After four seasons, Killing Eve came to a tragic end Sunday night, but the BBC America series’ past critical acclaim couldn’t save it from the fierce fan backlash. Closing out its four-year run, the Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh-led show is now facing fierce backlash from fans, with the Killing Eve series finale even drawing comparisons to Game of Thrones, whose series finale famously disappointed fans. Warning: This post contains spoilers for Killing Eve Season 4.
Kicking off at 8 p.m. ET on BBC America, the two-part Killing Eve series finale tracked a final effort to bring down The Twelve, the mysterious organization that has haunted the characters since Season 1. While that mission was ultimately successful, with Villanelle easily killing all 12 of its members, Killing Eve ultimately ended in a tragic way that caused uproar among fans. During the final minutes of the series, and after Eve and Villanelle finally accepted their feelings for one another and sealed that acceptance with a kiss, Villanelle was shot multiple times. The beloved assassin ultimately died in the water of the River Thames, the kill shot ordered by Carolyn, with the series ending with Eve surfacing the water in front of the London Bridge.
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As “The End” flashed on the screen, many viewers took to social media to react, with the overwhelming consensus being negative. For many, the ending played into the all too common “bury your gays trope,” in which LGBT characters are treated as expendable and aren’t allowed a happy ending. Others expressed that the final moments made little sense and left them with more questions than answers. Several people even compared the finale to Game of Thrones. Keep scrolling to see what viewers are saying about the controversial Killing Eve finale.
‘Bad writing’
“They had no reason to kill off Villanelle,” tweeted one viewer. “There is no special meaning to her death. It doesn’t even fit in with the scorpion and the frog or the cupid/psyche ‘foreshadowing’. It’s just straight up bad writing.”
Comparisons to ‘Game of Thrones’
Amid the wave of backlash, the Killing Eve series finale has drawn comparisons to the infamous Game of Thrones series finale, which not only sparked backlash, but also plenty of petitions for a redo. According to critic Ariel Kling, in the few short hours since its premiere, the Killing Eve series finale has even sunken lower in IMDb ratings than the Game of Thrones finale, with “Hello, Losers” currently only having a 3.5 rating whereas the Game of Thrones finale earned a 4.0.
Bury Your Gays Trope
“I’m so f–ing tired of seeing the bury your gays trope on tv,” added somebody else. “No, you’re not different [Killing Eve], you’re exactly the same as the 100 and every other show that went with this awful trope. giving villanelle a few minutes of happiness and then kill her? Fuck this.”
Villanelle’s death follows in the footsteps of countless other LGBT characters
“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,” one viewer pointed out. “TIIIIRED.”
‘So many questions’
“Oh wow … f- this s-!” tweeted another person. “The ending just ruined everything. I was expecting Eve and Villanelle to not have a happy ending, but I hoped they’d prove me wrong. Also so many questions and none of them answered?! This whole season was a mess.”
Finale dubbed a ‘betrayal’
“Killing eve will down in history as the biggest betrayal to its fans ever,” added somebody else. “i’ve never seen so many people turn against the writers so quickly, not even for game of thrones so honestly i’m proud of us.”
How the books end
“I think what destroyed me the most was reading the [Killing Eve] books and knowing they have a happy ending,” wrote one person. “Having hope that the writers would deliver a happy ending just to see it destroyed in 3 minutes.”
