‘Killing Eve’ Boss on That ‘Really Pivotal’ Eve and Villanelle Twist in Episode 3

Executive producer and lead writer Laura Neal dissects that shocker from Sunday night

Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer in "Killing Eve" Season 4 (BBC America)
BBC America

Sunday night’s episode of “Killing Eve” ended with a real twist that Villanelle (Jodie Comer) didn’t see coming.

(Spoiler alert: This story contains plot details from Season 4, Episode 3, “A Rainbow in Beige Boots.”)

Just before the show closed out – and not long after Villanelle choked therapist Martin – Eve (Sandra Oh) did something she explained she should have done the first time she met Villanelle – call in the authorities to take the trained assassin into custody.

“It feels like a really pivotal moment for me and it was in the writers room,” executive producer Laura Neal told TheWrap. “And we were discussing that because of what it does emotionally to both of them. For Eve, I think this is something — [and] she says it in the show — something that she should have done back in Season 1, and she chose not to for whatever reason, and then she finally does it here. And I think for her, that’s about asserting power over Villanelle in a way that perhaps she has not been able to quite before. And that, for me, feels like a really exciting change in their dynamic. It’s also about Eve, once she’s done it, it’s like Eve has to come to terms with what is her life like without Villanelle in it, and actually, is that something that she wants? Or has she done something in some ways quite self-destructive by putting Villanelle away?”

The move also shakes up the structure of Eve and Villanelle’s interpersonal relationship, putting Villanelle on the lower end of the see-saw.

“For Villanelle, I think it does something interesting in the power dynamic as well because I think Villanelle is somebody who enjoys the power that she wields over Eve,” Neal explained. “And I think that’s the pull of that relationship for Villanelle – knowing that she has a hold over Eve, so when Eve does that to her, I think Villanelle, A – is not expecting it, and, B – she’s shaken by it because in Villanelle’s head she’s thinking ‘Am I losing my grip over this woman? And what does that mean for me going forward?’”

“Killing Eve” airs Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on BBC America

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