Killing Eve rights itself and makes Eve the star again

Killing Eve, a show about a stylish assassin hunted by a frumpy MI6 agent, made it easy to fall in love with a serial killer. Villanelle made it hard not to smile as she murdered her way across Europe, because of her vibrant clothes, bumping soundtrack, and coy smile. Killing Eve's third season had too little screen time to wallow in the depravity of its villain. The focus of the show in season 4 is once again Eve, played bySandra Oh.

Killing Eve's first season was so compelling because it was focused on Eve. Villanelle was wonderful in moderation, but too rich in excess. Eve was not just a straight man to Villainelle's flamboyant lead, but a true rival. Eve wasn't good at killing, and her reaction to being followed was to flee into a bathroom and use a toilet brush, but she was as charming and interesting as Villanelle. There was something dark about her obsession. Something perverse about her attraction to Villanelle. Eve started to disappear as the show went on. Eve was out of the story for a long time in the third season.

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Vilanelle at the cost of Eve is the focus of the fourth season. Eve is in a very different place after the third season. The indecisive and nervous desk jockey who liked to sing Disney songs at karaoke and sleep in after drinking too much has been replaced with a killer who jogs. We don't know how Eve got to this point in her life. In the first three episodes of the fourth season, we see a lot of old loose plot threads get cut off, but there is no answer for why Eve has become so focused and so driven.

Eve practically seethes in her interactions with Villanelle. She is furious, but there is a queer thread of real care and concern that feels like a loved one interacting with an addiction. In my experience, you find yourself caring for the addict, unable to turn off that affection, but knowing that you need to keep a distance, to protect yourself from their destructiveness and not enable them. In one scene, she speaks with an acquaintances out of the blue, and instead of saying "Oh yeah, Villanelle", she says "I'm sorry." There is relief across her face. She can't turn the care off.

Villanelle can't turn off the care she has, but it warped her. Villanelle is focused on Eve and being redeemed in her eyes, where Eve seems healthy and whole and thriving. This season she's mirrored one of her addiction's arcs. She hit rock bottom after killing her mother and then took her own life. When addiction is murder, how do you pull out of a tailspin? Villanelle is trying to figure that out as she pines for Eve and pretends that their relationship between seasons is behind them.

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Villanelle is trying to avoid murdering others, but she is still interesting. The show still manages to have fun with the chaos Villanelle creates. Jodie Comer never lets Villanelle become boring. It makes the character more interesting.

Eve is the main character. She is the one moving the plot and she is the one trying to protect Villanelle even as she is furious with her. The show is called Killing Eve, and whether or not Eve will be dead by the finale, she will be experiencing that chance as the main character. I can't wait to see who Eve shoots next.

The premiere of Killing Eve will be on Sunday, Feburary 27.