Desperate Times
We return to Killing Eve this week right where we left off from before. Carolyn gets a grilling from her boss, who subsequently throws pringles across the table in rage. Calming her down, Carolyn assures her everything is under control with her best poker face before leaving the office. Eve obsessively works to find the killer they’ve dubbed as Ghost. She finds a link to a business man called Adam Peele, realizing a lot of the killings are linked to his business but wind up having a fruitless meeting with him. After lamenting their bad luck, Eve soon learns another body has shown up, this time it’s Peele’s secretary. A flamboyant Villanelle then gets asked by a random passer-by if she can take a picture for her Instagram, “No, that’s pathetic,” She replies, “Get a life.” As the woman scurries away, Villanelle meets with Constantin and he questions her resolve, probing whether she’s gone soft thanks to Eve. Determined to get Eve’s attention and prove Constantin wrong, Villanelle strings up a man by his ankles and, dressed in a pig mask, puts on a show for an eager audience outside while he begs for his life. Growing tired of this charade, she slits the man’s stomach and takes a bow before heading back to Constantin who bemoans her lack of finesse. Meanwhile Carolyn takes the postcard addressed to Eve from Villanelle and hides it away. Eve continues to look into the Ghost case while Villanelle waits patiently for Eve to show up at the crime scene. When she doesn’t show, Villanelle struggles to hide her bitter disappointment when a colleague shows up to the crime scene instead. Still hurt over Eve’s no show, Villanelle takes drugs and finds herself in an underground club some time later. She heads to the toilets and, in a blind state of rage, chokes out one of the girls until Constantin grabs her at the last minute and pulls her out. Convinced she’s caught the Ghost killer, Eve heads to a school and confronts the number 1 suspect. With a red dot pointed at her forehead, Eve convinces the woman to come with her, expressing it’ll be easier for her if she follows them. Villanelle then wakes up in a sick-stained bed with Constantin passed out on the floor beside her. She heads to the bathroom and stares at her reflection while Eve does the same thing in an interview room alone. The episode then ends with both women continuing on their parallel paths to one another, with their inevitable showdown looming on the horizon. While the story itself cotinues to impress, it’s ultimately the acting that really helps this one stand out. While Sandra Oh’s subtle performance is likely to be the more critically recognised, personally I feel Jodie Comer really deserves the praise this time out. Her flamboyant outfits, multiple accents and unhinged personality have made her a really unpredictable and scene-stealing tour de force all season. It’s something that was particularly evident last year too but this episode in particular really highlights this. So far, Killing Eve’s second season has felt far more tightly wound than the first season. Whether it can keep this up for the remaining episodes is still up for debate but for now, there’s enough here to make Killing Eve a very entertaining and dramatic watch.
