Killing Eve Season 3 Episode 4 Recap: ‘Still Got It’

[SPOILERS FOR 3.4 AHEAD!]

Killing Eve So Far

Last week on Killing Eve, MI6 and Bitter Pill team up to investigate Kenny’s murder and The Twelve. Elsewhere, Villanelle receives a mission in London and she pays visits to both Konstantin and Eve while in town. It’s the first time with the latter since their break up and ends with a fight and a first-time kiss. When Eve and the crew get their first real lead, Villanelle does what she does best and kills him.

Saving Their Marriage

Last week, Nico left London to return to his native Poland for a new start. He is thriving away from the drama living a humble life as a bakery deliveryman. His estranged wife frequently texts hoping to reconcile but he ghosts her.

On the other hand, Eve is a hot mess in the aftermath of Nico’s departure and facing Villanelle for the first time since Rome. She crashes at the Bitter Pill office to immerse herself in solving Kenny’s murder while neglecting all basic personal hygiene. She can’t even bother to pull her underwear up as it dangles from her pant leg. While investigating The Twelve with Bear, she receives a birthday cake. Suspicious that it might be booby trapped, Eve takes the dessert to the roof to open it. Inside is a cake shaped as a bus, a clear reference from her and Villanelle’s tussle. Angry, she throws it off the side of the building.

Observing how on edge Eve is, Jamie offers her a place to stay that’s not his office. While the two eat dinner, the editor of Bitter Pill tries to prop her up by showing she’s not the only one with a tragic past and it’s the choices made afterwards, that help shape them. Eve takes these words to heart when going over murders associated with The Twelve’s Geneva account. Nico finally responds to her texts and ask her to meet him in Poland to talk things over. Eve drops everything to save her marriage.

Tying Up Loose Ends

Konstantin takes a trip to Moscow to visit his daughter. He gets her to play hooky from school so they can grab ice cream. After catching up, Irina admits she’s lonely and fears that all her dad’s double dealings will eventually catch up to him and then she’ll be more alone. Despite Konstantin’s reassurances, she doesn’t believe her dad has a real plan.

Afterwards, he pays a visit to Kruger’s widow. Under the guise of trying to comfort her, he learns that she was to send an email about the missing six million euros to an unfamiliar address if anything happened to her husband. However, she’s been so distraught, she hasn’t sent it yet so Konstantin convinces her to send it to him instead. She decides to hide out at her holiday estate to lie low in case she’s in danger.

Meanwhile, Villanelle is baking a cake as she waits to debrief Dasha about the London assignment. Though the mission was a success, her handler voices reservations about her extracurricular activities in the U.K. Villanelle confesses she met with Konstantin during her trip but that wasn’t the reunion Dasha was thinking about. Dasha then tells her former apprentice that The Twelve want to meet and discuss her promotion and new benefits.

Villanelle decides to celebrate the good news by going shopping. She is surprised when Konstantin shows up (he’s been doing a lot of traveling) and the two talk shop in a sky gondola. Her former handler updates her on his little task and that he’s found her parents. He’s willing to give her the information if he performs a favor for him.

Konstantin sends Villanelle to Lyon to murder Kruger’s wife. The contract killer poses as a gardener to get close to her mark but his hit with a sudden bout of hiccups before she can carry out the execution. Her victim tries to be helpful and attempts to scare the condition out of her. What follows is a playful and sadistic game of trying to frighten each other that culminates in a greenhouse where Villanelle strangles her target to death with a garden hose. Despite all the excitement, Villanelle still has the hiccups.

Trusting Family?

All the stress is taking its toll on Carolyn. Following her son’s death and almost her own, she goes through her days like a zombie failing to acknowledge most things around her including Geraldine. During a meeting with Paul, her supervisor tries to make amends and helps her create a proper investigation into Kenny’s death and The Twelve. Though she’s dismissive for most of their conversation, she accepts the offer.  

On her way home, she sees Konstantin walking away from her house. She becomes more suspicious when her daughter is flustered by her early arrival. When she asks Geraldine if she’s had any guests, her child only mentions a friend from university that stopped by. Geraldine makes another attempt to get her mom to vent about everything but is brushed off. She then has a breakdown and expresses her concern about her mother’s nonchalant demeanor of all the tragic events. After lecturing her daughter about boundaries, she heads to her room to lie in bed clenching a pillow in frustration over her face.  

Driving a Wedge

Dasha is swimming laps and smoking cigarettes in between when she is approached by a well-dressed mystery woman. The woman is concerned by Dasha’s inability to rein in Villanelle. The handler brings up killing Eve so she will no longer be a distraction but is rebuffed. She must find another way to drive a wedge between the two.

The former Olympic gymnast heads to Poland to surveil Nico. While he’s at a local bar, she grabs his phone to text Eve (The same texts that invited her to talk). Dasha even replaces one of his regulars on his delivery route. Playing the helpless old lady, she’s able to get him to repair a barn door the next day. Later, her intricate plan is all falling into place. Eve eventually shows up much to the surprise to her husband. As she walks towards Nico, Dasha stabs him in the neck and runs off. Attached to the murder weapon is a note saying, “Still got it”.

Almost like sensing a disturbance in the force, Villanelle grabs her neck while following Konstantin’s leads on her parents in Russia.

The Verdict

This episode of Killing Eve, “Still Got It”, took an interesting approach with storytelling as it followed Nico, Eve, Villanelle, Carolyn and Dasha independently. It provided some freshness to the episode that, other than the ending, takes a slower pace and is more setting things up rather than action. I enjoyed the explicit and implicit details between the interconnections of all their stories from the foreshadowing of Dasha in Poland to Villanelle’s inability to bake a cake so she orders one instead. These small things help elevate the story.

The episode also interconnects with the overarching narrative and brings things to light for the viewers that the characters might not know. Before Eve runs off to Poland, we learn that the new bank activity is related to Villanelle’s most recent murders. In addition, last week, Konstantin put together that Villanelle’s mission related to his case as he searches for the missing money. Then he gets her to murder the grieving widow. To Villanelle, she carried out two separate jobs and is unaware that she killed the husband and wife. With all his secrets, I wonder what Konstantin’s play is and who he really is working for. His daughter already reminded us how much he plots, schemes and double crosses.

Poor Nico. His only crime is being married to Eve and he paid dearly for it. We’ve seen plenty of times on this show, when someone is genuinely happy, they usually end up dead. Through the written message, Dasha is hoping to frame Villanelle and drive a wedge between her and Eve. Although it might have the opposite effect. Eve’s infatuation with Villanelle has waned despite their awkward kiss. She left the spy life behind and rejected the taunting birthday cake. She has nothing else grounding her and holding her back from going all in with Villanelle now that her husband is dead. This might just push her back into the assassin’s arms. The message itself was a nice touch since it’s used to frame Villanelle but can also reference the veteran Dasha, who still has mad espionage skills.