‘Killing Eve’ Season 2, Episode 5 Recap: ‘Can I Take Your Veil?’

We start off with a very Villanelle murder. She drops a milkshake on a man’s car, so he has to go to the carwash. When he’s there, she beats him, then strangles him to death in his car. On brand, right?

Back at MI6, Eve and Jess (Nina Sosanya) watch as their colleague interrogates the Ghost. She gives him nothing, so Eve goes back into the questioning room to try a different tactic. She asks if there are other women in the Ghost’s field, like a woman named Villanelle for instance. When she mentions Villanelle’s name, the Ghost’s eyes drop, and she says they call her “the demon with no face.” She also informs Eve that Villanelle is no longer with The Twelve and is a freelance gun for hire. But that’s all she tells Eve.

So, Eve comes up with a brilliant idea to introduce Villanelle and the Ghost because she has an inkling Villanelle can get her to talk. How does she intend to introduce them? Oh, by putting a hit out on herself and making sure Villanelle is the one who gets the job. The rest of her team is aligned in thinking this is a terrible idea, not to mention dangerous. Later, Jess pulls Eve aside and says even though Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) is on board with this ludicrous plan, the fact that there’s no paper trail is troubling.

A psychopath expert arrives just then to give them a presentation. His slideshow includes a photo of a man beaten to a pulp, but Eve doesn’t look away. It isn’t until she sees a picture of Villanelle that she drops her eyes. Afterward we learn the man is actually working for Carolyn to gauge if Eve can continue to work on the Ghost and Villanelle cases. He tells her, “She’s too close. This is a no go.”

When Villanelle learns Eve is her new target, she’s, as Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) puts it, “a mess.” He tells her she needs to handle the job and toughen up. But her face tells us trouble is brewing. That evening, she orders a single glass of Champagne to her room and asks the bellman to stroke her hair. Yikes.

Meanwhile in London, Eve and Niko make plans to have Indian food for dinner. He tells her he has to go out of town for a few days to chaperone a spelling bee at Oxford (turns out Carolyn orchestrated it). Then, the doorbell rings and Eve finds a large floral arrangement that spells out her name. She knows it’s from Villanelle and she gets a strange sexual thrill out of it. So, she asks Niko if he wants to go upstairs to you-know-what.

At MI6 the next day, Carolyn asks Eve if she’s sure she wants to go through with this. Eve questions Carolyn’s reason for not memorializing all this in paperwork. Hugo (Edward Bluemel) arrives to get Eve settled into her bulletproof vest and she tells him she doesn’t want a backup team on site. She needs Villanelle to trust her and feel like she’s in control. Then, she’s off to go get maybe murdered.

But before she leaves the building, Kenny (Sean Delaney) pulls her aside and gives it to her straight. She stabbed Villanelle and it’s unlikely she’ll forget that. She’s jeopardizing her safety and the integrity of the mission. “What has happened to you, Eve? This is out of control,” he says. She responds by telling him she’ll have him placed on another team. He’s dumbstruck and hurt.

Eve leaves the office and gets to the tube. She’s on edge and when a man bumps her, she almost pushes him in front of the tube in retaliation. She knows Kenny is right. When she arrives home, she makes the poor choice of removing her bulletproof vest because it’s too bulky.

Villanelle rings the doorbell and tells Eve not to do anything stupid. Eve asks if she can take Villanelle’s veil. She retorts that she’s soon to be in mourning. They proceed to pop open a bottle of Champagne and Villanelle makes a dig at Eve for having been “so distracted” with the Ghost. Then, she plops her phone in a mug of Champagne (Eve doesn’t have Champagne glasses so that’s what they’re drinking out of). Villanelle says she should be more afraid of her given the fact that Eve stabbed her the last time they were together. They both admit that they think about each other all the time.

Eve cuts to the chase and tells Villanelle she needs her help. She explains that she put a hit out on herself so she and Villanelle could talk. Villanelle tells her that was a stupid idea then gives her some pills to swallow. Eve begins to take them and Villanelle panics, telling her it was arsenic. Then she erupts in laughter because of course it isn’t. She tells Eve she’ll help, as long as she gets everything she wants. When Eve agrees, they hop into a car that takes them to the Forest of Dean, where the Ghost is being held.

When they arrive, Villanelle asks if this is even legal, and when Eve retorts, “Why do you care?” Villanelle shoots back that she’s just looking out for her. Eve goes into the shipping crate that the Ghost is being held in and asks who ordered the hits on Alistair Peel. The Ghost doesn’t answer, so Villanelle goes in. When she emerges, Villanelle tells Eve Alistair’s son, Aaron (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), ordered the hit. He isn’t selling the company, he’s selling a weapon, and everyone, even The Twelve (Villanelle’s former employers), wants it. Villanelle asks Eve to say thank you, but when she does, it isn’t sincere and Villanelle storms off. The Ghost is still alive but there’s no telling what Villanelle did to make her talk.

Later, Villanelle shows up at Oxford and jokingly apologizes to Niko for the complaints she made against him. He threatens to kill her once it becomes clear who she is but then lets her go. She tells him he has nothing to worry about. She and Eve are friends now and she’s put the whole stabbing incident behind them. The thing is, Eve has been keeping all of these details from Niko. So, on top of coming face-to-face with a cold-blooded killer, he also just found out his wife has been lying to him. Content with the fact that she just threw a major wrench into their marriage, she simply says, “It was so good to meet you. Well, smell ya later!”

Well, that just happened. Find out what the aftermath brings when season two, episode six of Killing Eve premieres on Sunday, May 12.