‘Killing Eve’ Recap: ‘Smell Ya Later’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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Obsession is a word that carries with it some supremely negative connotations, and there’s good reason for that. For more often than not, an obsession is unhealthy in nature and people that suffer from it cannot let whatever it is that is infecting their mind, go, in the slightest. Instead, they pour over the notion or the concept or the person, night and day, to the point where we worry about their mental health, especially when their fixation begins to change their attitude and outlook on life and it just so happens that the negativity that comes with obsession, served as the focus for last night’s episode of Killing Eve, since Eve Polastri’s inability to let Villanelle go, brought about all kinds of fascinating moments and potential trouble.
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Which is a fascinating twist when all is said and done, since the last time we saw Eve, she was seemingly leaving the idea of Villanelle behind to focus upon the successful hunt for the Ghost. But it didn’t take long for her mind to drift back to the master assassin thanks to the actions of the Ghost, and everything was set into motion in ‘Smell Ya Later’, the instant we learned that this mysterious assassin wasn’t talking. It didn’t matter who worked to interrogate her, she simply stared at them with a stoic visage that never seemed to break, that is until Eve mentioned Villanelle’s name, since that brought forth a panicked reaction from the Ghost (whose named we learned is Jin), and that motivated Eve to come up with one wild plan. Because if Oksana engendered that kind of fear, she could likely get Jin to talk, and in order to draw her to London and get the information MI6 so desperately needed from this new assassin, Eve put a price on her own head, knowing full well Konstantin would hire Villanelle to handle the matter.

Yet, that odd decision on her part merely served as the gateway to our concerns when it comes to Eve and her inability to let Villanelle go, and as she waited for our favorite assassin to arrive back in London, we saw her obsession progress to a whole new level. For in essence, Villanelle and everything she stands for consumed Eve, to the point where she moved Kenny off of the team so that she didn’t have to put up with his protests when it comes to a plan that Carolyn loosely signed off upon. And she seemingly wanted to fully understand why this killer does what she does, to the point where she pondered upon committing murder if only for a moment, and it was just stunning to see Eve bathe in the darkness and what’s equally as terrifying, is that her quest to remain in the shadows continued along when that all-important reunion came to fruition.

Because when presented with the possibility that Villanelle would do nothing to help MI6 unless Eve was in distress, she pushed their meeting to the limit by downing what appeared to be arsenic and that act, alongside the admission from Villanelle that it wasn’t poison she ingested, started to bring Eve out of her funk. But what finally made her realize that perhaps getting this close was quite the mistake, was Villanelle’s handiwork when it comes to Jin. Because despite the fact that MI6 got the info it needed (it was the son, who killed dear old dad after all), Jin was left in emotional tatters and even called Eve a monster and that, had quite the adverse effect on her, to the point where she finally seemed to distance herself from Villanelle, but that may have come too late. For darling Oksana took the time to meet with Nico while he was chaperoning at Oxford, and she spilled the beans in regard to what Eve hasn’t told her hubby, and her revelations brought out the worst in Nico too, and while no blood was shed, plenty of damage was done here since Niko will no doubt confront Eve about the truth in the days to come…

Yet, while this was a fascinating character study in its own right, one that doesn’t guarantee that the obsession has come to its end, one single shot made this episode fascinating in ways I never imagined, and that was when we saw Carolyn and Konstantin sitting in a car together, as Eve and Villanelle headed off to meet with Jin and that’s eating at me simply because, what the hell are these two, up to? I mean, we’ve known for some time now that Carolyn has been manipulating and directing Eve, but this now confirms that she and Konstantin are up to something greater, and damnit, I’m dying to know what their endgame is. Is this an attempt to bring down the Twelve? Do they have their own agenda? Either way, I don’t like Eve and Villanelle being played as pawns and really, the only way we will discover what’s going here is to exercise patience since this series will reveal everything in due time, but that doesn’t make the wait for next week’s episode any easier, because I really am dying to know the answers to these burning questions, now. 

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