terrible Russian accent.
Prediction for how the series wraps up: Villanelle, tired of being a puppet and always wanting more power and control over her own life, decides to start picking off the Twelve. She feeds information to Eve and uses Eve’s research skills to figure out who the Twelve are. It’s an uneasy truce. Eve generally doesn’t approve of murder, but effectively kills her own moral compass in order to help carry out actions she perceives as being for the greater good. Carolyn figures out what’s happening and uses her skills and connections to cover the whole thing up and hide Eve’s involvement.
Niko lives was a pretty big twist. Those leg twitches last episode made it seem pretty final.Im simultaneouly loving and hating what there doing with V right now. Making her way too sympathetic right now. But I’m enjoying the insight.The air horn and dance.
Was anyone else extremely discomfited by how Eve and tubby Bitter Pill guy suddenly switched places while they were by the vending machine talking about Dacha?
even if it means eating a stew of deformed vegetables instead of the pot pie she’s been craving
Carolyn was making a pork pie, not a pot pie. Very different thing.