Round Two: Killing Eve

Killing Eve: Season 1, Episode 2 “I’ll Deal with Him Later” (B+)

I’m glad I decided to give this show a second chance since I think that this installment showed that it has a much clearer sense of purpose than I had seen in the pilot. Eve still talks a lot, but the way in which Carolyn refuses to even acknowledge her quirkiness makes her mildly more tolerable. It’s good to see that some of the characters we met in the pilot are going to be involved in Eve’s off-the-books investigation, and I like that Bill revealed himself to be less critical of Eve’s leadership, instead showing that he was pushing her to come up with helpful conclusions like the analysis that Villanelle liked killing long before she got paid to do it. The relationship between Villanelle and Konstantin continues to be immensely intriguing, and after she wore a totally uncharacteristic pink dress during her evaluation, she decided to lift the assignment that he opted not to give her and go through with it anyway. Taking out an office executive and then sitting down bored on the office chair was one thing, but there was something more chilling about her calmly watching her mark choke to death after inhaling some of the perfume she made and brought her. Sebastian seemed like a nice enough guy, but unfortunately he wasn’t long for this world, casually disposed of by Villanelle because he was starting to become a nuisance. He definitely couldn’t keep up with the ferocious pace of her intimacy-free sex. The end of the episode was cool, with both Villanelle and Eve realizing that they had met in person, setting the stage for Villanelle to take some undue initiative to track down the only person sincerely on her trail.