Killing Eve Season 4 Episode 2 Review: Don't Eat Me
Michael T. Stack
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Killing Eve never backs down from emotional episodes, and "Don't Get Eaten" once again proves that these characters deal with a lot.
Killing Eve Season 4 Episode 2 saw emotionally difficult journies for all of our leads.
The hour showed Eve, Villanelle, and Carolyn take steps in new directions.
Eve has taken a lot into her own hands, and she's acting quite rashly because of it.
She's putting her life at risk recklessly, and some threats to her safety could have been avoided if she had just listened to Yusuf.
Yusuf wanted her to do more reconnaissance and confront Helene carefully, but instead, she showed up at Helene's house in the middle of the night.
Eve wants to take down The Twelve and is willing to sacrifice herself for it, but she needs to be more careful even to reach the head of The Twelve.
Eve seems to be slowly losing herself in her search.
Eve does something that beautifully parallels something Villanelle did to her in the early seasons: She shows up at Helene's and cooks for her.
Eve's obsession with finding The Twelve (and, in turn, Helene) proves to be quite similar to Villanelle's obsession with Eve.
Eve has taken Villanelle's style of taking unnecessary risks to her life and made it her own.
She left Helene's apartment with more questions than she arrived with and only received a few (non-concrete) answers.
Helene seemed to imply that she and Eve have the same goal: take down the head of The Twelve.
While Eve risked her life to find more information, Carolyn also took different steps for info.
Carolyn got shunned by MI6 and got forced to search elsewhere for information.
The devastating truth is that it will take her a long time to figure out who ordered Kenny's hit, and she may also be risking her life.
She meets with someone who gives her limited information in exchange for her giving up some pretty sensitive details about coworkers.
She does give up some details on Hugo, and he's so annoying that we might be okay with that.
The most emotional story this hour came from Villanelle.
Villanelle tried to rekindle her spark with her friend May, which she did, just to ruin it immediately.
Villanelle doesn't understand that her most significant downfall is herself and once again manages to hurt herself by trying to hurt others.
Villanelle called out the Vicar (May's father) for a past sin that he's continuously lied about to his parish.
Instead of her intended goal of turning people against him, they turned against her.
The church cast out Villanelle, and they all considered her a monster.
Villanelle had thought she finally found a home with them, so being cast out hurt her.
What Villanelle did was wrong, and she doesn't have enough emotional awareness to realize that -- she only thought about herself.
Her spiritual guide (herself dressed in religious garb) also states that failure was her only option.
However, she failed epically and (intentionally) kills for the first time this season.
Her faults made for one of the saddest murders Villanelle committed.
She brutally killed the Vicar and May in their tent.
It wasn't sad because those two characters were exciting and great additions to the show, but because Villanelle's truth came out.
She hasn't changed. She may be unable to change, and that realization hurts her more than killing.
Of course, we are sad to see two fun, innocent characters die, but Villanelle's evolution (or lack of) hurts the most.
That's not to say it doesn't make sense with her character.
Villanelle will most likely never be able to change (at least, not as drastically as she wanted), and that's what makes it sad.
This season (so far) works wonderfully when diving into these ladies' psyches.
Yusuf: I'm just trying to inject a little know-how into your revenge.
Eve: Well what if your know-how isn't the only know-how worth knowing?
They're all messed up one way or another, and their desperations continue to culminate in season 4.
Everything wrong with these characters goes back to The Twelve.
The Twelve have been the central mystery since the beginning of Killing Eve, and even after all of this time, we still have limited information.
Eve doesn't know who they are, Villanelle doesn't, and Carolyn only knows tiny bits.
Members of The Twelve scatter themselves throughout the world (or at least Europe, we don't know much about them), and even the lower-ranked members don't seem to know too much.
Eve's confrontation with Helene provided much-needed tension that Killing Eve Season 4 Episode 1 lacked.
Eve also got injured relatively severely.
Helene held Eve's hand on her stove as it heated up, and Eve didn't fight back.
They were trying to test each other's wills with their entire confrontation.
Helene: I also want to get the head of the monster.
Eve: Really?
Helene: Amazing, isn’t it, when you find someone you can really connect with? It’s so rare.
The events of this confrontation may lead to some sort of alliance between the two (but we're just theorizing).
Eve approaching Helene brought her another step closer to The Twelve, which could also lead her to death.
One thing about this season -- the actors bring their A-games once again, and some are having fun doing it.
Jodie Comer, in particular, looks like she's having a blast playing her bearded spirit guide and Villanelle.
Villanelle: What are you doing here?
Spirit Guru Villanelle: What do you mean what am I doing here? I’m here to guide you, remember? I’m your spiritual guru. Uh…first piece of advice -- don’t eat the weird camping food.
Sandra Oh seamlessly takes Eve to new heights of recklessness, while Fiona Shaw packs an emotional punch with her hunt for Kenny's Killers.
The rest of the cast (Robert Gilburt, Camille Cottin, and Laurentiu Possa) also make for a brilliant ensemble.
So Fanatics, what did you think of "Don't Eat Me?"
What did you think of Villanelle's first murder(s) this season? What about Eve and Helene's interaction?
Let us know in the comments below, and remember you can watch Killing Eve online on TV Fanatic!
Michael Stack is a former writer for TV Fanatic..
