'Killing Eve' Recap: 'Take Me to the Hole!'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

One of my favorite things when it comes to the spy genre as a whole, is the sheer fact that the story tends to go to some fascinating places once the true villain of the tale has been revealed. In fact, perhaps the best way to describe it, is that all hell breaks loose since we come to learn exactly how powerful the baddies in question are and just how far their reach truly goes in the world and we also learn that not everyone is quite who they seem during this grand reveal and that kind of chaos just so happened to be the focus of last night’s episode of Killing Eve, ‘Take Me to the Hole!’
 
Which is fascinating, because, up until this point, this series has done everything within its power to avoid any of the classic tropes found in this genre, but this, this is a staple that simply cannot be avoided in order to get the plot moving in the right direction. However, while the series did indeed take the time to visit these all-important elements, it of course found a way to spice everything up with its own unique twists on the grand reveal, which we will get to in a moment, because first, I really want to spend some time talking about how this particular tale exposed the sheer reach of the Twelve, something that was accomplished by returning to a plot point that came up in the last episode; the fact that Nadia survived being run over by a car.
 
Because that revelation meant that Nadia became a marked woman in many ways. After all, she has knowledge about the Twelve, which prompted Konstantin to plant Villanelle/Oksana inside the prison where Nadia was being held to deal with the matter, and it brought Eve and Carolyn to Moscow to gain information from Nadia as well and wouldn’t you know it? This part of the story allowed for us to learn that Konstantin is actually a member of Russian Intelligence, which explains how he’s so damn good at getting information to Villanelle and it’s also chilling because it means that the Twelve likely have other men and women like him in key roles like his around the world, meaning they can carry out their work without anyone batting an eye… 

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But, we do need to discuss the big twists in question. Because while Villanelle was unhappy with returning to the prison she escaped from, she knew she had to complete the mission to keep herself safe and her employers happy and with a little patience and some downright savage violence, she was able to isolate Nadia and put her down, only to learn that the Twelve outright double crossed her and plan to leave her in jail to rot and that’s stunning simply because normally the villains in stories such as these exhibit a unified front.
 
But Villanelle does have knowledge of the Twelve, and that’s dangerous in their eyes. And speaking of knowledge, in an effort to broker a deal with the Russians, Eve went behind Carolyn’s back and dug into her past relationship with Konstantin and while the audience wasn’t privy to what Kenny found out about his mother, the ominous nature of how Eve handled what he shared with her, cannot mean anything good, and the twist here, is that we rarely see someone this high up the chain have their loyalties come into question, but here we are.
 
If anything, this twist raises all kinds of questions about Carolyn’s loyalty. Specifically, is she one of the Twelve? Or is she on their payroll as well? Or is she just interested in helping them out to see a little chaos reign? I’m sure we will find out in the coming weeks, and I hope what Eve and Kenny discovered isn’t something as awful as any of those options, but my gut tells me otherwise. Either way, wow, what an episode. This one simply flew by since it had so much packed into it, and I love the tension it brought forth and one has to wonder now as to whether or not this episode is going to serve as a turning point for Villanelle, wherein she will change allegiances and help Eve instead of hindering her, since the Twelve was happy to double cross their star assassin. Regardless, the plot is only going to get juicier from here on out, and I cannot wait to see what other twists and turns await us come next week. Until then.  

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