New season, new writer — same exact situation. Killing Eve’s second season picks up mere moments after where it left off last year when Eve (Sandra Oh) and Villanelle (Jodie Comer) finally reunited...only for Eve to go ahead and stab the Russian assassin in the stomach. When we last saw the women, Villanelle fled as Eve looked for a way to save her, starting their stylish game of cat and mouse all over again.
Since the Phoebe Waller-Bridge show (although the creator has taken a step back this season) goes to no pains to remind you what you may have forgotten during the series year-long hiatus, I’ll try to catch you up right now. Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) has fired Eve, but that’s okay, because we were suspicious of her anyways after seeing her secret prison meeting with Villanelle. Speaking of, The 12 are hunting down our favorite murderer after she killed her new handler and possibly also her old one, Konstantine (last we saw, she had shot him and run).
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Until they meet again, the best way to keep track of what Eve and Villanelle are up to is to follow each of their journey’s separately, in hopes that their two lines will cross a little sooner this time around than before.
Eve
Left with nothing but a knife covered in Villanelle’s blood, Eve correctly decides to make a run for it. As she flees Villanelle’s apartment building, she sneaks past a group of what appear to be medics. However, medics don’t usually shoot unsuspecting neighbors, right?
Outside on the street, Eve ignores the first of what will be many calls from Carolyn, who has a few questions about what her former employee is doing in Paris. Eve books it to the train station where she disposes of her bloody knife in a sanitary napkin receptacle in between feilding conversations from well-meaning strangers and suspicious security guards.
Once home, she’s still haunted by Paris. Pretty confident she killed Villanelle, Eve makes a call to see if any stab victims have been reported. Even though none have, this doesn’t stop her from utterly failing at making an apology roast chicken for Niko (Owen McDonnell). Distracted by her possible murder, she forgets to even put the chicken in the oven, only fueling Niko’s anger at her sudden departure and reluctance to tell him anything about her life. The only person Eve is able to talk to is a window salesman, whose “Unknown” call she answers out of fear that melts into relief as she encourages him to keep giving his spiel — anything to distract her from her current situation.
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She can only put reality off for so long. The next day, she meets Carolyn in the park and cops to going to Paris in search of Villanelle. But, she lies and says Villanelle was not in her apartment when she arrived.
Having forgotten that she fired her, Carolyn realizes she needs to hire Eve back, because there’s a puzzle that requires solving down at the morgue. A man’s death that was previously not considered suspicious has been cast in a new light after Carolyn found a note with his name on it written by Nadia (Olivia Ross) — addressed to Eve (we saw her slip that note back in season 1, but had no idea what was on it). Carolyn now believes this man was another one of Villanelle’s victims, and only Eve is obsessed — sorry, uh, knowledgeable — enough to know if it was Villanelle’s handiwork.
Eve has some questions of her own. Why is she here? And what was Carolyn discussing with Villanelle during their prison meeting? Carolyn shoots back with a “What really happened in Paris?” The women realize there are some questions that don’t need to be answered...yet. Either Eve works with Carolyn on tracking down Villanelle, or she goes into witness protection. Guess which one she picked.
Back at home, Eve and Niko come to an understanding. She doesn’t need to apologize, she just needs to talk to him — starting with the fact that she bought a shitton of expensive windows.
Villanelle
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The only clue we get about where Villanelle has escaped to is in the form of a single bloody handprint. As Eve flees the scene of Villanelle’s apartment, our assassin is hiding out behind a gate on the street. She watches those suspicious medics remove the body of the woman they shot, and overhears them talking about their intentions to capture Villanelle.
After they leave, Villanelle begins limping through the streets of Paris, clutching her stomach wound and pouring alcohol on it from a bottle she finds on the ground. In order to get herself to a hospital without arousing too much suspicion, she jumps in front of a taxi. The driver frantically delivers her to the emergency room, under the mistaken impression that it was his car that caused her stomach injury. When Villanelle awakes, she’s in a hospital bed.
Without identification and thanks to the sus nature of her injury, the doctor says it’s standard practice to call the police. Villanelle, master of lies, concocts a story about an abusive husband, and says that calling the police would put her in danger. The doctor agrees to not get the authorities involved, but says once he’s off his shift that evening, the next doctor might not be so lenient.
With the clock ticking, Villanelle befriends the young boy in the bed next to her, Gabriel. He was significantly injured in a car crash that killed his parents, and half of his face is bandaged. Villanelle, ever the empath, takes advantage of him and convinces him to sneak out and get her a hospital badge. As a master of disguise, this is all she needs to pose as a doctor and sneak into a medical closet to get herself some bandages and medication. She stores her spoils in a briefcase, and on her way back, gets distracted by an abandoned purse in another room. As she’s rifling through it, the purse’s owner returns. Thinking Villanelle is a new doctor assigned to her husband, she asks for an update on his condition. Villanelle fibs her way through the conversation, and tells the woman that her (obviously dying) husband is recovering well. As they embrace, she steals her wallet.
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Back in her room, Villanelle realizes the wallet she stole doesn’t have more than a few coins, and Gabriel says he doesn’t have any money either. In the midst of all this, Villanelle passes out, and when she wakes up, it’s time to escape.
Before she leaves, she kills Gabriel out of, dare I say, sympathy? Or perhaps it’s pity. His quality of life would have never been the same. She dons one of his pajama onesies and escapes from the hospital in a wheelchair. From there she hitchhikes to a gas station, where she then crawls inside the trunk of a family’s car. Villanelle is back.
Best Villanelle disguise: The optimistic doctor.
Worst Eve lie: That she, even for a second, had no interest in returning to work and hunting down Villanelle.