Killing Eve, season 4 episode 7, BBC review ★★★★★

Watching Killing Eve is like being forced into a corner, at a pub or a wedding, by a drunkard who's intent on telling you their stories. They mumble and mumble and mumble, and you grip any morsel of intrigue. And then, maybe after sobering up, they reach the good parts and become undeniably absorbing.

Was it worth wasting all that time, with all that nonsense, beforehand? Probably not. But we’re here now, approaching the final hurdle of Killing Eve and, despite a lot of mumbling, the final season reaches a satisfying zenith in its penultimate episode. And it’s a brutal, bloody and brilliant diamond in the rough.

Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri. Photo: BBC

Every performance is at the top of their games, as if they’ve been hibernating until now to finally unveil their mettle. Sandra Oh as the titular Eve Polastri is especially striking in this episode, one of her strongest chapters in the entire saga. after her character effectively completes the mission that’s been consuming her for the last few years.

Last week, Eve shot Lars (Ingvar Sigurdsson) – the leader of The Twelve – and faced unenviable scrutiny by Carolyn (Fiona Shaw). She's now on personal detail as a bodyguard somewhere in upmarket London, the location strangely not spelt out with the usual screen-filling titles. But Eve feels a potent anticlimax, her passion deflating in the blink of a bullet. She collapses into guilt and anger and depression, which won’t stop wriggling inside her. Even during a weirdly existential karaoke session.

Villanelle (Jodie Comer) takes a sylvan retreat of sorts with Twelve marksman Gunn (Marie Sophie Ferdane), the one who shot her in the back. The quiet isolation of this cabin in the woods, on a remote Scottish island, provides the vibes of a low-key horror movie. Villanelle wakes up on a haystack and sees a goat staring at her, resembling Robert Eggers’ Puritanical debut film The Witch. Running parallel to this scene, a solitary fisherman floats on the water with an ending that shares DNA with Friday the 13^th.

Comer excels with glorious insanity, balanced perfectly with Ferdane’s violent, introverted, hair-sniffing assassin. This clash of two blonde psychopaths draws out the most entertaining aspects of both characters.

Anjana Visan as Pam. Photo: BBC

Although the relationship between Pam (Anjana Visan) and Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) has been treated as a less intriguing C-story, it’s the section this critic always looks forward to. Their union is starting to look like that between a father and a daughter. Perhaps that newfound chemistry comes too suddenly, but still packs an emotional punch by the end.

Pam starts to feel divided about becoming a Twelve member after discovering what a satisfying life could look like. The innocence of Darren the fairground assistant (Josh Zaré) – so loveable and so useless – eases her murderous tendencies, providing such juicy curiosity around her character.

Although AMC and BBC America are developing a prequel spin-off centred on Carolyn, who delivers another commanding presence in this episode, the honour should really go to Pam. If Pam is wasted, it’d be this season’s greatest sin.

Killing Eve season 4 continues Mondays from 6am on BBC iPlayer and Saturdays at 9:15pm on BBC One.