Spy thrillers haven’t always been the most diverse. Women are usually one-dimensional love interests, people of colour are stereotypes or absent altogether, and white cishet men are the leads you’re forced to root for.
Thankfully, the genre is slowly moving away from its cringy past, and (despite some blips) Killing Eve is the perfect example for what spy thrillers should be.
The presence of a woman showrunner each season is noticeable.
Regardless of whether fans find seasons 2–3 a step down in quality, there are still positives to note, especially concerning Villanelle (Jodie Comer) – one of the most interesting television characters ever.
She’s chaotic, charismatic, and unique.
Not many thriller series have a queer and visibly neurodivergent woman as their lead.
A reinvention occurs every season, and plenty of fans are wanting Villanelle and Eve (Sandra Oh) together.
Villanelle and Eve’s relationship is the heart of the show, not the now-somewhat-tiresome storyline about the Twelve.
Each season they are brought together, separated, rinse and repeat.
‘Villaneve’ will likely not ride off into the sunset. That’s just not the type of show that Killing Eve is.
But that doesn’t mean we should be spending most of the final season on unnecessary plot.
The season 4 premiere wasn’t as exciting as the previous premieres, but it didn’t waste any time in briefly reuniting Villanelle and Eve in a definite homage to Romeo + Juliet.
It could be foreshadowing a tragic end for one or both of them.
Either way, the romance isn’t subtle, and they can’t stay away from each other for long.
Fully honing in on their relationship would be the best send-off, not wasting time putting obstacles between them, like Villanelle trying to pursue religion (as a means to avoid who she is as a person) or Eve wasting time on a man she doesn’t want to be with.
Three seasons of cat-and-mouse is enough.
Sometimes a chaotic queer relationship is enough to keep your queer fanbase happy.
This is topped off with characters like Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) and Konstantin (Kim Bodnia), solid characters who have great chemistry with both Villanelle and Eve.
Not that character development isn’t worth the time, but in the final season of the show, there’s no point trying to take on too much story-wise.
Erasing the progress their characters made last season is also a poor choice that takes away from the bridge scene in the season 3 finale.
Season 4 is only a few episodes in, so writing it off would be silly.
There’s still a fair number of episodes left in the season, and that means more surprises – but keeping expectations in the middle is likely best.
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