Killing Eve author speaks out against series finale

MAJOR SPOILERS for the series finale of Killing Eve. Consider yourself warned. Based upon the Villanelle novels by Luke Jennings, Killing Eve followed Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), a British intelligence investigator tasked with capturing psychopathic assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer). Throughout the four seasons, the pair developed a mutual cycle of obsession with one another.

Killing Eve came to a close just a few weeks ago, and it’s safe to say that the finale wasn’t satisfying to everyone. After taking down the members of The Twelve, Eve and Villanelle were finally free to be together, but the closing moments of the Killing Eve finale found Villanelle shot and killed as Eve screamed in anguish. Fans waiting all this time for Eve and Villanelle to get together were naturally a little upset, including Villanelle author Luke Jennings. The author told The Guardian that while it’s a thrill to have your work adapted for television, you will never love everything the screenwriting team does to your characters. 

You’re too close to the characters. You’ve lived with them in your head for far too long. But it’s a thrill to see your story taken in unexpected directions… And the actors. Who cares about plot minutiae when you’re watching Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh do their thing, with the sexual tension crackling and the sparks flying? It’s an extraordinary privilege to see your characters brought to life so compellingly. But the final series ending took me aback.

Jennings said that the Killing Eve finale bowed to convention and that a genuinely subversive ending would have defied the “bury your gays” trope. “How much more darkly satisfying, and true to Killing Eve’s original spirit, for the couple to walk off into the sunset together?” Jennings pondered. “Spoiler alert, but that’s how it seemed to me when writing the books.” Jennings said that he was aware of how the TV series would end ahead of time and suspected that fans wouldn’t be pleased, but to those fans, Jennings said, “Villanelle lives. And on the page, if not the screen, she will be back.“

What did you think of the Killing Eve finale?