Killing Eve: Are You From Pinner?
May 10, 2020 8:03 PM - Season 3, Episode 5 - Subscribe
Villanelle returns home to Mother Russia to try to find her family.
Are the '12' lizards? I so so want an extreme pivot to weird scifi where Villanelle and Eve join up to foil the lizard-people invasion of the Earth.
posted by sammyo at 7:13 PM on May 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by sammyo at 7:13 PM on May 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
I too loved the pivot from flat-earth (false!) to global conspiracy (true!) to lizard people (false!). I got whiplash, and watched Villanelle like a hawk to see how she'd react.
posted by Mogur at 4:17 AM on May 12, 2020
posted by Mogur at 4:17 AM on May 12, 2020
"You were beautiful baby. Everyone would stop me in street and say she's beautiful baby. Head was big, but beautiful." Mama
posted by kokaku at 12:02 PM on May 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by kokaku at 12:02 PM on May 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
Such a charming episode. I loved the fair. Bitter conclusion, though.
posted by porpoise at 10:17 PM on May 12, 2020
posted by porpoise at 10:17 PM on May 12, 2020
In the train, at the end, Villanelle's eyes open and she looks out the window, then sweeps her gaze to the interior of the car. As she pans across, for just an instant she looks directly into the camera - which I don't believe for a second is accidental - and it's like an electric shock.
Jodie Comer's twitching, mad-eyed performance in that scene made it the highlight of the episode for me. I took it to be the show telling us that, unpredictable as Villanelle is at the best of times, now she's really unhinged.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:44 AM on May 13, 2020 [3 favorites]
Jodie Comer's twitching, mad-eyed performance in that scene made it the highlight of the episode for me. I took it to be the show telling us that, unpredictable as Villanelle is at the best of times, now she's really unhinged.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:44 AM on May 13, 2020 [3 favorites]
Loved the episode in general -- particularly that final scene, and the scenes at the festival; Jodie Comer's facial expressions and childlike enthusiasm when Villanelle was dominating those games were brilliant.
(I'm also pretty sure this was one of the songs played during the festival, which ... *chef's kiss*)
Tatiana was pretty interesting. When we meet her she walks into the house, sees her 'dead' daughter, and goes into shock for a few moments before rather performatively weeping and embracing her. She then behaves welcomingly and 'appropriately' when others are around, but when she catches Villanelle alone confronts her and tells her to leave immediately.
I had some trouble getting a handle on her until I saw it mentioned elsewhere that she seemed to be playing the classic grifter's act, which for me made everything fall into place -- she's managed to convince everyone she's something she's not, and needs to get rid of the person who could blow it all open for her. Blaming Villanelle for her husband's departure also seems convenient; I'd imagine Villanelle's on to something when she says "we're the same", and that her father left because he recognised that one or both of the women in his life were deeply disturbed. If he left after Villanelle went to the orphanage (only watched once and am a bit fuzzy on the timeline), that would seem to work against her mum's statement that she was the reason her father left. Perhaps her father did leave because he saw the 'darkness' -- not in Villanelle, but in Tatiana, particularly if she's the narcissist type who felt threatened by the idea of people loving her child more than her.
All the other little hints -- Tatiana being the killer in the card game, her abusive words to Borka, her husband mentioning she cries every night -- seem to indicate there's a much darker side to this woman than she wants people to see.
posted by myotahapea at 6:39 AM on May 13, 2020 [4 favorites]
(I'm also pretty sure this was one of the songs played during the festival, which ... *chef's kiss*)
Tatiana was pretty interesting. When we meet her she walks into the house, sees her 'dead' daughter, and goes into shock for a few moments before rather performatively weeping and embracing her. She then behaves welcomingly and 'appropriately' when others are around, but when she catches Villanelle alone confronts her and tells her to leave immediately.
I had some trouble getting a handle on her until I saw it mentioned elsewhere that she seemed to be playing the classic grifter's act, which for me made everything fall into place -- she's managed to convince everyone she's something she's not, and needs to get rid of the person who could blow it all open for her. Blaming Villanelle for her husband's departure also seems convenient; I'd imagine Villanelle's on to something when she says "we're the same", and that her father left because he recognised that one or both of the women in his life were deeply disturbed. If he left after Villanelle went to the orphanage (only watched once and am a bit fuzzy on the timeline), that would seem to work against her mum's statement that she was the reason her father left. Perhaps her father did leave because he saw the 'darkness' -- not in Villanelle, but in Tatiana, particularly if she's the narcissist type who felt threatened by the idea of people loving her child more than her.
All the other little hints -- Tatiana being the killer in the card game, her abusive words to Borka, her husband mentioning she cries every night -- seem to indicate there's a much darker side to this woman than she wants people to see.
posted by myotahapea at 6:39 AM on May 13, 2020 [4 favorites]
With the way the show has been dispatching of people as of late, I was really worried they were doing that thing where they kill people off willy nilly and call it edgy. I wasn't worried about her little half brother as much as her brother who was so instantly loving and sweet I immediately feared for him. I hope we see more of him but I'd also like him not to suffer horribly at the hands of Villanelle, which means I hope we don't see him? I don't really ask things of this show but it's always entertaining... my biggest worries are if it can live up to the standard it's set for itself. Still, it has me waiting for the few things we know have to happen, the biggest question to me being Carolyn's daughter. I'm hoping the things that have seemed sloppy so far pay off somehow.
posted by provoliminal at 4:25 AM on May 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by provoliminal at 4:25 AM on May 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
Are the '12' lizards? I so so want an extreme pivot to weird scifi where Villanelle and Eve join up to foil the lizard-people invasion of the Earth. I said the exact same thing to my wife when we watched this....how amazing it would be to take a turn into a Doctor Who type show with them teaming up to fight lizard people.
posted by Captain_Science at 7:36 AM on June 29, 2020
posted by Captain_Science at 7:36 AM on June 29, 2020
I think this is maybe my favourite episode so far. It would not really have worked if we didn't already have sufficient knowledge of Villanelle's character to be able to enjoy revelations about her family.
I'm sure that lots of people - not just Phoebe Waller-Bridge, have compared Villanelle with James Bond as well dressed, globe trotting psychopathic killers from different eras. Back in early 60s, when the first Bond films emerged, international travel was incredibly aspirational and expensive: audiences could dream of being on a Jamaican beach but the government of the day was going to impose taxes, currency exchange restrictions and other red tape which would make this only a dream. So it is for Brits today with a xenophobic government who ask why anybody would venture abroad in an era of Brexit? The writers of Killing Eve seem to hold up a big "fuck you" to that idea in this season which seems to delight in flipping through a dozen countries and languages. The difference here is that the cultural research has been done very well for the places visited. From the overall list of locations in Series 3 - I can see that the village used for "Гризмет" (Grizmet) is Cucuieți Sudiț near Budapest - not quite "mother Russia" but certainly a place with a very specific feeling of location.
(Equally - we could talk about Pinner itself - the not terribly exciting area of greater London where Elton John grew up with his grandparents. )
posted by rongorongo at 6:32 AM on September 25, 2020
I'm sure that lots of people - not just Phoebe Waller-Bridge, have compared Villanelle with James Bond as well dressed, globe trotting psychopathic killers from different eras. Back in early 60s, when the first Bond films emerged, international travel was incredibly aspirational and expensive: audiences could dream of being on a Jamaican beach but the government of the day was going to impose taxes, currency exchange restrictions and other red tape which would make this only a dream. So it is for Brits today with a xenophobic government who ask why anybody would venture abroad in an era of Brexit? The writers of Killing Eve seem to hold up a big "fuck you" to that idea in this season which seems to delight in flipping through a dozen countries and languages. The difference here is that the cultural research has been done very well for the places visited. From the overall list of locations in Series 3 - I can see that the village used for "Гризмет" (Grizmet) is Cucuieți Sudiț near Budapest - not quite "mother Russia" but certainly a place with a very specific feeling of location.
(Equally - we could talk about Pinner itself - the not terribly exciting area of greater London where Elton John grew up with his grandparents. )
posted by rongorongo at 6:32 AM on September 25, 2020
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posted by Mogur at 5:15 PM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]