If there’s any decent in the world, the Game of Thrones showrunners just sent a gift basket to Killing Eve. Because just three years after ‘Game of Thrones’ raged for what was arguably the worst series finale ever, ‘Killing Eve’ may have just toppled it.
If you missed it, you missed one of the most abrupt endings in a series since Quantum Leap ended with a brief caption explaining that the main character never returned home (while also misspelling his name). The story, or what was left of it, has been completely cleaned up. Eve Polastri and Villanelle, finally surrendering to the will-they-won’t suspense, had defeated the bad guys and enjoyed a passionate kiss. And then, out of nowhere, Villanelle was shot and fell into the Thames and died, causing Eve to scream in fear as the words THE END filled the screen.
And boy are people mad about it? They are angry at the deviation from Luke Jennings’ source material, which ended with Eve and Villanelle living happily together. They are upset about the show’s reliance on Bury Your Gays, in which gay characters are seen as more expendable than their straight counterparts. Perhaps more than anything, they resent the shoddy storytelling and precipitous drop in quality. From every conceivable perspective, it couldn’t have been worse.
All of this contributed to the feeling that Killing Eve was just one thing that people did on the road to bigger and better things
However, only one thing could save the Killing Eve finale. The fact that I only had to describe the ending to you is a good sign that Killing Eve had faded away long before it ended. It’s a shame because it started off so well. The scripts (courtesy of Phoebe Waller-Bridge) were taut and sparkling with the kind of complex female longing that doesn’t often make it to the big screen. It revitalized Sandra Oh as a going concern in Hollywood. It made Jodie Comer an overnight star. For a while, Killing Eve was all there was to talk about.
But slowly all that fell away. Waller-Bridge left the company after season one to better focus on world domination. The second (still very good) season was directed by Emerald Fennell, who left to win an Oscar. But that churn meant audiences had to recalibrate to a third angle over as many seasons, which is a tiring thing to do, and this year’s fourth season brought with it yet another. Every behind-the-scenes change gave the audience a new opportunity to get out, and most of them did.
All of this contributed to the feeling that Killing Eve was just a stepping stone, something people did on the road to bigger and better things. Oh has moved on to Pixar films and is hosting the Golden Globe Awards, while Comer is already happily pursuing a career as a leading actress.
Now I have to be honest here. I didn’t like the last season of Killing Eve at all. Its focus was everywhere, as if it had forgotten why anyone liked it in the first place. But like I said, I kinda liked the ending. The way it ground to a halt with such an unrepentant eff you – one character dead, another screaming, and not even a shred of resolution to help viewers process their shock – was one of the boldest, most absurd things that I’ve seen for a long time. I actually laughed out loud at the bold bluntness of it all.
But there’s a reason for my reaction: like many others, I haven’t really cared about Killing Eve in years, which meant I could watch the finale with a kind of distant amusement. Those who have clung to the program through thick and thin will not have my level of detachment. It takes a massive investment to forgive such an obvious drop in quality and so the only ones left in the end were Killing Eve Diehards. For them, the final was an almost unforgivable betrayal. What a waste of everyone’s potential.