It was inevitable that our two leads would meet up at
some point this season, but did anyone predict it would be as work colleagues?
It’s a far cry from how they’ve met in the past, as Kenny is only too
ready to remind Eve. No matter what Eve thinks of her now, Villanelle is still
the person who killed Bill for no reason at all other than because she felt
like it, but it seems to matter less and less to Eve.
Their eventual meeting is, of course, in the kitchen.
Notably, despite the range of events that have taken place prior to this little
date, neither of them wants to apologize, and neither of them is scared. The
scene is a little sexy, a little funny, but also lacking in the tension of all
their prior encounters. If no one is afraid of being murdered anymore, what do
these two have to say to each other?
Despite the inherent sexiness of everyone touching each
other’s faces and standing very close together, the whole scene doesn’t have a
lot of ground to cover. The episode tries to amp up the danger by suggesting
that Villanelle is just as evil as ever. We see her concoct a very
elaborate murder scheme to take out a man in a car wash, which she accomplishes
while staring into his eyes, as we’ve seen her do in the past. The Ghost speaks
of her in awed tones during her interrogation. Eve gets a special presentation
about how irredeemable psychopaths are. It all seems designed to make Villanelle seem baaaad. But it’s also clear throughout that Villanelle is
not going to murder Eve, even with the whole mourning getup, which mostly just
looks ridiculous once they go for a hike in the woods. Later, she does whatever
she does to the Ghost to get her to talk, but it all occurs offscreen.
Given how much time the episode spends telling us that This
Could Go Wrong, there’s almost no hint that it’s going to. The lack of any
building sense of terror means there’s limited suspense to the whole operation.
The only question is whether the two of them are actually going to confess
their love or something, which neither does. And ultimately, it seems like the
whole reason to get the two of them together like this is so that Carolyn and
Konstantin don’t have to admit they’re still in touch. Because clearly, Carolyn
could have gotten Villanelle to England at any point. The two of them look like
nothing so much as watchful parents making sure their kids have a safe date
together as they observe Eve and Villanelle leaving together. They surely have
their reasons for it, but it makes the entire enterprise seem like a Rube
Goldbergian scheme that could have been accomplished in a lot fewer steps.
There’s also the minor problem that it’s not entirely clear
what this whole government operation is trying to accomplish. Initially, they
wanted to catch Villanelle, who has murdered QUITE a few people. And now
they’re focused on the Twelve, but so much so that they’re willing to let
Villanelle walk away? Jess seems like the only voice of reason, questioning why
Villanelle is even involved with this. If this new group is an entirely
different operation, has the government just given up on catching Villanelle?
The grand suggestion is that this is all part of some plot
by Carolyn, who is apparently testing Eve herself for hints of psychopathy
through the time-honored torture method of a very tedious slide show presented
by a boring speaker. Why do the test at all if she never intended to go
anywhere with it? Why did this episode care so much about paperwork?
The end result is that there is now a lot of dramatic weight
attached to Carolyn’s mysterious plans. She essentially has to be a heartless
genius to push Eve this way, with the end result that Eve does something very specific to aid
her cause to make it all worthwhile.
And in the meantime, Eve is slipping further towards the
edge, almost shoving a man into a moving train, and only jumping into bed with
her husband when Villanelle sends her flowers. If Villanelle had a bit more
intel, she could have added that to the long list of Eve’s crimes she gives
Niko.
Stray observations
- What do middle aged men yell about? “I can’t satisfy my wife
in bed” and “Have you seen Mad Men? It’s a masterpiece.” - Eve saying she doesn’t have the “stomach” for murder is an
intentional reference to stabbing Villanelle in the gut, right? - Even the psychopath checklist doesn’t really make sense for
Villanelle. One of the criteria is lacking lasting intimate relationships,
which she has with Konstantin, even if he still can’t get over her shooting
him. - The spelling bee joke is cute, but at some point they’re
going to run out of cutesy reveals about Carolyn. - Has there ever been a more brutal burn than “I’m sure your
mom will find something else for you to do”? - Carolyn Martens’ new associate is named Martin. He is not to
be confused with the show’s previous character named Martin, who was her dog. Who was also introduced in Episode 5, which was also the prior kitchen episode. Why are there so many Martins?? Is it a code?? I need answers.