‘Killing Eve’ season 3 recap – episode 1: ‘Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey’

Warning: spoilers ahead

A critically acclaimed toxic duo is resuming its game of cat and mouse.

Sunday night’s “Killing Eve” season three premiere showcased the usual suspects struggling to bear the consequences of their actions from the ending of season two. Carolyn Martens (Fiona Shaw) is left in the aftermath of her lawless choices and Niko Polastri (Owen McDonnell) is grappling with the end of his marriage. Moreover, season three picks up showing the long-term aftermath from the operation in Rome.

Moving past the naivete and optimism of the earlier seasons allows the episode to stick with a strong expressionist style to reflect his newly shaken Eve (Sandra Oh). However, while beloved characters are reintroduced, their personalities can only do so much to maintain one’s interest in the show’s thinning plot. This episode is a slow start to a season meant to provide answers outside of what the characters have done since the operation in Rome.

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The snail-slow pace begins with a young Villanelle (Jodie Comer) training in gymnastics right before callously murdering a young male suitor and pouring chalk powder over his face. While this scene is a brief glimpse into Villanelle’s past, it leans into the mainstream trope of a Russian assassin school, which seems contradictory to the show’s normally unpredictable plot lines. Villanelle’s act of murder retains elements of her feminine touch but shifts toward less curated methods of execution, indicating a change of tone this season.

But events suddenly jump to present-day Villanelle, chic as ever, at her own wedding reception talking only of Eve. For a moment, the plot seems to pick up the pace as Villanelle’s former mentor, Dasha (Harriet Walter), starts a fight and invites her to kill for the Twelve again. But Villanelle makes her power play, demanding to be a keeper instead and planting the seeds for the long-awaited reveal of who is behind the secret organization.

Meanwhile, in England, Carolyn answers to a higher authority and struggles to maintain her power within MI6 because of her countless off-the-book decisions. Watching Carolyn lose some of her power is startlingly satisfying after so long avoiding the consequences of her actions. In these moments, the show makes it brilliantly clear who to root for as characters Carolyn and Villanelle are both selfish, and do not consider those around them, but there’s a satisfaction in seeing Carolyn reprimanded compared to the satisfaction of Villanelle avoiding them.

Once these nitty-gritty details are addressed, the episode cuts to relieve the tension of last season’s cliffhanger. In classic television fashion, Eve has magically survived the bullet in Rome. She’s also separated from her husband and now works in a restaurant kitchen while unhappily sustaining herself off copious amounts of ramen and wine.

Despite the doom and gloom, the show’s familiar excellence in world building is in full swing as a grittier, urban side of London is seen through the windows of Eve’s dark studio apartment. Such darker tones are even reflected in Eve’s self-isolation and disregard for her health. Oh’s acting shines as her facial expressions and commitment to her character’s hermit tendencies brings a strange sense of humor to Eve’s state of resignation.

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Cutting back to Villanelle, visual cinematography pulls the episode full circle as she is seen taking the life of another victim and pouring red powder over her face. Revealed as a job for the Twelve, this kill is again out of character for the femininely flamboyant serial killer as these visceral scenes reflect a darker shift in her mental state – mirroring Eve’s mental state.

While this is a fun return of Villanelle as a hit-woman, the kill is brasher and emanates a brewing anger. It highlights a clear evolution of character as this season sets itself up to climax just as Villanelle’s anger boils over. Despite the character’s shift away from past qualities, however, Comer does an amazing job of creating consistency in Villanelle by retaining most of her classic attributes such as her humor and childlike mannerisms.

Capping the episode is Eve discovering Kenny Stowton’s (Sean Delaney) dead body outside his office building when she finally visits him. This marks a tragic end for a sweet, innocent character who helped maintain a sense of morality and positivity in Eve’s life. However, such a character sacrifice acted as a necessary plot device to motivate Eve into taking back her mantle as a quirky, serial killer-obsessed detective.

It only remains to be seen if Kenny’s death will have the same effect on Eve as Frank’s did, or if she’ll take his death as an actual warning against this lifestyle. But that likely won’t be the case if the series is to continue intensifying the drama of the season.

Overall, the first episode to “Killing Eve” season three was slow and steady, but it no doubt planted the seeds for the moments of tension to come. If the BBC show has retained anything from Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s departure from the writer’s room, it’s the attention to details that will resurface right at the season’s finale. While the plot seems to dangerously thin out, performances remain as strong as ever, and the episode does hint at more substance throughout the season as more about the Twelve is revealed.

Hopefully, Eve won’t be killed along the way.