Randomly Irrelevant

Killing Eve Season 3 became something of my object of fascination by the odd disjointed experience I have watching it. It feels like it makes sense at first, but the whole lot is rather off. The more I revisit it, the more it appears that what we see on the surface is but an attempt at telling a very different story. But precisely by failing to convey their intended story (Or not committing to), the authors inadvertently created a slate with enough inconsistencies that it fits any rationalization the audience wants to impose on the final product. Its lack of clarity and internal logic made it adaptable to several points of view. I can impose the interpretation that Villanelle was given an irreconcilable redemption arc, or that she is still a psychopath and it will still somewhat work.

However, when the season is consumed stripped from our expectations, there is a dissonance between the narrative and the other elements of storytelling which sends mixed signals, especially in the most developed storyline in the season: Villanelle’s character arc. In the midst of this confusion and inability to get a hold of the character, I tried to grasp the intent of the author instead of the material itself. Upon reading interviews with Suzanne Heathcote, Sally Woodward and Jodie Comer, many of my initial interpretations of her arc were challenged. They seemed to never seek to rectify Villanelle’s psychopathy or nature, but to explore her deep need to belong. There seemed to be an awareness towards the truth of the character, and the journeys they have been on so far. It appears that their idea is that her impulses are her true self and the tension arises from the inescapability of her own nature and its exploitation, which becomes the sole designator of her worth as a being. This is indeed much more interesting than what I initially interpreted. So, I want to revisit Villanelle’s character arc with new eyes… in excruciating detail.

Have you ever heard of the Codex Gigas? Also known as ‘The Devil’s bible’, it is the largest illuminated manuscript in the world according to Wikipedia. It is told that a monk made a pact with the Devil himself and feverishly wrote the entire book in one night! As an acknowledgment to his partner he drew his monstrous figure in one of the pages. Said page looks different from the others, as if touched by some malignant magic. Today we know the reason for it: the page suffered the most deterioration for being the most exposed. For centuries people could not get enough of this character: The Devil. Indeed, we have codified ways to save ourselves from the metaphorical Devil – ourselves. We invented sins and crimes to tame something deeply primal within us. Freud called it id, the origin of all that which makes us tick: impulses, instinct, drives, libido. It reckons only two things: pleasure and satisfaction. If we could strip ourselves from all inhibition there would be impulse and sensation. It would be brutal ecstasy. But what would be of the world if all 7 billion of us would uncompromisingly seek to satisfy our impulses? Hell, so we don’t.

Recently, I learned about the term ‘Retroactive Continuity’ and I am pretty proud of it because now it sounds like I know what I’m talking about. Retroactive Continuity, or retcon for the intimate like me, is the addition of new information that changes or reinterprets events/narratives previously established, therefore opening new possibilities for the future. It can correct inconsistencies, change world/character limitations, or allow for a dramatic plot twist. For example, a character previously established as an incurable psychopath goes on an emotional growth journey. Killing Eve got fundamentally retconned season 3 and it changes everything. And I need to talk about it.

1. Raymond. This character was so good, and could have been a lead into the twelve going forward. The line 'some people would say I'm a real somebody'!!! Why did they not explore that. Especially when he told Eve and V that 'they will tear you apart for this'. Which leads me onto my next point.

2. It states in 2x08 that the twelve are after them. The tension is so high in this episode because they know they're in danger. Yet in s3 it's been 6 months and they're both fine. Dasha just tells Villanelle that they have been watching her for months, and we have no idea about Eve 👀. The amount of times that V has screwed up for the twelve in s1+2. Why do they not kill her? Even in s3 she was really screwing up and they just warned her. Sure, she's amazing at her job, but there are others as we even saw that Rhian is there. I thought with the mentions of the dad in 3x05 they were going to reveal that he was alive and in the twelve because the only way I can understand how they haven't killed V is because someone inside is protecting her.

I really don't understand why they brought in that many new characters in s3, that ended up not contributing much. Kenny dying really only allowed us to see more of Carolyn, Eve only explored his death in ep3, and even Carolyn didn't really explore it. The way it got 'solved' was due to a hidden camera that they didn't think to look at until that long after. We still don't know what actually happened. Considering that was meant to be one of the biggest plot points in the season, it doesn't actually seem like there was much thought put into it.

3. It's so laughable to me that Eve was the one who had the biggest plots to follow after 2x08. She axed a man to death and was shot!! And they didn't even mention about her killing Raymond in the whole s3. Like...what is going on? How would you watch that episode and think 'right, s3 in mainly going to be about Villanelle and her family'. Based on 1 line in 2x08 out of the whole plot of s2 🤦‍♀️ Don't get me wrong, I love Villanelle's arc in s3 and it's perfect and needed, but why wasn't Eve having her own at the same time? I appreciate Suzanne saying Kim and Fiona deserved to have more screen time, but I would argue that you could have given them more screen time without them being involved in every episode, with almost equal dedication as Villanelle and Eve. In Eve's case they had more development than her! Konstantin probably had about as much screen time in one episode of s3 than he did the first 2 combined. I just don't think you can jump to that.

4. Niko. I really like him. However, why did they keep dragging it out? You could say that 3x01 would have been a fair place to stop it because he did sort of tell Eve to piss off then. Why make another ep largely dedicated to him and Eve? It just meant the little screen time Eve got was taken up by something silly. Then the really dramatic incident, which would have been impossible to survive, just so they can have the same conversation as they had in 3x01?

4. Villaneve. The scenes we got of Villaneve were A+ and I like the idea of them coming to terms with themselves before meeting up at the end. But where was the brain full, only one thought longing? The tagline of the season was even 'obsession never dies' and yet in some eps it looked like it had. I remember people were even starting to freak out that they had finished with them because they weren't showing that connection. Even if they had the moments that they do in s1+2 that are really cool, where they have them doing the same actions but at different places.

My final thoughts are that it bemuses and frustrates me that they came up with plots in s3 (Kenny, the money, Irina, Geraldine, Bitter pill, Paul) that only add more threads and doesn't move the plot along. Why couldn't we have seen Konstantin interacting with the twelve in connection with Raymond etc. following on from s2 instead of the money, Geraldine, and Irina? We learnt nothing new about the twelve in s3!

Me:

But Clarke kissed her and she was shaking like a leaf: