The fourth and final season ofKilling Evepremieres February 27thonBBC America, and fans are biting their nails over whether the psychotic assassin, Villanelle (Jodie Comer), and MI6 operative, Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) will finally become a couple. The show focuses on their back-and-forth as Eve tracks Villanelle across Europe, first trying to locate the famous assassin to bring her down, and later working alongside her. While their relationship doesn’t feature in the series of novellas on which the show is based, show creatorPhoebe Waller-Bridgereworked their relationship into something far more enticing and elusive, which has become the heart of the series.
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Although Villanelle and Eve share comparatively little screen time, they’ve made the most of it, with the sexual tension ramping up across the seasons. Take a tour back through seasons 1-3 to prepare for what is sure to be the spiciest season yet, as Villanelle and Eve, for better or for worse, must decide if they will choose one another.
Note: The article contains spoilers and discusses some topics which may be considered NSFW
Season 3, Episode 8: “Are You Leading Or Am I?”
It’s not the most sexually charged episode by far, but the season three finale packs a romantic and steamy punch when Eve and Villanelle wind up on the dance floor together. After Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) rejects Villanelle’s offer to work with MI6, Villanelle finally meets up with Eve in a dance hall. They dance tenderly while talking about how they might be too volatile to build a life together, and they agree to part ways.
However, after agreeing to walk away from one another forever on a bridge, they both pause to look back at each other. It’s one of the softer and more romantic episodes, but audiences can’t help but see some sexual chemistry on the dance floor.
Season 2, Episode 7: “Wide Awake”
In season two, Villanelle has partnered with Eve to take down Aaron Peel (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), the insidious CEO of a tech company shrouded in secrecy. Eve and her coworker, Hugo (Edward Bluemel) arrive in Rome to keep tabs on Villanelle, and Eve communicates with the assassin through an earpiece.
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At night, Villanelle teases Eve over the earpiece, and Eve has sex with Hugo while wearing the earpiece with Villanelle on the other end. Hugo catches on, and thanks Eve for the “threesome.” Meanwhile, the uneasy alliance between the two women brings them closer together as they work to take down the cold-blooded technocrat, with Hugo and Carolyn growing increasingly concerned about Eve’s attachment to Villanelle as the mission progresses.
Season 1, Episode 8: “God, I’m Tired”
If there’s one thingKilling Eveknows how to do, it is to torment its audience with its season finales. In the first season finale, Eve tracks a wounded Villanelle to her apartment in Paris. Gun in hand, she confronts Villanelle, but their conversation soon turns towards their mutual obsession. They lay down on the bed beside one another, and Eve pretends to begin seducing Villanelle. However, just when things are heating up, Eve stabs Villanelle and flees.
Audiences responded with a flurry of questions, with demands to the showrunners about whether the moment was actually queer or merely queerbaiting its audiences. Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer danced around related interview questions, but this episode’s intentions are difficult to misconstrue. Both sexual tension and suspense are rife in one of thebest and most unexpected scenes of theKilling Eveseries.
Season 3, Episode 3: “Meetings Have Biscuits”
With the sexual tension increasing with each subsequent episode, by season 3 audiences were still waiting for a kiss between the rivals. In London, Villanelle purchases another gift for Eve, this one a talking bear into which she records the message, “I can’t stop thinking about you.” Meanwhile, Eve is returning by bus from visiting her hospitalized husband (thanks to Villanelle) when she unexpectedly crosses paths with the assassin.
Eve distracts her with a kiss, followed by a headbutt. She flees, and both Villanelle and Eve seem to experience tumultuous feelings about the experience. Eve later finds the teddy bear and replays Villanelle’s message. Audiences were mollified by the kiss, but are still calling for clearer acknowledgment of the show’s queer representation in the final season.
Season 1, Episode 5: “I Have a Thing About Bathrooms”
The teddy bear isn’t the only gift Villanelle sends Eve. Midway through season one, she sends Eve some perfume, which Eve applies before settling in her kitchen to relax from a confrontation-laden day, during which she was shot at by Villanelle. However, it’s not their only encounter; Villanelle shows up unexpectedly in Eve’s apartment, chases her, and demands they share dinner.
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Driven into the bathtub to hide, Eve changes out of her wet dress in front of Villanelle, who compliments her body and notices her perfume. Villanelle pins Eve to the fridge when the latter tries to defend herself with a knife. Although the two leads had previously met in brief instances, such as when Villanelle first met Eve and complimented her hair, it was the first time audiences got to see their obvious chemistry in a scene.
Season 2, Episode 5: “Smell Ya Later”
If there’s any episode which could possibly be any more intense than the previous one, it’s “Smell Ya Later.” Frustrated by her inability to track down Villanelle, Eve puts out a hit on herself. Villanelle is horrified when she sees who she is supposed to kill and initially refuses, but eventually accepts andappears at Eve’s apartment in her usual flamboyant fashion. Both attempt to remain calm as they discuss the times they could have killed each other, and how their sparse meetings consume their thoughts. Villanelle pretends to give Eve poison, and when the latter rushes to the sink to try to throw it up, Villanelle pins her to the sink and demands at knife point that Eve give her “everything she wants” if she expects Villanelle’s help on the Aaron Peel case.
The episode clearly solidifies the fact that Villanelle’s psychopathy doesn’t extend to Eve, and that she can’t heartlessly murder her fascinating opponent as she can everyone else. It was the beginning of the shift from antagonistic obsession to something much more tender, which will hopefully be fully realized in the fourth and final season.
