'Killing Eve' season 2 episode 7 reveals that Eve and Villanelle have real feelings for each other under their sexually charged tension
This article contains spoilers for season 2 episode 7
Previously, on episode 6 'I hope you like missionary!' of season two of 'Killing Eve', we saw our serial assassin Villanelle try to establish certain ground rules about how the titular MI6 agent Eve Polastri treats her. And while Eve was taught that Villanelle is simply not someone to mess with, the latest episode 7 'Wide Awake' proves that Eve learns her lessons well and quite quickly. That's obvious since there's a reason her boss Carolyn assigned her to a case where she would have to partner with her former target, a murderous psychopath nonetheless! But the highlight of this episode definitely is how Eve is slowly inching towards admitting that maybe there is more than just a sexually charged obsession between her and Villanelle. And for her, it's most definitely some deeper feelings.
The episode opens with Villanelle getting a personal invite from Aaron Peele of all people, which she, of course, tells Eve is a "date". And this is exactly where the bomb drops because once Eve pops by Villanelle's apartment and spots the woman she spent the night with, her jealousy becomes more evident than the sexual tension between her and Villanelle. But while Eve's jealousy might have been masked courtesy denial in the past quite amply, this time — even though not vocally — she makes it very clear that Villanelle isn't the only lost puppy with all the feelings. That, aided by Villanelle telling Eve that she feels things when she is around her only helps materialize what fans have been begging for ever since we were introduced to the chemistry between Sandra Oh's Eve and Jodie Comer's Villanelle.
Speaking of chemistry, another one — even though quite awkward at its finest — blooms between the currently evident psychopaths on the show, that is Villanelle and Peele. Peele's interest in Villanelle, or the undercover "Billie" as he knows her to be, stems from the fact that her existence on the planet is basically a shadow. He not only apologizes to her by asking her out for lunch but also invites her to Rome with him right away, assuring simultaneously that he would neither sleep with her nor even touch her. And thus begins another cat and mouse chase on the show as Eve and her team try to dig deeper into Peele's intent, while he tries to unravel Billie.
That Peele is a psychopath is no secret. That man is far too secretive and controlling over his sister to be otherwise. But the full length of it comes into display in this episode as he takes Billie on the business trip with him and practically controls her every movement, including what she wears, and eats. Henry Lloyd-Hughes does a brilliant job at playing out the control freak narcissistic bully, who has only been seen occasionally on the show so far. This is the first time we get to see Peele on full display, for the major part of the episode, and he's actually creepier than the prime assassin of the show. And that's saying something because this is Villanelle we are dealing with here.
But Villanelle hasn't always been the stereotypical serial killer, has she? Unless on occasions where her jealousy manifests violently, and she ends up playing little games like scare Eve's newly separated husband, Niko Polastri (Owen McDonnell) and his new lady, Gemma, by popping up at his old place unannounced, absolutely out of the blue. As if that wasn't terrifying enough, her big murder this episode was yet another elaborate scene involving Gemma, the obvious victim, wrapped in a heavy layer of plastic, which is the first thing a heavily injured Niko sees after Villanelle knocks him out. Like Villanelle tells Niko, Eve would never forgive her if she killed her husband, so once again it gets established that with each murder, Villanelle ends up creating a masterpiece gift for Eve.
Each of them is a message — no matter how elaborate or how cryptic —for Eve, so it's no wonder why Eve ends up admitting that she thinks about Villanelle most of the time, to none other than the psychologist who was secretly assigned for her own psych eval by Carolyn (Fiona Shaw.) She still doesn't want to admit it to herself though, despite admitting it to other people. So what does she to cope with the inherent jealousy? She sleeps with Hugo on their trip to Rome, following the undercover Villanelle. Of course, it happens after Villanelle ends up sleeping with Peele, but it's Eve's absolute lack of any kind of acknowledgment to Hugo the morning after that proves that all of this was more of an attempt to convince her sense of denial further.
'Killing Eve' airs on Sundays, at 9 pm, only on BBC America.