'Killing Eve' Recap: 'I Don't Want to Be Free'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

To say that Killing Eve is a breath of fresh air to the spy drama, would in fact be an understatement. Because this incredible new series has done the impossible and has straight up challenged this storied genre by showing everyone that such tales can be more than pure machismo and explosions and cool gadgets. This series has demonstrated that the spy genre can in fact, be filled to the brim with wonderful and dynamic characters, and it doesn’t have to stick to any particular formula when it tells its tale, as was evidenced in last night’s episode, ‘I Don’t Want to Be Free’.
 
Because normally, the penultimate moment of the spy tale is supposed to be incredibly intense, full of powerful revelations and surprises and action and adventure, all designed to take your breath away. But in this all-important episode, the series decided to change things up by delivering unto us a powerful character study, one that quite frankly, gave us our best insight into Villanelle yet, and all of that was accomplished by finally allowing for the audience and Eve for that matter, to meet a character whose name we’ve heard thrown around this series, time and time again…the elusive Anna.
 
Yes, that’s right, we finally met this mystery woman face to face and as it turns out, in a world full of intrigue and double crosses and shadowy figures, the woman that seemingly matters most to Villanelle, comes from a simple life. She’s a schoolteacher, one that is still grieving over the loss of her husband and it was fascinating to learn how much validation matters to Oksana, since Anna’s efforts to make Oksana feel wanted and normal paid off in spades by way of a close relationship. But, while it was nice to learn something positive about Oksana, there is still an inherent danger in growing close to her since she demands your full attention and that’s sadly why Anna’s husband is no longer alive.
 
Plus, we also learned, that she is not someone you want to cross in the slightest. Because this episode did follow up on her predicament in prison, and after letting her stew in there for a hot minute, the Twelve finally broke her out and gave her a new handler, one that ordered the death of Konstantin. But Villanelle had other ideas in mind, and after putting down her new handler, she went after her former boss, his family and quite frankly, the Twelve themselves for attempting to end her life and while she wasn’t exactly successful in her endeavors, the lesson was indeed learned that she’s dangerous to those who want to do her harm and Konstantin better beware because she’s ready to make him pay for everything he’s done to her.
 
Yet, a penultimate episode means nothing without setting up something big for the season finale and this story delivered on that as well. Because it would seem that Eve is confident she can finally reach Villanelle on some fundamental level, which is a huge deal when one considers the fact that they’ve been enemies for some time now and one cannot forget that Carolyn continues to confuse and befuddle the audience as to where her allegiance lies since Carolyn was caught on camera talking to Villanelle while she was still in prison, and that will likely be resolved next week as well. Either way, it looks like the season one finale is going to be downright epic, and well…I rather appreciated the fact that Oksana’s backstory took the center stage at last and it should be interesting to see what decisions she makes when it comes to her future, when the season wraps up next week. Until then.     

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