It’s been a little over three weeks since the BBC aired the final instalment of its beloved cat-and-mouse spy thriller Killing Eve, and the internet is decidedly not over the shocking finale. After four seasons, countless kills, iconic fashion and years of electrifying chemistry, MI6 agent Eve Polastri and Russian assassin Villanelle finally got together. Spoiler alert: they didn’t get their happy ending.

In the final episode of the four-part saga, Eve and Villanelle finally acknowledge their romantic feelings for each other as they embark on a roadtrip to track down the members of the Russian elitist organisation known as The Twelve. After infiltrating a wedding ceremony on board a ship, Villanelle successfully murders every member of The Twelve present in their secret meeting, but when she reunites with Eve on the deck, Villanelle is shot multiple times by a sniper on the orders of Carolyn Martens. After diving into the Thames, Villanelle perishes, Eve resurfaces and the prospect of the pair starting a new life together expires in one bloodcurdling scream.

Needless to say, the ending provoked a strong reaction from the devoted Killing Eve fanbase, who took to social media in their droves to express shock, outrage and disappointment at what went down in the final few minutes of the series. Amid the backlash, many fans drew attention to the way the finale played into one particularly problematic and pervasive storytelling trope known as “bury your gays”, in which LGBTQ+ characters are frequently and unceremoniously killed off, usually before they have a chance to experience romantic fulfillment.

In a new interview with TVLine, Sandra Oh explained that the series finale once had a very different outcome – although not necessarily a happier one. 

According to Oh, the show’s final moments would have originally seen Eve become the target of the sniper that felled Villanelle.

“Honestly, it was going to be the other way around,” she explained, meaning that Eve would have actually been the one to perish instead of Villanelle.

Recalling a conversation she had with Laura Neal, the lead writer of season four, Oh explained that she actually proposed the death of her character.

“I was like, ‘You should kill my character,’” she said, explaining that killing Eve – in accordance with the show’s title – “would be the strongest and the most interesting” ending.

“I felt, emotionally, it was the right place of where I was at,” she added, noting that at the end of the third season, “Eve was starting to get into, like, a nihilistic place, and we’re like, ‘Let’s just continue that line and go straight into it.’”

After the pandemic abruptly shut down production, though, the storyline became subject to a rethink.

Oh went on to explain that the decision was made to let Eve survive after all, owing to the fact that she was the most relatable character.

“Eve is the way into this world. She’s our everywoman. So it’s kind of really super depressing if she dies,” she continued.

But even if Villanelle had survived the show’s closing moments, it’s unlikely that fans would have been happy with the equally grim conclusion of Eve sinking to the bottom of the Thames.

So heartbroken were fans by the finale that many began to reimagine an alternative ending for Eve and Villanelle in accordance with the final book in Luke Jennings’s original trilogy, which sees the two uniquely magnetic protagonists build a happy life together in the suburbs of St Petersburg. But for those still reeling from the untimely demise of one of the most memorable TV characters in recent times, it seems that there’s reason to have genuine hope for a different swan song.

In an op-ed for the Guardian, Jennings, who wrote the Villanelle books that inspired the show, shared his disappointment at the way the thriller essentially “punishes” Eve and Villanelle.

“As an author, it’s a thrill having your work adapted for TV, as my Killing Eve novels were. You’re never going to love everything the screenwriting team does, that’s a given,” he wrote in the column. 

“It’s an extraordinary privilege to see your characters brought to life so compellingly,” he continues, “but the final series ending took me aback.”

Jennings noted that when he first discussed the character of Villanelle with series creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge five years ago, “we agreed that she was defined by what Phoebe called her ‘glory’: her subversiveness, her savage power, her insistence on lovely things. That’s the Villanelle that I wrote, that Phoebe turned into a screen character, and that Jodie [Comer] ran with so gloriously.”

The author went on to reveal that he was just as disappointed and frustrated as Killing Eve fans by the ending, highlighting the way it bows to the outdated convention of consistently denying LGBTQ+ couples their happy ending.

“The season four ending was a bowing to convention. A punishing of Villanelle and Eve for the bloody, erotically impelled chaos they have caused,” he continued.

“A truly subversive storyline would have defied the trope which sees same-sex lovers in TV dramas permitted only the most fleeting of relationships before one of them is killed off. How much more darkly satisfying, and true to Killing Eve’s original spirit, for the couple to walk off into the sunset together? Spoiler alert, but that’s how it seemed to me when writing the books.”

Jennings also drew attention to the significance of the show to the LGBTQ+ community, which was a much-loved entry in the burgeoning wave of queer representation on screen.

“TV folk sometimes see ultra-fans of TV drama as weird and cranky, but for many young people living difficult and isolated lives, a show such as Killing Eve can be a lifeline,” he explained.

“I recently heard from a young gay woman living in Russia. “Villanelle means the world to me,” she wrote. “She’s my comfort character, someone I’ve found representation, understanding, freedom, strength and bravery in. And I know that no TV writers can take her away because she’s ours – all of ours – and thanks to your books and our love she will live on forever.”

But Jennings had more to say beyond commiserating with heartbroken fans and ruminating on what could have been had the series finale not ended in tragedy. Jennings, of course, is the man who created the characters of Villanelle and Eve in the first place; if there’s anyone with the power to rewrite the narrative, it’s him.

Concluding his column, the author wrote that while the Killing Eve series may have drawn to a close on our TV screens, it’s definitely not the last we’ve seen of Villanelle.

“I learned the outcome of the final episode in advance, and suspected, rightly, that fans would be upset, he continued.

“But to those fans, I would say this: Villanelle lives. And on the page, if not on the screen, she will be back.”

While there’s no explicit confirmation yet as to whether Villanelle will be resurrected in a brand new novel, it certainly seems as though we can be hopeful that Jennings will find a way to allow the pair to walk off into the sunset together in the near future. For beloved Killing Eve fans still processing their mortification and those in the LGBTQ+ community who feel betrayed by another queer character biting the dust, a new chapter might well be about to give these two carefree lovers a new lease of life.

Images: BBC