Last week’s episode of Killing Eve delivered tenderness, romantic tension, angst, and big deaths in spades. With Eve seemingly finding herself at a dead end with both Villanelle and her pursuit of the Twelve (get it? Because she shot Lars?), what will she do next? And can Villanelle really swear off Eve for good?

In the penultimate episode of the series, Eve struggles with the consequences of her actions (and their emotional fallout), while Villanelle seeks out Gunn on her island.

I was riding high after last week’s episode of Killing Eve. Unfortunately, “Making Dead Things Look Nice” kind of brought a crashing halt to that momentum. It’s not a bad episode, exactly – there are several scenes I really enjoyed – but it didn’t feel like the penultimate episode of a series to me.

The Good

Let’s start with what I loved about “Making Dead Things Look Nice.” The standout scenes from this episode definitely belong to Eve. Faced for the first time with a reality in which Villanelle is the one rejecting her advances, we see Eve in a place we’ve never seen her before. She’s never been particularly adept at dealing with her feelings. But as she finally acknowledges them, she recognizes she’s at a crossroads. Her choices now will shift the course of her life forever.

(But didn’t she make her choice a long time ago?)

There’s an excellent scene with Eve doing karaoke in this episode. (I did not expect karaoke to make me so emotional.) The callbacks here are a real treat for fans, while giving us some great insight into Eve at the same time. Later we also get the return of Martin, who is lowkey the MVP of season 4 for dealing with both Eve and Villanelle’s emotional messes. Once again, Sandra Oh proves she deserves all the awards. I’ll be thinking about her acting in these scenes for a long time to come.

Finally, this episode takes the time to wrap up Konstantin’s arc, and appears to bring us close to the end for Pam’s story as well. The two share a powerfully emotional scene that’s probably one of the only moments in the episode that truly felt like an “episode before the series finale” moment.

Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri - Killing Eve _ Season 4, Episode 7 - David Emery/BBCA

The Necessary (?)

From the good, we move on to the necessary. By which I mean, the advancement of the Twelve plot and Carolyn’s story. Carolyn, left sans Lars thanks to Eve, works on using the man’s secret spy notebook to figure out where to find the Twelve. There’s kind of a heavy focus on Carolyn’s efforts in this episode, which while probably “necessary” to wrap up the story, can come off as a bit bland. (I mean, does anyone care about Vlad? Why is he getting screen time in the penultimate episode?)

The Bad

While Eve had some lovely emotional, character-developing scenes, in this episode Villanelle was just kind of…there. Frankly, her plot felt like filler in this episode, which again sucks since the show is about to end. Everything with Villanelle and Gunn was just… fine. I don’t know. If the visit to Gunn’s island had happened earlier in the season, I probably would have been okay with it. But it seems like the only real point of their dynamic was to reinforce Villanelle’s relationship to Eve… which the show has done over and over again. I know it’s slightly different now since we’ve seen Villanelle reject Eve, but still. It felt redundant and just an odd use of one of the show’s leads in the penultimate episode of the series.

Also – and this is technically a spoiler, fyi, but I have to include it – there’s not a single second of shared screen time between Eve and Villanelle in this episode. Again, in the second to last episode ever. Boo.

Jodie Comer as Villanelle - Killing Eve _ Season 4, Episode 7 - Sally Mais/BBCA

Ok, Here’s How Killing Eve Fans Can Still Win

So, this episode wasn’t terrible, but a lot of it felt like filler or that the show was spinning its wheels, which isn’t exactly what you want at the end of a show’s run. BUT, here’s why it can still push us into a solid series finale:

  • While it was disappointing to have ZERO time with Eve and Villanelle together in this episode, it did provide the necessary setup to have them together for potentially the entire finale.
  • The Carolyn/Twelve stuff wasn’t super exciting, BUT it’s out of the way now. Meaning more time in the finale for that good good Villaneve content.
  • Similarly, the last two episodes appear to have wrapped the storylines for Lars, Helene, Yusef, and Konstantin (and very close to wrapped for Pam). Which again means the show will have very few non-Villanelle-and-Eve focal points.

 Am I an optimist for thinking this way, or just a clown? We’ll see when the finale airs…

Your Spoiler-Free Tease For Killing Eve 407 “Making Dead Things Look Nice”

Again, I frankly don’t consider this episode a big winner all around (especially considering how much I loved episode 6). But I started this trend, and I must see it through. Episode 7 is for:

  • Karaoke fans
  • Sapphic camouflage wearers
  • Konstantin/Carolyn shippers 
  • Anyone who’s been begging Eve to go to therapy since like, season 1

One episode left. I’ll see you all on the other side.

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