Killing Eve 3x07: "Beautiful Monster" Review

The penultimate episode of Killing Eve is a morbid, energetic gobsmacker. If last week’s installment was an indication of how our characters respond to rapidly escalating circumstances, this week is about providing a window into how they adapt to the consequences of their choices. There’s a pervasive sense throughout the episode that the dominoes are about to fall – and two of them at least take a definitive tumble. What happens in the season finale is anyone’s guess, but from this episode and the six that preceded it, this season feels very much like the characters are adjusting to the severe tumult of their lives and trying to chary the next chapters of their journey. Some succeed, others do not, but my expectation is that the finale will deliver and next season will benefit greatly from the groundwork laid by this one.

The episode begins with a fantastic shot of Villanelle (Jodie Comer) as if a queen wearing a crown of swords, being vetted by the terrifying presence of Helène (Camille Cottin). What makes Helène so particularly terrifying is her coolness, her calm demeanour in the face of circumstances that would put most of us in wild panic. In a sense, Helène reminds the audience of the Villanelle they were introduced to and enchanted by, the Villanelle who coolly murdered an Italian mobster with a hairpin while remembering to take down the name of the woman who designed his silk bed sheets. It’s the Villanelle that has slowly been lost over the course of this season, perhaps a portrait of who she might have become and who she still might choose to become. Either way, Helène made it quite clear that Villanelle’s value to the Twelve is connected to how chaotic she can be. Once that value is gone, they have no need for her.

Villanelle strikes a deal with Helène to murder Dasha (Harriet Walter) and her executing this plan is the closest we get to the Villanelle of early days. The writing of this particular scene is fantastic – it’s twisted, organic, and for a brief moment it even manages to fool the audience before Villanelle swings the golf club and whacks Dasha’s head. Before she finishes the job, however, something sticks in her mind. Helène had referred to Villanelle as a beautiful monster and it echoes the two voices she considers to be the most important in her life, respectively. Her mother had essentially called her a monster, a nightmare her parents couldn’t cope with. Eve (Sandra Oh) hadn’t referred to Villanelle as a monster but a psychopath. Those moments weigh down on Villanelle’s head as she departs the Scottish woods in her unforgettable outfit – to what degree they impact her remains to be seen.

Eve’s journey this season was about discovering that, in spite of convincing herself that she wanted to leave the world of Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) and her operations behind, she belongs in that world. Shocks and losses leave a deep and lasting impact. While Eve has not received the screen time this season that she needed, this season has done a relatively good job of depicting how Eve was drawn right back into the life she wanted to leave behind, even if she did so begrudgingly at first. There are myriad reasons why Eve is drawn to that life, drawn to Villanelle, and a tantalizing part of that arises when Eve discovers Dasha in that forest and Dasha reveals that she was in fact behind the attempted murder of Niko (Owen McDonnell). Eve looks down at Dasha lying on the ground and with a quiet sort of terror steps on her chest. The slight cracks of Dasha’s ribs echo in the quiet air and the police sirens interrupt that eerie moment, leaving the question of that moment lingering far after.

Notes:

+ “I lost my virginity in Reykjavik.”
+ Villanelle cares for Konstantin (Kim Bodnia)!
+ Kim Bodnia’s laugh is fantastic.
+ “Russia has vegans now. Did you know that?”

+ “Does your son have your halitosis?” LMAO.

+ “He has lovely mustache. Like Stalin.” OMG, Dasha.