Killing Eve Boss Explains the Series Finale’s Killer Twist, Talks Crafting an Ending That ‘Felt Right’ (Grade It!)
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Sunday’s Killing Eve series finale.
Well, to paraphrase Game of Thrones, if you thought Killing Eve would have a happy ending, you weren’t paying attention.
Sunday’s series finale did see Eve and Villanelle mend fences and join forces, embarking on a giddy road trip together — didn’t The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” just sum up their relationship perfectly? — and sharing a kiss before setting their sights on The Twelve. They tracked the shadowy cabal down at a secret meeting amid a wedding on a riverboat, and Villanelle gleefully slaughtered The Twelve’s leaders as Eve got roped into performing the wedding ceremony. Her words doubled as a declaration of her feelings for Villanelle, too: “Relationships are a lot of work… The beauty in your relationship will be found in the ways you reunite.”
So they lived happily ever after, right? Well, not quite. As Eve and Villanelle celebrated their victory on the boat’s deck, a sniper bullet pierced Villanelle’s flesh, followed by several more. She fell into the water, and though Eve jumped in to save her, Villanelle’s lifeless body was pulled away by the current, and Eve was left screaming to the heavens as we learned Carolyn had ordered the hit (!), with the text on the screen announcing: “The End.” Well, then!
After we recovered from all that and picked our jaws up off the floor, TVLine reached out to lead writer Laura Neal to break down that roller coaster of a finale. Read on for Neal’s explanation of why Villanelle had to die, why it doesn’t matter who actually pulled the trigger and what was behind Eve’s final scream.
TVLINE | So we almost got a happy ending, but then Villanelle is gunned down and killed in the final minutes. Was there ever a possibility that Eve and Villanelle could live happily ever after? Or was this always meant to end in tragic fashion?
We discussed lots of different versions of the ending, so we certainly discussed an ending where they both live happily ever after. But our problem was that we couldn’t really imagine them doing so. [Laughs] We couldn’t imagine a world where Eve and Villanelle could exist in domestic bliss for very long. I think the way we tried to explore that is that we put them in quite a lot of domestic situations in Episode 8 itself. So it’s almost like lots of the story is them trialing their relationship in different formats and testing it and seeing how it works. And I think they come to the conclusion, and then I hope we as an audience come to the conclusion, that they are fated for something a little bit more explosive — which is what happens.
TVLINE | Did you ever consider killing Eve off, too?
Yep, we did have a version for a while where — not written, not at the script stage — but we discussed Eve dying and Villanelle surviving. It just didn’t feel very truthful. It didn’t feel right for us. It felt right that Eve has this rebirth and is allowed to go on and forge a new life for herself with everything that Villanelle has given her. And it also felt right for Villanelle’s story to end as it does. She’s somebody who is sort of forged in death and destruction, and part of her loves that as well. We see that when she’s killing The Twelve. That’s her place, that’s where she belongs. So it felt appropriate that she comes to an end in that way as well. But also, in my head, it is a happy ending for Villanelle in some respects, because she gets what she wants, which is that she demonstrates that she’s changed, and she does this thing for Eve that allows Eve to go on and live her life. Actually, that’s a huge thing for Villanelle, and I think she ends triumphantly, and that’s the thing that we were always really keen to make sure that happened.
TVLINE | Yeah, I could see that as a happy ending for Villanelle because she was able to take down The Twelve and find happiness with Eve, however briefly.
Exactly. That’s exactly how I hope the audience looks at it as well. And for me, there’s a sense that she doesn’t really die. She just sort of ascends to a higher place. I think there’s a nod in the visual references to the visions that Villanelle sees in Episodes 1 and 2, and we sort of see a hint of that in the underwater scene at the very end. So hopefully, people can see the line I’m drawing between the religious iconography that Villanelle conjures in 1 and 2 and the way she ends.
TVLINE | Eve and Villanelle do get to have that fun road trip together. We’ve been waiting for four seasons for them to have time to themselves and not have to be running around or chasing each other. It was nice to be able to see that.
Yeah, totally. It felt really important to see their relationship dynamic in a way that I imagine both of them have imagined or have asked themselves the question: “Could it work between us?” And then to have the space to trial that out… I think it’s quite unusual in this show to have that space, both emotionally and in terms of the plot, to have them come together without any distractions and without any other characters there and just have this space, emotional and geographical, for them to exist in each other’s company and really test out what that’s like.
TVLINE | The “Don’t You Want Me” song that came on the radio during the road trip: It felt like that’s Eve and Villanelle’s theme song. How did you guys decide on that song? Did you always have that in the back of your mind, that you wanted to play that at some point?
We had a couple of songs at that moment. We always knew it had to speak in a sort of cheeky way for the nature of their relationship. There are a few contenders, but that one just felt exactly right. Like, as soon as we heard the lyrics, it was like, “That one.” And also, it’s just a banging track.
TVLINE | So we know Carolyn ordered the hit, but who actually pulled the trigger? It wasn’t Pam, was it? Because she had already quit. Or does it even matter?
I don’t think it matters. I think the thing that matters is that it’s Carolyn who’s giving the orders, which is the thing that she loves to do. Pam rejects the idea of working with Carolyn, and we see her reject that in the scene that they have opposite MI6, and for me, that’s Pam’s happy ending. It’s her realizing that she’s not cut out for this world. At the point where she decided to commit herself to the world, it was really her only option of escape, and now she’s learned that there are other options. So for me, that’s sort of Pam’s happy ending. I think people can decide who pulled the trigger. In my mind, it doesn’t really matter who pulled the trigger. I think, you know, it’s just someone with a gun, sniper-wise, hiding out on Tower Bridge.
TVLINE | On Carolyn’s end, was this just an effort to try to tie up loose ends? Because Villanelle was sort of a wild card that she could never really control.
I think it’s about ending the story that Carolyn began, and Carolyn wanting to have that power. She was the one who brought Eve and Villanelle together, and now she’s going to be the one to tear them apart for good. I think there’s something very Carolyn about deciding to do that. But also, I guess more practically, it’s about Carolyn buying her way back into MI6 and sort of regaining her crown, I suppose. I think she’s somebody who needs that status. We see her status-less at the beginning of the [season], and I think she ends with her status regained. In some ways, it’s a cyclical journey for her, but I think she has to win, Carolyn, and I think she can say at the end that she’s won.
TVLINE | We don’t get to see what happens to Eve. The last thing we see of her is her thrashing in the water and screaming. Did you talk about where she might go from here, or did you always want to leave it unresolved?
We spoke about it loads, but we spoke about very particularly the nature of that scream and the nature of her emerging from the water. I had lots of discussions with Sandra [Oh] about that moment, and also with Stella [Corradi], the director. Because for me, it felt really important that that scream be a scream of survival. It’s like, there’s a triumph in that scream. It’s like, “I survived. I’ve got new life. I’m going to go on, and I’m going to live, and I’m going to live well,” rather than a scream of loss or grief or anger. And I think it’s all of those things as well. But I hope the defining feeling that people have when they’re watching her scream like that is that it’s a kind of release of everything that’s come before and a welcoming in of the next stage of her life.
TVLINE | The way the episode ends, it’s so abrupt. It’s a real gut punch for the viewer. Did you always want to have it lead up to those final minutes and then just pull the rug out, and that’s it?
Yeah, I think there’s a kind of a tonal continuity for Killing Eve ending in that way, especially with the titles coming up, saying “The End” like that. We wanted to make sure we were still, even though it’s the very final scene, existing in the same tonal world as Killing Eve has always existed in, which is a bit tongue-in-cheek, which is a bit self-aware, which doesn’t take itself too seriously. So that was part of the intention there. And I think it’s always better to leave people wanting more.
Alright, Killing Eve fans, it’s your turn: Grade the finale — and Killing Eve‘s final season as a whole — in our polls, and then hit the comments to share your thoughts.
It didn’t feel right for me. Quite displeased. Sub par ending.
It was the right ending. Villanelle’s both a loose end and a loose cannon and can’t be left in the wind. Sorry, but that’s the intelligence game. Eve is also a loose end and I promise you the sniper was also aiming for Eve and Villanelle took those bullets instead. So what happens now? Well Carolyn thinks Eve was hit and drowned in the Thames, and of course Eve goes after Carolyn. She was already willing to kill Carolyn earlier, and now she certainly is again. Heck, she pretty much has to, or Carolyn will eventually decide to go after her again.
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All you people wanting Eve and Villanelle to like, ride off into the sunset in a porsche or something . . . did we watch the same show? Villanelle is a psychopath. Guess what? You can’t change or cure that. You can teach a psychopath to control the behavior. But it’s never “real.” They’re always “acting.” Villanelle may find her interactions with Eve the most rewarding in her life (and THAT will invariably change eventually, because familiarity breeds boredom), but that doesn’t mean Eve is actually important to her. And that means that, sooner or later, she will kill or at the very least leave Eve. There is no “happy ending” for them. It doesn’t exist. Because, when it comes down to it, Villanelle isn’t exactly human.
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And Eve will eventually remember what Villanelle is–it will be thrown in her face, sharply, by something Villanelle inevitably does. Her willful delusion about what she is, because she loves her, will be stripped completely away. And then she will hate herself for being with Villanelle. And then she will either leave, or kill her, or kill herself. And so: yep, what I’ve just described in the previous two paragraphs is this show in a nutshell. There is no “out.” There is no changing the nature of their relationship and dynamic to something more positive. It’s just a hamster wheel. It goes round and round until the hamster dies–or in this case, Villanelle.
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Awfully entertaining to watch, and fascinating, and interesting. And in this case, stylish, too. But how were you expecting anything different?
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Oh but they totally banged in that camper though. Right after the kiss, they got in the camper and Eve gave a little thrilled laugh while the camera stayed outside. And then we see Villanelle driving and she keeps looking at Eve. So was that not obvious? OBVIOUSLY they banged, c’mon.
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I’d have liked to see Villanelle really murder the Twelve in a highly choreographed, creative, entertaining, inventive way. The way it was edited, it was almost boring. But maybe that’s the point. Remind us how brutal and uncaring she actually is, right before she dies.
While the mini novel you wrote has points of merit, the ending still sucked.
Oh, and I’ll just add: Villanelle didn’t sacrifice herself to save Eve. She didn’t see someone pointing a gun at Eve and selflessly throw herself in front of the bullet because she cares about Eve or because she’s capable of putting someone else in front of herself. She was fatally shot first. And then, when she knew she was mortally wounded and would not survive, she chose to save Eve before she died. But only because she couldn’t have saved herself at that point.
If that’s true, then the ending makes no sense. If I’m to make any sense of this ending, it’s that Villanelle finally discovered what real love is and put Eve’s safety before her own, when she pushed her off that boat. That’s why in the end, we see Villanelle with angel wings. She has redeemed herself through an act of love.
I like that Michael. Now that makes sense.
I’m with Michael on this one. Villanelle was shot first in the shoulder, which wouldn’t have been fatal, Matt. She realised what was happening, that the shot had come from behind them, and put herself between the shooter and Eve, to protect Eve as much as she could (because she loved her, regardless of everything that had happened between them). She then told Eve to jump into the water and went with her. The fatal shots didn’t come until she was in the water. , The Elle.com interview with Jodie, Sandra Oh and Laura Neal explains it all. It also suggests that Carolyn meant to kill them both, but Villanelle’s actions saved Eve, at least physically. I hate to think how Eve would survive emotionally.
Not sure those first shots were fatal. Shoulder shots, definitely!
Loads of good points, and I agree with a lot. However I do think they have shown a much more ruthless and dark Eve this year. Yes, Villanelle killing Bill will always cut Eve, but she’s done some pretty bad things herself and might be more forgiving but I couldn’t see either of them lasting long without pissing off the other!
Agreed. Villanelle had more kills, but Eve’s personality saw a deep dive into negativity. She was mean and callous. I didn’t like Eve at all this year, so close-minded and obsessed with the Twelve. Although she showed a momentary reprieve in episode 7, wondering whether it had all been worth it, it didn’t stop her from continuing to pursue them. Imagine if she hadn’t, if she’d listened when Carolyn said they would simply replace the members, over and over again. The outcome would have been different, but then there wouldn’t have been a show.
As much as I like happy endings and wished they’d had one, I expect Chris is correct, the relationship likely would not have lasted very long. Eve thought they would consume each other (season 3 finale) and she could never really forgive Villanelle for killing Bill – recall the conversation in the camper van. Also Villanelle said at the bothy that Eve had been “a lot” today to which Eve responded she was always a lot.
We have to remember that these two have only ever shared a few genuine, personal conversations with each other, that weren’t ‘work’ related, or adrenaline fueled (like after Eve had killed Raymond and they were on the run). When she does let her guard down, Eve might say something personal, thinks that’s all that needs to be said, without considering Villanelle’s feelings, then almost immediately mentions The Twelve again.
In the end, good, honest communication is the key, and trying to understand the other person, yet still we play games….
Rubbish ending. What’s the point in it being called killing Eve if Eve lives?
Doesn’t make any sense whatsoever
the OLD eve, doing crosswords on a lazy sunday over a cuppa, is DEAD.
I fully expected them BOTH to die in a blaze of glory because Villanelle is obviously awful, and Eve uncovered her awful side and embraced it. Villanelle only dying makes sense as well. HOWEVER!! They did it in such a piss poor boring way that played into so many old boring tropes. I just can’t get over how objectively bad it was. It was straight-up distrespectful to the characters and viewers.
“All you people wanting Eve and Villanelle to like, ride off into the sunset in a porsche or something . . . ”
Which is what happens in the book.
Yes, realistically “EveVill” , I thought that they were going to be an item in the end. I expected both to die, but Villanelle would only continue killing more people whether those people were bad or not, she wasn’t mentally well. Eve was just an object of her obsession and vice versa.
As for Carolyn having a spin-off, meh. She is was one of the least exciting characters on the show.
It’d be Villanelle, Constantine, Eve, because let’s face though I’m glad Sandra Oh received an Emmy for her role as Eve, her character would’ve been far less interesting if Jodie Comer hadn’t played opposite her as Villanelle.
Yes I agree as much as I have love Sandra Oh from Arli$$ and Grey’s! Jodie made this show. Loved her in this so much and yeah Kim Bodena as Konstantin was up there too.
Its not that we wanted them to ride off in the sunset to Happily Ever After. The ending absolutely sucked as one of the worst ever written, with no suspense or creativity of the first 4 seasons. The cast and fans deserved more.
Boring last episode and then the end was so abrupt and short, almost seamed like it wasn’t the end. And that 1 more episode could have been had.
The person who wrote the show did NOT say Eve was also a target. The writer knows best.
I saw Eve’s scream as a scream of grief. Not joy.
If you read the Elle.com interview with Laura Neal, Jodie and Sandra about the finale, in the final paragraph Laura Neal says, about Eve, “She’s escaped. Carolyn thinks she’s dead. She can have the life that she chooses to live now. In my head, she’s going to take everything that Villanelle has given her into this new version of her life. And Villanelle will live on in Eve.” If this was reported accurately, then it would seem to indicate that both Villanelle and Eve were targets. It also gives more weight to the Villanelle sacrificing herself to shield Eve to protect her from being shot.
Definitely grief.
Did anyone absolutely think that she was screaming for joy and happiness? Wow
well…if “The writer knows best.” you should know that season 4’s head writer laura neal has expressed in no uncertain terms, that eve’s scream was one of SURVIVAL, neither joy nor grief but simply a cathartic expulsion at having come out with a whole skin.
I don’t care what the writer says she herself wanted it to be; Sandra Oh made it a scream of shock, rage, grief… no apparent catharsis. Whether Sandra Oh meant to or not, that’s what she did, maybe subconsciously. As It Should Be.
villanelle is all too human, in fact she’s not much different than carolyn all things considered. & she & eve aren’t ‘in love’, they’re co-dependant. not sure i wanted or NEEDED to watch a stylized bloodbath of the 12 in that finale, after all this is just a tongue in cheek campy romp that seems to be channeling late 60’s fare like modesty blaise, the avengers, the girl from u.n.c.l.e. et al that needn’t drill down on graphic violence. that being said, the finale was a tad abrupt & perfunctory. & these 2 actors & characters (eve & villanele) seem to be in 2 separate movies really.
Okay – they cut my last reply (I assume because i posted a video to make my point) and my point is: All relationships are co-dependent to some degree. Eve and Villanelle were as IN LOVE as a trained russian assassin and a secret service agent could possibly be.
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks”
I liked it. I’m not sure I would have gone the same route and killed Villanelle, but it does make sense as an ending. Overall, I thought the 2-hour finale was well-paced, tidying up the loose ends while still leaving plenty of good character moments. Loved the road trip, though Carolyn’s “Keep your mouth closed; I’ve just seen a dead fox” probably wins as my favorite line of the episode.
2 hour finale??? Mine was 42 minutes!
The last 2 episodes aired back-to-back.
It depends where you watched. On AMCplus episode 7 came out last week and episode 8 this morning. BBC America aired episode 7-8 back to back tonight
Yeah I was way confused. Especially since according to Google there were 10 episodes so I thought there were two more coming. Someone set me straight 🤣🤣
The ending just feels wrong to me, it’s like they just couldn’t wait to kill villanelle. Not the ending I was expecting.
I don’t know how to grade it. I loved all but the last 4 or 5 minutes. That I hated.
I agree with you-How to rate it when I hated final ending.
Same. It’s like Moulin Rouge – it ends at chapter 32 so it has a happy ending.
Horrible ending. And if Laurie thinks we are buying eve’s scream being an I survived and moving on scream and not a scream from losing Villanelle she’s crazy.
I loved this show. I loved Eve and Villanelle‘s chemistry. For it to end like this is a maddening letdown.
Yes Eve’s scream was total loss and pain not what the showrunner said it was. Frustrating ending.
Lol what did you think would happen………
I loved and hated this series finale at the same time. Absolutely HATED Konstantin dying-I wanted him to survive. Loved Pam turning Carolyn down-she deserves a real life. Hated that Carolyn got her status back ans never cared about Kenny’s death at all. Loved that Eve and Villanelle had their love, short-lived as it was, and loved that they got the Twelve. HATED VILLANELLE’S DEATH. This season needed another couple of episodes-they ended everything too abruptly. :(
And why no beautiful and wild outfits for Villanelle??????!!!! That completely bites.
Definitely thought they would do an outfit change before getting on the boat, but plot-wise it did make sense for Vilanelle to be dressed like a worker
Tonight I did have sweater envy, loved the Irish sweater Villanelle wore. But nothing like the power golf outfit from last season or the bright colors from Havana.
Villanelle would have gotten bored with Eve fairly quickly and would probably killed her so for Eve the best possible ending if you actually cared about Eve, which I didn’t.
I don’t think Villanelle would have killed Eve, not if you go back to Villanelle’s therapy session with Martin where she said she wouldn’t find it boring, because it was Eve. Clearly Villanelle, in her own way, loved Eve more than vice versa. Or perhaps Eve simply couldn’t accept her attraction to Villanelle until it was almost too late.
This will end up ranking as one of the worst series finales.
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Loved “A Bothy (Google it)”. Loved the entire visit with the kidney-swap couple and the camper van road trip. Loved Eve dancing at the wedding.
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Hated, loathed, despised the abrupt ending. That’s not keeping it tongue-in-cheek. Even Konstantin got a better send-off. This was brutally abrupt and is a disservice to the two leads.
I agree. The ending was too abrupt. They could have given it at least another minute for us to be ready! I knew Villanelle was going to die in the end. It had to be. But Carolyn !! What a shock! But she did say she was faithful to nobody!! And I think that may have convinced Pam to not trust her!
If she thinks the lesbian fans are going to ever watch the Carolyn spin-off, she’s nuts. The last couple minutes were unnecessary and cruel, especially after finally get Eve & Villanelle to find each other. The writing of most of season was weak. It was only saved by the chemistry of Jodie Comer & Sandra Oh.
Mostly, f the writers. If they had to kill them, then kill them both. This was garbage writing. More “burying the gays.”
“More ‘burying the gays.’”
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And yet: “If they had to kill them, then kill them both.”
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¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Killing them both doesn’t leave one behind in grief. They were both killers, so if they had to pay for their crimes, fine. But to torture Eve after she finally found some joy with Villanelle is cruel. Eve isn’t going to start her “new life”, she’s going to hunt and punish Villanelle’s killers.
I’m a straight fan, and after that ending I’m not going to watch the spinoff either. Yes, kill both, or neither. This was cruel to the fans and cruel to the characters.
Seriously?! I thought TV had learned from Lexa’s death. Stop burying our lesbians! Ugh. Terrible finale to such a promising show. Neither Eve nor Villanelle deserved *this* ending.
They should have ended in a posh hotel room , bloodied clothes on the floor, and Eve turns to Villanelle and says, you want to watch a movie?
Yes!
And that movie would have been ‘ An Affair to Remember’!
or maybe “modesty blaise”?
Well…That’s certainly a way of ending things…Not what I would have done exactly…But certainly a choice
If you didn’t like that, idk you have no taste. They never should have had a happy ending and the concept of the show was always to end Villanelle and The 12. Villanelle died with happiness and redemption. The tarot card reading in particular with genius. An all time favorite finale already.
(Side note: all four seasons, every online opinion of this show (“It should have ended after one season” / “It was better with PWB writing”) I’ve seen has been rough and frankly out of touch. Not surprised there are so many wrong people polling!)
One of the worst series endings ever. Laura Neal is one of the worst showrunners ever. Look at the poll results – the fans have spoken.
Well, I think the ‘shippers’ have spoken. I’m not sure how anyone could have stuck with the show for 4 seasons yet expected a happy ending!
Exactly!! What show did they think they were watching? Good art is not “what I want to happen will happen or else I will give it an F”
A show that’s based on books that ends with a happy ending with the two ladies together? I don’t think it was crazy for so many fans to expect that since it’s how the books ended.
The books the show is based on have a happy ending though. So yeah it makes sense that they’d write it that way and that the fans would expect it.
Right, because anyone wanting a certain ending must be a “shipper” and their opinion can therefore be disregarded, because “ugh, shippers”, is that right?
Yes, thank you for summarizing it so succinctly. The showrunner’s job is to make an interesting and dramatically satisfying finale—not to just give the audience what they want. Even Romeo & Juliet ended with a pile of corpses.
I thought the entire final season was terrible 😕
I thought they really weren’t clear about the characters and their motivations since season 2 (or even season 1), but it was still entertaining to watch. And even though their feelings for each other seemed to get more and more conventionally romantic as the series went on, there was always a risk that either Villanelle or Eve would kill the other — so a happy ending really did seem out of the question.
Wow as if that horrible ending and lazy writing killing off Villanelle wasn’t bad enough. This interview proves Laura Neal knew nothing about the characters of Eve and Villanelle separately or together and especially didn’t understand the fans and why they watched. I’ll just go on believing Eve ended up drowning due to her not wanting to live without Villanelle instead of thinking she was excitedly screaming about her rebirth.
I disagree. The writers knew more about these characters than they’re given credit for, after all they created and moulded them. I expect both Jodie and Sandra contributed to the creative process and the story of the characters as well. Some writers may take into consideration the opinions of fans, but to write simply for the Popular Vote, goes against the grain, nature and purpose of writing to spread a message. Why write something trite that will easily be forgotten when you can write something controversial, that people will remember, whether they liked it or not, provided the outcome doesn’t go against the real core of the character, or the essence of who they’ve become. You can’t please everyone.
I’m sorry but saying you can’t please everyone is a complete cop out. No you can’t but you know what pleases most people? When the leads survive.
This show has overthrown Game of Thrones for having the worst ending of any show ever made in the history of television
I was thinking the same thing.
GOT ended way too quickly, Even 2-3 more minutes of dialogue would have worked a bit more magic.
This ending could have given even 1 more minute to feel Eve after Villanelle sinks in the water and leaves Eve. Her pain and grief a bit longer. Her loss. Not a rebirth!
Boy that was a choice to end it that way…I was in shock when” the end” poped up.. .as I’ve had time to think on it, I kinda get what they were going for but it’s gonna no doubt hurt the legacy of this show…it was a gutsy move.
I thought for sure Eve was a goner as it is called killing eve after all. However, Villanelle did some irredeemable actions during the course of the series , like murdering the girl and her father earlier this season, thus I don’t feel like that character deserved the big happy ending. In that sense I’m ok that she didn’t make it but I do think it was all handled way to abruptly and I don’t blame anyone who is unsatisfied.
Didn’t love it, didnt and hate it. It has been rote watching since season 2. It never felt right to me for Eve to forget the way Bill was killed and it was horrible to me the way Eve was written. So glad after all that Kirby was gone after season 1 and eventually Kenny. I would never have bought a happy ever after for the two. The scene was badly done but the outcome was the right one
Spot on. And although I appreciate it may not have made a lot of sense the way events evolved in the last season, it was terribly disappointing not to be able to enjoy Villanelle’s sartorial splendor one last time.
Hey guys it’s me Laura Neal! Eve goes back to her normal life! It’s her rebirth through the death of her dear friend Villanelle! That’s all for now bye 😀
Highly doubtful this is the actual showrunner but anyway. The Eve we all know and love will not go back to her old life. The Eve we know will stoo at nothing until she hunts down everyone responsible for the death of Villanelle. I used to beg people to watch this show. Now I’ll be warning people not to. Shame.
I thought it was amazing *chefs kiss” .. I absolutely loved this series & its one I will watch again & again… if you are a TRUE killing eve fan.. you definitely wouldn’t disagree with the ending, AFTER reading this interview (it took me a moment to register, I wanted the ending explained/ & after understanding it… I definitely loved it!!) Hands down, amazing writing & helluva DIFFERENT & INTERESTING & all around amazing show. Thank you!
Agree!
1000% agree. This show has always been a gut punch. Having them have some overly happy ending would not have made sense in the end. Loved Villanelle (and Eve) , but a happy life was not in the cards. No matter what the book did.
That does not make any sense and I don’t know any fan that viewed it that way. This seems like the whole of the last season was thrown together in a weekend with lazy, trite writing that lacked the creativity and suspense of the first 4 seasons. It is not that Villanelle and Eve did not ride off happy into the sunset. Its just the whole last season was boring, disjointed and just plain awful.
You say that you watched the ending before you wrote thid blog. Specifically… ‘a sniper bullet pierced Villanelle’s flesh, followed by several more. She fell into the water, and though Eve jumped in to save her’
But Villanelle yells for Eve to jump, shields Eve as they go to the edge, pushes her in first, then Villanelle follows into the water seconds behind.
It changes the meaning of Villanelle’s story doesnt it. She finally cared for and sacraficed herself for Eve. For love.
Thats what the writer you interviewed, Laura Neal, meant when she said…
‘ it is a happy ending for Villanelle in some respects, because she gets what she wants, which is that she demonstrates that she’s changed, and she does this thing for Eve that allows Eve to go on and live her life. Actually, that’s a huge thing for Villanelle, and I think she ends triumphantly, and that’s the thing that we were always really keen to make sure that happened’
So how did you mess up so badly? Did you actually watch it or skim it?
You werent very observant and in your rendition, you entirely mislead your readers in a very profound way. You mistook The End and its true meaning for Villanelle, the actual hero of her own story and Eve’s.
Sad.
Having said all that… this ending was trite. Boring. Amaturishly predictible for a regular show.
And thats the problem. Its appeal was that it wasnt any type of regular show and the writers F’d up. Its as bad an ending as LOST was… total betrayal to the show itself and the fans thst it cultivated. Two thumbs down!
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing when I read the beginning of this.. HAHAHA she definitely tells eve to jump after being shot… she didn’t get shot & fell into the water
Exactly. That person either did not watch it or did not pay attention when she did. What a miss!!!
You know your writing is bad when you have to give a post-finale interview and elaborate that Eve’s scream was about having a new lease on life, and not, as everyone who watched the darn thing could tell, that it was really about rage and grief.
If you have to explain what you thought you were doing, you didn’t do it.
Agree. It was about loss and rage and grief. No way a new lease on life. I will miss this series!
People –
Villanelle is a murderous psychopath. She has killed a lot of people in very gruesome ways and she enjoyed it. IN season 1 she killed 23 people.
She does not deserve a happy ending. You dont kill that many people and just walk away with your soul intact.
Although, got to love that fashion sense. lol
Person –
Thanks for the moral. That’s why I watched Killing Eve. For the moral. Had Villanelle lived I might have been led to believe that killing was good. /end sarcasm
Seriously, what kind of enjoyment do you get out of such a show and such outrageous characters if you watch them through this basic good/bad dichotomy?! Did you watch the Dexter finale and thought “well good that he ends up alone, he’s a killer”?
I don’t think Killing Eve was ever made for people to judge the real-world moral implications of what the characters do and I certainly don’t think that “deserve” has anything to do with the ending we got. Does a character that has had a 4-season-long redemptive arc deserve to die so unceremoniously, before she and the audience even get to any form of catharsis? Does that make dramatic sens? I don’t think so. And that’s all that matters in the end: whether or not the ending satisfies an audience has nothing to do with characters getting what they deserve, certainly not in Killing Eve, but everything to do with the emotional and dramatic resonance of the ending in regards to the whole show. Laura Neal seems to have been more preoccupied with closing the loop on her own season (the callback in the final shots to the Jesus imagery of the first episodes) than on the whole show. What pisses of people who hated the finale is not that the characters didn’t get a happy ending, it’s that the ending they got rings hollow and that the finale season barely resembles the show they love. I think it’s incredibly short-sighted, condescending and insensitive to think this is just a case of people wanting a “happily ever after” ending.
It’s no wonder why Sandra and Jodie barely promoted the season. Not even an interview for a post series questionnaire. They deserved better. The fans deserved better. It’s clear that Laura does not know or care about what her audience wants.