For the past 3 years, fans of spy thrillers have had the pleasure of watching Killing Eve on BBC and AMC, and coming in 2022, they will get one more season of this unique spin on the genre.
A Little Background
Killing Eve debuted in 2018, starring Jody Comer (Free Guy) as assassin Villanelle and Sandra Oh as intelligence operative, Eve Polastri. There are numerous other experience actors in the series (Fiona Shaw and Kim Bodnia, among others), but the show revolves around the fascinating relationship between the two main characters.
The first season starts off with intrepid British intelligence officer, Eve, on the hunt for a prolific and potentially psychotic assassin, named Villanelle. As Eve connects the dots about Villanelle’s killings, she becomes obsessed with the assassin. Soon enough she draws the attention of the killer herself. In most spy thrillers, this would be the time where the hunter becomes the hunted and the action follows a fairly standard path. But, Killing Eve doesn’t want to be conventional.
Villanelle is indeed a dangerous, mentally unstable, hired assassin, but that instability leads her to become must as obsessed with Eve. Eventually, the two are far more obsessed with each other personally than professionally, With plenty of cat and mouse games, a few in-person confrontations the first season ends with the two characters sharing complicated feelings for each other (to say the least) and Eve actually stabs Villanelle, who then escapes.
In season 2, the chase picks up where the first season left off, with the two characters continuing their strange dance as enemies, who are not only obsessed with each other, but falling into one of the oddest romantic relationships you will ever see. Eve is also becoming more and more like Villanelle along the way, which is part of Villanelle’s goal. At the end of season 2, Villanelle has professed her love for Eve, who rejects her. Villanelle then shoots Eve in the back. Love is strange, right?
In the third season, our two characters end up working together after Villanelle and her handler start working for British Intelligence. (Oh yeah, Eve survived the finale of season 2.) There are many, many twists and turns in this new iteration of their relationship. The season ends with the two characters recognizing that perhaps they feed off of each other in a very unhealthy way, and agree to walk away from each other never to look back. But… As each woman walks in the opposite direction on a bridge, they both turn and the finale ends with them in that moment.
Along with this deeply odd relationship, there is plenty of action, killings, double and triple-crosses galore. The acting is stellar, with both Oh and Comer winning awards for their portrayal of the main characters. Comer’s mastery of different accents makes the show worth watching on its own, but how she inhabits the role is amazing. But the supporting cast is equally talented (with Shaw also winning awards for the show), making even the most absurd seeming storylines come together.
What Will Happen in Season 4?
Short answer - who knows? Clearly, we’ll see Eve and Villanelle continue working through their unique relationship, but what direction that takes is anyone’s guess. At the end of season 3, Villanelle was tired of killing (I’ve lost count of how many people she killed on the show) and seemed to want to simply walk off into the sunset. But, can she? Eve knows she should move on with her life as well, but Villanelle has been the center of her world for 3 seasons. Is she any more capable of moving on?
We’ll just have to watch season 4 in 2022 and find out.
What We Know About The Season 4 Release
While the first two seasons premiered on BBC in the UK with a long delay before coming to the US, season 3 had only a 1-day delay. So, we can hope that once season 4 premiers in the UK, it will be a very quick turnaround to being available in the US, as well.
As to the release date? Well, every season to date has kicked off in April, but with the pandemic we can likely expect the release of season 4 to be a bit later in the year. Filming kicked off in June 2021, so we should expect it next year, but the date is up in the air.
