Killing Eve‘s success is undoubtedly attributed to its two leads and their cat-and-mouse dynamic. But the series also benefits from its secondary and even tertiary characters.
Villanelle (Jodie Comer) is a multi-faceted protagonist who quickly becomes obsessed with MI6 agent, Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh). But when she isn’t killing people for money or stalking the object of her affection, her more playful side emerges around another character. Villanelle maintains a twisted father-daughter relationship with her crime syndicate handler, Konstantin. Played by accomplished Danish actor, Kim Bodnia, Konstantin shows Villanelle a level of acceptance she can’t find anywhere else.
Ultimately, Konstantin cares about what happens to his carefree and impulsive charge. It is hard not to become affected by the flashy and charismatic psychopath. But they have their ups and downs, as with any family. Even after recruiting her to be an assassin and raising her, Konstantin decides that his family is more important.
When Villanelle kidnaps his daughter, Konstantin picks Irina (Yuli Lagodinsky) over his murderous charge. This is a heartbreaker for fans of Villanelle. If she was given unconditional love, she may be able to find some peace. But in the end, that wasn’t the role that Konstantin was meant to fill. Like many characters in the series, he meets a sticky end.
What is Konstantin’s fate in Killing Eve?
Throughout his life on the show, Konstantin finds a way to escape almost every situation. He handles Villanelle at every turn, even when she’s at her worst. But like many disappointments in season 4 of Killing Eve, Konstantin is killed for no discernable reason. At the end of the day, he is moments away from escaping The Twelve with an assassin in training when he dies pointlessly.
Pam (Anjana Vasan) wants to escape The Twelve but believes that the leader, Hélène (Camille Cottin), will make it impossible. She will always be on the run, and so will Konstantin. Not realizing that Villanelle has already killed Hélène, Pam slices Konstantin to death with a pizza cutter, an anticlimactic demise for a beloved character. Executive producer Sally Woodward Gentle spoke to Entertainment Weekly about Konstantin’s final moments. Though he could have possibly survived his wounds, he elects instead to die.
“I also think that he was really exhausted. He was very, very happy in his little mayoral role, eating chubby bangers with his lovely assistant who could massage his head, and he gets roped back into this world that he’s exhausted by. You know, the man should’ve died many times over. He probably wasn’t paid enough for what he had to do all the time.”
Even if Konstantin wanted to go, it is hard to see any satisfaction in his death. He died as he lived, trying his best to work around the women in his life. In the end, he wants to do right by Pam and find a way out of this life of crime. But that is rewarded by death. As he lies bleeding out on the floor Pam asks why he didn’t tell her that Hélène had died. In a sense, this is the series admitting this didn’t need to happen and making us wonder why it had to. It was one of the many bizarre decisions that made a lackluster final season.
