Killing Eve Season 3 Episode 3 Recap: ‘Meetings Have Biscuits’

[SPOILERS FOR KILLING EVE 3.3 AHEAD!]

The Story So Far

After leaving the spy life behind, Eve finds herself dragged back into it as she investigates the murder of her friend, Kenny. Meanwhile, Carolyn is grieving over her son and for the first time, is looking vulnerable. She wants to find the murderer as much as Eve. And Villanelle continues her killing in hopes of moving up the ranks in The Twelve.

Confronting the Past

Villanelle is in Andalusia for her next contract. She poses as a piano tuner for a wealthy client who condescendingly brings up the instrument’s value. Afterwards, the assassin stalks her and uses a throwing knife to the head. The target will never hear the beautiful sounds from her piano again. All of a sudden, Villanelle hears crying over a baby monitor and goes to investigate. After teasing the nanny by threatening the baby, she finally dispatches the hired help with the same throwing knife.

When she heads back to Barcelona to meet up with Dasha, Villanelle brings along the baby. Her mentor is unamused and nonchalantly places the child in a nearby garbage can. Without skipping a beat, she expresses her concern about her protégé’s recent sloppiness. First, Villanelle shot her apprentice last episode and now the kidnapping. Despite this, she assigns the next job, which is in London. Knowing that’s where Eve lives, Villanelle declines saying she doesn’t have enough time to prepare as a fake excuse. After a pep talk from Dasha, she changes her mind and accepts the mission.  

An Uneasy Alliance

Eve thinks it would be a good idea if MI6 and Bitter Pill work together investigating Kenny’s murder. She is a bit taken back when Carolyn holds the meeting in her bathroom while she bathes. They relocate to the dining room where things are just as awkward. Neither side is willing to reveal what they have and also question the other’s involvement. Eve plays the adult in the room and hands over the phone to Carolyn and Mo to analyze while she and Jamie examine the thumb drive at the news office.

Bear goes through the flash drive and finds it contains data on bank accounts. Using Kenny’s Rubik’s cube, he and Eve decode one of the files and find it is related to Fat Panda, who was murdered in the first season. Eve shares information about The Twelve to Bear and Jamie and they discover the bank account used to pay her former double agent boss, has been active recently transferring millions of Euros to a bank account in Geneva. Despite the Bitter Pill’s reservations, Eve reaches out to MI6 to determine who owns the Geneva account.

Carolyn is ready to play the field again and has a hot date planned for the evening. She is stood up but sees an old colleague at the bar and they begin catching up. The couple then leave to grab a bite to eat. At least Carolyn doesn’t completely strike out that night. It’s all a ruse because her friend works at the Geneva bank. She learns the real owner of the back account is an accountant named Charles Kreuger. He is really a former East Berliner named Sergei. Eve believes he’s a person of interest and may be the accountant of The Twelve. Luckily, he’s also an old Cold War flame of Carolyn’s and she decides to stake out his place and bring him in for questioning.

The Crazy Ex

After learning that Eve is alive last week, Villanelle is preparing to see her ex for the first time after their break up and she attempted to kill her. The assassin wants to show off how she’s better now. First, she enlists a perfume maker for a scent that indicates power. One a former centurion who has risen to emperor would wear when coming across a prior foe who hurt him greatly in battle in the past.

She then goes to a toy shop to look for a twisted present for her old flame. She goes with a talking bear and makes a prerecorded message to relay to Eve. At first, she says she should have shot her in the head and watch her die. But she’s still not over the break up and confesses she can’t stop thinking about her.

Meanwhile, Eve goes to the psychiatric ward to visit her husband but learns he checked himself out. Nico didn’t want her to know where he went but one of the staff mention him heading back to Poland. On the bus, she frantically tries texting Nico to no avail. If that wasn’t enough, guess who boards at the next stop? After Villanelle says hi, Eve snaps and bumrushes her. As the two struggle, Villanelle gains the upper hand and forces her ex to smell her. Eve is intoxicated by the scent and they share their first kiss. She then takes advantage of the pause and headbutts Villanelle before she runs off the bus. After the fight/kiss, Eve goes to the Bitter Pill office. She receives quite a few odd looks as her face is all bruised and her nose is bleeding. Jamie forces her to talk about what happened and she comes clean about Villanelle.

Elsewhere, Carolyn and Mo begin their stakeout. They’re not the only ones as a motorcycle cop is seen in the rearview mirror scouting them. When Charles/Sergei leaves his building, Carolyn goes to intercept. Her target takes off running in the other direction but becomes winded after only a few steps. As the agents go to pick up Charles, we see that the cop is actually Villanelle.

At the same time, Eve and Jamie go over who Villanelle’s next target is. It isn’t Eve since she admitted to such before their romp. They deduce it’s Carolyn since they found The Twelve’s accountant. In the car, the MI6 head tries to get Charles to talk. Eve tries to call her colleague to warn her about the impending danger but is ignored. Villanelle drives behind the car and pulls them over. She then casually approaches the vehicle and as she pulls up to the passenger side window where Carolyn is sitting, the spy receives a text from Eve about the threat. It’s too late as Villanelle aims her gun and pulls the trigger.

Mo finally comes too and checks on his boss. He breathes a huge sigh of relief when she moves but both of them slowly turn and find their only lead shot through the head. Carolyn is clearly shook from the day’s events and receives a comforting hug from her daughter when she arrives home.

Similarly, Eve is looking to relax after a stressful and exhausting day. When she lies in bed, she becomes startled by a strange noise. After searching through the sheets, she finds Villanelle’s present talking to her. The message she went with was “Admit it Eve, you wish I was here.” At first, Eve is scared as she tries to rip out the device from the bear. But after hearing the voice a few more times, she finds it rather soothing and brings the device closer to her ear to listen better.

Konstantin’s Own Missions

We find the person reaching out to Konstantin is the previously mentioned, Charles Kreuger. Before he met his untimely end, he enlists Konstantin to help him find the 6 million Euros that are missing from the Geneva account. Even though Villanelle’s former handler offers to find who siphoned the money, Kreuger is more concerned with the money for himself.

After offing Kreuger, Villanelle pays her old friend a visit. When he’s about to go to bed, she pops out from under the sheets to surprise him. After her interaction with the baby (who was safely returned to her father), she’s become curious how she was when she was younger. Villanelle is appreciating her new found power as she makes her way up The Twelve ladder but in order to keep it, she feels she also needs knowledge. She asks Konstantin to learn more about her parents.

The Verdict

We’ve been seeing some of the cracks form in Carolyn’s mental foundation and she may be reaching a breaking point. Her loss of Kenny has obviously affected her but she’s been able to focus for the most part such as when she obtains information on the Geneva account by working her charms. Also, by displaying decent pop locking skills later. However, we’ve never seen her like after Kreuger’s assassination. The dazed look she carries all the way home may show how she’s out of her depth for once. It’s been great to explore more of the character this season, especially when she’s played fantastically by the talented Fiona Shaw.

The entire assassination sequence is a marvel to watch. The suspense builds as Villanelle strolls towards the car and Eve tries to warn her old boss. Although I don’t know why she bothered calling so much if a simple text can easily relay the message. The show doesn’t shy away from killing major and beloved characters and there was a genuine fear that Carolyn could be the next to go.

But what most fans will be talking about is that kiss. After so many teases that never were, the two leads finally locked lips. It’s probably not as passionate and romantic as some pictured it would be. It was more an awkward junior high first kiss and it didn’t help the freaky wide eyes Sandra Oh had while it happened. Outside of the kiss, the episode does a good job gradually rekindling their infatuations with each other. Despite feeling they’ve moved on, the subtle pauses and brief expressions of reminiscing when forced to think about the other indicate otherwise. It will be interesting how their dynamic affects the investigation into The Twelve and whether it will mess everything up like it always does.