To quote a stressed-out Slack message from my friend, colleague, and favorite Killing Eve recapper Kathryn Lindsay, that was a cruel finale, Killing Eve. The season 2 closer, “You’re Mine,” seems to be giving viewers what they’ve always wanted: a twisted look at the prolonged romance between the titular Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) and the assassin she’s been fixated on for 16 episodes, Villanelle (Jodie Comer). Eve kills a man (Adrian Scarborough) for Villanelle. Villanelle is very turned on by the whole bloody scene. What could be more romantic?
Then Villanelle shoots Eve. Like really, definitely shoots her. There is no classic finale episode cliffhanger here. Killing Eve wraps season 2 with a wide shot of Eve visibly bleeding onto the floor of some ancient Roman ruin. We’re left wondering if Eve is truly dead — whether the BBC America thriller's title has finally come true?
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Well, one very important “You’re Mine” breadcrumb suggests Eve may live to play cat and mouse once again.
Early in the episode, some contract killers appear at the hotel where Eve and colleague Hugo (Edward Bluemel) are staying. When Hugo walks outside of the room, we hear gunshots. A thug then enters the hotel room, seemingly looking for Eve. When he leaves, the MI6 agent slowly sneaks out of the space to find Hugo bleeding to death in the hallway. It appears he's been shot in the back by the thug. Hugo begs Eve to stay with him, but she leaves to save Villanelle. When Eve returns to the hotel,, Hugo is gone, as is all evidence of the Villanelle-affiliated Roman mission. That includes the carpet Hugo definitely bled all over.
Is Hugo dead? Were the thugs really working with the infamous 12? Or, was all of that bloody drama subterfuge to further alienate an obviously unstable Eve from MI6? We won’t know for sure until, at best, season 3. But we do know Hugo gave Eve the best advice in the face of one bullet wound and the possibility of more: just lie.
“Playing dead: the hero’s technique,” a bleeding Hugo says while slumped on the floor in his last scene of season 2. Clearly, he pretended to be dead after the “You’re Mine” thug shot him, eliminating the possibility of any more bodily harm. After all, why would a trained killer further inflict torment upon someone who is already dead? Especially when there’s yet another target ahead. By playing dead, Hugo may have saved himself from the grave.
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Flash forward to the final shot of Killing Eve season 2, and you’ll see a resemblance between the way Hugo flopped onto the ground and the way Eve collapses after Villanelle shoots her. What if Eve remembered Hugo’s earlier advice and decided to play dead in this moment? If Eve did survive the initial shooting, such a response would be the only way to make Villanelle believe she succeeding in killing Eve — who just rejected her — and leaving. Playing possum is Eve’s only real way out of this terrible, gory situation.
If Eve did pull a death-themed bait and switch on Villanelle for her own survival, someone please get Hugo some crisps from his favorite sticky-floored fried chicken spot. He deserves it.