‘Killing Eve’ Series Finale Kills off a Main Character

Killing Eve didn’t go quietly Sunday night. During the two-part series finale, the BBC America series officially brought the cat-and-mouse chase between Eve and Villanelle to a tragic and deadly end in a jaw-dropping moment that left one key character dead. Warning: This post contains spoilers for Killing Eve‘s two-part series finale, Season 4, Episode 7, “Making Dead Things Look Nice,” and Episode 8, “Hello, Losers.”

In the final moments of “Hello, Losers,” everyone’s favorite assassin, Villanelle, died as a result of one final hit ordered by an unsuspecting character, bringing to an end a character who, for the past four seasons, has struggled to free herself from grips of The Twelve. The path to Villanelle’s heartbreaking downfall began with a final effort to track down and officially bring an end to The Twelve. After escaping Gunn’s island with Eve, the cat-and-mouse chase between the two protagonists came to a truce, the characters, perhaps for the first time, finally acknowledging and accepting their feelings for one another as they spent the night in a bothy with another couple. Over the course of the episode, as Eve and Villanelle followed their lead – a coded message sent to Hélène’s phone – fans watched as the once mutual-turned-confusing-turned-icy relationship thawed, giving way to plenty of soft moments and even a few long-awaited kisses.

Those softer moments shared between Eve and Villanelle were short-lived, though, and ultimately marked by tragedy. After uncovering The Twelve’s meeting spot on the Dixie Queen, a boat cruising the waters of the River Thames, Eve and Villanelle found themselves caught up in gunfire only moments after Villanelle killed the meeting members of the secret organization. The quiet celebration of their victory on the ship’s deck was cut short by a bullet to Villanelle’s shoulder, which subsequently passed through her and into Eve. And while the two characters managed to escape several more rounds before jumping into the waters below, their story and what could have finally been a life together ended when Villanelle was shot several more times, an ending that will undoubtedly be met with controversy and one that seemed to rip a page straight out of the book of The 100 Season 3, Episode 7 and numerous other character endings before that.

Before “The End” flashed on the screen as Eve surfaced the Thames with a heart-rending cry in front of the London Bridge, Killing Eve revealed that it was Carolyn, on a mission of her own who ordered the kill shot. The revelation was an interesting one considering recent reports that BBC America and AMC Networks are in the “early stages” of developing a Killing Eve spinoff focused on the early life of Carolyn. Earlier in Season 4, fans were treated to a glimpse of the character’s past in an episode that revealed the origins of The Twelve. The spinoff, which has not yet officially been greenlit, would mark the first Killing Eve spinoff to be announced.