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whosscruffylooking · 3 years

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Promotion (Aaron Hotchner x Reader)

oh geez...this is my first time ever publishing my writing, especially a reader insert. a little cheat sheet: any time the writing is in bold and is italicized, it’s the readers inner monologue (aka my thought process while writing 🤪)

Warnings: None. Angst? Maybe? And then some fluff at the end.

Words: 1.4k

“Although Freud said happiness is composed of love and work, reality often forces us to choose love or work.” -Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Perhaps it was the speed at which his heel was tapping against the floor of his office, the pale color of his knuckles as his grip tightened around his pen, or the way he anxiously kept running his hands through his hair.

God, I'd love to run my hands through his hair. Now is not the time.

For the past twenty minutes, you've found yourself captivated by your boss's troubled appearance. Aaron Hotchner is notorious for being stoic and virtually unreadable. He once stared down the barrel of George Foyet's gun and boasted that he wasn't afraid of him. But here he was, visibly distraught, and all you want to is run to his aid. That's all you've wanted to do for the past three years that you've been a profiler with the BAU.

In all fairness, Aaron was a very closed-off man. He rarely brought his work home with him and never brought his home life to work. Somehow though, you've managed to break that barrier. Even if only slightly. You'd been there for him in his darkest hours, refusing to let him push you away because you knew that if you'd allowed that, he'd suppress himself to death.

Much to your surprise, he didn't put up much of a fight. Instead, he opened himself and his home up to you. He let himself be vulnerable, and he let you help him explore the dark inner workings of his mind. You did so without trepidation, and slowly, you found yourself falling in love with him. You knew the feelings weren't reciprocated, though. At least, you told yourself that. In some twisted way, you'd reasoned that if you refused to acknowledge that he may feel the same, it would make it easier to deny yourself the ability to love your superior. It's wrong. Unprofessional. It could only end in disaster.

Yet, here you are, timidly knocking on the door to his office. Your heart is beating out of your chest, your hands clammy, your teeth drawing blood from your bottom lip.

"Come in," his husky voice mumbles.

Opening the door, you make your way to the chair across from him at his desk. You cross your legs and anxiously pick at the skin around your nails. He looks up from his paperwork, his bloodshot eyes meeting yours, "Can I help you?"

You swallow the lump in your throat, "I can tell somethings wrong, Hotch. You finished your reports an hour ago, and for the past twenty minutes, you've been staring at the same piece of paper, agonizing over it. I haven't seen you like this since-"

Since the divorce papers.

You shake your head, choosing to gloss over that thought, "Is everything okay?"

Silence pierces the air. A pit forms in your stomach. A glossy haze clouds Aaron's eyes, and a small gasp escapes your lips as you notice it.

"Aaron? Aaron, what's the matter? What's on the paper?"

"It's my letter of recommendation for you. You've been chosen as a candidate for the Counterintelligence Division."

You freeze and stare at him with wide eyes. Unable to gather your thoughts or formulate the right words, or any comments for that matter, you sit in silence with him.

Wait. His eyes were watering. Why would he be tearing up?

He's the Unit Chief; his job is to lead his team and hopefully mentor them into a position where they can advance when fit. In fact, he told you after your first year with the unit that he could see you achieving the goal of progressing to Counterintelligence and eventually to FITF.

Is he not happy for me? Proud of me? Of course, he is. He's always wanted me to succeed. This couldn't possibly be because...oh. Me too, Aaron. Me too.

You take a deep breath. Someone has to break the silence...again.

"When would I find out whether or not I got the promotion?"

"First, you would go through a series of interviews and tests before solidifying your position. My recommendation is merely to give my stamp of approval for your transfer."

You let out a stumbled scoff, "Right. You are just giving me your permission to leave. And that's what you want? For me to leave?"

He furrows his brow, "That's not what I meant. You know that."

"Do I, Aaron?"

The honorable and upright team leader reluctantly turns the piece of paper around, pointing out the empty signature line.

"This is what I've been agonizing over. I'm torn y/n because, on the one hand, all I want is for you to live your life with no regrets. To achieve all that you've worked so hard for. And on the other hand, all I want is for you to stay here with me..." he stutters, "With us. The team."

Did SSA Aaron Hotchner just say he wants me to stay with him?

A pink hue paints his cheeks, and you feel yours heat up to match his. You're in disbelief. In one night, it's as if all of the things you've ever wanted have come to fruition, and yet you realize that you can't successfully have them all. Being in Counterintelligence would take you away from your home, your family, the man you're in love with. But if you stay with the BAU, you can only imagine the repression of dating your supervisor; Strauss would not make your life and job easy. You need to make a choice.

Tears sting your eyes, and you can feel your heart yearn for the man sitting across from you.

"Aaron, can I do something wholly unprofessional and beyond all sound reason?"

Aaron narrows his eyes, trying to read exactly what your motives are; his posture straightens as he recognizes your shared longing. He quickly nods and stands up. You mirror his actions and meet him halfway.

Whoa. He's tall. Very tall. And his face is very close to mine.

With bated breath, you gaze into each other's eyes as if asking for permission one last time. It's now or never. As if in complete synchronization, you both lean into one another, claiming each other's lips. He gasps softly, earning a slight chuckle from you. Your entire body tingles, and his hands find their way around your waist, squeezing your hips softy.

He's good at this. Too good. I'm not complaining though.

It's as if his lips are a paintbrush and yours are his canvas. You should pull away, but you're being held captive by his touch. It's as if you both have been starved for year's and your hunger is finally being satisfied. Nothing could taint this moment.

Except...lungs. Stupid, lungs gasping for air.

Forced to separate yourself from him, you touch your forehead to his, determined not to break all contact.

His smile glistens as a small laugh escapes his lips, "You have terrible timing. I had finally convinced myself to sign the document."

You adamantly shake your head, "No. No, I don't want you to sign it. I want to stay. Stay here with the team. I want to stay here with you."

He clears his throat, his voice hoarse, "This job opportunity is too good to pass up y/n."

"No, Aaron Hotchner, you are too good to pass up," you say, pressing your palms to his chest and peering into his beautiful chestnut eyes.

"Well then," he pushes a stray strand of your hair behind your ear, "Looks like I get to boss you around for a little while longer." A devilish smirk spreads across his face.

"Not too fast. I do have an idea of something else you could sign for me."

"And what's that?"

"A check for a raise?"

A hearty laugh echoes from his chest through his office, "I'm gonna kiss you again instead."

"Oh yeah?" You smile, lacing your fingers around his neck.

"Oh yeah." He encloses his lips on yours once more.

It's in that moment when his scent is filling your lungs, his touch imprinting on your skin, and his lips leaving you addicted and craving more that you realize you made the right choice.

No job or promotion could ever give you the feeling you have right now in Aaron's arms. You have never felt more alive than you do exploring your love for Aaron. The best promotion is going from being on the outside of his life to being the one that fills his heart.

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amillioninprizes · 2 years

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2021: A Year That Certainly Happened

In lieu of my traditional (lol I've done it maybe three times) "top ten things that happened to me this year" list, I'm going to share some of my favorite media that I consumed.

It is, in fact, the way in which I celebrated the victories of my personal life that inspired me to look back on the year this way. I had two major life events occur this year (advancing to PhD candidacy and a milestone birthday) that in normal times would have warranted some sort of party or trip but, due to the ongoing pandemic and the generally isolating nature of grad school, led merely to grabbing some more-expensive-than-normal takeout and watching my favorite shows at home. At a time when in-person socializing continued to be iffy, media helped keep me company, and will be what I remember when I look back on this weird time.

Music

In general, I felt like this year was somewhat weaker music-wise than the surprisingly fruitful 2020, but there was still plenty to enjoy:

-Marina: After the decidedly underwhelming Love + Fear, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land was a refreshing return to form. I know a lot of people though the more political lyrics were corny, but...I don't care, they spoke to me? Personal highlight: "Venus Fly Trap", which imo is a spiritual sequel sung by the more mature protagonist of The Family Jewels' "Oh No!", maybe my fave song by her.

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-Jessie Ware: What's Your Pleasure was my favorite album of 2020 hands down; somewhat surprisingly because up until then I had been pretty lukewarm on Jessie Ware as an artist. The deluxe version this year (released when she was like 38 weeks pregnant, btw) only enhanced this wonderful album, which is def not true of most bonus tracks!

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Her collab with Kylie Minogue, "Kiss of Life", was also one of the best tracks this year--why it isn't the #1 song in the world is a mystery to me. The Pedro Almodovar-inspired video is also amazing!

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-Go_A, "Shum": The Eurovision Song Contest has gotten less camp in recent years with the introduction of the combined jury/public vote system, but it has led to an increasing number of genuine bops making it to the final. This year in particular was one of the strongest in recent memory. While I liked the winner, Italy's Måneskin, my personal favorite was Ukraine's entry, "Shum" by Go_A. It's the perfect Eurovision song: it showcases the band's roots by being adapted from Ukrainian folk music (they even had to rework the song so it sounded less like the original) and using the Slavic White Voice vocal technique, while also being an outstanding pop song. Lead singer Kateryna Pavlenko's aesthetic is also impeccable.

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What can I say? TV keeps getting made and I keep watching. The first half of the year was pretty slow (likely bc of the early Covid shutdowns), but the summer onward was an embarrassment of riches.

-The Great S2: perhaps recency bias is at play, but my fav show of the year. It took everything that was great about S1 and turned it up to 11. Catherine and Peter really have the most twisted and fascinating dynamic of just about any ship (if you can call it that). Unfortunately it seems to have gotten lost among the holiday season as well as having to run against Succession S2--don't sleep on it. S2 Ep 5 is prob my favorite episode of tv this year.

-Call My Agent!: I spent much of the first half of this year watching foreign shows almost exclusively. This French show about a Parisian talent agency featuring cameos by stars of French cinema (and Sigourney Weaver!) playing heightened versions of themselves was perfect quarantine content--funny and heartwarming. I'm glad Netflix decided to order more after it was done. Also happy to see Camille Cottin blowing up!

-What We Do in the Shadows S3: another show that seems to live in the shadows (see what I did there) of more high profile comedies; it also continued to keep upping its quality this year. The image of the baron in the Barbie car is one of the most hilarious visual gags I've ever seen. And then there's this:

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-Succession S3: Too much digital ink has already been spilled on this show. It is really good, though.

-Never Have I Ever S2: possibly Mindy Kaling's best work? This show does a great job of keeping you invested in someone who can be an incredibly unlikeable character. Perfect soundtrack too.

-The Pursuit of Love: perhaps a bit derivative of Wes Anderson stylistically, but I still really enjoyed it. Yet another show that seemed to have gone under the radar (maybe due to the Lily James/Dominic West drama behind the scenes). Recommended for fans of all things Mitford (but srsly WHEN are we getting a mini series about them?).

-RuPaul's Drag Race UK, S2: I've finally reached the point of fatigue with the multiple international iterations of Drag Race; if you have a Wow Presents Plus subscription, you can be watching new Drag Race virtually every week of the year. That said, I have to shout out DRUK S2, which was even more engaging than the delightful S1, even though its filming was interrupted by the initial Covid outbreak in March 2020. Plus it gave us this banger:

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"New to Me" TV

Even though it seems like there's so much new streaming content that one could not possibly have the time to watch older shows, I still found the time to catch up with some older stuff that I had missed that warrant mention:

-Borgen: One of those shows that I had been hearing great things about for years but couldn't find until it came to Netflix. Let me be the first to ask where I can get merch that says "What Would Birgitte Nyborg Do?" I am a little bit worried about the upcoming revival season on Netflix, partially due to the fact that key characters are missing (always a foreboding sign for a revival, and already a problem in S3) but also because I wonder how the writers will reconcile Denmark's harsh anti-immigration measures as of late with Birgitte's historical pro-refugee positions (especially since she's apparently going to be foreign secretary!)

-Reboot-era Degrassi: Degrassi: The Next Generation was probably my favorite teen show when I was a teen myself. I fell off the show as the older group of characters that I liked graduated and it started to decline in quality, c. season 6, and kind of disdained the newer seasons without even watching them bc I felt like they were too glossy and conventional compared to the charming realism of the early TNG seasons (also Emma and Spinner got married, WTF?). Cut to earlier this year when, in a fit of nostalgia, I started watching the Degrassi channel on Pluto TV. I avoided the later seasons at first, but it ended up being hard since the show moved to a 40+ episode/season telenovela format starting in season 10, dropping the TNG suffix in the process. As it turns out, these seasons (well, 10-12, after which another period of decline set in) were actually pretty good--giving a much needed refresh to the series by severing ties with the first TNG group altogether and focusing more heavily on contained story arcs. Special shout out to the arguable emotional core of this era, Eclare (Eli/Clare), who have entirely too much chemistry for a PG-rated Canadian teen drama (and who I may or may not be writing my first ever fic about, oops); someone please get Munro Chambers and Aislinn Paul to star in a Canadian remake of Normal People, stat. Just look at them:

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-Insecure: This is one of those shows where I was lukewarm on the pilot so I never got around to continuing it, even as it amassed critical acclaim. I did start watching the final season since it aired after Succession and absolutely loved it, even though I've missed the middle 3.9 seasons. I still need to catch up on those, and will once I get a HBO Max login.

Movies

I usually don't see that many new movies in a year; TV is really more my vibe just bc I prefer longform exploration of character. That said I'll still seek out movies that look particularly interesting or appealing to me personally. The fact that so many movies debut on streaming now does make that easier.

-Barb and Star Go To Vista del Mar: After Bridesmaids, a new Kristen Wiig/Annie Mumolo joint is going to be a must-see for me. This was probably the funniest movie I've seen in years, but it seems to have slipped under the radar in the midst of streaming-only releases. Features possibly Jamie Dornan's best performance?

-Tick, Tick...Boom!: I know that liking Rent is uncool these days (if it was ever cool), but its soundtrack was formative for me, so I'm def up for any Jonathan Larson-related content. Andrew Garfield really captured the spirit of Jonathan Larson, and I felt like the movie's overall discussion of what it means to be an artist and keep pursuing one's dreams as one gets older was particularly resonant (especially as someone who just hit the same birthday Jonathan does in the movie). Also my former workplace is featured prominently in the background as IRL it's across the street from the former location of the Moondance Diner, and it was nice to see the movie take place in streets that are familiar to me.

Books

I'm the typical Millennial former bookworm-turned-internet addict with a destroyed attention span who barely actually reads anymore. I have found myself with more reading time as my work involves a lot of time on a microscope that takes 10 minutes to acquire one image. Now much of that time has involved re-reading the Princess Diaries series (I was deep in nostalgia mode this year) and scrolling through gossipy figure skating accounts on Twitter (spending 5-8 hours in a dark room is quite mentally draining) but I did manage to read one new lit fic book that came out this year:

-No One is Talking About This: On the one hand, I kept taking multiple screenshots of my Libby app because there were several quotes that were either super-LOL worthy or profound or both. It does rely heavily on references that will only make sense if you are Extremely Online, so I do wonder how it plays to people who aren't. I also wonder if people will even be able to read this book in 10 years time due to how specific it is to late 2010s social media. That said, it is an easy read and it takes a narrative turn that is completely unexpected.

YouTube Channels

I never really understood the appeal of YouTube channels as one's primary form of entertainment until I faced a particularly slow lab period between finishing up my classes and writing my thesis proposal. It turns out that there is actually more on there than conspiracy theorists! Here are some I listened to while playing games on my iPad this year:

-Trash Theory: Basically an encyclopedic guide to most of my favorite music, especially his "New British Canon" series. Soothing and informative; I've learned things about artists I thought I already knew everything about and gotten a better picture of artists I've only been a casual fan of.

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-Mic the Snare: Another music channel, I especially like his recently-revamped Deep Discog Dives on various artists; his reviews are generally well-measured.

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-The Skating Lesson: I've been following these guys since I started watching figure skating in 2018, but I want to give them a special shoutout for their coverage of all things Russian figure skating drama in the lead up to the 2022 Winter Olympics. They're divisive in the figure skating community for their gossipiness, but their info is generally legit.

#no one is prob going to read this but idc #I could include podcasts but this was getting too long #the year that was #acting like i'm some kind of tastemaker or something

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uservillanelle · 4 years

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Killing Eve ― 3x07 (Review)

Here we are. Already about to write a review to the second last episode of Killing Eve (Season 3). Not gonna lie.. I’m already having this bittersweet feeling, espcially knowing that next time I’ll be writing a review it will be the last one for a long time. I feel the hiatus until season 4 will be a LONG one, but I hope some of you guys will stick around, because I ain’t going anywhere! Alright, I guess we need to get going, shall we?

Villanelle & Helene

So, they were right about the fact that the Twelve is EVERYWHERE. Apparently they know and see everything, including what happened with Oksana’s family and what she did to her mother. I don’t recall Villanelle telling anything to Dasha about this. So far Konstantin is the only one who knows and I don’t think he would tell anybody about this. And now, Helene somehow knows it too and of course she’s using that information to further manipulate and affect Villanelle. I’m still ver torn about her... like, Villanelle is NOT the only one who finds her hot, okay? Camille Cottin is suuch an amazing addition to KE cast and I want her to stick around, buuut... Helene is trouble. She’ll have to go and we got a Villanelle line “Working out how I’d kill you.” this may very well be foreshadowing. Not only does she say it but Helene soon bites back with “You wouldn’t be able to, by the way.” “Wouldn’t be able to what?” “Kill me before I killed you. You’re a child. You have no idea what you’re messing with.” so what does that mean? Villanelle/Helene face off? She is still one of their best assets if not THE best, yet Helene chooses to bring her down by calling her a child. Helene has no chance against her.

Now, their first interaction was just as awkward and kind of weird with Villanelle making jokes about Helene trying to seduce her and all that and honetly, when I saw this scene and her getting to Villanelle like that, for a moment I DID wonder if she was actually trying to secude her and turns out she was mothering her... which means she knows Villanelle’s situation very well. Hitting all the right spots where Villanelle got teary in the first couple of minutes. This is NOT okay. But that’s how the Twelve view her. Helene’s entire speech about her being a Beautiful Monster is exactly how the Twelve see and value her. They wouldn’t want Villanelle to continue being this sensitive, vulnerable and emotional and the only reason why Helene did what she did is to gain information. Have Villanelle confess her “secrets” and feelings, but thank God Villanelle is smarter than that. I mean, it takes A LOT to get her to open up, even with Eve she sometimes kept her guard down so do we really expect her to open up to some stranger? Even if it was a HOT one? Don’t think so.

Another small detail I’d love to talk about is the INJURY. As soon as Helene asked Villanelle to show her injury I instantly thought about Eve’s stab wound and I don’t know why. Sure, she just got stabbed in her arm last episode and I completely forgot about it so... seeing Villanelle hesitate before showing the right place almost makes me think that.. maybe she also thought about the stab wound that Eve caused?

Also, random thought but I’m wondering if Helene and Paul are on the same level in this organisation. Are they like.. Keepers or something? Maybe they hold a higher position we aren’t aware of yet? Because I don’t think they are actually members of the Twelve. Though they could be very close. Like their right hand or something. And since we are seeing Paul back for the finale, will Helene be back as well? Imagine them both in the same place. That definitely would be an interesting duo to see!

Konstantin (ft. Irina)

Okay, so you’re telling me that Konstantin willingly brought Irina into that detention center?! Did someone call the cops on her? Her mother, perhaps? Because I just can’t see Konstantin doing something like this to his own daughter only to expect that she will soon be dischardged? It has to be the mother then, as we got a hint that the lack of empathy that Irina shows comes from her mother. Reminds me a LOT of Villanelle. And that actually sounds a lot like Tatiana... meaning Irina is really becoming Villanelle 2.0 plus Konstantin is no longer with her mother which brings the issue of father/mother abandonment. That, as we saw, causes attention seeking issues which Irina showed in the last episode. In terms of acting, I’m VERY impressed with Yuli this episode. I feel Irina has changed A LOT since last episode and I think only a day or two passed since then. It’s crazy. But the acting was soo on point and Villanelle-like.

I get that Konstantin is scared as to what is happening to Irina and seeing all of those traits coming out of her reminding him of Villanelle and how she alone is handful, he doesn’t want to go through the same crap with his own daughter. Then again, he should’ve seen it coming, but he’s just not around her enough as he’s been living this double agent life.

Everybody and everything seems to be pushing this poor guy towards a heart attack and this time he collapsed! Can’t you give him a break already? He’s the father of the show and we can’t lose him. Many thought that after that tran station scene that he died, but thankfully he seems to be okay at the end of the episode. Well, more or less. In a way I’m still scared that he might die in the finale... but they already had hinted it several times and even voiced that he might die and we thought he did. So... will they pull the same card twice? I’m not sure, but I won’t be letting my guard down yet.

The hospital scene is such a MOOD and I think it’s one of those scenes that we ALL relate to. I know, I do as I’m trying to handle KE stuff and manage my finals so yeeah, stress is a LOT. I’ve always loved Konstantin’s laughter but his hysterical laughter in this scene just KILLED me lmao!! I mean... he just had a heart attack, what makes you think he is NOT stressed?! I can only imagine how much shit he’s into at the moment so yeah, this is such a hilarious question!

Apparently Dasha is there as well! You know what it means? We will get Konstantin/Dasha interactions! We haven’t had any interactions between them yet so this will be interesting.

Let’s everybody pray daddy K survives this season! I’d rather have Dasha, Helene and Paul killed off all together than him. So let’s hope this is exactly what happens!

Villaneve

It’s been a while since the last time we saw Eve chase Villanelle. Or vise versa, even. The only time this season Villanelle “visited” Eve on the bus is when she had a job in London. What if she didn’t have to go to London to kill someone? Wouldn’t she want to see Eve again? That’s a bit painful to think about especially knowing that this was more Villanelle than Oksana as the first episodes took place before she went to Russia and to meet her family.She said she wasn’t ready to see Eve again at that time... and even now after the bus, she was all over the place and really hurting due to Tatiatna’s rejection and having to kill her mother. Does that mean that after all this Villanelle’s obession with Eve and the chase is fading or even completely gone? She seemed really happy to see Eve chase her and the train and so I think she is still intrigued by it, especially now that she saw Eve do it. Eve IS interested. Eve CARES. I still want to see them playing this cat and mouse game from time to time, but without trying to kill each other. They did that enough of times. So hopefully that part of them can still stay the same. Hopefully.

Every time Eve was trying to find/chase Villanelle before was to get to the Twelve. This season she is no longer working with Carolyn, so she doesn’t really have to search for Villanelle even if Carolyn brought up the fact that Villanelle was back in her old ways. Back then Eve refused to have anything to do with Villanelle and so far she wasn’t searching for her until this episode. Again, she says Villanelle is the best way to get to the Twelve, but I don’t really think Eve was so desperate to find Villanelle only for that. Especially after the face off she had with Dasha last episode... I think she just wants to see Villanelle and talk... maybe? She’s ready. Both of them are now. And yeah, I can only wonder what Eve could’ve told Villanelle if they actually met face to face this episode.I’d like to think Eve did all that AND left both Konstantin AND Dasha to die only to continue chasing her girlfriend. Let’s not forget Hugo’s situation last season which was completely the same lmao! Eve wanted to see Villanelle again. And in order to do so not only she digged through trash container, but encouraged Bear to illegally track down Villanelle’s card and she also went to Scotland and then to the damn train station only to meet her! She’s so whipped and WE LOVE TO SEE IT! I just wished she would’ve showed some of this determination in previous episodes.. it’s like she only “woke up” now and realized she was still very in love with Villanelle and wanted to see her again. It’s about TIME you two get together! We’ve been literally waiting for three years for this!

I don’t know why but for some reason I thought that as soon as Villanelle spotted Eve running after the train, she’d get up and stop it and then get off the train to meet her?! The writers wanted to tease us with this for sure, but if it wasn’t for the show... I think Villanelle would’ve done it. Again, another instance where Villanelle doesn’t feel as much need to meet Eve? The only gifts she sent to her this season was that teddy bear with the recording and the cake. That’s it. There were no other hints saying that she is thinking about Eve... and then it makes me go back to 3x06 to Konstantin and Villanelle’s conversation about how she will have to leave Eve behind and the only thing she said was “I know” and I’m pretty sure she was sincere about this. In a way I’d like to think she’s accepting that she needs to be able to let Eve go if she really loves her and at the same time I’m kind of concerned she’s not really... well, struggling with this choice... and if that was some kind of foreshadowing of Villanelle making the decision to leave Eve for good... I’m not even gonna go there.

I just have to bring up the LACK of Villaneve this season. We’ve got a 2-3 scene of them and that’s it. They didn’t interact much in season 1 compared to season 2 and even in season 1 they interacted more than in season 3! I REALLY hope all of this was leading to their reunion in the finale which will be ENORMOUS because they haven’t seen each other for so long and whatever happens.. their reunion will be special either way. Now, both of them went through a lot this season and there was a lot of individual character growth for both of them and I can’t believe Eve will be seeing Villanelle with her hair DOWN in next episode... you know what it means? She will be meeting OKSANA for the first time... and like I said before.. Eve and Villanelle might not work together that well.. but Eve and Oksana can and this gives me hope they WILL get together in the finale... because if they don’t... there is no way they won’t. It wouldn’t make sense. Why keep them separated for so long only to “confirm” their break up/end of their relationship? I won’t have that. But if they do end up together or at least head in the right direction... the whole season of waiting will be worth it. It will be so worth it... and seeing them slow dance together so calmly, without having them try to kill each other and just... be in each other’s orbit is just so.. beautiful? VILLANEVE IS ENDGAME! Period. I will so need that spare bed next to Konstantin in that hospital... because there’s no way I’m surviving that dance or even more Villaneve content.

Dark!Eve

I was soo sure Eve would finish off Dasha and she ALMOST did! I think she already knew Dasha was the one who tried to kill Niko, but having Dasha bring it up again while she was in a vulnerable state unable to protect herself just shows how narcissistic and over-confident she was being plus I think in a way she was STILL underestimating Eve. That entire scene...Dasha’s ribs were LITERALLY cracking! The look on Eve’s face... that sinister smile of pure pleasure, just the one like Villanelle’s hair pin kill... wow. WE LOVE TO SEE IT! There were way more dark!Eve moments last season and this season we didn’t really get any until now and I am livng for it! Dark!Eve rises... and she’s becoming more like Villanelle while Villanelle is becoming more.. human? It’s almost they are truly equal now, on the same page, on the same wave length and if that’s not a sign of Villaneve endgame I don’t know what is.

Since Dasha mentioned Niko’s mustache, I was sure that Eve wanted to get some kind of revenge for almost losing her husband because I do believe she still cares for him deeply, even if she’s not in love with him anymore. But I’ve seen someone say that she almost killed her because she found out Dasha was the one who tried to frame Villanelle thus, making Eve think it was her so they would hate each other again. I mean.. it could be both, right? But I don’t think it’s purely because of Dasha trying to frame Villanelle.

I love that they decided to use “I See Darkness In You” once again... first time we’ve heard it was back in 3x05 when Oksana was watching her mother dance. Originally I thought the song was referring to Oksana seeing darkness in Tatiana... but seeing this scene, the song was definitely referring to seeing that darkness in EVE, so... could the song actually apply to seeing darkness in Oksana as well during that scene? I LIVING for dark!Eve and dark!Oksana. Give it to me. The fact that Villanelle almost killed Dasha and then Eve came and ALMOST finished her job... Villaneve basically killed Dasha even if they weren’t together in the same place lol! This is some soulmate connection lol! I truly think Eve would’ve killed Dasha if it weren’t for the ambulance that distracted her. She was having waaay too much fun to stop at that point lmao! I hope we will see more of dark!Eve moments next season, maybe even in the finale and have Oksana see it as well... I mean, she already knew that Eve had a dark side to her, but having them both accept it and be fine with that just adds way more meaning to it and yet another layer of their understanding, you know?

THE GRINCH COSTUME

YES. I am going to talk about THE grinch costume. There is a reason why Jodie said that it was her favorite outfit this season and I mean... seeing it in this episode truly hits different than seeing those leaked filming pictures. Sure, the costume itself looks ridiculous and I don’t think anyone could’ve pulled it off the way Jodie did. Seriously, this woman can pull off ANYTHING and I love that for her. This costume is DEFINITELY one of my favorites of entire show. It’s iconic™ on it’s own and it deserves way more love. Besides, she gets to wear it on the damn golf course! I honestly wish she wore it longer, I don’t think we will see her wearing it in the finale so that’s a shame. Speaking of her costumes, it feels like she’s changing the outfits too damn quick. Or maybe that’s just me. Anyways, give the GRINCH outfit a chance, please! It’s incredible!

Carolyn & Geraldine

It doesn’t look like things are going well for Carolyn. At all. In fact, I think that’s the least successful she ever was up to this point and that is frustrating. What I’ve noticed this season is that whenever someone digs up some kind of information related to the Twelve they DIE. First it was Kenny who was investigating them for how long? A couple of weeks or something? And they caught up with him. Now, it’s Mo. He said he was tracking Paul for the past week and there was no indications that he was working for the Twelve. However at the end of the episode he did find something and guess what? Rhian was there to kill him. Also... it’s interesting that Helene sent Rhian to kill Mo and not Villanelle because she’s not really fit to do the killing... but she gave Villanelle AND Dasha some random American who apparently was crying out to be killed. She doesn’t trust Villanelle and maybe she doesn’t want her to know what the Twelve is up to.

Meanwhile Carolyn is slowly losing her mind. And in a way Geraldine has a point. She needs to find a way to let it all out because she can only wait this long until it all reaches it’s peak and she snaps. And she did. She went full on bashing and breaking things and that is one way of coping. At least she took the first step towards accepting and dealing with her emotioins. I’m also kind of worried for her... anything could happen at this point and now that she knows Paul is for sure working for the Twelve.. she might try to do something and I hope she doesn’t get herself killed. I mean she’s not my favorite character or anything, but the lady has BEST iconic lines in the show and I’d like her to stick around a bit longer. Espececially now that Konstantin might have to go... (hopefully not)

So Geraldine... I tried to keep an open mind about her and her storyline this season. Each character has storylines, that’s why they are there. For a reason. So far the only storyline I see for Geraldine is to be the pawn that Konstantin uses to spy on Carolyn and well... in a way having her replace Kenny and be someone who Carolyn can interact with. And they barely interact anyways because they don’t really understand one another. So... is that all? Is she still there because well.. she needs to help Carolyn cope with her emotions? And don’t get me started on her and Konstantin thing... that is just fucked up and kind of unnecessary? So... were ALL the scenes involving her necessary for the main plot? I’ll leave that up for the debate.

Intro Sequence & Soundtracks

Glad to see the intro sequence back once more! It would’ve been really weird to have it only for one episode. Someone had pointed out before that they were doing this on purpose and that it was not as random as we thought it was. Apparently both 3x02 and 3x07 has the intro sequence, while 3x04 and 3x06 have the titles all over the place. I can only wonder what they’ve left for the finale! But I’d like for them to keep the intro sequence in season 4!

I’ve said it before several times and I’ll say it again. Killing Eve has the BEST soundtracks and the most accurate ones too, where the lyrics not only express the right feeling/atmosphere of the scene but also describe/tell what the characters are feeling/thinking and that is crucially important b ecause sometimes they just don’t talk about emotions. For example Villanelle doesn’t really voice her feelings but we see what she is feeling due to Jodie’s phenomenal acting and sometimes through the soundtracks, for example the intro scene with Helene. I mean the use of “Look What You Made Me Do” by Jack Leopards & The Dolphin Club was PERFECT! Not only it’s such an interesting take on Taylor Swift’s song, but it describes exactly how Villanelle is feeling towards Helene and her trying to manipulate her. “I don’t like your little game. I don’t like you.”

Then there’s the Villanelle/Konstantin scene where Konstantin comes to pick her up and they have “Watch Your Back” by The Coathangers playing in the background. “You can never go back” LITERALLY! Both of them turned their backs to the Twelve, Konstantin’s stole bunch of money from the organisation and is planning to escape and Villanelle just hit Dasha in the head with golf club and failed to kill her target. They truly can’t go back from this.

Already touched upon “I See Darkness in You” which is literal perfection when it comes to dark!character scenes. Chef’s kiss™

And then there’s “Demolition Girl” by Billy Childish & Holly Golightly which was used in the very last scene when Villanelle calls Eve and we see the camera zoom out on Eve. “Demolition Girl” is basically someone who is destructive and hell... them using that after Eve got a call from her? Yeah, that call ruined Eve and us as well in the best way... in the teasing way and I can’t wait for them to actually meet and I already know they will use something VERY special for the dance scene as well. Their soundtracks this season are soo on point I’m in love.

The Plot

I’ve been meaning to talk about this ever since the last couple of episodes because it seems to me they are really trying to catch up with so many different storylines but there simply isn’t enough time to cover it all up. Which really brings me to my next point when I previously said that a season should at least have about 10 episodes. It’s a solid number and they could actually have a chance to have those “bottle”/solo episodes and at the same time have enough screen time to solve and complete the rest of the storylines without leaving any plot-holes behind. I mean, yes, some of those storylines will not be finished because Laura Neal will take over them in season 4, but I still think they need to either extend the episode number or maybe discard some of the less relevant storylines? I just want it to feel rushed or anything, because I’m sure there will be A LOT of things happening in the finale and we can barely get any Villaneve quality time or even other storylines like with Konstantin/Carolyn and the Twelve.

The Feel/Atmosphere

I think this was THE episode that I actually felt like the old Killing Eve (s1 + s2) was back. It’s true. the rest of the season does feel a lot different and this episode in particular just has this dark atmosphere and some of the original soundtracks are being used as well and let’s not forget one of the OG directors, Damon Thomas, directed this episode and I think he is one of the main reasons what made this episode so amazing. For those of you who aren’t very familiar with the episodes that Damon has directed, he did some of the biggest episodes, including both 1x07 & 1x08, then 2x01, 2x07 & 2x08 including a couple other episodes in there. And this is the only episode (so far) this season that he directed. Maybe that’s why it feels so familiar to previous to season and honestly I LOVED it. I think there is a reason why he tends to direct the last couple of episodes which makes me think he was the one who directed 3x08 as well and if he did, I am even more excited for it! Of course, Laura Neal’s impact was felt there as well and yeah, 3x03 was incredible as well including THE BUS scene which still blows my mind! Yeah, my expectations are HIGH for season 4.

Overall Thoughts

This was definitely my favorite episode this season and soo many things happened in it starting with the humor of the episode (it was said that this episode will be the funniest one) and yeah, it WAS hilarious. It was dark, it had that good old suspence and we also got a GLIMPSE into Villaneve. Then there’s my favorite GRINCH costume, Konstantin’s hysterical laughter, Eve chasing Villanelle and soo much more.

I really hope we survive the next episode guys, because I am nervous and I am scared as I am excited! Can’t believe it’s the last one... but we will get through it together! At least it’s not the last season yet! I truly hope the finale will pay off and I cannot wait to watch it!

As always guys, let me know your thoughts/reactions of the last episode and if you have any theories or thoughts about the finale don’t hesitate to jump in my ask box or message me directly so we can chat about it!!

#ke spoilers #killing eve #villaneve #villanelle #eve polastri #jodie comer #sandra oh #ke s3 #ke 3x07 #ke review*#ke 3x07 review #ke*#creation #one more episode to go...#it better be good

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avanneman · 5 years

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TV or not TV? Isn’t there a third option?

I’ve already argued that the pickings at the multiplex are pretty slim, nor am I a fan of what I have labeled “Heavy TV”, disliking it so much I had to write a sequel to my original putdown.1 My appetite, such as it was, for the doings of sadistic serial killers is pretty much exhausted, and I’m generally either afraid of “The Dark” or bored by it. So is nothing acceptable? Fortunately, there are a few old favorites that are still holding up, and a few other odds and ends—shows that have come and gone that I’m just discovering.

Archer, suave secret agent/dick (both private and public), about whom I’ve raved in the past, on my own blog and for the Bright Lights Film Journal, still functioning, and still tolerably funny in its ninth season, is preparing for its tenth and last on FX. Earlier seasons are no longer available on Netflix (except on DVD) and Amazon Prime makes you pay extra even for Season 1, which strikes me as exceptionally bitchy (or Archery). I’m sure the kids have figured out a way to watch it for free, but I haven’t, so I’m DVDing it.

The third season of Call My Agent!, aka Dix Pour Cent, a semi-favorite of mine is up on Netflix, chronicling the frenzied adventures of the ever-endangered ASK talent agency in Paris. I complained about the excessive coziness of Saison Deux, but I’m glad to report that Saison Trois is both more dry and more droll. As I expected, the cliffhanger from Saison Deux, that big-hearted, big-nosed lesbian Andréa (Camille Cottin) would be shipped off to New York, didn’t happen, allowing her to have her baby (by boss Hicham Janowski, played by Assaad Bouab) in the safety and sanctity of the French medical system. My big complaint in the past was the show’s star-struck approach to stars, showing them as vain and temperamental (at first) but, after a few complications, emerging as gallant thoroughbreds who always come through under pressure and save the day. This time, instead of a handful of European stars entirely unknown to me, we have a true international star, Isabelle Huppert. Isabelle isn’t “bad”, of course. If anything, she’s too generous and hard-working. The thing is, she’s signed a contract with—wait for it—Americans! Who want her exclusively and, mercenary monsters that they are, would foreclose on Versailles and ship it to LA if they don’t get their way!

Fortunately, ASK has both the sangfroid and the savoir faire to hose the Yanks, though it takes quite a bit of frantic behind the scenes running around to carry the whole thing off. Along the way, there’s a funny side plot, wherein the sweet gay guy, whose name I still don’t know and can’t determine, gets a chance to move up to be an actual agent instead of an assistant! Because sweet not-gay Camille (Fanny Sidney) thinks she’s so busy she should be two people, sweet gay guy becomes her, for a day. And then he meets this really cute waiter who wants to be a star, and so sweet gay guy arranges for an audition for him! Both their dreams are going to come true! Well, how else does one celebrate such an occasion, eh, mon ami? But then, well, really cute waiter gets sent to the wrong audition, and he’s terrible, and the studio wants to know why ASK is sending them boyfriends instead of actors, and SGG has to 1) catch shit from Camille for endangering the agency, 2) tell RCW that he isn’t star material, and 3) take shit from RCW, to wit: “You only took me on because you wanted to fuck me! Well, mission accomplished, bitch! Because now I’m totally fucked!” And all because he wanted to make people’s dreams come true! Agents suffer!

A past hidden gem that I’m just discovering is Blandings, a mere 12 thirty-minute episodes from Britain, but I’m lovin’ ‘em. “Blandings”, available on Amazon, is ultimately from the pen of P. G. Wodehouse, the grandmaster of silly ass Englishman light fiction. I’ve previously discussed a series dating from the early 90s, Jeeves and Wooster, devoted to Wodehouse’s supreme creation, the saga of Bertie Wooster and his man Jeeves, which ran through dozens of short stories and perhaps a dozen novels, from the early twenties through 1970. Devotees/obsessives like myself marinated for decades in Bertie’s inimitable rococo narration of Jeeves’ inimitable rococo machinations, all in the service of the inimitable truth, that Amor Vincit Omnia, though not without considerable assistance from Jeeves.

It was surely inevitable that Jeeves and Wooster would fall below the mark unconsciously set for it by aficionados like myself. Despite the ineffable lightness of Wodehouse’s prose, both Bertie and Jeeves were quite complex characters, doppelgangers for Wodehouse himself. “Plum”, as everyone (apparently) called him, was quite unhappy as a boy, but immensely happy at his “public” school—what we Americans would call a prep school—“Dulwich College”. The moral he seemed to take away from it all was that happiness, though possible, is not “natural”—it must be consciously achieved. Furthermore, it is most often achieved in the company of the privileged, and it can best be achieved by holding the world at arm’s length.

In the early short stories, Bertie is always either falling in love or getting engaged, or both, but always to the “wrong woman”—though, in sharp contrast to the American “rom com”, there is no right one.2 As Jeeves repeatedly makes clear, the only way to avoid the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune is to abstain from the fury and mire of human veins. By the mid-thirties, when Wodehouse had largely switched from short stories to novels, Bertie was as skeptical of affairs of the heart as Jeeves. The turning point was Brinkley Manor, aka What Ho, Jeeves (1934), which set in motion a collection of entangled and star-crossed lovers who, thanks to Jeeves, all married happily, though the consummations were delayed for a good thirty years. The Epicurean Roman poet Lucretius notoriously found it pleasing to stand safely on the shore and watch the sufferings of those at sea tormented by the storm.3 Both Jeeves and Bertie are made of softer stuff, and, confronted as they invariably are by victims of internal rather than external weather, always strive to intervene—Bertie ingenuously and disastrously, Jeeves with the effortless hand of the Creator (or the Author). But in both cases, intervention is only possible if one is one’s self immune to the tempest within.4

Jeeves and Bertie are scarcely three-dimensional characters, and the supporting cast distinctly less so, but over the decades that he wrote about them, Wodehouse rang the changes on the limited notes available to him so ingeniously that—for the addicted, at least—they remained ever fresh and vivid. The result is that, I suspect, all true devotees have a “perfect” Aunt Dahlia and a “perfect” Madelaine Bassett, not to mention a perfect Bertie and a perfect Jeeves, already fixed in their heads, so that the poor actors and actresses (if I can use such a term) who portray them almost invariably appear as disappointments or even frauds, for the perfect is always the enemy of the good.

In the “Blandings” stories, revolving around Lord Emsworth and his kin, and most particularly his prize pig, the “Empress” and set in the “eternal Twenties” of Wodehouse’s imagination,5 the perfect rarely intrudes The few I read from the series struck me as a distinctly lesser creation, stories that Wodehouse wrote as a sort of vacation from the Wooster/Jeeves high-wire act. Without Bertie’s perfect voice—the Blandings stories are written the third person—and without Jeeves perfect schemes, we have little more than a stock company road show of silly ass Englishmen, good-hearted chorus girls, good-natured, big-bellied, empty-headed lords, imperious dames, and sherry-slurping butlers, all wandering around the sort of enormous country estate that drove me half bonkers in the unspeakably wretched Downton Abbey.6 But at Blandings, it works.

Rather remarkably, given the degenerate nature of our time, the producers of the show made no attempt to position themselves as superior to the material, no effort to show what life was “really” like in those bad old days, which was in fact pretty horrible for everyone below stairs and for half of those above it. Wodehouse deconstructed would be a sorry sight indeed, and we don’t get it. The only updating that has been done is pretty much limited to the occasional pig fart, and (probably) more “muck” jokes (manure) than P. G. would have allowed himself. Instead, we have the amiable Lord Emsworth (Timothy Spall), sporting a thoroughly “English” set of teeth, his amiable son Freddie Threepwood (Jack Farthing), his unamiable sister Lady Constance (Jennifer Saunders), and his stout butler Beach (played first by Mark Williams in the first season and by Tim Vine in the second), all cavorting and disporting themselves in a suitably Wodehousian manner. Freed from the burden of perfection, and avoiding on its own the burden of pretense, it’s pretty damned good road show all around, and I’m sorry it didn’t get a longer run.

Another invigorating look at the Roaring Twenties with a British accent—more substantial, this time around—comes from Down Under in the form of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, three full seasons of hour long treats on both Netflix and ABC that make Sydney, Australia look surprisingly like London—and sound like it too, because all the leads have surprisingly (to me) posh accents.7 Miss Fisher, played by the charming Essie Davis, is unsurprisingly and unchronologically up to date in all her attitudes, being (of course) independent and quite capable of clambering over walls and scaling buildings in pursuit of evil-doers, even in high heels. Phryne, as her first name is, has a sweet companion, Dorothy Williams (Ashleigh Cummings), somewhat lower down on the social scale and naturally a bit intimidated by Phryne’s upper class lack of inhibition. Both gals have steady Eddies, in the form of Chief Inspector John Robinson (Nathan Page) for Phryne and Constable Hugh Collins (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) for Dorothy. The Chief Inspector, virtually a walking Rock of Gibraltar and a titan of middle-class inhibitions, is naturally entranced by the wicked Miss Fisher, who keeps his Herculean physique tightly wrapped around her little finger for all three seasons, and it must be said that Constable Collins’ fate is only a little less circumscribed.

As should be obvious, Miss Fisher is largely a chick show, of particular interest, I would say, to women who worry about their boyfriends’ hair, because both the Chief Inspector and the Constable have coifs that are, invariably, perfect. Some of the “backstory” for the show—the bitterness many Australians felt at the way the “Mother Country” used them for its own purposes in World War 1, for example—shows some real thought. There is, unsurprisingly, a gaping omission when it comes to the subject of race, and the position of the “aborigines”, which in the twenties was entirely deplorable. Most unattractive is the difference in the treatment of two of Miss Fisher’s many lovers, one Chinese and one “black”. The Chinese lover comes from a prominent family, speaks excellent English, and has come to Australia to flee an arranged marriage in order to marry the woman he loves, whose father is a communist. The black lover is an extra in a film, has not a single line, and clearly functions as a one-night stud. Naughty, yes, but not very nice.

For now, that's it. So don't say nothing's on. Say almost nothing's on.

Latest and worst heavy TV of all is the execrable Game of Thrones. The sappy English accents alone make it unwatchable, not to mention the entire fur coats, tits, and bloody murder ethos of the damn show. Livin’ in the Age o’ Trump is already terrible, but this show makes it worse. ↩︎

As a young man, Wodehouse wrote “straight” rom com novels like Mike in the City and Leave it to Psmith!, whose heroes were impecunious public school men, rather like Wodehouse himself, ↩︎

The opening stanza of Book II of De Rerum Natura, aka “The Nature of Things”—a Roman catchphrase. People are always taking a look at rerum natura. ↩︎

Wodehouse did marry, Ethel May Wayman, an English widow. They had no children, but Wodehouse adopted Wayman’s daughter, to whom he was quite devoted. Supposedly, Ethel was the Jeeves to Plum’s Bertie. ↩︎

“First and last,” I squealed in impotent and ineffectual rage, “I was overwhelmingly put off by the idea that it’s okay, in any sense of the word, for five people to be knocking about in a house the size of Grand Central Station, with two or three dozen menials rushing about night and day to keep everything looking just so.” Blandings rather shamelessly elides the issue by pretending that Lord Emworth’s immense estate is cared for by a handful of servants, who spend most of their time either feeding cake to pigs or drinking sherry. ↩︎

Actually, Wodehouse’s stock characters are really pre-World War I, as George Orwell explains. Orwell’s essay discusses Wodehouse’s early work in some detail, on its way to giving what I found to be too much deference to Wodehouse’s unthinking behavior when captured by the German Army in France in 1940. Wodehouse gave a radio broadcast making it sound as though being imprisoned by the Germans was rather jolly. Wodehouse’s wife was also a prisoner, so it’s not surprising that he wanted to cooperate, but there’s a difference between cooperating and being coopted. I suspect that Wodehouse, like many rich people, hoped that the Nazis wouldn’t be so bad. ↩︎

A contemporary Australian series, Rake, also available on Netflix, which I gave up on because it kept expecting me to identify with a coke addict, features noticeably less posh accents. ↩︎

#tv #Archer #Call My Agent!#Blandings #Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries #Jeeves

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ladystylestores · 4 years

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Family affairs: Everyone learns they can’t go home again in Killing Eve S3

After being shot and left for dead by Villanelle, Eve (Sandra Oh) is now working in the kitchen of a Korean restaurant.

BBC America

She’s trying to patch up her marriage to Niko (Owen McDonnell), who is recovering from PTSD.

BBC America

Villanelle (Jodie Comer) on her wedding day, to a wealthy heiress in Spain.

BBC America

Villanelle’s former mentor, Dasha (Harriet Walter) shows up unannounced.

BBC America

Villanelle and Dasha have some issues to work through.

BBC America

Meanwhile, Eve’s former boss Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) isn’t in good favor at MI6.

BBC America

Another MI6 supervisor, Paul (Steve Pemberton) is vying for control of the division.

BBC America

Carolyn finds an ally in MI6 agent Mo Jafari (Raj Bajaj).

BBC America

Carolyn’s son, Kenny (Sean Delaney) has left MI6 and is now an investigative journalist with The Bitter Pill.

BBC America

Eve finds her own ally in Kenny’s new boss, Jamie (Danny Sapani)

BBC America

Yeah, Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) is still around, with his own agenda.

BBC America

Villanelle is less than pleased when Konstantin comes to call.

BBC America

Villanelle’s latest kill takes a page from Dasha’s old playbook.

BBC America

Villanelle wants to be a Keeper with The Twelve.

BBC America

Villanelle tracks down Eve during a London visit.

BBC America

A violent fight leads to a passionate kiss.

BBC America

Killing Eve burst onto the scene in 2018 to rave reviews, as viewers and critics alike were enthralled by the sexually charged cat-and-mouse game playing out between MI6 agent Eve (Sandra Oh) and expert assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer). Alas, while S2 had some powerful moments, overall it lacked the same taut, addictive focus. But the series came back strong for its third season, fleshing out the story in some fresh, fascinating ways. Small wonder it’s already been renewed for a fourth season.

(A couple of major spoilers below for first six episodes of S3—we’ll give you a heads-up when we get there—but no major reveals for the final two episodes.)

As S3 opened, we learned that Eve survived being shot by Villanelle in the S2 finale (duh). She is keeping a low profile, working in the kitchen of a dumpling eatery in London, and living on a shocking amount of junk food in her dismal flat. Her long-suffering math teacher husband Niko (Owen McDonnell) also survived his encounter with Villanelle in S2 (although his fellow teacher, Gemma, did not). He is now an in-patient being treated for PTSD, and unreceptive to Eve’s efforts to reconnect.

Meanwhile, Villanelle is marrying a wealthy heiress, but her plans for a life of semi-retired luxury are upended by the appearance of Dasha (Harriet Walter), her former mentor from Russia. She gets sucked back into working for the shadowy organization known as the Twelve in exchange for a promotion to “Keeper” (aka upper management).

Eve’s former supervisor, Carolyn (Fiona Shaw), is out of favor at MI6, with an irritating rival named Paul (Steve Pemberton) challenging her former dominance over her division. Carolyn’s estranged son, Kenny (Sean Delaney), has left MI6 and is working as an investigative journalist for an outlet called The Bitter Pill, while her former Russian paramour, Konstantin (Kim Bodnia), is plotting to flee the country with his now-teenaged daughter, Irina (Yuli Lagodinsky).

In my review of the first S3 episode, I noted that the series faced a major challenge in its third installment, as viewers have come to expect shocking twists, thereby making it harder to achieve that element of surprise. “I trust that the writers and new showrunner Suzanne Heathcote have plenty of exciting twists and suspenseful moments in store for us [in S3],” I concluded. “But at some point, the basic premise—already wearing a bit thin—will run out of steam altogether. And then the real question becomes, where does the series go from there?”

Well, I’m pleased to report that S3 successfully met that challenge, mostly by changing the focus a bit. Keeping Eve and Villanelle (mostly) apart was a good creative strategy, even more so now that we’ve moved well beyond the “who’s the predator, who’s the prey” dynamic of S1. This third season is really about family, as every major character must grapple with the high personal cost of their decisions thus far.

(Warning: major spoilers begin below this gallery!)

Villanelle has that magic touch with children.

Gemma Whelan plays Carolyn’s daughter (and Kenny’s sister) Geraldine, who tries to repair her relationship with her mother.

BBC America

You may remember Konstantin’s strong-willed daughter, Irina (Yuli Lagodinsky) from S1.

BBC America

Niko moves back to Poland and his roots.

BBC America

Villanelle does a favor for Konstantin in exchange for information about her biological family.

BBC America

Meanwhile, Dasha has her sights set on Niko.

BBC America

Eve witnesses the attack.

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Niko survives, but rejects Eve.

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Eve confronts Dasha about the attack on Niko.

BBC America

Villanelle looks over family pictures with her brother Pyotr (Rob Feldman).

BBC America

She bonds with half-brother Bor’ka (Temirlan Blaev), who is obsessed with Elton John, at the local Harvest Festival.

BBC America

Her mother, Tatiana (Evgenia Dodina), insists she leave: “Do not bring your darkness into this house.”

BBC America

Villanelle’s revenge.

BBC America

Eve still clings to the futile hope that she can fix her marriage, unable to see just how damaged and shattered Niko has become after all she’s put him through by exposing him to the risks inherent in her job. Those risks are only heightened when Villanelle discovers she’s still alive and her obsession with Eve rekindles anew. But our favorite assassin is also confronting her own past in Dasha—the woman who turned her into the “perfect killing machine” and then betrayed her—and in a sudden desire to seek out the mother who abandoned her to an orphanage as a child.

Carolyn suffers a devastating loss when Kenny (allegedly) commits suicide by jumping off the roof of his office building at the end of the first episode. She’s a woman who has spent a lifetime suppressing any genuine emotion, who must now deal with her estranged touchy-feely daughter, Geraldine (Gemma Whelan), seeking to bond in their shared grief. Konstantin is trying to keep his daughter safe, only to realize she has her own inner darkness, exacerbated by his constant absence, the nature of his work, and Villanelle’s pernicious influence.

As always, all the performances are spectacular. Most of the attention has a focused on Oh and Comer, and rightly so. Villanelle is just as outrageously unpredictable and charming (in a deadly psychopath way) as ever, with even more spectacularly outré outfits. You never want to take your eyes off her; no wonder Eve remains obsessed.

But the supporting cast is every bit as strong, particularly Shaw and Bodnia, who quite possibly has the richest, most expressive laugh on TV these days. Among the new faces for S3, Harriet Walter is a sheer delight as Dasha, a chain-smoking, raspy-voiced former Olympic gymnast turned brutal assassin for the Twelve (and trainer of the the next generation of brutal female assassins). Game of Thrones fans will recognize Whelan from her days playing Yara Greyjoy, and she is given ample opportunity here to display her impressive range as an actress. And I loved seeing Lagodinsky return as Konstantin’s precocious, sarcastic, tough-minded daughter Irina.

The plotting is much tighter than last season—especially the final two episodes, as Eve pursues Villanelle by following the bodies piling up along the way—and while Villanelle’s kills don’t quite measure up to the macabre creativity she employed in the first two seasons, the S3 writers manage to pull off one very good twist. Concerned that Villanelle is once again behaving erratically because of her Eve obsession, the Twelve asks Dasha to intervene. Dasha decides to drive a wedge between the two women by killing Niko and framing Villanelle—making sure that Eve arrives at the Polish farm where he’s been working just in time to see it happen.

Eve tracks down Villanelle.

BBC America

Konstantin has plans to flee with Irina.

BBC America

Villanelle is a bad influence on Irina.

BBC America

Hélène (Camille Cottin) is a member of The Twelve.

BBC America

Villanelle does not hug.

BBC America

Yet another assignment, this time with fellow assassin Rhian (Alexandra Roach).

BBC America

Tensions are rising between Villanelle and Dasha.

BBC America

A hit at a golf resort in Aberdeen.

BBC America

Eve finds Dasha.

BBC America

Konstantin collapses at a train station.

BBC America

Paul might have his own plan in place.

BBC America

Carolyn faces off with Villanelle.

BBC America

Eve finds Villanelle.

BBC America

The happy couple, together again.

BBC America

It’s genuinely shocking in a way that Kenny’s death, while tragic, is not, thanks to some very clever editing. Unfortunately, the writers then blinked: Niko barely survives, although he (understandably) severs ties completely with Eve when she comes to see him in the hospital. I love the character, but it does undercut the power of the attack. I guess the writers are keeping their S4 options open where Eve and Niko are concerned.

By far the best single episode is “Are You From Pinner,” in which Villanelle visits her hometown in Russia and reconnects with her biological family, especially her brother Pyotr (Rob Feldman) and her coldly distant mother, Tatiana (Evgenia Dodina). Comer’s social awkwardness and discomfort with even small affections contrast sharply with the loud and boisterously enthusiastic family members. She tries to join in on a post-dinner singalong to Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock,” to comic effect, and watching her intensely compete in the dung-flinging competition at the local Harvest Festival—and her euphoria when she wins—is both hilarious and strangely touching.

Villanelle is trying so very hard to belong, even briefly bonding with her young half-brother Bor’ka (Temirlan Blaev), but she is far too damaged. And it is inevitable that the equally damaged Tatiana will reject her, telling her to leave and not bring her “darkness” into their house. Of course, Villanelle takes her revenge.

Killing Eve is based on Luke Jennings’ 2018 thriller Codename Villanelle, a compilation of four e-book novellas he published from 2014-2016. He published a sequel in 2019, Killing Eve: No Tomorrow, but despite Eve’s prominence in that title, Villanelle was clearly conceived as the central figure. So maybe it’s not surprising that we spend far more time on her backstory and family of origin issues than on Eve’s in S3, which makes Eve’s own journey back to Villanelle over the course of the season less impactful in comparison. The first two seasons did a better job balancing the focus between the two.

But that’s a minor quibble with an otherwise excellent season. These two women are clearly damaged in similar ways, with a shared social and emotional awkwardness, and morbid/violent bent. It’s just that Villanelle’s tendencies were encouraged and exploited via extreme physical and mental abuse, while Eve managed to channel her darker tendencies into her government work, and found some semblance of a family with Niko—at least until Villanelle burst into her life. But we still have little idea what Eve’s own early family life was like, or how it shaped her.

Here’s hoping that will be a major angle of exploration for S4, when Laura Neal replaces Heathcote as showrunner. Delving into how Eve and Villanelle have shaped and changed each other over three seasons would be another promising narrative vein to mine. Perhaps these two women can eventually find the families they have lost with each other, in their own uniquely twisted way.

Listing image by BBC America

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