'Killing Eve' Season 3 Episode 1 Review: Villanelle's murderous comeback rivals Eve's return from the dead
Spoilers for Season 3 premiere
After a whole year of excruciating waiting, we finally learn the aftermath of that devastating cliffhanger that 'Killing Eve' Season 2 ended on.
Villanelle (Jodie Comer) and the titular Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) were at the Colosseum in Rome and after a whirlwind cat and mouse chase when Eve finally admits that she doesn't want to be a part of Villanelle's world anymore, the Russian professional assassin shoots her right in the chest — leaving the MI6 agent to presumably bleed to death.
Of course the ultimate didn't happen as Eve is alive and well at the onset of Season 3. And even though she insists she is done with being a cop hunting down professional assassins, the moment Villanelle sets foot into what she does best, Eve's return to the MI6 becomes inevitable.
When we meet Eve in the season premiere, she is visibly lost — shopping for a bunch of junk food and instant noodles at the local supermarket. She goes through the cliched struggling woman sequences — the one where your grocery bag tears and all the contents fall on the road, and you live in a tiny apartment cluttered with books and belongings you have no idea why you still own.
She is working in the back end of a Chinese restaurant, chopping raw meat and wrapping minced, cooked ones into dumplings. Eve is leading the quintessential quiet life, with Niko still recovering at an institution and their divorce finalized.
She sees him twice a week and the rest of her social life involves her manager, the predominantly Chinese staff at the restaurant, and of course, Kenny — Carolyn Martens' (Fiona Shaw) son.
Much like Eve, Kenny has chosen a life of seclusion, working as an investigative reporter now. Yes, he still lives with his impossibly-hard-to-please mother who has a hard time taking her son's "website" reporting seriously, but that's not what Kenny is pissed about.
He still wants an apology for the lies and unauthorized risks Carolyn had taken for her pursuits in Season 2 and the catastrophic aftermath of it all, but she doesn't quite see the sense in it.
It's ironic, considering at work Carolyn is facing the consequences for the same, as a rival from her past — your typical condescending, sexist prick from every workplace — is asked to oversee their cases following the last assignment.
Shaw is crisp as ever as the no-nonsense MI5 boss reminding us why it's a privilege to work anywhere in her vicinity, but things don't always end well for the best of people and in this scenario, it's both Carolyn and Eve suffering the consequences.
Eve might think she has got the quiet life sorted, away from the chaos of Villanelle's eccentricities, but here's the catch: Villanelle gets married. It doesn't sound all that terrible for Eve, but right after getting married, Villanelle absolutely ruins the wedding starting a full-on fistfight with an older woman present at the venue, who turns out to be sort of a handler for the assassin.
Now in Barcelona, while Eve is in London, Villanelle resumes her elaborate murder scenes the moment she gets another assignment as the vicious mercenary. This time it's a spice business owner who falls prey to Villanelle — this time dressed as a delivery executive.
The murder isn't all that creative, as all Villanelle does is pull the ladder from under the owner's foot, causing the woman to fall. She doesn't die right away though and tries to choke Villanelle from behind, but we all know how that turns up.
Gleeful and joyous about getting to smash her head in with one of the giant jars in the shop, Villanelle's aura radiates brighter with Comer channeling her Emmy-winning quirks into the character.
In all of this, much can't be said about the script yet, probably because of what Phoebe Waler Bridge and Emerald Fennell have already delivered in the past two seasons.
And on that note, Suzanne Heathcote's season takes time to strike the right chords, at least in the season premiere which peaks only in its final moments when Eve sets up sort of a date with Kenny and arrives at his office only to witness his murder.
Tragic, and heartbreaking as it is, Kenny falls to his death from the top of the same building where his office was and Eve is the first one to spot him — meaning she has to be the harbinger of the devastating news for Carolyn.
It could be a personal enemy of the MI5 boss or even someone from The 12 returning for vengeance. But knowing how brimming with spite Villanelle still is about Eve — as is clear from her wedding speech where she can't stop talking about her difficult breakup and how glad she is that her ex is dead — there's a high chance that she killed Kenny.
If not, the season might follow suit of its preceding installment and require Eve to rope Villanelle's brains into the MI6 to solve murder mysteries. And once again, we all know how that turns out.
'Killing Eve' Season 3 premiered on April 12 with weekly episodes to follow on Sundays at 9 pm only on BBC America.