There are massive — and I mean, MASSIVE — spoilers ahead for Killing Eve Season 4 and the series finale.
1. First, Killing Eve Season 4 showrunner Laura Neal called it a “huge privilege” to be “woman number four in a line of amazing female lead writers,” and she was a huge fan of everything Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Emerald Fennell, and Suzanne Heathcote did in the previous three seasons.
2. In terms of if Laura had any discussions with Phoebe, Emerald, and/or Suzanne about how to end the series, Laura said she and the writers were given “total freedom to do whatever [they] wanted with it.”
3. Season 4 notably picked up with a little time jump after the Season 3 bridge moment between Eve and Villanelle, but the writers did think about a direct pickup. Ultimately, it was more exciting to see Eve and Villanelle in “different emotional places, and letting the audience play catch-up about what happened between the bridge and the start of Season 4.”
4. There were a lot of discussions about how much to have Eve and Villanelle together during Season 4, since a lot of the most beloved moments are when they finally reunite. Laura said it was about striking the correct balance “because you have to earn those moments” for them to still feel electric.
5. So, when discussing the series finale, the writers knew Eve and Villanelle had to spend a lot of time together, especially because it was “the end of this relationship.”
6. Konstantin and Villanelle’s goodbye in Season 4, Episode 5 was an unscripted moment between Kim Bodnia and Jodie Comer. Nothing was written for the scene and the duo just “played around with it,” until they found something that worked.
7. And Villanelle and Eve’s curly fries dinner at a rest stop was another unscripted moment, where Laura gave Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer an outline and they were just allowed to have fun with the scene.
8. Villanelle and Eve’s sleeping bag moment in the series finale is a deliberate reference to their bed moment during the Season 1 finale. Laura said that moment was “directed to perfection” and having it mirror the Season 1 finale was “really conscious.”
9. Also, Eve and Villanelle’s final scene being at Tower Bridge was deliberate too. Laura, who wrote the Season 3 finale, wanted to take these characters back to a bridge, and it ended up being a very “personal” nod for her as well.
10. Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh filmed one take of Villanelle and Eve’s long-awaited kiss on the side of the road during the series finale, and it was, understandably, a very special moment for the duo.
11. And everyone on set nicknamed Eve and Villanelle’s big kiss the “piss kiss,” and they loved how this massive moment came during such an “understated” moment.
12. The last scene Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh filmed for Killing Eve was the moment underwater after Villanelle has been shot and Eve is reaching out to her. Of course, it was “really, really emotional” and there were “quite a lot of tears” on set.
13. Laura said Jodie Comer was involved in discussions about Villanelle’s ending “from the very beginning of planning Season 4” and she was involved in “every single iteration of the ending” and it was a “hard” decision to decide to kill Villanelle at the very end.
14. For Laura and the writers, the decision to kill Villanelle felt “true to her journey and the place that we found her in at the start of Season 4, and the place she ends up at the end.” She said, “It felt sort of the only way we could finish Villanelle’s story, truthfully.” And they liked the idea of Villanelle’s last act being one that saves Eve, which might not have been something Season 1 Villanelle would’ve done.
15. Yes, there were conversations about whether or not the series should end with Villanelle and Eve simply living a happy life together and we would see a domestic version of this couple. The writers decided to end their story tragically because they felt that “their happy ending wouldn’t last very long,” given Villanelle’s psychopathic nature and Eve being drawn to that lifestyle too.
16. And the domestic moments between Villanelle and Eve that we see during the series finale — sharing a sleeping bag together, doing dishes, going on a road trip — were born out of the writers’ “desire to play around” with what a settled down version of this couple would look like before it all ends.
17. At one point, the series finale almost ended with Eve coming out of the water and “the return of the Villanelle vision from Episode 1. So there was a sense that she had transcended and was existing elsewhere.”
18. And Eve’s final scenes — between dancing and coming up out of the water — were meant to symbolize a “rebirth” for the character.
19. While Villanelle is the only one to take down The Twelve during the series finale, there was a version where Eve and Villanelle did it together. In the end, Eve was left out of the attack because Sandra Oh believed that although Eve has killed people, she still wouldn’t “conduct a kind of massacre.”
20. The karaoke moment in Episode 7, when Eve envisions Bill, Elena, and all the people she’s lost and said goodbye to, was actually created using footage from Season 1. So, none of those actors were actually on set.
21. Laura always knew she wanted to try and bring Bill back in some way, since his death really set Eve on the course she ends up on and Bill’s death is still one of the best (and most shocking) Villanelle kills of the entire series.
22. The final season also featured us learning more about Carolyn, and Fiona Shaw loved taking Carolyn from a smaller character in Season 1 to someone whose journey we are invested in alongside Eve and Villanelle.
23. Jodie Comer and Fiona Shaw “requested” to have scenes together in the final season, since they’d not really shared any before. The writers loved showing how similar Villanelle and Carolyn actually are.
24. During the series finale, the writers wanted to give the “illusion” that Carolyn might finally retire and settle down, which makes her betrayal at the very end — and us seeing her on the bridge following Villanelle’s death — all the more painful.
25. Also, the scene when Carolyn and Villanelle have a “chummy” moment in the pub was used to make Carolyn’s final moment all the more hurtful.
26. Konstantin’s death in Season 4, Episode 7 came after the writers discussed wanting this character to have a moment he couldn’t “wriggle” out of.
27. There were a lot of different versions of Konstantin’s demise and conversations about whether Villanelle or Carolyn would kill him in the end, but ultimately they loved the idea of Pam being the one to do it and having it be this new assassin he’s started to have a soft spot for. The pizza cutter was also used to give Konstantin’s death something that felt “suitably ridiculous and surreal for a character that’s given us so much humor.”
28. Since Killing Eve was such a global series, filming during the coronavirus pandemic presented some new challenges. For example, they weren’t allowed to travel outside of the UK as much, so the greater London area was used to create some of the more exotic locations during Season 4.
29. And finally, Laura’s favorite moment from Season 4 is the tarot card reading during the series finale. She explained that it was so much fun to write and features some of Jodie Comer’s best comedic acting.
Killing Eve Season 4 is streaming now on BBC America and AMC+. And you can catch up on previous seasons on Hulu.
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