Ugh, I'm more attached than I'd like
Apr. 21st, 2022 05:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessKilling Eve 4.5 Don’t Get Attached
It started off a bit disparately, and I thought at first the flashback scenes in black and white were stylistically incompatible with everything else, but they grew on me. Still, all the strands made for an uneven tone - in the present day, Carolyn seemed to be doing straight spy stuff, Eve continued her self-defined mission while avenging herself on Helene for releasing Villanelle (and I would finally grasp that Hairy Chest’s name is Yusuf), while Villanelle was still in Havana and looking as if she was going to get trapped into avenging abused women, which I’d say was a decentish channel for her talents, but was surely a narrative dead end. Seeing that for herself, she got out of that role quite quickly, bus I was slow to see that Konstantin would be her abusive figure.
The episode started coalescing – granted, I was disappointed that they pulled Carolyn’s father into her backstory, and it’s not been explained how a group of anarchists turned into the 12 as we know them (or think we know them) even if quite a few had hidden agendas and links to established security services. Still, Imogen Daines was very convincing as young Carolyn, and seeing her and young Konstantin was poignant, made more so when Carolyn reached out to him now and reminded him of what we’d seen between them. But with that and Eve kidnaping Helene’s daughter and…giving her an adventure and probably being nicer than Helene I felt we were seeing things we’ve seen before.
Pam tried to forge her own her own path into assassindom. Margate remains an excellent punctuation point to more traditional spy locations. At least the boy at the fair didn’t get killed, just kinda used and partly rejected, while Pam failed to grasp that she had him in the palm of her hands. Poor Pam, I thought, assuming she’d be disposable.
Carolyn found her target, ‘Lars’, by which time we’d had more typical Killing Eve conversations then and now between her and others, so it felt less like mature spy revisits her past done straight.
Villanelle wore the kind of thing Pam couldn’t with aplomb, and had a moment with Konstantin, which in hindsight, as much as the title, was leading up to the big moment. The music was Not Subtle about Psyche/Cypid = Eve/Villanelle and Yusuf did warn Eve that messing with Helene was dangerous, and we knew they weren’t anywhere near ‘Lars’, but I couldn’t read any of the notes or messages, and only presumed Karolina was fiddling her ring in the present, instead of being able to make it out, so I wasn’t likely to deduce they were in Margate from visual cues. Especially as I’ve never been to Margate. But I should have sussed they were still in the UK.
So, Eve watched Villanelle get shot/killed? (And Helene apparently didn’t see the murderous rage coming in response to that!?) If they were expecting a big response from the audience, I’m rather numb, because I doubted they’d kill Villanelle off at this point, frankly, however much the build-up. She was going to meet Konstantin’s trainee before her (hope she wasn’t the rubbish tall lady assassin) who he called crazy (which presumably means very crazy) and so all three protagonists would be going after the 12 in their own ways. At most, I was thinking I’d be sulky if I was wrong and they weren’t just messing with us and Eve.
A couple of days later I watched 4.6 Oh Goodie, I’m The Winner
Villanelle was not dead then, just shot with an arrow. Good job an embalmer was around to offer medical attention.
Compared with previous eps this series, this ep was full of meaty encounters between Eve and Villanelle, with Villanelle saying she was done with her, Eve saying that thinking Villanelle was dead had been the worst, Villanelle still saying she was done with her, Eve babbling about her revenge obsession. Villanelle later proved she was not done done with Eve by giving her a tip on that. And then Eve got to not stop/help and watch Villanelle kill Helene, who had tried to kill her. Nice/gruesome touch by starting near the feet if it was such a big thing for Helene.
And then Villanelle left the murder scene and Eve and found the crazy assassin before her. In an episode that was full of lady on lady wrestling, they had a wrestle, realised they’d met their equal and had a laugh.
Eve wasn’t laughing what with Villanelle pushing her away, her not catching up with Helene and Carolyn in time for their meet – the interaction with the German taxi drivers willing to be bribed was funny. She eventually caught up with Carolyn, seemed to listen to her plea for time, but got impatient, and killed Lars before Carolyn had got her name from him, and Carloyn rather bleakly pointed out that someone else would replace him. Less bleakly, she looked about his pockets and got a promising notebook.
Carolyn’s explanations of the original anarchist 12 getting corrupted by power made sense to me and answered that question. Are we meant to recognise Helene’s father too? So, for Carolyn it’s all about Kenny’s killer, who may be ‘the head’ of the 12. I’m not sure they can make that a satisfying revelation or endpoint, tbh.
Her trying to pretend she was hugging a tree was amusing.
Meanwhile Pam resented Konstantin trying to talk her out of going down this path, which made sense when she talked about what Helene believing in her had meant to her. She was assigned Frenanda, found it tough, but did it. Oh, okay, she had grasped that carnie boy liked her – I liked him after he responded after the skating snub that he got it and was going to leave her alone. Poor baby assassin. Presumably Helene’s last order of a job for her is still in train, and my impression was that Villanelle was the target.
Apart from groaning aroud Margate, Villanelle’s injury didn’t seem to be slowing her much.
There are moments of glory and it’s generally entertaining enough, but based on everything that’s happened, with two to go, I’m dubious about how they’ll pull it all off.
[Edited for typos 14/1/25.]
It started off a bit disparately, and I thought at first the flashback scenes in black and white were stylistically incompatible with everything else, but they grew on me. Still, all the strands made for an uneven tone - in the present day, Carolyn seemed to be doing straight spy stuff, Eve continued her self-defined mission while avenging herself on Helene for releasing Villanelle (and I would finally grasp that Hairy Chest’s name is Yusuf), while Villanelle was still in Havana and looking as if she was going to get trapped into avenging abused women, which I’d say was a decentish channel for her talents, but was surely a narrative dead end. Seeing that for herself, she got out of that role quite quickly, bus I was slow to see that Konstantin would be her abusive figure.
The episode started coalescing – granted, I was disappointed that they pulled Carolyn’s father into her backstory, and it’s not been explained how a group of anarchists turned into the 12 as we know them (or think we know them) even if quite a few had hidden agendas and links to established security services. Still, Imogen Daines was very convincing as young Carolyn, and seeing her and young Konstantin was poignant, made more so when Carolyn reached out to him now and reminded him of what we’d seen between them. But with that and Eve kidnaping Helene’s daughter and…giving her an adventure and probably being nicer than Helene I felt we were seeing things we’ve seen before.
Pam tried to forge her own her own path into assassindom. Margate remains an excellent punctuation point to more traditional spy locations. At least the boy at the fair didn’t get killed, just kinda used and partly rejected, while Pam failed to grasp that she had him in the palm of her hands. Poor Pam, I thought, assuming she’d be disposable.
Carolyn found her target, ‘Lars’, by which time we’d had more typical Killing Eve conversations then and now between her and others, so it felt less like mature spy revisits her past done straight.
Villanelle wore the kind of thing Pam couldn’t with aplomb, and had a moment with Konstantin, which in hindsight, as much as the title, was leading up to the big moment. The music was Not Subtle about Psyche/Cypid = Eve/Villanelle and Yusuf did warn Eve that messing with Helene was dangerous, and we knew they weren’t anywhere near ‘Lars’, but I couldn’t read any of the notes or messages, and only presumed Karolina was fiddling her ring in the present, instead of being able to make it out, so I wasn’t likely to deduce they were in Margate from visual cues. Especially as I’ve never been to Margate. But I should have sussed they were still in the UK.
So, Eve watched Villanelle get shot/killed? (And Helene apparently didn’t see the murderous rage coming in response to that!?) If they were expecting a big response from the audience, I’m rather numb, because I doubted they’d kill Villanelle off at this point, frankly, however much the build-up. She was going to meet Konstantin’s trainee before her (hope she wasn’t the rubbish tall lady assassin) who he called crazy (which presumably means very crazy) and so all three protagonists would be going after the 12 in their own ways. At most, I was thinking I’d be sulky if I was wrong and they weren’t just messing with us and Eve.
A couple of days later I watched 4.6 Oh Goodie, I’m The Winner
Villanelle was not dead then, just shot with an arrow. Good job an embalmer was around to offer medical attention.
Compared with previous eps this series, this ep was full of meaty encounters between Eve and Villanelle, with Villanelle saying she was done with her, Eve saying that thinking Villanelle was dead had been the worst, Villanelle still saying she was done with her, Eve babbling about her revenge obsession. Villanelle later proved she was not done done with Eve by giving her a tip on that. And then Eve got to not stop/help and watch Villanelle kill Helene, who had tried to kill her. Nice/gruesome touch by starting near the feet if it was such a big thing for Helene.
And then Villanelle left the murder scene and Eve and found the crazy assassin before her. In an episode that was full of lady on lady wrestling, they had a wrestle, realised they’d met their equal and had a laugh.
Eve wasn’t laughing what with Villanelle pushing her away, her not catching up with Helene and Carolyn in time for their meet – the interaction with the German taxi drivers willing to be bribed was funny. She eventually caught up with Carolyn, seemed to listen to her plea for time, but got impatient, and killed Lars before Carolyn had got her name from him, and Carloyn rather bleakly pointed out that someone else would replace him. Less bleakly, she looked about his pockets and got a promising notebook.
Carolyn’s explanations of the original anarchist 12 getting corrupted by power made sense to me and answered that question. Are we meant to recognise Helene’s father too? So, for Carolyn it’s all about Kenny’s killer, who may be ‘the head’ of the 12. I’m not sure they can make that a satisfying revelation or endpoint, tbh.
Her trying to pretend she was hugging a tree was amusing.
Meanwhile Pam resented Konstantin trying to talk her out of going down this path, which made sense when she talked about what Helene believing in her had meant to her. She was assigned Frenanda, found it tough, but did it. Oh, okay, she had grasped that carnie boy liked her – I liked him after he responded after the skating snub that he got it and was going to leave her alone. Poor baby assassin. Presumably Helene’s last order of a job for her is still in train, and my impression was that Villanelle was the target.
Apart from groaning aroud Margate, Villanelle’s injury didn’t seem to be slowing her much.
There are moments of glory and it’s generally entertaining enough, but based on everything that’s happened, with two to go, I’m dubious about how they’ll pull it all off.
[Edited for typos 14/1/25.]
