The second episode of Killing Eve has our two leads continuing their separate journeys. Villanelle seeks a road to redemption through religion and now has a spiritual guide in Jesus to help lead her on the correct path. Eve, on the other hand, is out for blood in her crusade to take down the Twelve.
What appeared to be one woman on the warpath last week takes a different turn in “Don’t Get Eaten.” Cracks begin to show in Eve’s action hero persona. She is reckless and unwilling to listen as if she has a real death wish. What’s most revealing during her conversation with Hélène, is her lack of reaction while tortured. It appears to be another example of her new hardcore nature, but a look at the eyes shows how empty Eve is inside.
This coincides with her meeting with Martin earlier when she confesses she’s feeling more like a bad guy now. The expert on psychopaths leaves her with some heavy words: reinvention is a form of avoidance. One thing that hasn’t change is her infatuation for Villanelle. Though she tries to ignore her obsession, she can’t help cyberstalking the assassin on her down time.
Martin’s wisdom could also be relevant to Villanelle. There is a genuine desire to change from her psychotic ways we’ve seen on Killing Eve, but her motivations aren’t pure. She deals with the fallout from almost killing May while on a team building retreat and proves her inability to change. All of her actions are to fuel her own ego.
What do you expect from someone who envisions Jesus in her own image. In addition, her twisted sense of morality leaves her isolated from the other members of the church, even May who she is able to temporarily sway to her side. Villanelle proves she’s not ready to change her ways. Her final action is a well shot scene showing her brutality through the use of silhouettes and splatters. An example of graphic violence without being too graphic.
This season on Killing Eve, Carolyn has taken a more prominent role almost becoming a third lead. Her subplot represents another angle in the pursuit of taking down the Twelve. After being placed in the doghouse by MI6, she cozies up with her former adversaries in Russia providing intel. Unlike Eve, Carolyn is calculating and wrestles with her actions and the less savory things she has to do to achieve her goals. After all her years in the spy game, she still has remorse. Fiona Shaw does have some killer dialog demonstrating her excellent dry humor with her deadpan delivery of a literal “ass on her ass” line.
“Don’t Get Eaten” provides some interesting contrasts between Eve and Carolyn’s pursuit for revenge on the Twelve while Villanelle explores whether we can really ever change.
New episodes of Killing Eve are released Sundays on BBC America.
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