Villaneve

Villaneve is the femslash ship between Eve Polastri and Villanelle | Oksana Astankova from the Killing Eve fandom.

Canon
Eve and Villanelle have always had a cat-and-mouse type of relationship. Villanelle likes to be found by Eve, and Eve likes chasing her. They've had many major setbacks in their relationship that only seem to pull them closer. No matter how many things, or people, try to keep them away, they cannot seem to shake eachother off. Their relationship is extremely convoluted so there is much to go over if the meaning behind their actions is to be understood. Villanelle brings out Eve's dangerous side, while Eve is one of the only people who can keep Villanelle restrained, a couple times even seeing her on the softer side.

Season 1
"Are you alright?"

- Eve's first words to Villanelle.

Eve works as an MI5 security officer who has been, off the record, keeping tabs and collecting information on an assassin she believes to be operating internationally. Villanelle is this assassin, unbeknownst to Eve, who works for an organization called The Twelve.

Eve's theory first comes to fruition when a Russian politician is murdered in broad daylight. When Eve goes to interview his girlfriend and finds out the killer was a woman, she is elated. She goes back to the hospital again the next day, not knowing Villanelle is there to kill the sole witness of her kill.

They meet in the hospital bathroom while Villanelle is dressed as a nurse. Villanelle exits a stall while Eve is putting her hair up in the mirror. Villanelle stares at her for a few moments before Eve asks if she's alright- she makes to leave but tells Eve to wear her hair down. Though confused, she does. Unfortunately when Eve returns to the hospital room the witness has been murdered. Eve is fired for this incident but re-hired by Carolyn Martens onto an off-the-books mission to track down Villanelle herself.

Villanelle undergoes a psychiatric evaluation by her organization and a drawing of a woman (done by Villanelle) with dark curly hair is brought up by the psychiatrist. He believes it to be a woman from Villanelle's past who is revealed later, but it is widly accepted by many that this drawing is in fact Eve. Later, Villanelle is informed by her handler Konstantin Vasiliev that a woman in London is leading a team just to find her. She is immediately excited by this, to Konstantin's exasperation. She learns Eve's name and searches her up in hopes to find a picture. Meanwhile, Eve is talking with her new team about Kasia's murder, consisting of Elena Felton, Kenny Stowton, and Bill Pargrave, when she remembers she saw Villanelle, who she thought was a nurse at the time. She asks Kenny for profiles of all the nurses who were on duty that night.

As Villanelle finds a picture of Eve online, and Eve fails to find a picture of Villanelle, they both concurrently realize who the other is.

Eve is next seen describing Villanelle to an MI6 sketch artist. She describes her in painstaking detail, showing her interest in the other woman despite only having seen her for a few seconds. Villanelle, now knowing who Eve is, takes great eagerness in engaging her in a game of cat and mouse. She travels to Berlin for her next kill, and uses Eve's name to commit her kill at a sex clinic, prompting Eve's team to investigate. While she waits for Eve to arrive, Villanelle takes a woman home who is meant to resemble her, an older woman with dark, curly hair. She calls the woman "Eve" and asks to be chased in a twisted version of hide-and-seek.

When Eve arrives in Berlin with Bill, Villanelle is watching from across the street. She steals Eve's suitcase when she isn't looking, and takes it back to her apartment. She rummages through her clothes and puts on one of Eve's scarves. Konstantin arrives and is angry with Villanelle for staying in Berlin after her assassination, informing her that Eve is now here. Villanelle feigns ignorance, and corrects Konstantin when he pronounces Eve's last name wrong. The woman who Villanelle had sex with the night before returns, and when Konstantin leaves, she dresses her in Eve's clothes.

Eve, having no clothes for the trip now, goes shopping. Villanelle follows her throughout the store, and hangs up a belt for her outside of her dressing room, elated when Eve finds it and likes it. Later, in her hotel room, Eve and Bill discuss a dinner Eve is going to for more information on Villanelle's sex clinic kill. Bill asks if she's ever been into women, and pokes fun at her description of Villanelle's police sketch, insinuating that she may be attracted to Villanelle.

Bill spots Villanelle as he is walking Eve to the train station, recognizing her because she is wearing Eve's scarf. Eve gets on the train safely, and Bill starts to trail Villanelle through Berlin. During Eve's dinner, she recieves multiple voicemails from Bill informing her where he is and what he is doing. Eve panics and goes after him, knowing how dangerous Villanelle can be. Villanelle lures Bill into a nightclub, and unfortunately Eve cannot make it to him in time, and witnesses Villanelle stab him to death on the nightclub floor. At Bill's funeral, Eve vows to kill Villanelle with her bare hands.

After this stunt, Villanelle is put on a team of 2 other assassins for her next target, Eve's boss, Frank Haelton. One of the two assassins is her ex-girlfriend from prison, Nadia Kadomtseya. Eve, grieving Bill, finds her suitcase on her doorstep after the funeral. She opens it to find all of her clothes gone and replaced with very expensive new clothing. She also finds a perfume box labeled "La Villanelle". Inside is a card, "Sorry Baby x" scrawled on it. Eve is thrown into a panic, knowing it's from Villanelle. She brings the suitcase to Kenny and Elena for forensics, mentioning the perfume bottle and deciding that she is now going to call the assassin Villanelle.

"That's what we're going to call this asshole from now on. Villanelle."

- Eve, 1x04, Sorry Baby

Eve and Elena find out that Frank is actually a mole for Villanelle's organization, and track him to a house in Buckinghamshire. Villanelle and the two other assassins are already after him at this time. After Eve receives a call from Frank asking for help, they park on one end of a field where he comes running, Villanelle hot on his tail.

As they're about to drive away, Eve pauses, and looks up in the rearview, where Villanelle is. As Elena yells at her to drive, Eve instead opens the car door and gets out. She comes face-to-face with Villanelle for a second time. They share a tense moment as Eve draws closer, but Villanelle draws her gun up to stop her. Eve places one hand over her heart and the other in the air, most likely conveying to Villanelle that she has no intention to harm her. Villanelle falters, and lowers her gun- before putting it underneath her own chin instead. Eve panics and yells out, but Villanelle just laughs, revealing she was messing with her. Villanelle aims at Eve again and shoots at her feet, and runs away while Eve is recovering.

While talking with Frank, he reveals he heard that one of the assassins was called Oksana. When Kenny searches for her, he finds a prison record for an Oksana Astankova, who died in prision in Russia in 2014. Eve identifies the mugshot as Villanelle. Eve returns home with her suitcase, Kenny having concluded it was covered in Villanelle's DNA. She tries one one of the dresses and looks in the mirror at herself, not used to these type of expensive clothes. She also tries on some of the perfume Villanelle sent her, before hearing a noise downstairs. When she goes to investigate at the front door, she finds nothing, but when she turns around, Villanelle is in the hallway. She chases Eve upstairs into her bathroom and ends up on top of her. Villanelle turns on the faucet over Eve's face in an attempt to shush her screaming, claiming she just wants to have dinner with her. When Eve shakily agrees, they both return to Eve's kitchen.

Eve heats up some shepherd's pie her husband, Niko, had made, and Villanelle remarks that she's shaking, suggesting to put on a sweater that's hanging up. She says she won't look, yet a few moments later gets up to help Eve out of her dress, looking her up and down and saying she has a very nice body. They both then sit down to eat.

Villanelle starts to cry, telling Eve she is being controlled by her organization, saying she doesn't want to hurt people and that "they make [her] do it". She apologizes for killing Bill. Eve does not buy it, responding with a simple "bullshit". She calls Villanelle an asshole and reveals that she knows her real name, Oksana, to Villanelle's surprise and intrigue. Eve tells Villanelle the many things she's gathered about her, and Villanelle sits in rapt fascination. She tells Villanelle she knows about her psychopathy.

When Eve brings out her prison file and asks about one of her crimes, castration, Villanelle changes the subject by making a joke about Eve's sweater-shirt combo, to which Eve barely manages to not smile. She asks Villanelle why she killed Bill- Villanelle grabs Eve's hand over her prison file, telling her he was slowing her down. This enrages Eve, and she makes to grab a steak knife on the table. Villanelle jumps up to slam her other hand over Eve's. When Eve tries again, Villanelle pulls her up and pins her to the fridge with the knife. Villanelle leans in and eagerly finds that Eve is wearing the perfume she sent her. They are then inturrupted by Niko and his friend coming home. Villanelle steals Eve's phone, which has the location for Frank's safehouse in it, and her dress. She kills him later in the episode, and puts him in Eve's dress.

Villanelle is sent to a prison in Moscow to kill Nadia, who she attempted and failed to kill by running her over when they were pursuing Frank. Eve and Carolyn hear that Nadia is alive and go to interview her about information on the Twelve, offering her protection in return. They successfully get their interview; When questioned about Villanelle, Nadia tells Eve to talk to a woman named Anna. When Nadia returns to her cell, Villanelle is there. Nadia tells her that a woman was asking about her and that she can help the both of them. Villanelle immediately knows it's Eve, asking her if it was an "Asian woman with amazing hair". Nadia confirms, and Villanelle seems an odd mix of bashful and smug, knowing Eve is still interested in chasing her.

Eve goes to see Anna, who was actually Villanelle's old language teacher that she had an affair with. Villanelle was a child at the time, though Anna takes no responsibility for taking advantage of that. Anna bares a vague resemblence to Eve. She gets to look through all the old letters that Villanelle sent Anna, and while she's out of the room, Eve looks through some of the other gifts Anna recieved. She finds a coat with a secret pocket in it, cash and a passport inside. Eve takes it and replaces the coat. She gives Anna her phone number in case Villanelle comes by and leaves, not before also stealing a picture of Villanelle from her school days.

Villanelle eventually does show up at Anna's after being broken out of the prison in Moscow. She has taken Konstantin's daughter, Irina, in a kidnapping and has been holding her hostage until she can see Konstantin again. Anna pulls a gun on her but Villanelle seems unphased, only wanting to know where Eve is and asking for her phone number. Instead, Anna turns the gun on herself and takes her own life in front of Villanelle and Irina. Villanelle looks externally unbothered, and goes to take her money and passport from the coat she left here. She finds it gone; in its place, a note from Eve that reads "Sorry Baby x". Villanelle smiles slightly at the sight.

She calls Eve from Anna's phone and arranges a meeting at a nearby cafe. Eve shows up with Konstantin. Konstantin just wants his daughter back, and asks Villanelle not to break his heart. She responds, "Don't break mine." After a moment, she looks to Eve, and continues, "you either." Villanelle ends up shooting Konstantin, and her and Eve end up in a stand off, both pointing their guns at one another. Eve begs her to come with her, somewhere it can just be the two of them. Villanelle's grip on her gun shakes, and after a moment, she lowers it, and runs away. Eve watches her go, lowering her own gun, pained and disappointed.

Later, Eve is supposed to return to London with Kenny and Carolyn, but decides at the last minute to head to Paris on a last-minute lead to Villanelle. She finds her apartment and is annoyed by how much of a lavish lifestyle Villanelle has been living. She trashes the entire apartment before Villanelle comes back. When she does, Eve panics and grabs a knife, shoving it in her pocket, before grabbing a gun. Villanelle is amused by the whole situation and tells Eve she couldn't shoot her because she likes her too much. Eve doesn't confirm or deny this. They both sit down, Eve on Villanelle's bed and Villanelle at her vanity. Eve gives a whole monologue about how she thinks about Villanelle all the time, and Villanelle returns these feelings. They lay down in Villanelle's bed together, and she brushes a hand along Eve's face. Eve tells her she's "never done anything like this before". Villanelle reassures her and leans in (presumably to kiss her) when Eve stops her- with a knife pointed at her stomach.

Villanelle pauses for a moment, but seems assured that Eve could not do it, even telling her so. Eve then immediately goes through with it and stabs her in the abdomen, climbing on top of her. Eve seems angry and revengeful, until Villanelle looks up at her, utterly betrayed, and says "I really liked you." Eve immediately regrets what she's done, pulling out the knife in a panic and running out of the room to try to get something to help. Villanelle's walls have gone back up and she angrily fires her gun at Eve when she attempts to reenter the room. Villanelle manages to escape, to Eve's horror.

Season 2
"I think I might've killed her."

Eve fears she may very well have killed Villanelle by accident, heading home in shock. Villanelle, meanwhile, takes a cab to the hospital where she meets a boy in the bed next to her. She tells him that the person that stabbed her did it to show her how much she cared about her. The boy thinks this is stupid, but Villanelle vehemently defends Eve for it, going as far as to say Eve did it because she loved her.

Eve shifts in between shock and mania as she returns to her home in London. She takes a bath and stares at her hands, like she can't believe what she did to Villanelle. She later meets Carolyn in a park where she admitted she went to Paris to find Villanelle. Carolyn asks if she has "any feelings" about where she may be now. Eve looks irritated at this and responds, "No. No feelings."

In the hospital, Villanelle tells Gabriel she needs to visit her the woman who stabbed her in London, referring to Eve as her girlfriend. She says she's sure Eve won't stab her again, and that she knows her better now. She kills Gabriel in a mercy act and leaves an apple with a bite taken out of it at the scene.

Later that night, Eve tosses and turns in bed. Villanelle, in a family's car she snuck into, is on her way to London, and looks up at the ceiling, concurrently with Eve. Villanelle is eager to see Eve again.

Eve continues to search for any incidents involving stab wounds in Paris, trying to find Villanelle. Later, she's introduced to a new team by Carolyn, entering as an outside "expert on female assassins". The new team is composed of Kenny (again), Hugo Turner, and Jess. Eve gives a briefing for their new mission, and mentions Villanelle. Eve looks at her mugshot on the screen for a long moment. She describes Villanelle in flamboyant terms and defends her when Hugo calls her sloppy. When she finally finds something about a murder in a hospital in Paris, she asks for photos of the crime scene. She sees the apple Villanelle left behind and knows it's for her.

Villanelle sits in the bath, in the house of a man she tricked into bringing her home for a few days. She runs her hand along her stab wound, zoning out and most likely thinking of Eve and what this now means to her.

Back at the office, Eve and her team are discussing a new murderer. Eve doesn't think it's Villanelle, as she knows her too well and Villanelle puts more "fun" into her kills; This new assassin isn't as interesting to Eve. When her suspicions are confirmed, she is excited at the thought of Villanelle having to compete against someone.

Villanelle attemps to break out of the man's house she's in when he continually refuses to get her medicine. She uses the house phone to call MI6 and asks for Eve, growing frustrated and upset when the machine does not recognize what she's saying.

Eve dubs the new assassin "The Ghost". Jess says now they can drop their investigation on Villanelle, because she's not relevant anymore. Eve backtracks at that, arguing that Villanelle could still be important to them. Carolyn inturrupts them to show Eve a recording of Villanelle yelling into the phone line from earlier. Carolyn specifically lets Eve hear "Eve Polastri, you piece of shit!" perhaps to make her think Villanelle was speaking to her- while she was in fact talking to MI6's automated system.

Now that they have Villanelle's location, they go the house she was at. Unfortunately, they arrive seconds too late, and Eve is unphased by the dead man in the living room and moreso upset that they missed Villanelle. Villanelle is across the street, with her new handler from the Twelve. He chokes her up against the window when she becomes angered at his attitude, and they drive directly past Eve, who is walking up to the house. Villanelle watches her go past, delirious from her untreated wound and the choking.

Eve finds that Konstantin is still alive, and finds him in Carolyn's protection. She asks him where Villanelle is, but he tells her she doesnt want to know. He tells Eve that she should make Villanelle hate her, because that's easier for her to deal with than love. Eve will die if Villanelle loves her.

"You think she loves you? Then make her hate you. Hate is something she understands, it's managable. Look what happens to the people she loves. Look at Anna, Nadia, look at me. She'll love you to death."

- Konstantin to Eve, 2x03, The Hungry Caterpillar

Villanelle is forced to make her kills less flashy, though she doesn't know why until her new handler, Raymond, reveals that there is a new assassin. The Twelve is trying to make her kills look like the other woman's. Villanelle is sure that Eve will be able to tell it's her kill, though Raymond infuriates her with doubt.

Eve studies one of Villanelle's new kills and is not entirely sure it was her, since she had been forced to tone it down. She rejects the idea that Villanelle and The Ghost are working together because she knows Villanelle likes to work alone.

Villanelle follows Eve to an event at Niko's school, but before she can approach, Raymond walks up to Eve to ask for directions. He glares at Villanelle as a warning afterwards. She follows Eve into the school anyways, and talks with a teacher in the stairwell who has a crush on Niko, but he is married, sadly. She tells the teacher she knows exactly how she feels.

Eve is with Niko in her classroom when she sees an apple on his desk. She freaks out and pulls the fire alarm, fearing Villanelle is in the building. When she doesn't see her, Niko is upset and tells her just to go home. Villanelle walks up behind Eve and drops a tube of lipstick in her purse without Eve noticing. When she finds it, it's named "Love in an Elevator", alerting Eve to one of Villanelle's "unassuming" kills that took place in an elevator.

Eve gets Villanelle's location from Konstantin, promising his family's location in exchange. Konstantin gets there before Eve, and tells Villanelle they need to leave because MI6 is coming. When she refuses and they show up, Villanelle runs to the door. She sees Eve at the end of the hall through the peephole. She laughs quietly but Eve seems to sense it and looks towards her door. Eve walks up to the door, Villanelle having not taken her eye off her, and puts her hand up on the door. Villanelle is pressed up against her side, transfixed. She leaves before Eve opens the door. Eve is greatly upset and cries out in frustration when she finds the room empty.

Meanwhile, Villanelle is with Konstantin now, deciding to do freelance work. She asks him if Eve ever asked about her, to which he responds that Eve is more interested in another assassin. Villanelle doesn't believe him. He maintains this and tells Villanelle not to be jealous. She becomes upset and sulks against the window.

Eve comes across the lipstick Villanelle gifted her again. She puts it on in the mirror out of curiosity, and gets cut by a blade Villanelle had hidden inside. She watches the cut bleed in the mirror, and out of pure fascination, and possibly infatuation, she presses into the cut until it hurts.

Villanelle stalks her first freelance job, and visits a museum where she is interested in a painting of two men hanging upside down. She writes a postcard to Eve telling her that hopefully she hadn't forgot about Villanelle, with the painting of the men on the other side of the card. She looks hopeful as she writes it. Konstantin, later, tells her he thinks Eve is making her go soft.

She kills her mark, stringing him upside down in a nod to the postcard she sent Eve. She asks Konstantin when they are going home, referring to home as London. He recognizes she means Eve, and reiterates that she is not interested in Villanelle anymore. Villanelle, again, grows upset.

Carolyn intercepts Villanelle's postcard as it arrives at the office, and hides it so Eve does not see it. She sends Jess to investigate a new kill (Villanelle's), and when Eve insists it may be Villanelle and expresses her want to go, Carolyn shuts her down.

Villanelle waits across the street for Eve to arrive to investigate her kill. A car shows up, and she leans foward, hopeful and excited. When Jess climbs out instead, she looks confused, and then betrayed. She thinks that Eve has actually forgotten about her, unlike what she hoped in her postcard.

Eve goes out to eat with Hugo, and he asks her what the deal is with her and Villanelle. She says she doesn't know, and that she likes both watching her and being watched.

Villanelle takes drugs that are offered to her on the street as she wanders, something extremely out of character for her as she hates feeling out of control. She visits a club but is overwhelmed by the amount of people, lights, and music. She almost kills someone at the club but Konstantin takes her home. The next morning, she looks at herself in her hotel bathroom's mirror, and completely breaks down, finally believing that Eve has forgotten all about her.

Eve seems bored with the new assassin, who they eventually captured; she wishes she were more exciting, to which Jess responds "not everyone can be as exciting as you-know-who." When Eve interrogates her, she asks about Villanelle. Eve believes Villanelle is bored with freelancing, that it's not her style. She knows that this new assassin is afraid of Villanelle so she proposes that they hire Villanelle; by putting a hit out on herself.

When Villanelle gets the hit on Eve, she thinks it's a joke, and not a very funny one. She becomes upset at Konstantin, thinking he planned this, and he follows her as she storms off. Villanelle refuses to do it. He tells her she has to kill Eve, that she's making Villanelle weak.

Eve and her team are getting a presentation from a psychopath expert who Carolyn hired. When a rather gorey picture of a murdered man is shown on screen, everyone turns away in disgust but Eve. When a picture of Villanelle is shown, Eve is the only one who can't look at it. She's bothered when he goes on about how psychopaths can't feel anything for anyone, and that they cannot be containted for an indefinite amount of time.

Villanelle, back in a hotel room, grieves Eve before she has to carry out the hit. She sends Eve funeral flowers that spell out her name. Eve seems excited to have recieved them and asks Niko if he wants to "go upstairs" because of it.

On the day of the hit, Eve is offered backup but refuses, claiming the setup has to be intimate and Villanelle has to seem like she is the one in control. When she's in her bedroom and hears the doorbell, she takes off her bulletproof vest provided by MI6.

When Villanlle enters, Eve asks her to take her shoes off. Villanelle is almost taken aback but complies. She notices that Eve is not all that surprised to see her- saying she thought Eve might have forgotten about her. She seems well put together and smug, though she smiles when Eve presents mugs as champagne glasses, since she doesn't have any. Villanelle reminds Eve she almost killed her, and Eve says she thinks about it all the itme. She reaches a hand out and touches Villanelle's face, asking if she thinks about it too. She visibly softens, and says the same.

Neither of them are going to apologize to eachtoher. Villanelle reveals she's about to be in mourning, and asks Eve if she knows that she's here to kill her. Eve reveals it was her idea, that she needed to see her, and Villanelle is surprised. She calls Eve stupid, asking what if she had hit her with a car, or shot her. Eve is confident she wouldn't, and tells her such.

Villanelle brings out a bottle of pills that she was going to kill Eve with. Eve takes them while looking Villanelle straight in the eye, going to call her bluff. Villanelle freaks out, telling Eve it was actual arsenic, and yelling at her to go "get it out" by throwing up. Eve runs over to the sink but Villanelle starts laughing, as it was just another trick. She walks over to Eve and pins her against the sink with a knife she brought. She drags the knife down the front of Eve's shirt, stopping at the place where Eve stabbed her. She asks Eve if she'll give her everything she wants. Eve says yes.

They go to the Forest of Dean to interrogate The Ghost. Villanelle gets information out of her and wants a thank you from Eve. When given an insincere one, she accuses Eve of being greedy, disappointed when Eve walks away.

Villanelle visits Niko in Oxford to taunt him. When he slams her up against the wall, she tells him she didn't think he had it in him, and that he should try this with Eve. She says her and Eve are friends now, well, more than friends, she says. She tells him all about Eve coming to her apartment and laying down in bed with her, and pulls up her shirt to reveal her scar from where Eve stabbed her. Later, Niko takes Villanelle's advice and is rough with Eve when he returns home. Villanelle watches from outside, where it's pouring rain, looking conflicted and upset.

Villanelle is given an assignment to gain the trust of a man named Aaron Peele and get an invite to a conference in Rome. Eve visits her at her new apartment to go over the mission. She tells Villanelle this will be a challenge, as it involves her not killing someone. Villanelle complains that she doesn't like to be challenged, but when Eve asks if she should ask someone else, Villanelle quickly denies. She circles Eve while trying on different accents for a potential disguise.

Villanelle attends an AA meeting with Aaron's sister to get an in. She uses Eve's life as a sob story, which Eve later reprimands her on. Villanelle responds that she likes Eve, but not that much. The second meeting, Villanelle tells the truth about how bored she is with her life, while Eve listens through an earpiece. Later, she pushes Aaron's sister's agent in front of a bus while staring directly at Eve across the street the entire time.

Villanelle texts Eve, calling her "Kill Commander" and asking if she wants to hang out. Eve doesn't respond. Villanelle is on her mission while Eve and Konstantin listen in a van outside- Eve is "all over her" according to Konstantin because of her nervous commentating on every move she makes. Villanelle eventually swallows her earpiece and leaves at the end of the night, to Eve's frustration. She hangs her head in her hands and mutters "Oh my god, Vil", the first and only time we hear Eve refer to Villanelle by a nickname.

Eve visits Villanelle at her apartment the next day. She asks her if the things she said in the AA meeting were true, about her being bored with her life and not liking anything. She asks Villanelle if she really doesn't feel anything, to which Villanelle tells her she feels things when she is with Eve. Before Eve can respond, a girl walks out of Villanlle's room and thanks her for the sex last night. Eve sits and stares during this interaction, clearly annoyed. Eve makes to leave after the girl, but Villanelle stops her. She tells Eve not to be jealous, that she's not "with them" when she's with them. Just then, a second girl exits Villanelle's room. Eve, this time, leaves in anger. Villanelle watches her go.

Later, despite her earlier frustration, Eve calls Villanelle many times while she's on a mission to make sure she's alright and she hasn't been murdered. She leaves 3 voicemails (having called 9 times) that Villanelle later listens to while smiling to herself. In the same episode, Villanelle corners Niko and his supposed lover in his storage unit and threatens him with a knife. She wants the recipe to his shepherd's pie, because "Eve likes it". She asks him if he loves Eve, and when he says yes, she tells him she was so close to letting him go, if he had just said no. She does not hurt him, though; She tells him Eve would never forgive her if she did.

Eve meets with the psychopath expert about the mission in Rome Villanelle is about to go on. Eve expresses that she wants Villanelle to be safe, that she can't take care of herself. The expert asks Eve how often much of the day she spends thinking about Villanelle, and Eve responds, "Most of it". She questions his definition of "relationship" when he asks if she and Villanelle are in one. She feels unsafe, but says she feels wide awake. The expert expresses to Carolyn that Eve should be taken off the mission because she is too involved.

When Eve has to deliver a microphone to Villanelle during her mission in Rome, she does it at a restaurant, a table over. When Villanelle takes it (hidden in a piece of bread), she takes an extra moment to caress Eve's hand before Eve pulls away. Eve is elated when the mic works later that day, expressing that she knew Villanelle wouldn't let her down. When Villanelle is listening to Aaron, who she's in Rome with, Eve's coworker Hugo says she's got competition. Eve says Villanelle is just doing her job.

Later that night, Hugo is in bed while Eve continues to sit at the desk listening through an earpiece. Villanelle is in bed as well, and asks Eve what she's doing. Eve can't respond, as the earpiece is one-way. She tells Eve that she should let herself go once in a while; that she can help her. Villanelle starts to touch herself while breathing in Eve's ear. Eve goes over to the bed and has sex with Hugo while listening to Villanelle.

The next morning, Villanelle asks into the earpiece if Eve slept well, both of them smiling as they wake up; Eve's smile dropping when she remembers Hugo is in the bed. He realizes Eve was wearing an earpiece and thanks her for the threesome before leaving to get coffee.

Villanelle uses the safeword while talking with Aaron and Eve immediately drops everything to leave. Hugo has been shot in the hallway by presumably one of the Twelve but she leaves him to get to Villanelle. She enters Aaron's home and grabs a letter opener as a weapon, bursts into the dining room Villanelle is in with him soon after. Villanelle seems unfazed, saying it's nice to see her. Eve says she thought Villanelle was in trouble- Villanelle says she is. Eve pleads with her to leave with her, but Aaron offers her a job. He says she'll get bored with Eve. Eve becomes frustrated when Villanelle seems to contemplate the offer. He tells her she can start now- to kill Eve. She asks Eve if she thinks she'd kill her. Eve says yes. Villanelle gets up and slits Aaron's throat instead.

Eve freaks out, telling Villanelle they weren't supposed to kill him, while Villanelle tries to calm her down. Eve wants to go back to the hotel for the recordings. Villanelle grows impatient when Eve maintains the fact that the job is still important. She tells Eve she'd be dead without her, and says if she gets shot, it's Eve's fault. Moments later, however, Villanelle accepts that Eve will not change her mind and agrees to help her. She tells Eve to leave if she sees anything scary, to not be brave, and that she'll see her soon.

When Eve enters the hotel she finds out the whole mission was a setup by Carolyn. She asks Eve to come back with her, but she refuses to leave Villanelle. Carolyn says that Villanelle wouldn't do the same for her. Eve tells her that she doesn't know that. Villanelle, meanwhile, is learning the same thing from Konstantin outside. He tells her to leave, and she says she won't, not without Eve. He asks what would happen if she left with Carolyn already; Villanelle maintains that she wouldn't.

After Carolyn leaves, Eve is cornered by Raymond's presence in the hotel, so she remains in one of the rooms. When Villanelle notices, she enters the hotel with a gun. Her and Raymond fight, and he pins her up against a wall with his hands, choking her. Eve exits the room behind him and picks up an axe he laid against the wall. Villanelle begs for Eve to kill him, slowly choking to death. Eve swings once and buries the axe in his back. Villanelle holds him down while Eve strikes him two more times as per Villanelle's request. Villanelle is enraptured by this display from Eve, and helps her out of her bloodied vest, leading her out into the streets of Rome.

Villanelle breaks them into a group of ruins. She tells Eve they should run away, move to Alaska, where no one can bother them. Eve, dazed from the kill, agrees. Villanelle smiles widely at her, assuring that she'll look after her. She is genuinely elated as she leads them through the ruins. A moment later, though, she accidentally reveals her gun. Eve is immediately confused as to why she didn't shoot Raymond. She is upset that Villanelle "made" her kill him. Villanelle maintains that this is what Eve wanted. Eve starts to back away, and Villanelle grows panicked. She says that Eve loves her; Eve denies. She says she loves Eve; Eve tells her she doesn't understand what love is. Villanelle becomes upset and tells Eve she's hers, while Eve continues to back away. She says she thought Eve was special. Eve says she's sorry to disappoint, and turns to walk away. Villanelle watches her go for a moment, before reaching out with the gun and shooting her in the back. She walks away, unfeeling.

Season 3
It's been six months since the shooting; Eve is working at a Korean restaurant and Villanelle has gotten spontaneously engaged to a Spanish woman. In her wedding speech, she talks about the "bad breakup" she had just gone through, and expresses that she's so much happier now that her ex is dead. Eve, while shopping, overhears two women talking about one's honeymoon to Italy- saying nothing is more romantic than Rome. She leaves, dejected.

Villanelle leaves her wife on their wedding day due to her old handler, Dasha, crashing it. Kenny comes to visit Eve, asking if she's still in touch with Niko. Before he can say Niko's name, Eve thinks he's talking about Villanelle, and she says she's totally done with her. Kenny is still looking into the Twelve even though MI6 closed the case months ago. At work, Eve projects her feelings onto one of her coworkers who is having relationship troubles.

Villanelle is with Dasha in Barcelona and she tells Villanelle "people like them" can't have normal relationships, so having many lovers is a good thing. She asks Villanelle if she thinks about Eve, still, and Villanelle responds that she "dealt with it". Carolyn visits Eve at work and tells her Villanelle is back; when she leaves, Eve vomits on her way back to the kitchen.

On her new job, Villanelle has to train a younger assassin. He tells her about killing the family and dance teacher of a kid who beat up his boyfriend. He said after everything he went through to defend his boyfriend, he didn't want to know. He says it's the worst feeling when you love someone that doesn't love you back. Villanelle agrees; she says it's shit. When she returns to Barcelona, Konstantin shows up and she grows angry, telling him he cannot show up without an invitation. He came here to tell her that Eve is still alive. Villanelle refuses to believe it at first, and turns away. Her thoughts go wild as she barely hears Konstantin telling her not to go to London. He leaves, and Villanelle smiles, tears in her eyes.

She gets a job from Dasha in London, slightly panicking and saying it's "too soon", that she's not ready; she takes it anyways. She goes to a perfume shop and gives the clerk an elaborate story about a Roman centurion who was injured by his enemy in battle, but has since become emperor. She then visits a children's toy shop and stands in front of a recording booth with a pink bear. She records a couple voice lines- firstly that she should have shot Eve in the head instead. Resets it, and says she should have shot her in the head and watched her die. After hearing her voice play back, she resets it once more. Tears gathering in her eyes, she takes one more pause and records the line, "I can't stop thinking about you."

Eve is on the bus after learning Niko has fled to Poland, when Villanelle boards the bus. She walks up to Eve and simply greets her with "Hi, Eve". Eve attacks her, furious. Villanelle blocks most of her blows but makes no attempt to hit her back. She drags Eve down the bus aisle and pins her to one of the bus seats. She asks Eve to smell her, because of the perfume she had the clerk make for her earlier. She asks Eve what she smells of. Instead of answering, Eve kisses her. Their eyes are both open in shock, and pull apart a few moments later. Eve then headbutts Villanelle; holding her head, Villanelle exits the bus. She looks at Eve through the window from the curb, and a small smile grows on her face.

Later, Eve returns home, shaken. She lays down on her bed when she hears Villanelle's voice- coming from a teddy bear hidden under the covers. She rips open the bear to get to the recording, which won't stop going off. The recording says, "Admit it, Eve- you wish I was here". Eve turns off the recording, but after brushing her thumb over the voicebox, shaped like a heart, she presses it again. She continues to play the recording while she holds the heart to her ear, closing her eyes.

The next day, Eve is at work when a package from a cake shop arrives for her. She is excited, for a moment, but realizes it's from Villanelle and doesn't know what could be inside. She takes it up to the roof and carefully opens it. It's a cake in the shape of a bus, that says "Happy Birthday Eve". She picks it up and throws it off the roof, though reaching out for it as soon as it goes over. Later, at a friend's house, they're having a competition on who's the worst person, and Eve says she'd been unfaithful to her husband.

Back in Barcelona, Villanelle had been trying to bake a cake of her own, presumably for Eve, but fails. She admires her bruise from the bus in the mirror. When she meets Konstantin later, she confesses she's excited because today is Eve's birthday. He tells her he knows where to find her family. Eve goes to Poland to see Niko. She finds him in a barn but right before they can say a word to eachother, he is stabbed through the neck with a pitchfork by Dasha, and ties a note on it in an attempt to frame Villanelle. Meanwhile, Villanelle has arrived in Russia to see her family.

Villanelle has a horrible experience with her family, and her mother turns out to still be a horrible, abusive person. Devestated, she ends up blowing up her house and spares only her brother and step brother. When she returns, she finds the Twelve lied about a promotion she was promised. Back in London, Eve's team believes that Villanelle killed Niko, but Eve knows that Villanelle would never hurt him, and that he's off limits. She tries to prove otherwise.

Villanelle visits Konstantin and tells him she wants to leave with him, as he had been formulating a plan to leave the Twelve for good. He warns her that she will have to leave Eve behind, to which she acknowledges and agrees anyways. Meanwhile, Eve tracks Dasha down to a bowling alley. They have a conversation, where Dasha calls Villanelle a killing machine and says that's all she knows. Eve disagrees. Dasha doesn't think Villanelle cares what Eve thinks.

Carolyn and Eve meet in a restaurant, and Eve continues to try to get Villanelle involved in their reopened investigation into the Twelve. Carolyn asks Eve if she ever thinks about anything other than Villanelle, and reminds her that "heroes only get the girl in Hollywood". Eve later digs up the cake box that Villanelle sent her and tracks down her credit card, which was last used in Aberdeen. In Aberdeen, Villanelle and Dasha are playing golf while on a job. During it, Villanelle hits Dasha with the club and runs, having Konstantin pick her up so they can continue their plan to leave. Eve is close behind, finding Dasha in the woods and almost killing her.

Eve tracks Villanelle to a train station, where Konstantin has just had a heart attack on the platform, but still sends Villanelle on her way. Villanelle sees Eve from the train window as it pulls away. She waves. Eve waves back. A few moments later, she calls Eve to arrange a meetup.

They meet in a ballroom, and Eve notices that Villanelle is absent from her attempts to start a conversation. Villanelle reveals that her first kill was in this country. She looks at the people dancing and remarks that they look happy- that she wants to feel like that. In response, Eve stands up and tells her to "come on, then". They clumsily attempt to start a dance, but fall into place a few moments later. Villanelle closes her eyes, Eve following. Villanelle spots an older couple dancing and asks Eve if she wants to be like that. Eve says no, they'd never make it that long; they'd consume eachother before they got old. Villanelle remarks that it sounds kind of nice. She admits to Eve, again, that she's killed so many people. Eve just responds, "I know," and Villanelle seems relieved, relaxing into their dance once more. She then spots another assassin entering the ballroom and grows annoyed. She sends Eve away with a code for the package her and Konstantin were supposed to get.

Eve collects the package right as Konstantin was coming to pick it up. They argue, and Konstantin calls Villanelle, who maintains that the package stays with Eve. Konstantin's boss, Paul, calls him and says he knows about the money he took for his escape, and to meet him at an adress. They arrive, and it's his apartment. Carolyn is there, as Paul was a Twelve rat who worked for MI6. She has a gun. Villanelle arrives soon after and her and Eve sit down while Carolyn, Paul, and Konstantin argue. Carolyn almost shoots Konstantin but shoots Paul instead. Konstantin goes to leave and asks Villanelle if she's coming. She says no. Carolyn suggests that Eve quit "cold turkey" and gestures towards Villanelle.

Eve runs off, upset at Carolyn for killing a potential lead, and Villanelle follows her out. They end up at Tower Bridge. Eve admits she crushed Dasha with her foot when she found her in the woods. Villanelle assumes they both killed Dasha, and finds it romantic. Eve says the only two people who would think it was romantic was them. Eve tries to say she used to be like everyone else, with a house, a husband, and a chicken. Villanelle asks if she still wants that stuff. In response, Eve tells her that whenever she thinks of her future, she can only see Villanelle's face. Villanelle asks if she ruined Eve's life- if Eve thinks she's a monster. Eve tells her she's so many things, and that they all have monsters inside them. Villanelle suggests that her monster encourages Eve's monster. Eve admits she wanted it to. There's a pause, and Eve asks Villanelle to help her "make it stop". Villanelle says that's not that difficult, and has them stand face to face. She looks at Eve, smiles slightly, and asks her to turn around. When they both are back to back, Villanelle leans back and rests her head on Eve's. She tells them now they have to walk- and never look back. Eve tries to say something but Villanelle tells her not to turn. Villanelle walks away first, and Eve hesitantly starts to as well. They both look troubled as they walk away, and Villanelle ends up stopping first. Eve stops a few moments after. Eve turns around. She waits. Villanelle turns around. She smiles at Eve.

Season 4
TBA

Fanon
Villanelle and Eve make eachother whole in many ways. Both of them are bored with their lives in different ways; Eve always wanted an exciting job as a spy, and Villanelle wanted to feel something more than her day-to-day killings. They are well on their way to meet in the middle and they both bring out the change they secretly desire in one another. Now that they've met, it really does seem like they can't live without one another. Eve has always chased after Villanelle, and the feeling of being wanted is something she gives to her.

As dangerous as she is on her own, Eve seems to want to protect Villanelle in a very intimate sense. She was adamant at the beginning of the series that Villanelle was being forced into this organization and wanted to help her. In Rome, Eve tells the psychopath expert that she wants Villanelle to be safe on the mission-leaving many concerned voicemails while she's out. Eve senses that something is wrong immediately when they are in the ballroom- she asks to dance simply as a way to cheer Villanelle up. She's obviously aware that this woman is extremely dangerous and has killed many people, but she knows that sometimes she just needs someone to care about her.

The gift-giving Villanelle uses to express her feelings toward Eve are important in their nature. She sends her expensive things, nice gifts, thoughtful things. Nothing gruesome, intended to scare Eve. She believes that her and Eve are the same, and she spends 2 seasons trying to prove that to her.

Eve herself doesn't really seem to know what her relationship is to Villanelle. She can't define it to Hugo, and she asks the psychopath expert what he means when he asks if they're in a relationship. Her feelings about Villanelle were largely seated in denial earlier on, but in the last episode it's seen that she's most likely come to terms with it.

Fandom
This relationship is extremely popular mostly because of the fact that the show centers around it specifically. There are no other romantic relationships between either Eve or Villanelle that are made out to be enjoyable.

There have been debates on motives behind some character's actions, like why Villanelle had Eve kill Raymond in Rome- if she was actually overpowered and needed Eve's help, or if she purposely did not use her gun because she wanted Eve to kill him- or a mix of both. There is also discussion over if Eve was right about Villanelle not knowing what love is at the time.

Sandra Oh has provided an insane amount of insight into the relationship between Villanelle and Eve- she will go on long-winded monologues about how their relationship has developed from season 1. She has said that they can only trust and depend on eachother, that they're the only two people who can truly understand eachother. She doesn't think their relationship should be specifically described- because it's impossible to do so, and that's what she loves about it. Phoebe Waller-Bridge has said that "Every moment in this show exists so these two women can end up alone in a room together," and describes the moment Villanelle and Eve first meet as "the moment they fell in love."

Codename: Villanelle
Eve and Villanelle were originally created by Luke Jennings in his trilogy series Codename: Villanelle. In the books, Villanelle is a lot more ruthless and nothing like the fun, flashy assassin on screen. Eve is 29 years old and British in the books. They do not interact in the first book, as it seems the book follows more of the "spy drama" plot. They interact in the second book when Villanelle tells Eve they need to fake her death and run away.

Throughout the third book, though it's clear she cares about her, Villanelle is seen many times being verbally abusive towards Eve. She cheats on Eve with her ex, Charlie (Nadia in the show), and shows no remorse afterwards. They seem to resolve their differences no matter how many times they fight, and the book ends on a happy note. The show differs greatly from the book, and it's not likely they'll integrate a lot from the 3rd book into the last season.

Trivia



 * In season 2 episode 4, Desperate Times, when Villanelle is writing her postcard to Eve, she is wearing a ring. The ring she's wearing has 2 parts, and when put together reads "I ♥ U". On the back of each side are engravings which read "mine" and "yours". It's very likely Vilanelle meant to give one half to Eve, though she never got the chance. This set of rings were made specially for use on Killing Eve.


 * When Villanelle breaks into Niko's storage unit, she steals an Alaska snowglobe. This is inferred to be her inspiration to suggest running away to Alaska when she's in Rome with Eve.


 * Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer do not actually believe Villaneve can have a happy ending, though revealing that if they, themselves, wanted to run away and live happily ever after it would be no problem. Jodie thinks that Villanelle and Eve walk away after s3's final scene.
 * When Villanelle arrives in Russia to visit her family, she is wearing a turtleneck, something some fans say is her way of bringing Eve with her. She also raises her hand up to her throat for a moment, at the same time that Eve, in Poland, is witnessing Niko get stabbed through the neck. Villanelle's hand on her neck could either symbolize her connection to Eve, or the fact that her hiccups seem to falter when she arrives home.

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