‘Killing Eve’ Finally Reveals The Twelve’s Origins

After more than three complete seasons, and now several episodes into the fourth and final season, Killing Eve finally gave fans some answers about perhaps the biggest mystery lurking behind the show – The Twelve. During Sunday night’s all-new episode, the hit BBC America drama gave fans a look into the mysterious organization’s background, revealing for the first time how The Twelve was formed and who exactly was part of it. Warning: This story contains spoilers for Killing Eve Season 4, Episode 5, “Don’t Get Attached.”

Longtime viewers of Killing Eve know The Twelve as the organization that has been lurking in the shadows of the show, all while holding an iron-tight grip on its characters. Fans were first introduced to the group via Villanelle, who, as a teenager, was plucked from obscurity and trained to be an assassin for the group. While few details about the group have been revealed, it consists of a hierarchy, with Hélène serving as one of the highest-ranking members and Konstantin serving as a handler. Prior to the Season 4 premiere, head writer Laura Neale teased that fans could “expect to see an exploration, if not an answer” about The Twelve in the final episodes, and Sunday’s new episode did just that, finally pulling back the curtain on the organization and revealing The Twelve’s origins.

Consisting almost entirely of black-and-white flashbacks, “Don’t Get Attached” took viewers back to 1979 Belin, tight in the grips of the Cold War, where a small anarchist group was formed consisting of a young Carolyn and several others. The group’s name? The Twelve, named by Carolyn, based off the number of its members and inspired by the fact that “Beethoven named his greatest symphony No. 3.” In addition to Carolyn, who went by Janice at the time, other members in the group included Carolyn’s boyfriend Johan, who in the present day goes by Lars Meier, Konstantin, who went by Karl and who had a fling with Carolyn, and his girlfriend, Karolina, as well as eight others. Although the group was strong and united at its start, things seemed to go awry for the group after Carolyn discovered her father dead in their garage, having killed himself after being blackmailed.

Back in the present day, Eve visits Oliver Shubert, a classics professor who snapped the photo of Lars and was at the party when Carolyn discovered her father dead. Oliver tells Eve that Johan, who “fancied himself as a revolutionary,” died just weeks after the photo of him was taken. According to Oliver, Johan “took a boat out alone with a crate of beer and accidentally drowned himself.” With his apparent death, The Twelve seemingly disbanded, though viewers know that while the anarchist group may have failed, something much more sinister rose from it in the form of the current version of The Twelve.

In the flashbacks, Johan’s demise was shown. After discovering personal information on Karl, aka Konstantin, and learning his real name and that he was part of the Russian KGB, Carolyn confronted him on a dock. That confrontation was interrupted by Johan, who angrily shot a gun into the air, leading Carolyn to hit him in the head with an oar, causing him to fall into the lake. Although Carolyn and Konstantin believed they killed Johan, the episode ended with Carolyn finding him alive and well at a cabin belonging to Karolina’s father. Fans will have to wait until next week’s new episode to learn more about The Twelve and see if it finally crumbles. New episodes of Killing Eve air on BBC America on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET. AMC+ subscribers can watch new episodes one week in advance of linear viewers.