‘Killing Eve’ Recap: ‘I Hope You Like Missionary!’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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There are, a great many reasons to love BBC America’s Killing Eve. For this is a series that is filled to the brim with incredible and dynamic characters that we simply must know more about, and they draw us into the story by way of their unique quirks and personalities. But what’s more impressive is that this is also a series that can change gears on a moment’s notice and shift from tense drama to black comedy and really, that’s honestly what I love the most about this series, the fact that it can be anything at any given moment. It can be a powerful drama, it can be a spy show and it can also be exactly what it was last night, a powerful character study.
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For ‘I Hope You Like Missionary!’ truly took the time to dig into a great many things that have been upon both Villanelle and Eve’s minds over the course of season two, and I suppose over the course of the entire run of the series and really, this time for reflection came about from the fact that both of them were being forced to work together once again. Because Carolyn saw the inherent danger of going right after Aaron Peel since the man was wired into just about everything, which meant she was going to back him into a corner the long way round, and that’s where our dynamic duo came into play since Villanelle needed to go undercover in order to get close to Peel through his sister, and Eve was going to run point on this operation, and all the downtime that came with this investigation, is what allowed for the both of them to look inward.

Eve’s journey in this tale, however, is probably the easier one to examine because dealing with Villanelle on a daily basis, especially after she told Niko everything, had her wondering exactly what she wants out of life and to a lesser extent her career. Because Villanelle’s outright thirst for blood and wanton chaos more or less made her realize that her flirtation with such matters is to get a thrill in life since she felt sheltered and hidden from the world before all of this came to pass, and seeing what her marriage had become, and seeing Villanelle in action only seemed to reinforce the fact that Eve wants balance. She wants to be a responsible agent, one that can work wonders with various cases, but at the same time, she wants to enjoy the thrill of the hunt and feel a sense of safety when all is said and done and it was nice to see the series begin to address Eve’s core and what she needs to thrive and flourish.

If anything, her journey was counterbalanced nicely by Villanelle’s in this story, because in order to properly blend into the AA meetings that Aaron’s sister was going to, she had to open up like never before, and for the first time ever, I honestly think we saw the real Oksana. For the woman that was crying and speaking of boredom in that meeting, had a genuine feel to her, and everything she had to say about where her life was at and what she felt, made sense and this strange journey that Oksana took us upon, was only further compounded in the final act of this episode. Because despite doing a fairly solid job poking around the Peel homestead and cracking that little weasel right in the mouth, Villanelle didn’t quite get the clear direction that Eve did, instead, she found herself supremely confused by being on the right side for a change, and well, while the ending is ominous and ambiguous, it was fascinating to see a master assassin deal with such matters as morals and teamwork and I’m quite curious to see what effect all of this will have on her in the weeks to come.   
Yet while it seems as though there was a lot of brooding to be found in this tale, the trademark black humor present in this show was still a big factor in the story and it helped to break up the heavier moments and let’s be honest, who didn’t enjoy seeing Eve confront Niko and Gemma in hilarious and awkward fashion? But I digress because what also made this episode so incredibly unique, is that in essence, the plot wasn’t advanced in the slightest, and this tale was still fascinating and engrossing. Which speaks to the power of Killing Eve’s wonderful characters and everything they have to offer. But despite the wonder present here, with only two episodes left in this season, I have a feeling the overall story is about to get moving because there are still a great many questions on our minds since we still don’t know what the long game is for Carolyn and Konstantin and of course, The Twelve is still lurking out there, and at some point the story has to get back to that and it should be interesting to see how everything comes together in the next couple of weeks as season two draws to a close. Until next time. 

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