Killing Eve season 2 episode 7 review: All about Eve

The penultimate episode of Killing Eve season 2 goes to some uncomfortable places as Eve’s obsession with Villanelle reaches new heights.

The penultimate episode of Killing Eve season 2 opens with a literal threesome and closes with a figurative one, as the show delves uncomfortably deep into the mess that Eve’s mental state has become.

On the one hand, at least Eve realizes how far she’s spiraling, seeking something like help from MI-6’s resident psychopath expert who points out what we all already knew. Eve is way, way too emotionally entangled with the Villanelle situation. Therefore, she probably shouldn’t be a part of this undercover mission they’ve suddenly decided they’re fine with using a mass murderer to complete. Eve, naturally, doesn’t agree with that assessment, and heads off to continue investigating Aaron Peel with an undercover Villanelle in Rome.

But not before admitting that she thinks about Villanelle constantly, is behaving differently and doing things she normally wouldn’t, and pretty much declaring that she considers the two of them in a relationship even though they’re not sleeping with one another. She also declares that she feels “wide awake,” implying that – possibly for the first time – she feels alive in her own life.

Eve has spent most of season 2 becoming a different person, but it’s happened so gradually and subtly that it almost feels as though her sudden confession comes out of nowhere. It’s true, Killing Eve could spend a bit more time showing us Eve’s perspective on this particular development. But the show often shies away from putting any kind of label on whatever it is that’s happening to her, and how genuine her feelings toward Villanelle actually are.

Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri – Killing Eve _ Season 2, Episode 7 – Photo Credit: Gareth Gatrell/BBCAmerica

In many ways, Eve’s obsession with Villanelle reaches uncomfortable heights during this episode. Sure, we all kind of ship them, and the sexual tension is obvious. But it’s one thing to tacitly acknowledge that fact subtly here and there. It’s entirely another for Eve to suddenly start fretting about Villanelle constantly, openly worrying about her safety to others and insisting that she can’t take care of herself without help (Despite the fact that Villanelle’s already managed to murder dozens of folks on her own? Okay.)

Eve leaves her assassin asset three separate messages during a routine meeting lunch with Aaron, each becoming increasingly agitated and sounding more and more like those awkward calls you leave a guy you went out with once that you’re afraid is about to ghost you.

It’s not clear whether Eve’s sudden explosion of complex feelings about Villanelle is really about the pretty murderer herself, or the fact that she’s been both the excuse and the reason for Eve to shake up her predictable, fairly tepid life. Now, Eve’s running lead on spy ops in foreign countries, banging a younger dude on her team, flirting with a killer and ending a marriage that doesn’t seem to have made her happy in quite some time.

Her life is exciting, maybe for the first time ever, and she’s into that.

For her part, Villanelle seems to be truly living her best life at the moment. For some reason, MI-6 seems completely uninterested in arresting – or even lightly detaining – her for her brutal murder of one of their own agents. (This honestly is something the show should at least mention at some point, as its stretching credulity to the breaking point, no matter how scuzzy Aaron Peel is.)

She’s spending tons of time with Eve, and getting sent on an undercover trip to Rome to investigate a man who may be just as unstable as she is. And he’s buying her a wardrobe full of expensive clothes while she does it!

Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri, Jodie Comer as Villanelle – Killing Eve _ Season 2, Episode 7 – Photo Credit: Nick Wall/BBCAmerica

It seems obvious that Villanelle is mildly fascinated by Aaron Peel. He’s a strange person with a lot of money and power, and she clearly doesn’t entirely understand what he wants. He’s not looking to have sex with her or physically abuse her, more to just boss her around, dress her in posh clothes and watch her eat.

And the more time they spend together, the more it looks as though Villanelle may have found a kindred spirit. They’re both “voids” together, yawning pits of boredom and emptiness who are looking to fill it with…something. He’s a straight creep and she’s a killer, but they’re not that different underneath.

Hugo sees this, and worries about it, but Eve doesn’t. Should she?

At the moment, it doesn’t seem as though Villanelle is plotting any sort of double cross, particularly when she’s allowed to spend her nights heavy breathing into Eve’s ear after murdering her husband’s new girlfriend as a warning for him to stay away. (Yiiiiikes.)

But it’s also obvious that she’s more fascinated than she originally thought she might be by Aaron Peel’s weird proclivities and dead soul.

Is this what passes for a love triangle on this show? Apparently.

Killing Eve season 2 concludes next Sunday on BBC America.