REVIEW: Killing Eve, S3 Ep7 – Beautiful Monster

The penultimate episode of Killing Eve season three sees Villanelle on the run from the Twelve while Eve starts to catch up.

For a show that supposedly warns viewers that no character is safe, Killing Eve this season has done a poor job of actually killing off some of its characters. Granted, RIP to poor Mo in this episode and more on that later. But it’s ridiculous how many characters have managed to survive fatal circumstances on this show. First, there was Niko surviving a pitchfork to the neck last week, and this week, not only does Konstantin recuperate from a heart attack, but Dasha actually survives both Villanelle’s and Eve’s attempts to kill her. This should really be a lesson for Villanelle to double-check if her victims are really dead before running off, but then again, she was in a rush. And Eve isn’t a professional killer, though she seems to finally be giving into her darker impulses.

Then, we have more members of the Twelve like Helene and new assassin Rhian introduced in this episode. With all these professional killers in the cast, you would think that the casualty count on Killing Eve would be higher. And yet, it isn’t. But that’s not really a great example of subverting tropes, it’s just a strange storytelling decision for a crime thriller. I wish we got to learn more about Helene and her weird motherly take on Villanelle but the show is spinning several threads at once that it is becoming more and more difficult to focus on anything.

While Villanelle’s decision to strike Dasha was no surprise, what was more surprising was that Villanelle still allowed the misogynist American target to escape with his life. He was a douchebag. She could have killed him too and done the world a favor. That might have even bought her some time with the Twelve since she finished the job anyway. It would not have taken her much time or effort. But the writers seem to be implying that after her fatal family visit, Villanelle is no longer the “beautiful monster” we have come to love. More’s the pity, particularly since that family episode did not really explain how Villanelle came to be in the first place.

Again, while it is appreciated that Killing Eve sacrifices male characters (Kenny, Mo) so that female characters (Carolyn) can react, Mo’s death is egregious in its own insignificance because we did not know enough about the character. And it’s also terrible to kill off one of the few characters of color on the show. But the man had crucial information about Paul and since this season is really taking its time to solve the central mystery of Kenny’s death and the Twelve’s involvement, Mo’s corpse had to float in shallow water.

At any rate, Mo’s death did allow for us to see Carolyn lose it for a moment and smash things, as a demonstration of emotion that Geraldine has been pestering her about. The tense mother daughter dynamics are getting a bit stale at this point because we still don’t really know what Geraldine’s deal is and I’m still convinced there’s more to her than meets the eye but at least it gives us more of Carolyn to work with.

Honestly, it’s a miracle Konstantin avoided a heart attack for this long, considering all the stress he has been under. First, there is the failed attempt to escape with Irina, the delightful delinquent who is now stuck in a juvenile institution. She will clearly thrive because she is her father’s daughter but she was also angry to be left behind in that place. Then, there was that awkward confrontation with Geraldine who had latched on to him for some reason. But thankfully, Konstantin was too tired to keep playing spy and he just came clean with her and everything was out in the open between them, at least for the time being.

Then, there was the escape attempt with Villanelle, which was the final straw for some reason and led to him suffering a heart attack. For a moment, I wondered if someone had poisoned him but later on it was really just the stress. There was a poignant moment when Villanelle genuinely expressed her desire for him to survive. Which didn’t really stop her from escaping on her own. And somehow, Konstantin even decided to nudge Eve in the right direction.

Eve was at her most proactive in this episode though that’s not saying so much. Again, she’s on the trail of Villanelle and she seems more excited than ever. She even tried to kill Dasha. And I have to agree with Bear when he questions whether Eve is truly brilliant. Sandra Oh is undoubtedly brilliant but Eve, at this point, I’m not so sure about.

But still, pretty much everyone survived in this strange episode, with both Konstantin and Dasha ending up in the same hospital. It’s a wonder the man didn’t suffer another heart attack just by seeing her there but his awkward laughter as a response to the nurse’s questions about whether he had been under any particular stress recently was a brilliant bit of dark humor that only Killing Eve can employ.

It’s unlikely that all the open threads this season will be resolved at this point, unless in a very contrived way. But at least Eve and Villanelle are finally reconnecting and with one episode left in the season, let’s see what chaos they create together.