SPOILER ALERT: Contains info and screencaps from the finale.
Last night we were all treated to the Season One finale of “Killing Eve,” a show about “Villanelle,” a queer psychopath assassin and Eve, the (probably also queer) sorta-detective who becomes obsessed with her in confusing ways. The program manages to employ just about every TV Trope we normally detest but does so in a way that has made us fall head-over-heels in love with it. Last night for a moment I thought the show was going to end itself with an actual lesbian sex scene, and then when Villanelle became suddenly aware of the knife I said to myself, “Ah! A much more authentic choice!”
The episode’s final scenes really tapped into some realistic relationship dynamics that I found oddly fitting for 2018, The Year of Everybody’s Breakup, but of course the show’s ability to expose these glaring truths has been evident from the start. If you thought we had questions for Phoebe Waller-Bridge in 2017, watch out 2018!
1. When you leave a piece of clothing at your ex’s house so you’ll have an excuse to go back
2. When your ex keeps that piece of clothing at her house for 10+ years just in case you come back for it
3. When your friends are trying to help you break up with your terrible girlfriend ’cause you deserve better…
…but you’re not sure if you can do it
4. When you think obsessively about mundane, kinda sweet and, more often than not, emotionally inappropriate aspects of your crush’s personality
5. When she thinks about you too
6. Your first date after a bad breakup
7. When you’re terrified of genuine emotional intimacy
8. When she threatens to break up with you if you don’t go to therapy and process your issues with genuine emotional intimacy
9. When you try to get info on your crush from a mutual cis straight male friend
10. When you find yourself oddly aroused instead of appropriately terrified by aspects of her personality that are very clear red flags
11. When it turns out that weird lady in your building who you think is homophobic has been watching you all this time, just as you suspected
12. When you try to explain the emotional impact of your most recent ex-girlfriend to a barely-interested neutral third party
13. When you’re about to date a Shane because you’re certain you understand her in a unique and important way that will inspire her to deviate from her established track record of being a very bad girlfriend
14. When your hands still smell like her the next day
15. When you hook up with a straight girl
16. When you come out
17. When you’re nervous as hell and she’s 100% DTF
18. When you see the ex you thought you’d never see again
19. When the breakup of your eight month relationship takes eight weeks to play itself out
19. When you finally get the guts to end your f*cked up relationship and then she says one sort of sweet thing
21. When you were like ten minutes away from from achieving much-needed closure on your f*cked-up relationship
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Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.
Riese has written 3279 articles for us.
RIESE!
This is perfect.
A bit too true, maybe.
Also, I‘m #7.
P.S.: Chloe,I told you Eve didn’t want to be topped.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s persistance in having storylines of women (talking about) masturbating on the BBC makes my heart soar. What a fucking hero.
Thank you for your service, Phoebe
I didn’t read the article but this show is on my queue. I only watched the first episode when it premiered and waited till the season ended so I could binge it.
But damn, I can’t wait to watch it. It seems this show is very gay from the headline and the little summary you have on the homepage.
Good call. It was difficult to wait a week between episodes.
Everyone needs to watch this show.
^this^
Everytime someone watches this gem a star shines brighter in the sky!
This is perfect.
I’m 10. I’m always 10.
same, unfortunately
I am 4, no matter how much I try not to be.
also “god, i’m tired” is just THE MOST LESBIAN RELATIONSHIP EPISODE TITLE
I AM SO TIRED
I cackled like Ursula the whole way and clapped, I’m not #10 I’m the subject of #10 not that we didn’t already know that.
This show is a gem
I hope we get a recap of the season
killing eve and a very english scandal have been the best surprises to date.
8 episodes weren’t enough. I can’t wait for Season 2
Eve in the streets, Villanelle in the sheets.
Gold. I guffawed at #13, straight up guffawed
Hey, you can change number 10 into: When you find yourself very thirsty instead of appropriately terrified by aspects of her personality that are very clear red flags
i marathoned just so i could sit and read this at 2 am and let me tell you I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED this is perfect
Haha, this article is fantastic! I love this show! Especially, the humor! One would think a cat and mouse show with an assassin and MI6 agent wouldn’t be funny, but it is. Riese, will you be recaping Killing Eve?
finished the show last night and this whole article is so, so true. gonna go cry about how these are all my life now
Killing Eve is the most DELICIOUS show out there on television. Fight me.
I will fight by your side. You have my sword
And my axe!
Came back to find this now that I’ve watched and I think I’ll print this article out and cuddle with it tonight, IT GETS ME
I cackled in my very quiet office about this piece.
What a show!
Also, the Russian language in most of the season is truly abysmal, like a child playing with the limited offline version of Google translate… but gets much better in the last two episodes when Russian actors tut up. I wish shows would just hire a translator and not wait until they can use an actor.