BBC America just debuted the first trailer for Killing Eve season 2, teasing new locations, a mystery character and an intriguing, evolving, dynamic between MI5 security official Eve Polastri and assassin Villanelle. Season 1 of the BBC's blackly comic crime drama, scripted by Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge, scooped multiple critical awards including the Guardian's best TV show of 2018, and season 2 picks up immediately where the last episode left off.
The trailer's big (non) surprise, is that the psychotic Villanelle (played by Jodie Comer) is recuperating from her dramatic meeting with Eve, but mystery surrounds a unknown character, a taxi collision and - a quite spectacular - lederhosen piggy outfit, presumably worn by Villanelle. We've analysed the new trailer frame-by-frame to unearth some new details, using clues and quotes from a recent cast interview to speculate on where the season goes next. There's nothing *too* spoilery, we suspect, since the trailer uses a fractured chronology to look like it's cut from one episode - likely the season 2 opener - but read on with caution if you want to go in fresh. There are some spoilers for season one, as you might expect.
Watch the Killing Eve season 2 trailer below
1) Season 2 picks up immediately where Season 1 left off… and Eve is wearing the same clothes
Detective Eve (Sandra Oh) is clearly still in Paris after she confronts Villanelle at the end of season 1. You can tell this from the tell-tale 'Boissons' sign behind her, as she munches on a bag of popcorn, but most clearly since she's wearing the same clothes as the end of season 1. Note her distinctive fur-lined coat in the images above and below. Eve looks in shock, as she stares into the middle-distance while munching away, so this is likely shortly after her encounter with Villanelle.
Even though series 1 writer the award-winning Phoebe Waller-Bridge has moved to Executive Producer duties, new writer Emerald Fennell (Call the Midwife, Drifters) - a close friend of Waller-Bridge - has retained the series' dark sense of humour. "I found Villanelle", Eve tells who we presume is her MI5 boss Carolyn Martens on her phone, oblivious of a man sat on a bench in front of her who's proposing to his girlfriend. "I think I killed her", she adds, as the couple look up in horror. After a moment's pause, "Congratulations", adds Eve, coming to her senses.
2) Villanelle's recuperation won't be immediate and seems to occur across multiple locations
A few weeks back, BBC America revealed official press shots of Killing Eve season 2, showing Villanelle covered in blood on the Paris streets wearing a dark jacket to cover her wounds. Another image depicts her using a (vodka?) bottle to clean her injuries. The trailer seems to skip forward slightly, showing a clearly suffering Villanelle - who climbs off a bed and falls flat - wearing a hospital robe with a badge saying 'Superbe!' (French for superb, should it need pointing out). In terms of chronology, it appears Villanelle tends to her life-threatening wounds, before seeking surgery.
The question is where does she go? And who helps her? Her injury isn't the type that you can easily explain away without alerting the police, and season 1 suggests Villanelle is no longer protected by the mysterious agency who used her as an assassin (after they try to kill her). It also seems unlikely that she seeks help from confidant and 'handler' Konstantin (Kim Bodnia), what with the whole kidnapping his daughter / trying to kill him thing. It's a little unclear if Konstantin will return in series 2 after being shot in the season 1 finale, but in the absence of actually seeing him die… the 'not quite dead' rule of TV suggests he'll make a 'surprise' return either alive or via flashback cameo.
Later in the trailer, a still-recovering Villanelle seems to hiding in a suburban UK home… but we'll get to that.
3) MI6 boss Carolyn Martens returns… but who is the mystery figure causing everyone to look shocked?
As outlined previously, the likely candidate is Russian agency handler Konstantin - the former lover of MI6 boss Carolyn Martens (Fiona Shaw), the latter of whom is definitely in the new series. The silhouette in the image above isn't entirely clear, and there are some new additions to the cast to consider, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. Edward Bluemel (A Discovery of Witches, Sex Education), Henry Lloyd-Hughes (The Inbetweeners) and Nina Sosanya (W1A, Last Tango In Halifax) are reported to be new cast regulars, with an expected guest appearance from Julian Barratt (The Mighty Boosh). Konstantin's return would be most likely to provoke Eve and Carolyn's shocked expression, who assumed they saw him die.
4) Is Villanelle continuing her recuperation in a suburban english housing estate?
Talk about an image being worth a thousand words. Here's Villanelle, still holding her wound, walking through an eerily quiet housing estate holding a man's briefcase and wearing what looks like a child's jumpsuit. To unpick that, and dive further into the trailer, it seems Villanelle has been hiding out in - what looks like - a UK housing estate. Check the zoomed-out image below. It could be France, but those detached homes look very familiar to British eyes, and there are no telltale road signs, or glimpses of which side the car's steering wheels are on.
Later in the trailer, we see Villanelle, dressed in a nightgown, in a home kitchen setting. "What are you looking for?" asks an English-sounding voice off-screen. "A kitchen knife", explains a bewildered Villanelle, who also seems to be adopting an English accent. "What for?" adds the voice. "To stab you with", beams Villanelle, suddenly asserting herself. It's a familiar scene for viewers of season 1, and it's no great leap to assume Villanelle has been acting vulnerable to secure help from a stranger (or acquaintance) , before deciding she suddenly has no use for them. If we had to put 2 + 2 together, we'd say Villanelle kills her male English host, steals his child's jump suit and his brief case, then makes her escape in the early morning light when no one is around. We'd also hazard a guess that the person she shushes at the very end of the trailer - when we get a close-up of Villanelle in her clearly-too-small pyjama suit - is the child of the murdered Englishman. Villanelle has form when speaking sweetly to kids, often while committing an atrocity. She's a true psychopath, lest we forget.
5) Eve must find Villanelle (again)… before a mysterious third-party finds her first
Studio AMC teased Killing Eve season 2's premise in a recent press release: "With both of them in deep trouble, Eve has to find Villanelle before someone else does… but unfortunately, she’s not the only person looking for her". In the trailer, we catch a glimpse of Eve swigging a shot in what *might* be Villanelle's apartment (although we couldn't match the furniture, despite the aesthetic / period similarities), likely some time after the season 1 finale. The image is blurry, but it looks like Eve is flanked by police officers, or perhaps a forensics team. The race is on.
6) Why is Villanelle wearing a pink lederhosen costume with a female piggy mask?
Killing Eve is famed for its costumes, and its producers probably felt this image was too delicious not to include in the trailer, even if it feels the most removed from the train of events we're shown. The piggy outfit is likely worn by Villanelle as another disguise during one of her assassinations. Quite what event would allow you to wear such an outfit and *blend in* isn't entirely clear. Or who she might be targeting. There is a suggestion that Villanelle is in a hotel room, and the trailer shows Eve zeroing in on a hotel (or apartment) doorway labelled '201'.
7) Eve looks pleased that Villanelle is alive and the pair's 'romance' is set to continue
We see Eve at her doorstep, opening a surprise package that spells out 'Eve' in flowers. Villanelle sent a surprise gift to Eve in season 1, and this is clearly Villanelle's way of saying a) I'm alive b) I'm thinking of you and c) I still love you / want to kill you. The season 2 trailer dropped on Valentine's Day, and this is a cute inversion of type. It's worth noting that Eve smiles upon opening the package. She's clearly relieved that Villanelle is alive, and the trailer suggests Eve has been wracked with guilt for stabbing her.
"We have a lot of energy at the beginning of the [new] season and that pushes them (Eve and Villanelle) into a different place of vulnerability", Sandra Oh told a recent US press junket, via Hollywood Reporter.“What’s most interesting about Eve’s stabbing of Villanelle at the end of [season] 1 is Villanelle’s reaction to that, and just how she perceives that,” said Comer, via Entertainment Weekly. “And it both effects 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.”
New executive producer and show runner Emerald Fennell teased that the season would introduce new characters, including another female assassin. "Do we find out that Eve is an assassin expert or is she a Villanelle expert? And what does that mean for her? What does that mean for Carolyn [the mysterious MI6 boss played by Fiona Shaw] and her job? Because we know she’s brilliant and she knows Villanelle inside and out… Suddenly there’s someone between them.”
Executive producer Sally Woodward Gentle expanded a little further: “What would it mean for Villanelle, as well, if she thought that Eve’s gaze wasn’t always on her?" Could this new female assassin be Nina Soyana's character? We'll know soon enough.
8) The trailer's use of 'compare and contrast' cinematography explores a complex relationship
The trailer uses rapid freeze frames, urged along by a version of Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love, and it's easy to miss some nice visual flourishes. Note the use of compare-and-contrast imagery to show the duality between Eve and Villanelle, and how they're similar personalities on different sides of the law. Eve applies lipstick and suddenly breaks down in tears. Villanelle applies make up and smiles serenely at her reflection. Eve chops carrots with a kitchen knife. Villanelle seeks out a kitchen knife to stab her mystery host. Eve recoils in shock. Villanelle collapses to the floor. The two are professionally, almost romantically, infatuated, yet in opposition; with a sharp contrast between Eve's psychological trauma, and Villanelle's physical suffering. “Why are you and Villanelle so interested in each other?”, asks Carolyn Martens during the trailer, in what might be a statement of intent for the season.
9) Is that Villanelle being struck down by a Paris taxi much to Eve's horror?
Blink-and-you'll-miss-it, but there's a scene where a mystery person is hit at speed by a taxi, as a horrified Eve looks on from within a cafe - at least, that's how events are portrayed. Freeze-frame, and you'll see that it's a Parisien taxi, hitting someone who could easily be Villanelle, judging by the light-haired ponytail and slight frame. Had Eve and Villanelle arranged to meet at a public location… only for a mystery party to make an attempt on Villanelle's life? More so, will Jodie Comer's character think Eve was responsible for the attack? Their complex relationship might get knottier.
10) Eve and Villanelle go eye-to-eye… but perhaps not face-to-face
The trailer's climatic moments see Eve rubbing her hand, almost intimately, on a door marked 201, which might be a hotel or apartment. We can only assume that Villanelle has been here, or perhaps waits inside…
We see Eve peer into the peep hole…
… and Villanelle peers back. The exchange takes places in a micro-second, but the pair's mutual fascination is clear. Provided the trailer isn't playing tricks with the timeline, of course, and the peephole staring doesn't occur at different times.
11) Shhhhhh… there's a lot more to come
The trailer's final scene sees Jodie Comer turning to the camera (or more likely a person) to 'shush' them. As we speculated earlier, we wonder if this is the child of the Englishman who Villanelle (we assume) murders? It could, of course, be another witness or bystander, but it feels like the pyjamas deserve an explanation. Thematically, it's clear that this trailer doesn't give too much away, and we can look forward to a lot more twists as season 2 develops. i.e. we viewers have had our tease… and it's shhhhhh… for now.
Killing Eve season 2 debuts on Sunday 7 April on BBC America, and we're still waiting for a confirmed UK date.
