‘Killing Eve’ introduces Villanelle’s family with heartbreaking results

When Villanelle (Jodie Comer) first brought up the idea of reconnecting with her family on Killing Eve (Sundays, 10 pET, CTV Drama Channel), viewers knew it wasn’t going to go well. After all, when a sociopathic serial killer traces his or her roots, does it ever work out well for them? Still, that didn’t make viewers any less eager to meet Villanelle’s real family. And so in the latest standalone episode of the series, the show took place with one central storyline in Mother Russia, where Villanelle reconnected with her kin.

A happy family reunion

Villanelle’s homecoming wasn’t exactly the reunion she—or viewers—expected. Rather than turn the moment into a very special episode, it kicked off with V trying to keep track of the various people living in her mother’s household. Some of those characters mistook her for a whore, others believed she had accidentally rented the wrong Airbnb, and the little boy, Bor’ka (Temi Blaev) fell in love with the fact that she was from America, just like his hero Elton John. It wasn’t until her brother Pytor (Rob Feldman) recognized her as Oksana that the real homecoming began, and by the time her mom Tatiana (Evgenia Dodina) came in with the groceries it was a complete tear-fest—at least on the Russian side. It turns out Villanelle’s family thought she’d died in the fire she started at the orphanage, where dear old mom had dropped her off after her father died so that she could make ends meet.Right away you could tell there was something off about the mother-daughter relationship. Up until Tatiana entered the house Villanelle was her usual confident self, but as soon as she realized her mom was coming, she ran and tried to get out. Turns out she wasn’t ready to confront the woman who gave up on her after all, but she didn’t exactly have a choice. Villanelle tensed up as Tatiana hugged her and fawned over her baby being alive, and for a while she seemed to be the doting mother Villanelle claims to have always wanted. We’re talking hand-me-down outfits, home cooked meals, and a family sing- and dance-along to (what else?!) Elton John.

The other shoe drops

It didn’t take long to learn that Tatiana had purposefully gotten rid of her daughter and hadn’t really changed from the manipulative mother she’d always been. That was pretty clear in the way she treated Bor’ka at the festival, and even by the way she wouldn’t let Pytor go and live his own life. She may not be a killer like her daughter, but she’s definitely got that manipulation thing down pat. So no one should have really been surprised when she told her daughter to leave her house and never come back. She didn’t want V’s dark side casting a shadow over everyone, and she very much blamed her for how things worked out with her husband.

 

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Keep it in the family. Spend #MothersDay with #KillingEve. Sunday at 10/7p on #CTVDramaChannel

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“I think I have to kill you,” Villanelle sadly told her mother after being officially rejected again. And instead of acting scared, or sorry, her mother simply seemed to accept her fate. The episode didn’t actually show V offing her mother, but her dead body in the next scene was plenty indication. Then, because it’s Villanelle and she’s dramatic on the best of days, she had to wipe out everyone else in the house who had been mean or rude to her since she got there. The only two she spared were Bor’ka, whom she gifted a ton of money to go and see Elton John with, and her brother. Everyone else supposedly died in the explosion she set off in the house, putting an end to Villanelle’s Leave it to Beaver dreams.

A future that could have been

Although there were plenty of funny moments (dung throwing and terrible dance troupes come to mind), it’s hard not to walk away from the episode feeling a little sad. Viewers got to see what life could have been like for V with a little love and support, both in the past and in the present. Instead everyone was left with the image of an emotional Villanelle on the bus, heading to who knows where.One thing that’s for sure is that whenever she gets to her destination, she’s going to be more vulnerable than ever. No matter how terrible her mother is or was, murdering her is pretty heavy stuff—even for an assassin like Villanelle. Tatiana wasn’t a job, her death was personal to Villanelle. And even though she’s taken personal aim before (Eve, Konstantin) those people have survived. This is a whole new kind of pain she’s going to have to bury and learning that Eve’s husband is dead (and that she’s been framed for the murder) isn’t going to help things one little bit. Considering all that, it’s pretty darned likely that things are going to get worse for The Twelve pawn in the weeks to come.Killing Eve airs Sundays at 10 pET on CTV Drama Channel.