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From the third installment of Stranger Things to The Hills reboot, the universe is giving us a lot of reasons to put our DVRs in overdrive this year. And this Sunday the broadcast gods are awarding us with another can't-miss show: season two of Killing Eve.
The suspenseful cat-and-mouse series, which follows M15 agent Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) as she attempts to track down unhinged assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer), is so gripping that three days before it had even made its TV debut, BBC America announced that the show was renewed for a second season.
So what can we expect from season two of the hit series? The season-one finale wrapped with a pretty big cliffhanger that left audiences with a number of questions (and high blood pressure), the largest of which was (spoilers ahead!): What happened to Villanelle?
Well, a trailer released on March 8 appears to give a few clues. In it, you can see Villanelle is alive and well—and Eve is still just as obsessed.
We picked up similar vibes from the trailer released on Valentine's Day:
In another teaser, we see that Eve appears to be back with her husband:
And in yet another teaser that's not available to embed yet, Villanelle stares directly into the camera and says, "I hope you haven't forgotten about me." That seems to indicate that the antagonist will make a fiery return to the second season. (See that here.) In another, Eve is asked, "Why are you two so interested in each other? What really happened in Paris?"
These newly released stills from the second season also appear to suggest that the high-stakes chase between Eve and Villanelle will pick back up in season two:
Unfortunately, that's all we have to go on, so far. So while most of what's in store for season two is still largely a mystery, here's what we do know about the return of the series.
Both Eve and Villanelle are "confused" going into season two. "I think that Eve doesn’t necessarily know if she wants to kill Villanelle or kiss her," Killing Eve executive producer Sally Woodward Gentle told Glamour at the season-two premiere. "That’s a bit simplistic. I genuinely think that, for Eve, I do think she feels she’s been through so much, including the death of Bill. She has seen Constantine being shot. She stabbed Villanelle. I think she probably feels that it needs to mean something. And some good has got to come out of it; otherwise she is a desperately bad person. So I think that she feels that this has got to mean something. And I think, for Villanelle, she genuinely doesn’t know if she wants revenge, or if what Eve did to her actually confirms what she thought: which is Eve is as obsessed with her as she is with Eve, and that it actually means they are two of a kind. I think that’s what they are struggling with in season two."
Eve and Villanelle will "potentially" interact more this season. This comes from Woodward Gentle, as well. But Oh tells Glamour that viewers will have to wait a hot sec for an Eve-Villanelle reunion. "You’re going to need to see them apart to want to [see] them together," she says. "You’ll have a breath. You’ll have a breath, but by the time they come back together, it will hopefully be satisfying."
The season two finale is going to be good. Woodward Gentle says it's "even more extraordinary" than season one's finale.
Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) is one of the biggest mysteries going into this new season. "I don’t think the viewers [know who she is], and I don’t think they will through season two either," Woodward Gentle says. "I think there is so much…I think she’s so good at her job, and she comes from a long line of people who have worked within MI-6 who know that actually the greater good of maybe herself, but definitely the organization, requires sacrifice, and I think she’s probably more ruthless than Villanelle."
Yes, you read that correctly: Carolyn might be even more ruthless than Villanelle. "Emerald [Fennell, season-two writer, executive producer, and showrunner] was saying at the beginning of this season that Carolyn is a shark, and I suspect that’s probably how she wrote it," Shaw says of her character. "I honestly think Carolyn is a much bigger character than even that, and that a shark isn’t what she is entirely, and I think that will also come to pass."
Will Eve ever be able to tell her husband, Niko, what's really going on? "I think it’s what Niko needs," Woodward Gentle says. "I think he will ask it of her and say, ‘If I am to trust you, we have to share things,’ but the question is, Will Eve ever really be able to confess to Niko how deep her feelings for Villanelle go? And because of that, there will always be a barrier between them and their relationship. I think that’s the big question. They all need therapy."
We see how Eve's mental state changes after stabbing Villanelle. "You’ll see how she will try to deal with that, and how she’s thinking and how she’s dealing with that," Oh says. "And how I really think that she doesn’t do such a great job getting back to her life. She thinks she can get back to her life and what it was and you just can’t after something like that."
Villanelle is absolutely killing more people this season. "She’s keeping up her reputation," Comer says. "Her reputation is still intact for sure."
The new season of Killing Eve will take place 30 seconds after the season-one finale. The second season picks up almost immediately after Eve and Villanelle's bloody altercation. "They’ve crossed a line and there’s sort of no going back," Oh said during the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, California, on February 9. "We have a lot of energy at the beginning of the series, and that pushes them into a different place of vulnerability."
"How can you come to terms with a relationship that seems to be impossible?" Oh added. "That’s what I think we’re trying to figure out daily."
“What’s most interesting about Eve’s stabbing of Villanelle at the end of [season] one is Villanelle’s reaction to that, and just how she perceives that,” Comer said at the February TCA panel. “And it both affects and changes them in a way that neither of them are quite expecting. Also, as we start the series, we see Villanelle in a very different way: She has no control of her situation.”
Viewers should keep an eye out for Villanelle's clothes this season. "[In the first two episodes of season two] you see Villanelle in a completely vulnerable setting and her clothes are completely different," Oh said at the TCA panel. "And when she moves out of a vulnerable setting, you see how much her clothing means to her."
Fennell added at the TCA panel that Villanelle "fetishizes clothes," so what she wears will likely be extra important in season two.
The show will continue to travel the world. Woodward Gentle confirmed at the TCA panel that season two goes to Rome—and she also hinted at two other locations, the Netherlands and France.
There's a new female assassin added to the mix—and she'll test the two main characters. “I think with everything with this show, it comes down to a fundamental Harry Potter–ish sort of core, which is the gravitational pull that Eve and Villanelle feel," Fennell said at the TCA panel. "Eve has a sense of women and female assassins, so is Eve an assassin expert or a Villanelle expert?"
“What would happen to Villanelle as well if she thought Eve’s gaze wasn’t always on her?” Woodward Gentle added.
The release date: Sunday, April 7, at 8:00 P.M. ET.
The cast: The show's leads, Oh and Comer, will reprise their roles as Eve Polastri and Villanelle, respectively. Shaw will also rejoin the cast this season as mysterious operative Carolyn. Newcomers to the show include Nina Sosanya (Good Omens) and Edward Bluemel (The Commuter), according to Deadline.
How you can watch: If you don't have BBC America, then no worries. AMC announced on January 30 that it will simulcast season two of Killing Eve. Essentially, this means AMC will be playing the new Killing Eve episodes in tandem with BBC America. So now you have two ways to check out the show!
Reporting by Jessica Radloff
