Killing Eve Review: Just Dunk Me (Season 4 Episode 1)

The final season of Killing Eve is back, and it feels different than every premiere before it. Killing Eve Season 4 Episode 1, “Just Dunk Me” feels a little more like the series premiere with our main characters still distant (as they have been every premiere since). T

This distance feels different though but in a good way. It shows growth between Villanelle and Eve and their relationship. The characters we are meeting now are miles away from the ones we met in Season 1. 

The difference here is that while in Season 1, Eve was hoping to find Villanelle on “Just Dunk Me” Villanelle is hoping to find her way back to Eve. There is something about this dynamic that feels so familiar but so different. 

The way that the season opens, with Eve attempting to kill Konstantin in Russia, feels very similar to how the series opened. We see Villanelle at work and then Eve going into her job. It was a great introduction then, and it works now.

The reversal of dynamics is certainly interesting, but that’s not enough to fill a final season. 

It’s hard to tell exactly what the series is building to from the first episode. The final season cannot be a slow build and it feels like it currently wants to be more of a character study than about the dynamic between Eve and Villanelle.

When Killing Eve Season 3 Episode 8, “Are You Leading or Am I?” ended with the two not shooting each other, I was hopeful that we would finally see these two characters start to share the story more instead of two entwining stories. 

While Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer have consistently delivered amazing performances, it isn’t enough to deliver an interesting conclusion. 

While it may be interesting to see Villanelle attempt to be good in an attempt to gain Eve’s affection feels like an interesting arc it isn’t one that the series has time to build to love the course of eight episodes. Villanelle’s rebirth also feels performative and inauthentic.

Creating a religious arc is an easy way out. Villanelle as a character may need a set of rules to follow in order to reach her goal and get Eve back, but we don’t have context for why Villanelle wants to change.

Frankly, we don’t have time to figure it all out when there’s also a mystery of the Twelve to be solved. 

Slowly, we can put together the pieces of what’s going on with Caroline and Eve, but it’s so spliced together with other stories. The longer the story exists in two separate spheres the more the season is going to feel slow and tired. 

If Killing Eve Season 4 is going to succeed and provide a fulfilling conclusion, then it needs to put Eve and Villanelle back together again and start giving us some answers. 

Stray Thoughts: 

• It’s so ironic that Villanelle accidentally killed a black cat named Lucifer that lived with the vicar. I want to read into this, but really the fact that the cat ended up dead wasn’t entirely surprising. The way in which it happened was for sure. 
• Konstantin is a mayor? Are we going to get more of this? Cos now I am wondering what he’s doing. 
• Caroline is just done with all of this and I am here for it. 
• I don’t even know where to begin with Jesus in Villanelle’s living room. (At least, I think that was Jesus.)

What did you think of this episode of Killing Eve? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Killing Eve airs Sundays at 8/7c on BBC America.

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