Love is worth the wait. #KillingEve #TCA20 pic.twitter.com/CgKqbl74p5
— Killing Eve (@KillingEve) January 16, 2020
Your favorite sapphic will-they-won’t-they murder show is coming back … sometime in April, with a new teaser that is filled with teases from the show and the sound of Jodie Comer’s iconic laughter as Villanelle.
We know that this upcoming season is going to add seven new characters to the cast: Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones), Pedja Bjelac, Camille Cottin, Steve Pemberton, Raj Bajaj, Turlough Convery, Dame Harriet Walter, and Danny Sapani (Harlots), and Evgenia Dodina.
The show has also been renewed for a fourth season, because that’s what we’re doing now when it comes to certain prestige television shows. I’ve enjoyed catching up on Killing Eve and enjoying the dynamic between Sandra Oh’s Eve and Jodie Comer’s Villanelle. When it comes to season two, I know there was a lot of mixed feelings about it because of the lack of definition to the relationship between the two women. That was not helped when certain comments were made by Oh that seemed to dismiss the sexual relationship between the two characters.
In an interview with the Gay Times, Oh said, “You guys are tricky because you want to make it into something… but it just isn’t. That’s also why I think sexuality and discovery of the wider reaches of sexuality is the theme of the show – why it’s interesting to people. It’s not one thing or another.”
Some have taken this comment as evidence that the show is “queerbaiting,” but I personally think that the sexuality in the show is complicated. Villanelle is clearly a queer woman, and Eve is dealing with complex feelings for someone who has done her immense harm.
What’s so complicated about this issue is that I dislike the idea of the relationship between the two women being flattened for the sake of “representation.” The fact is that having these two women, as individuals, is already representation, and the will-they-won’t-they aspect is layered because Villanelle is a murderer and becomes dangerously obsessed with people. The show is not a romance, but the sexual text of the show is at its core, which makes it complicated for a lot of viewers.
Killing Eve, in my opinion, isn’t queerbaiting, because the facts keeping the women apart have nothing to do with sexuality. It has to do with a lot of thriller issues, and I enjoy that. Relationships between two women can be toxic and messy, so I’m enjoying the problematic elements of the Eve/Villanelle relationship. We need more messy and complicated LGBT couples that aren’t messy because homophobia, and so far, Killing Eve has delivered. I’m looking forward to seeing how it continues when season three comes in April.
(image: BBC America)
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Published: Jan 17, 2020 12:36 pm