Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Killing Eve season four from the very beginning.
On the heels of BBC America and AMC’s enthralling spy thriller Killing Eve airing its two-part series finale this past Sunday, executive producer Sally Woodward Gentle has revealed the “inevitability” surrounding the death of Villanelle — one of the show’s most beloved characters and renowned antihero — and the process of bringing such a significant character to an end.
While speaking with Deadline, Gentle explained that the decision for Villanelle to meet a tragic fate was made early on in the series, while simultaneously explaining the overall journey that Villanelle was on as her “selfless” behavior saw the once deadly assassin transform into a genuinely-good person.
We sort of knew what was going to happen quite early on, but we were open to something else sort of declaring itself, but it never really changed.
When you consider that Villanelle has always worked in a high-risk industry, there was a degree of inevitability about it. We were keen, in terms of the arc for this season, was a sense that Villanelle had embraced humanity. Her selfless shoving of Eve over the side of the boat was something that we felt connected to where she started in episode one, trying to prove to other people that she could be a good human being.
It also felt right that Eve should survive as the sort of extraordinary every woman, that she should be reborn out of this sort of extraordinary performance and adventure that she’s been on.
Many folks are still reeling from Villanelle (Jodie Comer) receiving an unfortunate demise, which saw her getting shot multiple times after she and Eve (Sandra Oh) attempted to take down members of The Twelve in London. While the death of a fan-favorite character has left the passionate fan base feeling numb, perhaps more questions will be answered in the spin-off series about Carolyn Martens, which is currently in the early stages of development.
