What’s a show to do when all of its major players have scattered to the winds, too bruised and distracted by what’s happened between all of them to reunite? It’s a question that Killing Eve answers steadily over the course of its third season premiere, which ends up making the argument that all of these people are going to keep getting sucked back into each other’s orbits until some or all of them are dead or imprisoned.
It’s a slightly depressing concept—that a group of people would be bound together, fated to return to each other’s lives, no matter how badly they’ve hurt each other. But in its third season, it’s one that Killing Eve needs, as it tries to figure out what show it is now that its two leads have gone through a couple iterations of their dangerous duet. Villanelle’s return to the fold is perhaps the simplest. After all, she walked away at the end of season two in the best shape, on the run from no one except perhaps her employers and every European government, and without major injury. That she would boredly return to her old gig is perhaps the least interesting reason any of them have for coming back, but it’s hard to argue that it’s out of character. Her glamorous wedding is off even before she gets in a fistfight during it, from her waxing on about how rich her new wife is to her inability to relax and enjoy the festivities. Settling down with a partner is a fantasy we’ve heard her say she wants before, but she was obviously never going to settle down and do it with a partner who doesn’t love her more…eccentric characteristics. She’s playing, and the only downside to the joke of her having an elaborate wedding only to leave in the middle is that we don’t get to see her squirm while she tries to be normal.
Konstantin’s return to the fold is just as inevitable. The man with a confusing number of cell phones has obviously lived a life too dangerous to ever fully retire from his illicit activities. The only real question is whether the same entity is coaxing both him and Villanelle back in. They are theoretically employed by the same criminal syndicate, which should also know that the two of them can’t interact without the threat of extreme and public violence.
But what the show does with Carolyn and Eve is far more interesting, in part because as the two characters who are supposed to be on the legal side of the law, they have to at least try to have normal lives. They both come across as having made more meaningful efforts to reintegrate back into non-Villanelle society, even if Eve’s restaurant job seems inherently temporary. When she connects with Kenny, there’s a genuine affection between them, and while we know she will eventually get brought back onto the team, she seems on some level to have recognized how bad and messy things got before. It’s naturally that affection that will be the thing that draws her back into the fold, given that Kenny was one of the only people she could really be herself around.
The uniqueness of her connection with Kenny is patently obvious during the scene where she visits Nico. Sandra Oh has always excelled at creating a sort of bright and brittle version of Eve when she interacts with her husband. It’s very effective at clarifying how little her old life suited her, but it always made it hard to understand why Eve stayed with him. The show has often struggled with what to do with that marriage and how to not make it seem like a bit of a chore. Eve’s relationship with Villanelle may be irredeemably toxic, but it always seemed like a much more honest connection than the one she had with her husband. It was inherently going to be a little hard to root for her to maintain her normal marriage against the glamour that Villanelle promised, and it was only more one-sided when the marriage didn’t seem terribly happy or organic. Nico abruptly ending it with her in a mental hospital is something he should have done a long time ago, but it also feels a bit pat as an ending to that story. Why did we spend so much time trying to remain invested in that relationship?
But Eve’s temptation to return to chasing Villanelle was always going to be present. The question of what would make Carolyn want to bring back Eve or take the risk of returning to pursue the Twelve was more complicated, and the show is taking a bold step in giving us an emotionally shattered Carolyn. During the conversation she had with Kenny about moving, I found myself thinking that I would watch an entire show about the complicated relationship between the two of them. It’s so weird! And unhealthy! But it’s also working for them? It was one of the show’s more offbeat creations, and Kenny was also its most innocent character. Somehow, the fact that he was wearing shorts all episode really drove this home.
What kind of season will this be if grief hangs over the whole thing? Death has long been something the show moves on from quickly, a meaningful and occasionally erotic experience, but not something that lingers with any of the characters. This one sure feels different.
Stray observations
- Paul is clearly going to die, right? If only for the temerity of touching Carolyn’s shoulder affectionately, which was somehow one of the most uncomfortable violations I’ve seen on this show.
- To nitpick a depiction of my industry, there are almost no journalism jobs and you cannot get the ones there are with no journalism experience, nor can you hang around for weeks on end with no experience and not produce a single piece of writing. What was Kenny doing all day?
- “I’m back now. With bells on.” “So we can hear you coming.”
- Admit it: You thought Eve was in Korea, didn’t you.
- Proud to say it took me like three days before my brain finally did a South Park “They killed Kenny!”
75 Comments
guys the title of the show is not killing kenny! i’m upset! i hope they have a very very good reason for doing so and not just to bring eve back into the mi6/villanelle fold.
Kenny got fridge’d.
No that is definitely the reason they did it, to get Eve to go back to MI6 and be willing to work with Carolyn again. It makes me angry but I guess that helps me get in Eve and Carolyn’s headspace
Or she starts working with the Online Publication to investigate his murder.
i love that the name of it is “bitter pill” and that carolyn called it a “website” and kenny corrected her. ah… kenny, gone too soon.
Kenny was sent flying to avenge the purloined chips. Earlier, orange dust was shown on Kenny’s mouse, and then there was the carelessly discarded empty snack bag.
I know this is very late replying but those weren’t chips they were Haribo which is a German brand of gummy sweets really popular throughout Europe (I have a pack of them within arms distance right now). Specifically they were tangtastics which are covered in slightly sour sugar and they are the best. If you are ever in Europe definitely get some they are amazing.
oh absolutely i know that’s the reason! i just need there to be more to it than that?? you’re right though, i’m in the same headspace as they will be.
I only wanna know what connection he found in those Fat Panda and Frank files, because it had to be pretty big.
I cannot believe the new showrunner decided to come back to s.1 plot. I’m sure there will be a lot plot holes, lol, but I’m just happy she is trying to clean up the mess. We might even find out why Carolyn visited Villanelle in that prison!
Oh for sure, I wanna know too! I’m also surprised she’s doing s1 plot, but I’m sure it’s to involve the 12 waaay more this season, or at least I’m hoping it will.
For some reason I really liked the sweetly Kenny way he said “Fat Panda.” Ugh, RIP Kenny.
Kenny. 🙁
It is weird that I am always on Eve’s side in her scenes with Nico, even though she is never really in the right. But them being together just seems pointless from her perspective so I can’t really fault her
sandra oh is too good
She was really great in this episode with very little dialogue, but she still conveyed so much
absolutely!
I never really liked Nico. He was never going to accept the changes that Eve was going through and didn’t have the balls to just end it. And the woman he was shacking up with was the boring lapdog he wanted Eve to be. Ending up in a storage locker with his dead vanilla girlfriend was more than fitting. Villanelle knew exactly what to do to destroy his mind.
You seem like a kind and caring person.(I’m stifling a laugh as I write this)
she never told him much tho. She is def also to blame. She should have left ages ago if she was sooo bored
It’s def. that we spend more time with Eve, and most of us want her and V to hook up. I think Nico deserved…a different end. He was never wrong, exactly, but he was a coward and should’ve ended it much earlier than he did. His life would’ve been much better that way. Like, damn, Eve’s cool and all, but as soon as the assassin shows up? I’m outta there, and I guess his life being ruined was the price of sticking around.
Actually thought Eve might be back in the States, not Korea. Maybe I’ve been around too many Asian marts to automatically think that just because one location is speaking in a different language, they’re in that region.
yeah that was a weird line to read in the stray observations. no part of me thought she was in korea. it seemed pretty obvious she was just in an asian supermarket
I live in Australia, and have been in supermarkets like that, with staff and customers speaking non-English languages, more times than I can count.
Aww Man, they killed Kenny, and I was enjoying seeing him and Eve still being friends. Could have at least killed Hugo off on screen. At least Villanelle’s fiance made it out alive, I was worried when they showed who she was marrying.
I don’t know what to make of Dasha yet other than she seems to be more of a parallel to Carolyn then Konstantin is. Who speaking of, is he working for the Twelve again?Poor Nico, he’s gonna last the whole series and just spend the whole time getting his shit kicked in more and more.
they killed Kenny …You Bastards!(EDIT: Yeah, I skipped to the comments before posting.)
I think yes, Konstantin works for the Twelve again, and he is preparing some report for them in London. I really hope he was as far as possible from Kenny’s death. I appreciate that the show is trying to sort out the plot issues releted to their spy stuff. I’m not sure if they are going to be succesful, but it’s worth to try. Season 2 pretty dropped every thread from s.1 and created that messy Ghost/Peel story.That scene with Carolyn where they are reading all the things that she did wrong was so good. KE never cared about “reality”, and it will always be a bit goofy in this regard, but I’m glad that this time they decided to be more realistic about it . Carolyn messed up and that can be a great story to explore. I’m glad they are not running away from it.
Hey, Steve Pemberton! Great choice for an obnoxious, unctuous bureaucratic irritant character.
HIs, “Inside No. 9″ series is really worth watching. Not all episodes work but the ones that do are fantastic.
They killed Kenny!
I never been more upset with this show about murder than about this murder.
I’ve been dreading this for two seasons and now it happened. I know it was an obvious way to drag Eve back in and give her and Caroline a common cause again but still, I’m upset.Dragging Villanelle back in was much easier. I like Dasha even though she’s obviously just a copy of Villanelle made into her predecessor. At least she’s as good as her as all the other Twelve’s assassins we saw so far were useless.I already hate Paul more than anyone previously on the show. Even that creepy guy who imprisoned Villanelle in his house.
I am super upset about Kenny being killed. Kenny was an adorable little morsel and I loved him. He had great chemistry with both Sandra Oh and Fiona Shaw. I thought it was a bit of a tired trope to kill him off to bring the other two back together. I thought it could have been more interesting to have Eve and Kenny start working on hunting down The Twelve together, while eventually looping Carolyn back in or having Carolyn catch wind and round them up. I think I could have eventually gotten to a place where Kenny dying in pursuit of The Twelve would have been OK with me. But this early in the season felt like a cheap (and somewhat hacky) manipulation to hit fast forward on Eve’s return to the service. Paul has only had like six lines and already I know he needs to die in a fire. Interestingly, I watched the S2 episode with creepy dollhouse guy (CDG) with my father. As soon as CDG started talking with Villanelle in his car, I said to my dad, “That guy is creepy. He’s definitely going to try to chain her up in his murder basement.” My dad scoffed. He’s just trying to be nice, he said. Nope. I won that round. Vindicated. Also, men have absolutely no ability to gauge the creepiness of other men.
Exactly. And I know I should’ve known (and I was afraid of it for a long time). I was hoping they’d made it more ambivalent so he could turn out OK but that’s for the important, cool characters.
Men not being able to tell other men are creepy is well known phenomenon. It’s the “oh, he didn’t mean anything- he’s just joking – you are overreacting”.
Oh yeah, it’s totally a well-known thing. It just constantly amazes me. My dad raised daughters—all of us vocal feminists. He’s been around these conversations about men for decades now. And yet, he’s absorbed very little. We live in very different worlds, he and I, despite sharing a household. I would like to walk around in his world for just one day, feeling the way that white men feel when they inhabit it. It would be something, wouldn’t it?
OK I will be honest, while far from perfect, this episode made me emotional? Not only Kenny, but Eve’s scenes. Sandra was really good. She did so much with so little. I don’t know, I’m a bit shocked. Kenny was so pure. Tho not gonna lie, it’s going to be fascinating to observe Carolyn’s reaction to his death. Her scene with Kenny was one of the highlights of this ep. Overall, happy to have this show back.
I too feel it was a missed opportunity not to see Villanelle take a stab (no pun intended) at domestic life, a task she was always doomed to fail. This entire show could be nothing but Villanelle wandering around attempting to do one thing or another and I’d still watch.
I found Eve’s profligate use of toilet paper triggering.
Ok, I’m going to be a pedant here, but that Gymnastics scene at the beginning was all wrong for the time period. They went to the trouble of giving her a ‘70’s style leotard, but had the uneven parallel bars set up in the modern (post mid1980’s) style, and had her doing a modern routine. An era-acurate routine would have been using wraps and beats for the transitions, and they’ve been gone from the sport for 35 years. The two eras are barely related. They should have used a different discipline that isn’t so obviously different.
Wrap: wrapping the hips around the lower bar while transitioning from one bar to another as demonstrated by Olga Korbut, among others in the video below.Beat: also known as a belly-beat, similar to a wrap, but instead of rotating around the bar with the hips, they keep hold on the top bar and bounce off the lower bar.Yeah, I’m an old, but that was a real record-scratch to me. And it was an easily avoidable mistake.
This is incredibly specific and pedantic and detailed AND I LOVE IT!
wow! That comment is amazing! Thank you.
I came here to say the same thing! Well, not in as much detail, but yea- As a gymnastics fan, I wanted to point out their scene was too modern for the time period
Yeah, I miss the old style wraps and beats, they looked fantastic, but I can’t help thinking that a lot of female gymnasts from the era have hip replacements in their future, if they haven’t already had them. The beats in particular look like they must have been just brutal to long term hip health.
And in fairness to the producers of Killing Eve, I wonder whether they could even have found young gymnasts these days who would know how to do the old wraps and beats. They look incredibly difficult.
If they were insistent on showing her on the uneven parallels, they probably would have been better off showing 1970’s era footage of a Russian gymnast who was less famous than Korbut, or Comenici….some 5th place finisher. Those skills have not been taught for 35 years, no modern gymnast would even attempt it. But really, they just should have had her do the vault, or balance beam. Any modern gymnast could do a 1970’s routine in those disciplines with their eyes closed.
Chimichanga, I was going to say exactly what you did. I knew the scene was anachronistic but I can see why they wouldn’t want the young gymnast to do those painful moves.
The bruising even on non-elite high school athletes was untenable. And anyone who was at all limber was going to dislocate or sublux their hips on a regular basis. Also, at the start, they expected one to try standing on the top bar. That did not last. Tried it in the late 60s, gave up and went back to the beam.
Thank you for your detailed comment. I finally know the names of the moves that must have been banned because of the trauma they caused. Instead of Olga Korbut, I remember Nadia Comăneci from 1976.
Im assuming these moves are no longer allowed because they’re absolutely gnarly as fuck & attempting them is almost certainly going to result in a heap of serious injuries, both short & long term, and possibly death?
This review of the flashback gymnast’s practice scene embedded in the main review is the best Killing Eve review I’ve ever read.
this video is the most insane thing ever and I love it.
Honest to god, I thought the same thing. I don’t know enough gymnastics to know the technical terms or anything, but I’ve seen enough historical footage to know that that routine was totally anachronistic.
Huh. So today I learned that what I consider a good uneven bars performance in gymnastics hasn’t been a thing since the last time I paid close attention, which was 1980. Good to know.
I was a little nervous going in because of some critical advance reviews … but the show did not let me down and god knows I’m glad to have it back. I had heard there was a wedding and for it to be dispatched with so quickly was classic. Might be fun to see her (presumably) ex-wife pop up later. Harriet Walker’s character is a little repetitive but the casting keeps me on board (though it’s hilarious she’s more terrifying on Succession).
I liked everything they did with Eve. It doesn’t actually seem like she’s learned anything, but her interest in moving on felt real. Kenny drawing her out felt appropriate, too. Poor Kenny in his cute little shorts. The moments before his death provided some real suspense. I was thinking South Park while he was still with us, though.
Eve be Evein’. Saying how much she’s done with her old life…right up until she’s not. Drunk texting Kenny was cute, and they had a sweet moment just sitting there and talking. I’m going to miss Kenny. He was the only character (Niko’s not a character. He’s a foil) whose moral compass wasn’t hopelessly damaged or totally broken.
Sandra did so much with so little to work with and Jodie’s Villanelle seemed slightly bored by the whole proceedings. I think the six-month time jump was an error. It robbed us of Eve’s recovery and how Villanelle moved on and into another relationship. I’d drop the grade to a B- myself.
Poor Kenny! Doomed from the start with that name.. However, probably the only way to pull a Eve back into the game. After all that happened, there was not an easy way to see her wanting to go hunting for a dangerous criminal organisation and tangling with Villanelle again. The line about her being lucky she was found by some tourists was a bit convenient but I did enjoy Carolyn having all her unsanctioned actions listed. Steve Pemberton is going to be a good antagonist I think. He can do annoying very well!I would have liked to see how ANYONE could go all the way to a wedding day with a psychopath like Villanelle. She seemed to struggle to be a normal person even at the wedding – how did she manage to woo the girl for the previous 6 months? We know she can be charming, but she doesn’t usually manage to keep it up for long. Did we hear what name she was using? Harriet Walter is another in the show’s ranks of awesome actresses having fun. She and Jodie Comer are already proving to be a good double act.I thought this was a good start to the third season. Lots of place setting, as season openers always have to do but a terrific cast who are always so watchable and that dramatic death have me excited for the season ahead.
I completely agree with you about Villanelle nor staying normal for long, and how somebody could have stayed with her long enough to get engaged. In fact, I would call this a SIGNIFICANT criticism- the scene only exists to be sureal and zany, rather than square with the logic of the show. I found the entire scenario completley ridiculous, and hard to buy into, and it got the episode off on the wrong foot for me.
I appreciate that amongst all her other transgressions, Carolyn’s unpaid lunch bill gets a mention.
I just realized that we alrady heard about Paul in s.2. Carolyn and other MI6 boss were talking about him in ep 4 I think. He was already pissed about Carolyn, plus his boyfriend left him. So he was having a rough time in general.I mean, the way he looked at that new Carolyn’s assistant was pretty telling. lol And he just got divorced.
Well it was an online publication so can you really call that a job in journalism…wink wink. Just kidding.
What I found really chilling was that there was almost no emotion from Eve as she looked down at Kenny’s body. It could just be shock but when you see the relationship those two had I just found it jarring. It makes me wonder what Carolyn’s reaction will be.
Not the strongest premire imo. I am a little pissed about Kenny, as well. I think it was important to maintain at least one character that wasn’t a garbage person.
That death really saddened/pissed me off. What is this, “Game of Thrones”?! But, in a way, I totally admire that they would do this as long as it serves the story, and I’m trusting that it will. I’ll miss Kenny, he was a good guy.
can we take a moment to appreciate harriet walter going full grand guignol with dasha and acing it?
I’m glad they kicked off Villanelle’s murderousness with a seemingly decent person who I’m going to bet is a Catalan independence supporter. Best we remind ourselves of the psychopath in the pretty clothes. P. S. I covet her wedding blouse.
Killing one Catalan shop keeper seems not exactly a huge game changer in the course of Spanish politics. Also, she really did make sure that the cops knew that this was no accident. How Dasha got away with her murder in the Soviet era is also rather fantastical. Well, the whole show is like that.
You really need to start being more careful with your spoiler-y headlines for reviews. “Gut punch”? I’d seen that headline before watching the episode, so then as soon as there was a suspicious noise in the office where Kenny was working alone, I knew he was dead.Not as heinous as the Homeland one a couple of week ago, but come on.
maybe avoid reviews all together mate
Avoiding reviews is easy – avoiding headlines not so much.
The moment I realised he was investigating The Twelve outside of the protection of MI6 I knew he was a goner.
Kenny and his sweet little shorts 🙁 he was too pure for this dark world.
I thought the short pants were a really nice character touch all through this episode.
Other than Aaron peel who MI6 hired V to kill when was her last actual high profile kill. The twelve needed this shop keeper killed. Why?
“It reminds me of happier times.”“Looking at this transports you to a place of joy?”Never change, Carolyn.
Fiona Shaw is a treasure. Fiona Shaw as Carolyn is a goddamn delight.
Have you seen her brief appearance as a therapist in season 2 of ‘Fleabag’? It’s wonderful.
Yes! She kills those scenes. Incredible. She could make anything compelling, I’m convinced of that. Hell, she even managed to make the horribly written witches plotline on True Blood watchable.
I’m having Supergirl flashbacks with the “online publication,” in which everyone does work that in no way resembles the work of an actual online publication.can’t wait to see the stock photos of someone signing a check with a caption that reads “Bank”