Killing Eve Season 2 Episode 2 Recap: It's More Complicated Than We Thought

Not that it comes as a shock, but Killing Eve is officially more complicated than we thought. While last week's season 2 premiere reintroduced us to our star-crossed lovers-slash-murderers, this next episode zooms out to give us a much bigger, confusing picture. For starters, it introduced the possibility of another long-running female serial killer, which Villanelle (Jodie Comer) certainly won't be happy to hear about. It also revealed that our assassin is back with The 12, but she's no longer anyone's golden girl. What happens to Villanelle when she's on a tight leash? Nothing good, that's for sure.

While this episode doesn't give us the reunion we, Villanelle, or Eve (Sandra Oh) was hoping for, it plants some compelling seeds. If Villanelle didn't kill Alexander Peele, who did? What plans does The 12 have for Villanelle now that they finally have her under control? And if you scream "EVE POLASTRI!!!!!" into a phone three times, will Sandra Oh appear?

Ahead, read up on what exactly went down on season 2, episode 2 of Killing Eve.

Armed with superhero pyjamas, Crocs, and all the antibiotics she could need, Villanelle exits the trunk of the strangers she hitched a ride back to England with, only arousing suspicion when one of the sleeping children spots her exit. However, a quick “shh” and the matter is solved — but a whole new problem is unfolding.

While sleeping at a laundromat as a single pair of underwear tumble dries, Villanelle’s medication is stolen, leaving her gaping wound open to all kinds of infection. To get help, our mismatched heroine takes to a grocery store, and manages to convince a seemingly harmless man to rescue her from her made-up abusive husband. The man, Julian (Julian Barratt), takes her to his home, which is filled with porcelain dolls belonging to his ageing mother. However, that explanation doesn’t cover his other weird behaviour, which includes locking the windows and doors and becoming increasingly possessive of the assassin while at the same time refusing to get her the medication she needs.

Villanelle is left alone in brief chunks at a time. During one, Julian’s mother tells Villanelle to be “careful” of him, but it’s unclear if that’s the dementia talking or her genuine knowledge of what the man is capable of. Regardless, Villanelle would do well to heed the warning, because his behavior goes from creepy to downright psychotic when he realises Villanelle is trying to make a phone call.

First, she attempted to call The 12, but they would not help her. Then, she tried to get connected to Eve, but the automated MI6 answering machine couldn’t recognise the name through Villanelle’s heavy accent. However, Julian interrupts the call, and takes the whole phone out of the wall in response. While Villanelle initially tries to cover her tracks by saying she was ordering him a surprise cake, she abruptly breaks character to launch a full-on attack. Julian gets in a few jabs, including a close call via strangulation, but it’s of course Villanelle who emerges victorious when she stabs a knitting needle into his neck.

When she exits the house, there’s a car waiting for her outside — but it’s not Eve. It’s her new handler, and he is not as charmed by her as Konstantin (Kim Bodnia). “Circumstances have changed,” he says, echoing Carolyn’s line to Eve from the previous episode. He locks Villanelle in the car with the coveted antibiotics and drives away.

Eve’s storyline this episode begins, as most good storylines do, with a Bing search (seriously — why do so many characters in TV shows and movies use Bing instead of Google? No shade to Bing). Still on the hunt for stab victims in France that may or may not be Villanelle, her search is cut short by Niko (Owen McDonnell). While she has finally opened up and told him a decent amount about her work — Alistair Peele’s death, her lingering grief about Bill — she’s still not ready to come clean about her connection to a certain Russian assassin.

Luckily, however, her new job is all about just that. She has been hired back as an “outside expert” on female assassins, along with Kenny (Sean Delaney) from her previous team. New members include Jess (Nina Sosanya) and Hugo (Edward Bluemel), the latter of whom is convinced Eve and Kenny are having an affair due to their whispered conversations.

However, their whispered conversations are actually about the fact that Eve stabbed Villanelle, meaning she’s withholding information from an investigation that she’s working on. On the bright side, Eve points out, now so is Kenny.

After giving a recap of what her previous team dug up, which was just as much for the viewers as it was for Hugo and Jess, Eve shows her hand a little, drifting off into thought about the murderer. For good reason, though, because Villanelle has been thinking about her. That night, during another stab wound search, Eve comes across a news item about the murder of Gabriel, last episode’s hospital patient. In the crime scene photos, Eve sees the boy is holding an apple with a bite taken out of it — just like the apple another Eve you may remember takes a bite out of in the Bible. This is clearly a message from Villanelle, and the hunt is back on.

But not the hunt Eve thought. Upon investigating Peele’s death further, Eve realises it was too simple — an injected air bubble under the toe that went undetected? Villanelle likes to make a splash. An interview with Peele’s two children confirms it: They don’t recognise Villanelle as a possible woman who could have come in contact with their father, so that must mean there’s a new female serial killer on the loose.

This new specimen, according to Eve, is Villanelle’s opposite: A middle-aged immigrant who goes undetected. But this doesn’t mean Villanelle is out of the picture, especially because Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) has received a recording of Villanelle’s cries for Eve Polastri on the phone. They trace it to Julian’s house, but when they arrive, Villanelle is gone — or, just gone. As Villanelle’s car drives away, it passes Eve on the street.

But that’s not the craziest moment from this episode. No, that happens at the very end, when Carolyn takes Eve to her house...and Konstantin is waiting on the sofa.