‘Killing Eve’ Season 3 Dares to Push the Show into Deeper, Darker Territory

Killing Eve Season 3 opens with the birth of a killer. We go back to Mother Russia, that is the Soviet Union in 1974, where a young Nadia Comaneci-esque gymnast struggles to hit her landing but succeeds in creatively killing her peer. This obviously isn’t Villanelle’s origin story, but that of a killer who seems to have shaped Killing Eve‘s cold-blooded killer much as a mother would a child.

Killing Eve Season 3 has motherhood on the brain. We see mothers feuding with their children, Villanelle (Jodie Comer) flirting with the idea of having a baby, and a dramatic return to, yes, “Mother Russia.” Even Eve’s (Sandra Oh) relationship with her husband Niko (Owen McDonnell) takes on an oddly maternal vibe. Still, it is interesting that a show that had hitherto explored femininity as it pertained to seduction, sadism, and performance has finally tackled the motherhood question. Because of this shift in focus, Killing Eve Season 3 is deeper, darker, and bigger in its scope than ever before.

Killing Eve is a show about the intense relationship between two women, intelligence officer Eve Polastri and expert assassin Villanelle. In Killing Eve Season 1, Eve became obsessed with tracking down Villanelle’s movements as she hopscotched across Europe, leaving a spate of sadistically creative kills in her wake. The twist was that Villanelle became equally consumed with Eve. Their cat-and-mouse game quickly dipped into the realms of the erotic, as both women wrestled with sexual desire for one another.

This all culminated in the end of Killing Eve Season 2, where Villanelle and Eve find themselves battling the same foe. After barely escaping with their lives, Villanelle assumed that she and Eve would be free to live together as lovers. Eve thought otherwise. After getting into a heated argument in the middle of some really plush Roman ruins, a heartbroken Villanelle shoots Eve.

In Killing Eve Season 3, we see how both women have rebounded from this. Villanelle has opted to shirk her duties as a trained killer and is attempting to live a life of luxurious leisure. Eve, on the other hand, has physically survived her ordeal, but is emotionally still healing. Villanelle is pulled back in to the criminal underworld by the arrival of a new character, Harriet Walter’s Dasha, that deliciously hard former Soviet gymnast-turned-assassin. In many ways, she feels like the original Villanelle, and a haunting prediction of what Villanelle might become without intervention. Meanwhile, a shockingly tragic event inspires Eve to get back into the proverbial hunt.

It can’t be stressed enough that Killing Eve Season 3 does not pull its punches, emotionally or when it comes to violence. In the five episodes sent to critics, there are truly grisly kills, horrific acts of cruelty, and some really shocking deaths. Killing Eve Season 3 manages to heighten the stakes once more. No one is safe, and you get the sense that the show is trying to expand itself beyond Eve and Villanelle’s relationship. Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) gets a juicy storyline that sees her challenged when her personal and professional lives become intertwined. Similarly, Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) is torn between his dangerous work and his guilt over not being there for his daughter Irina. This heightened emphasis on everyone’s personal life and what matters to them makes the drama feel all the more urgent.

Killing Eve Season 3 is tonally as dark as it is visually playful. Once again, we get to watch as Villanelle wraps herself up in technicolor dream clothes. There’s a gonzo clown costume, a sublime series of dresses, and one seriously hot suit. Stylistically, the cinematography is inventive and the needle drops inventive, helping us understand Villanelle and Eve’s mutually twisted psyches through the lyrics of the songs. However, for all this pageantry, Killing Eve doesn’t forget to dig deep into the emotions of its characters, and that’s why it’s so much fun to watch.

Much like its electric first season, Killing Eve Season 3 will hook its claws into you and drag you across Europe on a deliciously dark ride.

Killing Eve Season 3 premieres on BBC America on Sunday, April 12. 

Where to stream Killing Eve