Killing Eve fans are furious over "devastating" shock series finale ending

11 April 2022, 15:12

Watch the trailer for Killing Eve Season 4

By Katie Louise Smith

"The way it took 2 minutes, a hundred and twenty seconds, for the Killing Eve writers to ruin everything they’ve built up for 4 years."

Well, it's over. After four seasons, plenty of gruesome murders, countless iconic fashion moments and an agonising will-they-won't-they narrative, Killing Eve has officially come to an end.

The Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer-led series aired its very last two episodes, leaving fans in complete shock – and not in a good way. Not in a good way at all.

Fans of the series have taken to social media in their droves to call out and express their disappointment (and anger) over what happens in the final few minutes of the final episode of the show. Some have even compared their levels of disappointment to the finale of Game of Thrones.

Here's everything you need to know about how the series ended for both Eve and Villanelle, why everyone is absolutely fuming about that final scene, and how it plays into one particularly problematic storytelling trope.

WARNING: Major spoilers ahead for the Killing Eve season 4 finale! Do not read ahead if you don't want to know how it ends.

In the final episode of Killing Eve, viewers see Eve and Villanelle teaming up and setting off on a road trip in order to finally wipe out The Twelve.

On their journey, they essentially get a glimpse into what their relationship would be like if they were actually a couple. They share a sleeping bag, sing along to the songs on the radio, argue over putting mustard on chips, and pee on the side of the road together before finally kissing each other (for real, this time). (Fans have also called their kiss one of the "BEST sapphic kissing scenes in history of television".)

Eventually, the two end up finding the secret meeting of The Twelve, which also happens to be a gay wedding cruise on the River Thames. Eve pretends to be the wedding officiant, while Villanelle goes about her business on the lower deck, killing the organisation.

After Villanelle kills The Twelve, the two reunite. Villanelle is happy that she's finally done it, but she's then suddenly shot in the back multiple times as she stands in Eve's arms. (It's shown that Carolyn was the one who called a hit on them.)

The two jump into the Thames to escape the bullets, with Villanelle shielding and saving Eve, but as they try to reach each other underwater, Villanelle is shot a few more times and is killed as Eve watches on. The final shot of the series shows Eve rising to the surface and screaming as the words THE END flash up on screen.

While Killing Eve had previously foreshadowed the deaths of Eve and Villanelle, people are absolutely devastated that Villanelle was killed off. Viewers are now calling out the way the show went about it.

Fans, particularly LGBTQ+ viewers of the series, have expressed their sheer disappointment in seeing yet another queer character being killed on-screen, just minutes after she finally got to experience happiness, with Eve by her side and The Twelve finally out of her life.

Some have pointed out that Villanelle's death feeds into the problematic and harmful 'Bury Your Gays' trope, in which LGBTQ+ characters are killed off more frequently than straight characters, or because death is the "supposed natural conclusion of their story". As a result of the overwhelming number of queer character deaths, the LGBTQ+ romances and love stories (usually involving queer women) ultimately end in tragedy too.

Reacting to the shocking finale, one fan wrote: "the most heartless finale ever. villanelle’s death was a disrespect to the creator of the character and to the fans. how cruel do you have to be to give this queer character hope only to end it all in the most unnecessary death scene?"

Another added: "Just gotta say, the argument isn’t that it’s 'never' ok to kill a queer character. What’s played out and tired as hell is withholding love from two queer women, then letting them experience it for all of 5 seconds before immediately killing one. TIIIIRED."

Killing Eve showrunner Laura Neal spoke to Decider about the decision to kill off Villanelle at the end of the series, explaining that they considered "every combination of who dies, who lives".

"We talked about both of them dying, we talked about both of them living, we talked about Eve dying and Villanelle surviving and we gave those endings real discussion and real thought and I think I even wrote some of them. But this version of the ending really came from loads of discussion with Sandra and Jodie and the other writers, and this version felt like the most truthful version of an ending that we could come up with.

"If you look at their trajectory and you look at where Eve and Villanelle began at the start of Season 1, and you look at where they are at the start of season 4, and you track them through season 4, it felt right to us that Eve survives and Villanelle dies, but dies in a way that feels, I think, triumphant for her, because she achieves something that she wanted to achieve at the very beginning of Season 4 in the moment of her death, which is to do something good."

What did you think of the Killing Eve finale?

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