Killing Eve Season 2 Finale Recap: If You Need Any Help, Just Axe
Killing Eve wrapped up its sophomore run with plenty of bloodshed, of course… but the deepest wounds might’ve actually been on the inside.
Sunday’s Season 2 finale opens with Villanelle (as “Billie”) snooping around Aaron Peel’s grand palazzo and discovering his creepy surveillance set-up. She finds videos of her sleeping — and of Aaron killing another girl in the same bed she’s sleeping in. During a casual breakfast chat with him, Villanelle lets the word “gentleman” slip (the safe word), which sets off alarm bells for Eve. She begins to rush off… but when she calls for Hugo, she doesn’t get a response. She hides under the bed as a faceless tough enters and scans the room before leaving, and when she emerges, she finds Hugo lying in the hallway bleeding out. She leaves him there, though, with only a note; Villanelle is in trouble!
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Actually, she isn’t: When Eve reaches Aaron’s palazzo, disguised as a maid, Villanelle is still calmly eating breakfast with Aaron. He recognizes Eve right away, and Villanelle drops the “Billie” accent, which pleasantly surprises him. She mentions she’s seen his “movies,” and he’s clearly smitten with her. He even asks her to come work for him: “Neither of us will ever be bored again.” Her first assignment: to kill Eve. Villanelle grabs a knife from the table and asks Aaron, “Do you want to watch?” When he nods, she savagely slits his throat, holding him in front of a mirror: “Then watch this.” Bye, Aaron: You were… well, as Villanelle puts it, “a dick.”
As Eve and Villanelle escape, Villanelle says she didn’t mean to use the safe word (“gentleman” is a very common word!) and asks if Eve happened to see a small redhead hanging around, meaning her old handler Raymond. (That was him and his cronies from The Twelve infiltrating Eve’s hotel.) But Eve is freaking out about how they weren’t supposed to kill Aaron, and Villanelle has to slap her across the face to snap her out of it. (“Like hiccups.”) Eve sprints back to the hotel, with Villanelle promising to pick her up later, and finds Hugo gone and her room cleared out. She panics even more when she hears a knock at her door: It’s Carolyn.
Her team cleared out Eve’s room, she explains, and she’s not too upset that Aaron died: “a bit clumsy, but not a terrible result.” It dawns on Eve that MI6 wanted Aaron dead — his surveillance tech was a threat to national security — and Villanelle’s been kept off the official books the whole time to cover her tracks. “Villanelle simply did what she does best,” Carolyn coolly admits… “and so did you.” Meanwhile, Villanelle bumps into Konstantin, who warns her that Raymond is after her and offers her a car to get away — but she has to leave Eve. Villanelle is hurt: “I thought we were friends.” “We are,” Konstantin replies, “but we’re not family.” Villanelle refuses to abandon Eve, and threatens Konstantin as they part: “I will find you and your family.”
Villanelle arrives at Eve’s hotel, tucking a tiny pistol into her pants, and runs straight into Raymond, who’s holding a fire axe rather menacingly. She taunts him, but he realizes Eve is in the hotel, too… and when he races to find her, Villanelle engages him in brutal hand-to-hand combat. He gets the best of her and is choking her up against a wall when Eve sneaks up behind, holding the axe. Raymond laughs her off, confident she won’t hurt him — until she plunges the axe straight into his back. Raymond staggers back, and Villanelle shouts at Eve to hit him square in the head. Eve does, with a sickening thud… and Villanelle, spattered with blood, is delighted.
Eve is about to be sick, but Villanelle orders her to “swallow it” and, seeing Raymond’s goons gathering at the front door, leads her out through a back alley to safety. She guides a shell-shocked Eve through a labyrinth of underground tunnels, giddy about Eve’s first kill. (We also see Carolyn hand Konstantin an envelope, and him walk off without a word. Hmmm… payment for killing Aaron?) When Eve spots an exit on the other side of a wooden barrier, she angrily smashes through the barrier to get through… and Villanelle is impressed. They emerge at the site of some ancient Roman ruins, and Villanelle is already making plans for their future together: a spaghetti dinner tonight, then a flight to Alaska to start a new life.
But when Eve spots Villanelle’s pistol, she’s stunned that she didn’t just shoot Raymond and realizes: “You wanted me to do it.” Villanelle grins, but Eve suddenly announces she’s going home, and when Villanelle tries to touch her, Eve pushes her away. Villanelle is confused: “You love me. I love you.” Eve fires back: “You don’t understand what that is.” Villanelle shouts, “You’re mine!” before adding, “I thought you were special.” Eve says, “I’m sorry to disappoint,” and as she walks away, Villanelle’s face turns cold… and she raises her pistol, firing a single shot. We’re left with Villanelle walking off alone… and Eve lying in a heap on the ground.
Alright, Killing Eve fans: Give tonight’s finale — and Season 2 as a whole — a grade in our polls, and then hit the comments to share your post-finale thoughts.
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