Killing Eve – Season 3 Episode 3 Recap & Review

She’s Back

After a couple of episodes used to build the foundations for the season ahead, Killing Eve roars into high gear for its latest slice of drama. As Villanelle returns with a vengeance and the inevitable brewing sexual tension between her and Eve reaches fever pitch, the season ahead looks set to take an unpredictable and exciting turn after this episode.

Episode 3 of Killing Eve begins in Andalusia with Villanelle killing two women after testing a piano. She takes the baby for her own and proceeds to meet with Dasha. She tells the young assassin to focus and proceeds to put the baby in a bin. Dasha hands over a postcard of London and tells her she’s heading there soon. Villanelle tries to hide her concern but brushes this off and prepares to leave.

Carolyn, Eve and Jamie discuss the shreds of evidence they have to go on but getting nowhere, Eve leaves and heads into Kenny’s work. With a rubik’s cube in hand and a code on the computer, Eve manages to turn the sides of the cube around, spelling out the word Panda which happens to be the name of Kenny’s account.

Realizing she’s onto something, Eve tell Jamie about The Twelve and after discussing vague details of Villanelle and Frank, enlists the help of Carolyn’s assistant to try and crack a Geneva account that links all of this together.

Konstanin meets Charles Gruber and they too discuss that very same Geneva account. 6 million has been taken and when Konstantin learns about this, he agrees to help find the person responsible. While he heads out, Eve and the others realize that Charles could be the one in charge of the accounts for The Twelve and sets to work trying to bring him in without The Twelve knowing.

Villanelle arrives in Mayfair and after finding a fragrance to intimidate Eve, she heads to a shop selling teddy bears and records a series of messages for Eve. “I can’t stop thinking about you” Villanelle eventually says as she deliberates on the right message to send her.

Eve meanwhile finds out her husband has left for Poland, and as she gets on the bus, Villanelle suddenly arrives and pins her down. The fighting soon turns romantic as they kiss but the bus suddenly braking sends both of them flying on the floor. Villanelle makes a hasty exit, leaving Eve caught in confused shock as she arrives at Kenny’s work.

Carolyn uses her initiative and picks up Charles, driving off with him in order to get answers. Realizing Villanelle is back, Eve frantically messages Carolyn and tells her but it’s too late. Disguised as a police officer, Villanelle shoots Charles in the head, while Carolyn narrowly avoids death in the process.

In the aftermath of this, a shocked Carolyn heads home while Villanelle contemplates what she was like as a baby. Eve heads back to her apartment where she finds the toy bear placed by Villanelle with the defining message “Admit it Eve, you wish I was there,” which she plays repeatedly as the episode ends.

With some good plot development and a nice twist in the tale surrounding Villanelle and Eve, this changing dynamic in the cat and mouse game looks set to really kick the season ahead into high gear. There’s some great characterisation between the duo and combined with the returning dark humour, Killing Eve delivers another very good episode. 

The shocking moment involving Villanelle and Carolyn is certainly a big twist and even more so given Villanelle didn’t kill her. Was this an act of kindness given her connections to Eve? There’s certainly plenty to chew over here as we wait for next week’s episode. If this is anything to go by, it should be a very good one indeed.