Last week on Killing Eve, we learned Villanelle (Jodi Comer) is still alive even though Eve (Sandra Oh) stabbed her and that both of them can’t stop thinking about each other. Eve decompressed by binge-eating and acting strangely, and Villanelle murdered her hospital roommate.
Let’s see what insanity transpires in season two, episode two, titled “Nice and Neat.”
After sneaking into a family’s trunk in France, Villanelle arrives in London with her superhero pajamas and briefcase. She washes her underthings in a laundromat and then it’s off to the grocery store with some stolen clothes. She sees herself in the makeup counter mirror, notices how terrible she looks and creepily applies some blush. She approaches fellow shoppers to ask for money (in a British accent) and then finally finds one who listens to her fake sob story and helps her out. An unsuspecting man named Julien helps her sneak out of the grocery store under the false pretense of escaping an abusive stepfather. He offers her his spare bedroom for a couple of nights.
Meanwhile, Eve is starting to open up to Niko (Owen McDonnell) about her work and about missing Bill (David Haig). But when she wakes up to Google “stabbed women in Paris” and Niko hears her stirring, she pretends she’s online shopping.
Later, she meets Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) at the gorgeous castle-like headquarters of MI6 and they share a rare girl-to-girl moment. Eve asks how she always looks so good despite the fact that she probably doesn’t sleep. Carolyn answers that she uses exceptionally expensive moisturizer made of pig placenta and offers to share the link with Eve.
Inside, Carolyn introduces her to the new team, who all think she’s simply an “outside expert on female assassins.” Kenny (Sean Delaney) is back, but he tells Eve that Elena (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) isn’t rejoining the team because she’s “worried about getting murdered.” Then, Eve meets some new faces: Jess (Nina Sosanya) and Hugo (Edward Bluemel). Jess is “undermining;” Hugo is an Oxford “posh boy.” They welcome her to MI6.
Later, Eve and Kenny sneak off so she can tell him about how she stabbed Villanelle. Hugo notices them alone together and asks if they’re having an affair. Eve says yes so they can have some privacy. When she tells Kenny, he’s shocked and tells her not to tell his mom (aka Carolyn) under any circumstances. Then, it’s time for Eve to brief the rest of the team on Villanelle. She runs them through all the murders Villanelle committed in season one and her eyes linger on Villanelle’s photo a moment too long. When Jess asks if she’s a sloppy killer, Eve explains it’s more that she’s “flamboyant, attention seeking, spoiled and easily bored.”
In the evening, Eve continues her Google search of women stabbed in Paris and finds an article about the boy Villanelle killed in the hospital. She asks for the crime scene photos and notices there’s an apple in the boy’s hand with a bite in it. “Flamboyant” as ever, Villanelle left the apple as a sign of the forbidden fruit (ya know, the whole Adam and Eve story) for Eve to spot.
Meanwhile, Villanelle is staying at Julien’s house and nursing her wounds. She asks him to buy her cake, snoops around his house, runs into his mother who has dementia, and even asks him to buy her sanitary pads. He says, “That’ll cause quite a stir at the pharmacy. I’ll have to tell them they’re for my girlfriend,” and creepily kisses her forehead.
Later, he brushes her hair, which is sweaty with fever, and says, “There you go, nice and neat.” He leaves the room and his dementia-stricken mother warns Villanelle to be careful of him, though she drifts away before she can finish the statement.
When Julien finally leaves the house, Villanelle tries to escape but every window and door is locked. Later, she calls a number, presumably her former employer’s, and says, “Hello. It’s Cher Horowitz. I failed my driving test.” The man on the other line tells her he can’t help. The problem? Her stab wound is super infected and she’s in duress. So, she asks the operator to connect her to M16’s Eve Polastri. She doesn’t make it through, but the call is recorded, and Carolyn plays it for Eve.
After carefully studying the Allister Peel case (remember the guy from the season two premiere who suffered a heart attack after an air bubble mysteriously entered his blood stream?), Eve decides Villanelle wasn’t his murderer. So, she and Carolyn go to his home to speak to his children and ask if they recognize Villanelle. They don’t, and Eve is so excited she was right she practically skips out of the house. She’s convinced it’s a new girl, but Carolyn thinks she must be a less attention-seeking seasoned killer. The team calls her “The Ghost.”
Back at Julien the good Samaritan’s house, he realizes Villanelle used the phone, so he takes it away and confronts her. He accuses her of using him (duh) and she quickly makes up a lie and tells him she was ordering him a cake to thank him. He apologizes, and she kicks him in the face. They break out into a fight and she ultimately stabs him in the carotid artery, saying, “This is what you get, Julien.”
After killing him, Villanelle stumbles out onto the street and sees a Volvo flash its lights at her. She gets into it and meets Raymond, her “new handler.” (She killed her former handler, Konstantin. Remember?) She explains that she thought she was fired and he tells her that things have changed. After all, she did call him in distress from an un-secure line. She tells him she doesn’t want back in and when she tries to get out of the car he starts to choke her. “Who do you think you are, Oksana? Do you think you can just do whatever you want? You’re on a very tight leash from now on,” he says rather calmly.
On the plus side, he does have the antibiotics she needs and a bottle of water. As they drive away, she spots Eve walking down the street to the home she just emerged from. They’ve missed each other again.
Julien’s body is still warm when Eve and Carolyn walk into the house, but now he has a toilet brush stuck in his mouth. It’s classic Villanelle and that’s all Carolyn needs to be convinced that Eve needs some protection. So, Carolyn takes Eve to her home and says, “Promise you won’t be cross.” They turn a corner and see Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) casually sitting on the couch like he wasn’t murdered in the middle of a café. He says hello and the screen fades to black.
Um, what the hell is going on? We’ll have to wait and see when Killing Eve returns with episode three on Sunday, April 21, at 8/7 c on BBC America and AMC.