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'Killing Eve' season 2 finale deconstructs Eve as a psychopath while questioning her feelings for Villanelle

While season 1 was mostly about establishing how different Eve and Villanelle are, season 2 was about pointing out just how similar the two are. Until the very last moment.

This contains spoilers for season 2, episode 8: 'You're Mine.'

It is easy to go out with a bang at the end of a season if there have been ample loose ends sprinkled throughout that can be tied at the end of an epic finale. But the beauty of 'Killing eve's season 2 lies in how effortlessly the ends were tied while taking us through a step by step replay of the previous season's finale. That, and of course, the deconstruction of the titular MI6 agent Eve Polastri as a psychopath, which the second season had spent the majority of its time building her up to.

In that, while season 1 was mostly about establishing how different Eve (Sandra Oh) was from her target assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer) even though the two got involved in a sexually charged cat-and-mouse game of two, season 2 was about pointing out just how similar the two are. In the previous episodes, we have seen Eve getting psych evaluation by experts to check whether she is, in fact, a psychopath, and/or capable of working alongside Villanelle on their latest assignment. And as Eve's marriage to Niko crumbled, it almost seemed like season 2 would finally give us the 'normal' life that Villanelle wanted with Eve. Major spoiler alert, but none of that happens. The big finale aka episode 8 of season 2 might be titled 'You're Mine,' but it culminates with the firm reminder that perhaps in this life, Eve and Villanelle will never be each others. Why? Purely because even though Villanelle would give her life to turn Eve into someone like her own self, they are still very different people at the core. 

So here's basically what happens: At the end of everything, it turns out that Eve's boss, Carolyn Martens (Fiona Shaw) had planned the whole hire-Villanelle-as-an-undercover-spy to help them take down the villainous Aaron Peel (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) situation, only to kill him. The man is weaponizing data like the monster he is, and he isn't a pioneer in the field, but like Carolyn points out, killing him makes one less monster going ahead with those plans. So discarding their pre-planned code of conduct, Villanelle uses the safeword during a breakfast at Peel's hotel.

Meanwhile, a hitman arrives to seemingly kill Eve and her coworker, Hugo, but worry not. Eve makes it till Peel's hotel and it looks like their plan is compromised; that is until Peel asks Villanelle to come work for them instead of the MI6, and Villanelle very craftily does what she does best: she kills him. Thus begins the action-packed section of the episode, as Eve and Villanelle flee from the hotel to go seek refuge elsewhere, but the two eventually have to separate, which becomes the pivotal twist in the tale.

As Eve returns to her hotel room, Carolyn visits her and explains their whole plan to a very frantic Eve. This obviously makes Eve feel like a pawn as Carolyn explains that Villanelle ending up killing Peel works in their favor because she is after all a professional assassin who works for The Twelve. Sadly, however, Villanelle wasn't working for The Twelve; she did what she did just to save the two of them. At this point, it is not hard to feel sorry for the psychopath assassin. The lovesick puppy in her is so certain that she and Eve are alike that she even defies Konstantin's (Kim Bodnia) requests to run away with his car and leave Eve behind. When asked what it is about Eve that draws her, she explains "We are the same," - something that the second season of the show spends almost eighth episodes trying to establish.

But of course, they aren't. Villanelle goes back to Eve's hotel to save her and she even manages to coax Eve into killing one of The Twelve's many assassins, Raymond, who was sent to kill Villanelle. Eve then made the decision to stay back for Villanelle, despite being offered a perfect escape route by Carolyn but nothing works out between the spy and the assassin. The teasing nature of the show's exceptional writing in terms of both individual characters and subplots comes into brilliant play at this point because the closer we - as a viewer - think we are close to seeing Eve turning fully into Villanelle, the farther we get from that ultimate moment of closure.

Of course, Eve and Villanelle manage to avoid whatever's stopping the potential star crossed lovers, but as the two of them roam amidst the ruins of Roman architecture, it finally hits that this is where everything crumbles. This is also where the throwbacks to season 1 come in full swing: Eve is still pretty shaken after committing her first murder, but there's a smug look of sheer ecstasy on Villanelle's face that hasn't left her lips ever since Eve killed Raymond. Just like the season 1 finale, Villanelle talks about the prospective normal life she and Eve could share now that they are the same. And just like season 1, Eve acts upon her better judgment upon spotting a gun in Villanelle's hand. Eve realizes Villanelle wanted her to kill that man just for leverage, and she outright denies the prospect of becoming the Bonnie to Villanelle's Clyde. 

As Villanelle tries to convince Eve saying "You're mine", the scene between the two portrays two psychopaths very clearly in love, but the more one of them insists it's real, the harder the other one tries to deny it all.  "I thought you were special," says Villanelle as Eve walks away from her - and just like season 1 showed the culmination of the chase in a brutal murder attempt - we see Villanelle pull out her gun and shoot Eve, before walking away from the scene. It's only poetic after all this while that Villanelle, who has spent the most part of the show trying to prove that she and Eve are meant to be, gets the last shot if you will. Take away her psychopathic tendencies and murderous instincts, and you will see that Villanelle is just trying to show Eve the light. Sadly, as of now, Eve's moment of clarity only made things worse.

'Killing Eve' aired its season finale for season 2 on Sunday, May 26, at 9 pm, only on BBC America.

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