Will Eve and Villanelle Survive ‘Killing Eve’ Season 4?

[WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Killing Eve’s Season 4 premiere, “Just Dunk Me.”]

After three seasons of inventive murder, fabulous outfits and a whole lot of unresolved tension, Eve (Sandra Oh) and Villanelle’s (Jodie Comer) story is almost at an end.

But perhaps the largest question lingering over Season 4’s final eight episodes — well, other than whether ‘Villaneve’ finally acts on several seasons’ worth of slow-simmering tension — is whether the central duo will live past the end credits. Here, we speculate on the fates of the assassin and the ex-MI6 agent as they approach their final deadly adventure.

Killing Eve isn’t known for its feel-good aura. While there’s plenty of black humor, it is, after all, a show about murder. Beloved and innocent characters, like Kenny (Sean Delaney) — who never did anything wrong in his life, ever — and Bill (David Haig) — who was too good for this world — die in awful ways. So, there’s every chance that the two main characters might not slip from the grim reaper’s grip…and they’re in plenty of danger.

Villanelle, whether she remains a “good person” or goes back to her old ways, is not working for The Twelve but knows enough about them to be a liability. That might paint a target on her back. And Eve’s determinedly painting a target on her own back as she continues pursuing the mysterious organization, even though she knows it’ll likely get her killed. After all, Kenny died doing just that.

Laura Radford/BBCAmerica/Sid Gentle

When Villanelle and Eve reunite in the premiere, their longing gazes through a fish tank evoke Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet…and we all know what happened to them. In promotional material, Eve recounts the fable of the scorpion and the frog to Villanelle, telling her they both die. “Maybe you’re the scorpion,” Villanelle says. There are enough death flags here to start a vexillology club.

But could it all be a misdirect? Since the show is thickly slathering on the death symbolism, it’s at least worth considering the possibility that it’s all a fake-out, designed to subvert expectations. Killing Eve hasn’t followed its source material, but in the books, Eve and Villanelle end up together, happily, alive, as a couple. There’s an argument to be made that this isn’t realistic for these characters on the show, and Eve even noted last season that were she and Villanelle to be together, they’d eventually “consume each other.” But could they meet each other halfway? Could Villanelle give up her lavish life and deadly ways? Would “settling down” be enough for Eve now that she’s fully aware of her own dark side? Perhaps; perhaps not.

As a third option, it’s possible one half of ‘Villaneve’ makes it to the end while the other perishes. The obvious choice would be Eve. On a show called Killing Eve, that’s not a reach. But because it’s so obvious, Villanelle almost seems the more likely candidate to shuffle off this mortal coil. Her attraction to Eve now appears to be less a passing fixation and more true affection, and true affection is a dangerous thing. True affection could lead her to sacrifice herself for the woman she loves, leaving Eve alive, but without her soulmate/obsession — and without a shred of the person she once was.

On the subject of the title, recall what Eve once vowed to Villanelle as they had an extremely tense dinner all the way back in Season 1. “I am going to find the thing you care about the most,” she snapped, “and I am going to kill it.” The thing Villanelle loves is Eve, but in a sense, Eve has already “killed” herself. How much of Eve from the first episode — the woman that lived in a house with her husband and raised chickens and wore sweaters with shirts attached — remains? Nothing. And thus, “Killing Eve” is probably not a megaphone blaring its titular character’s death; instead, it alludes to her complete metamorphosis. No matter what happens in the finale, the Eve Polastri from “Nice Face” is dead.

BBC America

It would be most poetic if whatever destiny awaits one of these women took them both. No matter how they swear they’re over each other, that they’re different people now, that they’ve changed…they’re too tightly bound with red thread for fate to separate them. Maybe they’ll both survive and go live in a cabin in Alaska. Maybe they’ll be the scorpion and the frog, dooming each other by their unchangeable natures. And in the end, maybe the best we can hope for is that they’ll get the conclusion they deserve.

Killing Eve, Sundays, 8/7c, BBC America