Last week’s premiere episodeofKilling Eveset us up for what’s already proving to be a deliciously bold and unexpected final season. Villanelle’s found God (allegedly), Eve’s on the hunt for the head of the Twelve, and an incredibly bored Carolyn wants back in with MI6. We left off with Villanelle almost drowning her roommate and meeting her supposed saviorJesus Christ, who appears to be Villanelle dressed in Jesus drag (naturally). Meanwhile, Eve is more fearless and determined than ever to get into the belly of the beast…for better or for worse. Who’s the leader of the Twelve, and who’s the mysterious person torturing its members? Could Villanellereallybe saved? Is Yusuf helping Eve, or is he actually holding her back? Grab your Bibles. It’s time to go on a religious camping trip with Villanelle.
Episode 2 starts off at a tourist reenactment of medieval torture at the Tower of London. In attendance and enjoying ice cream cones is Hélène and her young daughter, who, after witnessing the actor writhe in pain, innocently asks her mother, “Does it hurt?” to which Hélène casually responds, “Only if you let it.” Donning a blonde wig and sunglasses in the crowd is an incognito Eve who’s holding a secret tracker: a tampon. Eve follows Hélène to a restaurant and overhears her say to her date that she’s never really found anyone who has ever challenged her before. Eve scoots over to the elevator and, while Hélène is fixated on her date, slips the tampon tracker into her purse. Easy enough, right?
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Meanwhile, Villanelle is, of all places, on a camping retreat with her fellow parishioners. She continues to white-knuckle her newfound faith and proceed down the road to salvation, but it seems to be getting more and more difficult by the second. While she’s technically part of this new church family, she knows deep down they want nothing to do with her. May is still understandably traumatized from her near-death experience at the hands of Villanelle, and quite frankly, Villanelle is also haunted by her recent behavior. Aboard the bus on the way to the retreat, an optimistic and wide-eyed Villanelle briefly bonds with a butterfly before it, too, abandons her. Phil knows something suspicious is going on between May and Villanelle, but can’tquiteput his finger on it. Villanelle interrupts Bible trivia to indirectly ask May for forgiveness, but her efforts appear to be fruitless.
Phil purposely assigned Villanelle to a tent separate from his daughter May, much to Villanelle’s frustration. She does have a roommate though in her sacred sidekick, who tells a fragile Villanelle that her suspicions are true: Phil wants her out of there. She couldn’t be happier that her “spiritual guru” was guiding her on her trip, as every moment with Him was a moment closer to her redemption. The glamorous Jesus invites Villanelle to sit on His lap, assuring her that “her goodness is really starting topop” and that she must make amends with May. She visits May in her tent, though she isn’t interested in her apology. A teary-eyed Villanelle promises May that she’s inching toward change, but that she can only be successful if May stays at her side.
Aha! We knew Eve wasn’t over her. Back at her hotel, Eve viciously scrolls through pictures of Villanelle doing various forms of charity work on her church’s website. This brief moment of cyber-stalking is interrupted when Yusuf enters to tell her that the tampon tracker located Hélène’s home in Paris. Yusuf thinks it’s smart to keep an eye on her every move from afar, but Eve doesn’t have any patience. She semi-jokingly tells Yusuf that she might as well just show up on Hélène’s doorstep, an absurdly forward suggestion that he laughs off. The shine that initially attracted Eve to Yusuf is quickly starting to dull, and he knows it.
On her way to find a second opinion on what she should do next, Eve stops to feed the fish in her hotel lobby. At first, this benign, blink-and-you-miss-it interaction doesn’t seem very vital to the episode. But, it’s important to remember that this is the spot where she reunited with Villanelle after they parted ways on the bridge. Eve stopping to feed the fish is symbolic of her relationship with Villanelle: As long as one of them tries to keep it alive, their bond will never break.
Villanelle is delighted when May whisks her off to the woods and tries to get her to “uncoil” whatever it is that is holding her back from being who she’s meant to be. This, apparently, involves screaming into the sky, and so we’re able to once again hear Villanelle’s guttural yell that we know all too well. Jesus also proves to be a decent wingman and cheers her on for winning May back. Instead of spending time with May, however, all Villanelle wants to do is spin with her holy vision.
Eve trudges forward on her revenge quest and meets a man who works with deeply disturbed people on the road to rehabilitation and assimilation into everyday society. He warns Eve to be careful on her secret and dangerous mission, and then inquires about Villanelle. (Perhaps she was one of his former patients?) Carolyn meets with Vladimir, a man working for MI6 who is keeping her on the periphery of the organization. Before a debriefing, Carolyn must prove that she’s willing to cooperate. She indeed reveals some (very) personal details about some high-level people, and expects to be swiftly welcomed back on the team. Vladimir reminds her that she’s defective and emphasizes that, “we wouldn’t even let you into the [MI6] building, let alone give you an office.” Hopeless and still grieving the death of her son, Carolyn has never felt more isolated.
Back at the camping ground, Phil continues tonothide his disdain for Villanelle. Fed up with her father’s hypocritical behavior, May confides in Villanelle and discloses an ugly truth about the vicar: He tells people that his wife died in a car crash, but conveniently leaves out the fact that she died because ofhisdrunk driving. Knowing this scandalous information breathes new life into Villanelle, who promises to not tell a soul. She can’t help herself, however, and tells the congregation about Phil’s unlawful behavior. Much to Villanelle’s confusion, the group doesn’t hold his past indiscretions against him, and instead embraces the fact that he’s since changed into a better person. If people are able to forgive and accepthim, why, then, can no one do the same for Villanelle?
Carolyn gets acquainted with her new life in the Moscow safe house, only to discover a rat in her cupboard. (MI6’s version of hazing?) Eve and Yusuf go on a pre-stakeout dinner date, but Eve loses her appetite. She also makes it crystal clear that she’s no longer very interested in their casual romantic relationship–or potentially their working relationship–any longer. Carolyn and Vlad are also having an uncomfortable dinner, with Carolyn practically begging him to let her back on the investigation. We’ve never seen the emotionally closed-off Carolynthisvulnerable and desperate, though Vlad doesn’t seem too phased. He does, however, tell her that one of the folks Carolyn gave him information on earlier apparently hanged herself.
Remember Eve said she wanted to confront Hélène at her house? Crazy, right? Well, she wasn’t joking. Not only does she visit her at her house, but she brings groceries and says she wants tocookherdinner. An intrigued Hélène answers the door holding the tampon and welcomes Eve into her not-so-humble abode. Hélène wanted a challenge, and, well, Eve was ready to give her one. She begins to prepare Shepherd’s pie (Niko’s favorite!) and knicks her finger on a knife. Hélène sucks the blood from Eve’s finger before slamming Eve’s hand down on her stove and turning up the heat. Eve tells her that she wants to cut the head off the Twelve’s lead monster, who, from what we’ve gathered, is probably Hélène. But Hélène calmly tells Eve that she, too, wants to take down the Twelve and that she’s been the one orchestrating the Twelve’s murders.
In a full-circle moment, Hélène asks Eve if the stove’s heat hurts, and Eve answers with the same message about torture that Hélène told her daughter about at the start of the episode: “Only if I let it.” Her daughter then disrupts their strangely intimate moment, with Hélène introducing Eve as her friend. (She also makes Eve read her daughter a bedtime story, which could be considered an even deadly form of torture.)
Back at the dismal campsite, Villanelle overhears May telling Phil that he was right about Villanelle, and that she can’t imagine how anyone could love her. That won’t stand for our favorite newly-minted Christian, who yanks the tent’s stake from the ground and proceeds to hack the father and daughter to death. Both in shock and invigorated, Villanelle grabs Jesus by the neck with her bloody hand, whacks Him with a frying pan, kisses, and thencrucifies Him to the ground. Despite Jesus’ sarcasm and encouragement to “finish the job,” she leaves in a daze. The Villanelle we know and love is back, and God only knows what she’ll be up to next.
