✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
TV

Killing Eve season 3 episode 4, BBC review ★★★★★

04 May 20 – 04 Apr 21, ON BBC iPLAYER

In episode 4, Eve (Sandra Oh), Villanelle (Jodie Comer), Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) and Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) all question their life choices

By Euan Franklin on 30/4/2020

1 CW reader is interested
Jodie Comer in Killing Eve season 3, BBC iPlayer
Jodie Comer in Killing Eve season 3, BBC iPlayer
Killing Eve season 3 episode 4, BBC review 4 Killing Eve season 3 episode 4, BBC review Euan Franklin
Changing a show like Killing Eve, even if it’s a little modification, is risky. But equally if nothing changed, the series would turn stale and, after a few hopeful crunches, it’d be kinder just to throw it away. Season three rarely strays from the series’ key draws, but there’s an experimental edge to this week's episode – not in a highfalutin, avant-garde way, but working to augment the stories that weave sharply around each other.


In episode four, the big and lavish and colourful titles don’t indicate the attractive (and unattractive) scene locations; instead, they spell out the names of the main players. Although this is unnecessary, given the amount of time we’ve spent with Eve and Villanelle and Carolyn and Konstantin, the episode strays from the norm with enticing emphasis.



The writer this week is Elinor Cook, mainly known as a playwright with only one episode of TV to her name (The Secrets). Killing Eve is a good vehicle to help female creatives be noticed in the industry, and it’s remarkable the level of talent in their selection. In episode four, Cook plays with the characters’ timelines – stretching back and forth; concealing; revealing – with the confidence of a less intense Tarantino. Tarantino-lite, if you will; only without the film studies motive to be copiously analysable.


In these narrative shifts, hidden answers peek out of sun loungers by swimming pools and between the pixels of text messages – leading to an ending that’s both furiously surprising and intellectually satisfying. We begin with Niko (Owen McDonnell), Eve’s ex, as he exiles himself to a small village in Poland. He eyes an attractive bartender; a new life feels possible, but not with Eve’s texts rolling up and up. He’d have done better to get rid of his phone and former life entirely.


Meanwhile, Eve stays away from her flat after finding the Villanelle bear – sleeping instead at the Bitter Pill offices and eating her co-worker’s Coco Pops. Oh, and it’s her birthday. Her existential feelings spill into every other character: each pondering their terrible life choices, ignited by a bleak and funny scene between Eve and her probable love interest Jamie (Danny Sapani).



Villanelle’s going through something similar as she gets closer to meeting her parents, showing a more emotional side to the psychopathic assassin (leading to an unprecedented bout of hiccups). There’s a soft yet frightening intrigue to this side of herself, coming out in strange ways as she interacts with her new target.


Konstantin travels back to Russia to see his daughter Irina, last seen in season one. She nearly steals the episode (again) with her wit and love/hatred for her father; Yuli Lagodinsky performing to smart, adolescent perfection. But where this daughter is directed brilliantly, the same can’t be said for Carolyn’s daughter Geraldine (Gemma Whelan).


There’s a scene between Carolyn and Geraldine that’s beautifully and grievously written, but Whelan feels oddly placed: appearing like a spoof of a sad person as she kneels down and creases her face. Knowing the emotional depths that Whelan can plunge (see White House Farm), this is a missed opportunity.


But every week, Killing Eve continues to shock and surprise, slicing expectations. Episode four is the least tropey and least imitative of the season so far.


Killing Eve season 3 drops on BBC iPlayer every Monday at 6am. Episodes also air on BBC One at 9:15pm on Sundays




What Killing Eve season 3 episode 4, BBC review
When 04 May 20 – 04 Apr 21, ON BBC iPLAYER
Price £n/a
Website



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 29 September –1 October. Photo: Frieze Sculpture Park
Things to do in London this weekend: 29 September – 1 October
Brie Larson in Lessons in Chemistry, AppleTV+ (Photo: Apple)
New in streaming October 2023: Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Prime Video, Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, NOW, ITVX
London exhibitions to see this month
Top exhibitions on now in London

Editor's Picks

Hollywood, Netflix: Everything you need to know
Hollywood, Netflix review
Omar Sharif and Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl (1968)
New to Netflix UK: May 2020
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal in Normal People
Normal People, BBC episode 1 & 2 review
Benedict Cumberbatch and Ralph Fiennes in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Netflix
What to watch on TV this week
Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar Jones in Normal People, BBC Three
Why Normal People is beautiful television
Millie Bobby Brown in Stranger Things, Netflix
Dark and distracting series to watch on Netflix
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
1

Killing Eve

BBC

April

Jodie Comer

Sandra Oh

Villanelle

TV

Spring

2020

You might like

  • Jodie Comer in Talking Heads, BBC

    Talking Heads remake, BBC review ★★★★★

  • Jodie Comer in Killing Eve season 3, BBC iPlayer

    Killing Eve season 3 episode 3, BBC review ★★★★★

  • Jodie Comer in Killing Eve season 3, BBC iPlayer

    Killing Eve season 3 episode 2, BBC review ★★★★★

  • Jodie Comer in Killing Eve season 3, BBC iPlayer

    Killing Eve season 3 episode 1, BBC review (spoiler free) ★★★★★

  • Shira Haas in Unorthodox

    Unorthodox, Netflix: everything you need to know

  • Steve Carell, John Malkovich, and Ben Schwartz in Space Force, Netflix

    Space Force, Netflix review ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×