Killing Eve Season 4 Ending Explained (In Detail)

The story of Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) and Villanelle (Jodie Comer) reached a tragic conclusion, as the Killing Eve ending explained what happened to all its interesting characters. Killing Eve season 4’s final episodes built up to the three leads — Eve, Villanelle, and Carolyn — all pursuing their agenda to destroy The Twelve. Eve and Villanelle knew their final destination was a secret Twelve meeting in London. While Eve danced after she officiated a wedding, Villanelle descended to the bowels of the ship and massacred The Twelve (whom the audience never saw).

Killing Eve was a global pop culture phenomenon and showrunner Laura Neal had the daunting task of bringing the entire series to a satisfying conclusion in Killing Eve season 4. After a bumpy start involving Villanelle seeing visions of herself as Jesus, season 4 is the strongest overall since that widely-praised first season. But the ending of Killing Eve — while resonant and logical in its key decisions — left many viewers unhappy. Then again, Killing Eve was always a disruptor, never intended as comfort television and the Killing Eve ending leaves viewers with a lot to process.

Why Carolyn Ordered Villanelle’s Death And How She Won

An Unseen Assassin Guns Down Villanelle In The End

Villanelle dies at the end of Killing Eve season 4, with an unseen assassin firing multiple shots at her after she killed everyone in The Twelve. Even after Villanelle and Eve plunged into the River Thames, the gunman kept firing and repeatedly hit Villanelle. She dies at the end of her story after finally (but briefly) experiencing a happy moment with Eve, the person she loves. In a beautiful visual callback to her baptism, Villanelle’s blood forms the image of an angel’s wings as her corpse floats in the water and Eve swims to reach her.

Villanelle and Eve meet up with Carolyn and Pam (Anjana Vasan) for the final time at MI6’s London pub and Eve makes her intentions to kill the Twelve at their secret meeting clear. Carolyn sees her chance to use this as her ticket back to MI6 and orders Villanelle’s murder. The elimination of The Twelve – and everyone associated with them, including Villanelle – is Carolyn’s passage back to MI6. Even though Eve achieved her goal of eliminating The Twelve, thanks to Villanelle, Carolyn plays everyone and comes out winning in the end.

Villanelle And Eve’s Perfect Day Set Up Their Tragic Ending

Eve & Villanelle Finally Got Their One Moment Of Happiness Together

After escaping Gunn’s Scotland island, Eve and Villanelle have a journey to London together that finally crystallizes their relationship. Eve confesses she wants “to be with” Villanelle and get her help killing The Twelve.

For Villanelle, it was enough of a mea culpa for Eve’s tryst with Hélène. Plus, when Eve blinded Gunn, Villanelle saw Eve was more like her deep down than she cared to admit. Slowly, Villanelle and Eve warm up to each other. It is exactly what Villanelle wants from Eve — to share in the mundane, everyday things most people find boring, but Villanelle finds “fascinating because it’s Eve.”

Eve also gives in to her desire to be with Villanelle. For the first time, they act like a couple and it is perfect. Yet, this is Killing Eve, and these happy moments have an ominous cloud of disaster to come, which is foretold when Eve has her tarot read and receives the Death card.

For the audience, who waited four seasons to see Eve and Villanelle together, their road trip fulfills their building relationship. Eve and Villanelle’s love story had no happy ending, but they were together in ways they always hoped, and it could have worked in their own unique, oddball way.

Carolyn Always Knew Who Killed Kenny

Carolyn Uses His Death As Her Excuse To Take Down The Twelve

Killing Eve never reveals who killed Kenny Stowton (Sean Delaney) at the start of season 3, but Carolyn always knew who did it. No one else knew for sure who killed Kenny, but The Twelve likely had him targeted. Unfortunately, when Konstantin told Kenny he was in danger, Kenny stepped back, falling off the roof of the Bitter Pill building to his death.

On some level, Carolyn knows Kenny’s death was an accident, but she uses her desire to find out who “gave the order” as her rationale to take down The Twelve. Revenge is a convenient reason to pursue The Twelve.

As Killing Eve season 4’s flashback revealed, Carolyn was always complicit because she was part of the formation of The Twelve in 1979. As a young spy, Carolyn (Imogen Daines) was intertwined with The Twelve’s original leadership, although The Twelve became a different entity during the events of Killing Eve. But for Carolyn, there is no life beyond being a spy, and her devotion to the British Secret Service costs Martens her son, who is dead, and her daughter, Geraldine, whom she is estranged from. Martens has to return to MI6 and uses Eve and Villanelle to destroy The Twelve.

Why Konstantin Also Had To Die (It Was Time)

Konstantin’s Death Ended Up Being Bitterly Poetic

Pam murders Konstantin Vasiliev on Hélène’s orders but, in a comedy of errors worthy, she doesn’t need to because Hélène is already dead, which Pam didn’t know when she killed her teacher and father figure. However, even Konstantin was surprised he was still alive so late into Killing Eve season 4. Truthfully, Villanelle’s handler outlived his usefulness to The Twelve (and to the series overall) long ago. However, it is a testament to Konstantin’s popularity and Kim Bodnia’s reliably enjoyable performance that Vasiliev lived as long as he did.

Konstantin is killed by a Twelve assassin he trained, despite the lingering impression he would die by Villanelle’s hand. In a way, Konstantin did his job ‘properly’ because Pam ultimately rejects a job offer from Carolyn and the life of an assassin. This breaks the cycle of The Twelve recruiting young girls. Sadly, Konstantin leaves behind his troubled daughter, Irina, who doesn’t know her father has died in the Killing Eve ending. At least Konstantin got to tell Carolyn, through Pam, that he loved her. They helped co-found The Twelve as rival undercover spies.

How Killing Eve Proved The Show’s Title

The Title Is Metaphorical & Not Literal

Despite Eve receiving the Death tarot card, Killing Eve ultimately fulfilled its cryptic title. “Killing Eve” was never meant to be literal. Rather, the series was always about the metaphorical death of who Eve was when the series began. Eve was married and lived a humdrum life, but there was always “a monster” inside her that was released when she became obsessed with Villanelle. Killing Eve was always about Eve’s transformation into the person she truly is, which is finally complete when she dances at the wedding while Villanelle kills The Twelve.

Losing Villanelle for good in the Thames, in the shadow of the Tower Bridge where they decided to part at the end of Killing Eve season 3, was the last step towards “killing Eve.” When Eve loses Villanelle, and she rises to the surface of the Thames to scream in anguish, it is Eve’s baptism echoing Villanelle’s baptism at the start of Killing Eve season 4.

What happens to Eve next isn’t clear, but she survives the series, which feels correct, even though Villanelle meets her end. Eve’s growth and metamorphosis, with all the dark and sordid moments that come with it, is the true point of Killing Eve. Season 4 hammers this home with Eve’s flashbacks of her old friends like Elena and especially her beloved Bill, whom Villanelle killed in Berlin. Eve completely changed since Killing Eve season 1 and her future is a question the series purposely leaves open to interpretation.

Will Killing Eve Season 5 Ever Happen?

Is This Story Over With Villanelle’s Death?

A Killing Eve prequel about Carolyn is in development, and there may be more spinoffs. However, the main Killing Eve series is definitively over.Killing Eve‘s producers and stars, Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, are moving on from their iconic roles, and there are no plans for season 5 or even a Killing Eve movie. Villanelle’s death precludes any continuation, since there’s no Killing Eve without Eve and Villanelle at its center.

However, with so many movies and TV properties receiving reboots and revivals, it’s not unthinkable that Killing Eve could return one day. Even Villanelle’s death could potentially be walked back, miraculously surviving her gunshots and drowning. A happy ending for Eve and Villanelle was realistically never a possibility. Despite how some viewers feel about Killing Eve season 4’s final moments, it was the best overall season of the show since Killing Eve season 1. It’s worth relishing the unpredictable and alluring journey Eve and Villanelle took us on to the end.

How The Killing Eve Finale Was Received

The Final Season Has Its Lowest Critical & Fan Scores

The Killing Eve finale was always going to be a tough sell. For four seasons, Eve and Villanelle chased their will-they-or-won’t-they relationship. However, while The Killing Eve ending explained that Villanelle saw that moment of happiness with Eve, she dies shortly after that happened, meaning that no one in this series, other than the manipulative Carolyn, receives a somewhat happy ending. It’s not a truly happy ending because while she possibly gets her spy role back, she loses everyone close to her, including her son, daughter, and probably Eve and Pam.

The reactions were fierce. The show ended with Villanelle dying, Eve screaming in agony, and Carolyn at the controls. However, the ending provides nothing to show how Eve or Carolyn react to it or even flash to Pam to hint at a future. It just ends when Villanelle dies. It is almost like this was Villanelle’s story and it ends with her. This hurt the series. While it might have been the best since the first from a storytelling point-of-view, it has the lowest critical rating, sitting at 53% on Rotten Tomatoes.

One problem, with both critics and the audience (who rated it an extremely low 30% Rotten Tomatoes score), is that it has what some call the “Bury Your Gays” trope. That’s when a show or movie has someone come out and find happiness in an LGBTQ+ relationship, only for them to immediately die. Supernatural is accused of this when Castiel admits his love for Dean and dies, while The 100 did it when Lexa dies after officially getting together with Clarke. This happens with Killing Eve, as the two women express their love, and Villanelle dies to end the series.

What Jodie Comer & Sandra Oh Said About The Killing Eve Ending

Comer And Oh Understood The Show’s Divisive Ending

While fans might have found the end of the show unsatisfactory, actors Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer thought the series finale made sense for the story being told. Oh, in particular, believed that the show should be dissatisfying. She explained in an interview with Elle:

I think it’s true to this show. As an audience, you want to be satisfied. You want to know. Like, ‘I want to be satisfied. I want it tied up in a bow. I want to understand it.’ But that’s not it.

She also went on to tell the publication that the last shot of Eve in the series, of her character screaming in the water, was the last one that Oh filmed for the series, and she wasn’t sure she had nailed the scene. Despite that, the emotion of filming the end of the show likely worked for the character, leaving the audience wondering what’s next for her.

The last shot of Eve in the water howling at the world was actually the last shot I filmed. We were under time pressure, we had camera issues and they called the day. It felt ambiguous. I didn’t know if I got it. It was an extremely emotional day. I think one of the special things about the show is—hopefully—how satisfying it is to not get what you want, tied neatly in a bow. It was never neat between the characters, so Eve’s ending leaves us with the question: How will she go on?

Comer had a similar experience in that the last scene she filmed for the series was also the last shot of Villanelle for the show. She also talked about the experience with Elle, calling it surreal:

What was really surreal was the last shot we did was the last shot of Villanelle ever. So that was weird because once I’d done that, it was done. There was something about finishing on that final shot of her that was actually perfect in a way. But it was weird. It was really weird! What was great was Sandra and I were together for the whole of that last week, so we got to experience that together with the crew.

Comer also called the ending of the show “inevitable.” She believed that the show had to end with her character saving Eve, showing how much she’d changed, and finally being unable to escape her fate:

It was inevitable. She’s like a cat with nine lives. What I loved about the moment was that was a really selfless act that she did that caused it. It felt right that in that moment she protected Eve. There was something about that shielding, I think, that signified how much she had changed. She was trying so desperately to change at the beginning and I don’t think she ever realized how much she had, which is so sad. That moment really shows how Eve changed her life.

Both actors agree that Villanelle had to die for the series to end, though the audience might disagree. Oh revealed in the same interview that originally, it was her character that died instead. That would likely have made fans even angrier. The ending of the series helped to show just how far the character arcs of Villanelle and Eve had taken the two, and while a happy ending for them would have relieved fans, it wouldn’t have provided the conclusion Killing Eve demanded.