Killing Eve ends after the fourth season with a shocking finale (spoilers)
Spoilers for Killing Eve
At least one of my predictions was right. Killing Eve had its finale on Sunday, bringing the four season series to an abrupt and somewhat shocking close. Two main characters bit the dust. Much to my surprise, Konstantin was killed by his latest protégé. After Eve and Villanelle finally (seemingly) consummated their relationship and accomplished their goal of killing the Twelve, Villanelle was assassinated in the last moments of the show, mid-embrace with Eve. We thought they made it to the end and it was ripped away at the last second.
Jodie Comer, Sandra Oh, and lead writer Laura Neal spoke to Elle about the finale. Apparently they toyed with multiple possibilities for the ending, including both characters jumping off a cliff together. And before the pandemic intervened and delayed production, Eve was the one that was slated to die to close out the show. But either way, one of them was going to die and they decided it had to be Villanelle.
We should’ve known that Killing Eve wouldn’t have a happy ending.
Nonetheless, we were still disappointed to see Villanelle (Jodie Comer) killed just moments after she and Eve (Sandra Oh) finally rid the world of the Twelve in the April 10 season four—and series—finale. Their happily ever after was just within reach, but no, Carolyn Martens (Fiona Shaw) couldn’t let them have that.
After getting them do the dirty work of killing the Twelve, Carolyn stepped in to tie up loose ends and ordered Villanelle’s death. The last viewers see of the beloved serial killer is her bullet-riddled body floating down the Thames as Eve, who was shielded by the assassin, futilely watches.
A title card that reading “The End” closed out the BBC series.
Oh told Elle that she understands fans’ desire to “be satisfied,” but she and the rest of the team wanted to craft an ending that’s “true to the show.”
“I think one of the special things about the show is—hopefully—how satisfying it is to not get what you want, tied neatly in a bow,” Oh said. “It was never neat between the characters, so Eve’s ending leaves us with the question: How will she go on?”
For Comer, she thought Villanelle’s death was the only reasonable way to end the series. “It was inevitable,” she explained. “She’s like a cat with nine lives.”
Moreover, the killing allowed Villanelle to prove that she was capable of loving someone more than she loved herself. Saving Eve from death, Comer said, “that signified how much she had changed.”
Season four lead writer Laura Neal added that she hopes viewers find the deeper meaning in this otherwise dark demise. “It is a happy ending for Villanelle in some respects, because she gets what she wants, which is that she demonstrates that she’s changed, and she does this thing for Eve that allows Eve to go on and live her life,” she reasoned. “Actually, that’s a huge thing for Villanelle, and I think she ends triumphantly, and that’s the thing that we were always really keen to make sure that happened.”
Laura said that she hopes Villanelle’s death brings Eve peace: “She’s escaped. Carolyn thinks she’s dead. She can have the life that she chooses to live now. In my head, she’s going to take everything that Villanelle has given her into this new version of her life. And Villanelle will live on in Eve.”
The only other person to make it out relatively unscathed is Carolyn, one of the founding members of The Twelve. Rumor has it her origin story may be explored in a spin-off series, but executive producer Sally Woodward Gentle recently told Deadline, “We got lots of thoughts, but nothing has firmed up at all, and it’s quite a long way off. So, there isn’t really anything else to say yet.”
Though nothing has been confirmed, Shaw is game for a show of her own. “People are interested in the potential of it,” she told E! News in February. “I don’t know what will happen there but I can only say that I love the work.”
All four seasons of Killing Eve are streaming now on AMC+.
The show was called Killing Eve, so ending it by killing Eve would have been a bit too on the nose. In then end, Villanelle saved Eve after she was shot because she didn’t want Eve to die too. The culmination of character growth for Villanelle and a new life for Eve. They discuss this a bit in the Elle article, but the ending was like a rebirth and fresh start for Eve. As much as she and Villanelle had a powerful connection, their mutual obsession with one another was an albatross around her neck and changed her whole life. At the beginning of the series she had a job and friends and a husband and a “normal life.” But the whole thing with Villanelle dragged Eve into a state of isolation and danger. Now she’s free of Villanelle and Carolyn and the Twelve and can rebuild her live doing whatever she wants.
This ending makes me even less interested in the potential Carolyn spinoff! As I mentioned, I never became invested in that character, though I was deeply invested in Eve and Villanelle, separately and together. Though Villanelle was obviously a murderer and a psychopath, I became fond of the character and since Carolyn is the one who ordered the hit I don’t want to see more of her! Even though the spinoff is about her earlier life, I’m still going to pass.
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