Editor's note: The below interview contains major spoilers for the Killing Eve series finale.
BBC America original series Killing Eve has revolved around its central pair of two women who begin as foes but then evolve into something much more twisty and complex: MI5 analyst Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) and skilled but psychopathic assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer). Although Eve begins looking into Villanelle's killings with a professional interest, their relationship inevitably takes a more mutually obsessive turn, and the two seem to be destined for a final collision course that could be as explosive as it is long-awaited.
Ahead of the show's Season 4 finale (which also doubles as its series finale), Collider had the opportunity to catch up again with showrunner Laura Neal, who worked in the writers' room on Season 3 and takes the helm on the show to wrap up Killing Eve's most complex storylines. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Neal discusses why it was important to bring Eve and Villanelle together for that quiet and intimate road trip, what their kissing scene represents for Eve especially, and what it was like to film the show's climactic moments on a real boat. She also talks about what Konstantin's (Kim Bodnia) death represents in a dangerous spycraft world, what the contrast between the wedding and the Twelve's execution scene serves to illustrate about Eve and Villanelle's destiny, and whether there were any alternate endings considered for the finale.
Collider: First of all, I just feel like I have to thank you for Jodie Comer as Jesus, because that's something I didn't even think I needed in my life until it happened.
LAURA NEAL: I feel entirely the same. I didn't think I needed it. And then when it was dreamt up, I was like, "Of course I need this."
One of the things that struck me specifically about these last couple of episodes is Eve and Villanelle are, for a large part, alone. There are other characters present, but these women have a lot of alone time together outside the supporting cast. What fueled the decision to bring them together and give them this little intimate road trip sequence?
NEAL: Well, a few reasons. One, because we knew this was the final episode and this was the last opportunity we were going to have them have that intimacy together. Because those two characters are in the emotional places they're in, and also where they are in the story and knowing that they're on route to what could be the big endgame, the stars aligned and allowed us to have those scenes of actual stillness between the two of them in a way that we haven't actually been able to have. I don't think we could have even if we'd wanted, earlier on in the season. So it just felt like a gift that was too good to refuse, really.
In terms of the stillness of it, that was something that we found as we were shooting it, almost. There was definitely more dialogue in the script, or in the original version of the script, than ended up in the final cut. That was because we realized, as those two performers were interacting with each other, so much of it was done in looks. So much of it is about their chemistry together on-screen and them playing around that I realized that I could take whole bits of dialogue out and the scene would be just as special because it's about those two characters existing in those quite claustrophobic locations that just dial up the relationship between them. It was just a joy to write those two having fun with each other, especially knowing where it ends. It felt important to have a contrast and to allow us to see them happy in each other's company.
There's definitely claustrophobia to an extent, but also there's this sense of openness too because they're out in this very remote place. I'm thinking specifically of the scene where they finally kiss in the road, with no one else around. It's like a moment that's just for the two of them and also felt like a release valve moment in a lot of ways. Villanelle playfully kisses Eve on the cheek first, and then Eve initiates the deeper moment. What's the character motivation behind Eve finally deciding to go for it?
NEAL: I think there's a now or never aspect to that moment. The intimacy that they've shared in the bothy opens up that moment for them as well. They've had this sharing of the sleeping bag together. They've had the scar moment, touching each other's scars. They've recognized their shared history and what the other has done to the other and also what they've given each other. There's a kind of bubbling over of that after they piss on the side of the road. It just felt like, emotionally, that was the moment where both of them could get there at the same time, which I don't think has happened before.
Throughout the show, they never quite seem to be on the same page, either emotionally or physically, and it seems like, in that moment, they're finally syncing up.
NEAL: Like you are saying, there are no distractions. Villanelle has no one to perform to, and likewise Eve. They're just there on the side of the road, and they've just shared this moment together that's been quite funny and subversive and intimate. It's, in some ways, a really unexpected moment for them to come together, which I really like. It's not romantic in any way, which feels true to the show. And then, in other ways, it is the most expected moment for them to come together because of what's just come before.
Another big moment is Konstantin, and what happens with his character, and it's surprising in a way, but also not. These are characters that are involved in this spy-game world, [and] there's a danger to that, but one of the things that feels a little more tragic for him is that it happens almost as a result of miscommunication, or one character not having all the information that someone else does.
NEAL: We wanted it to feel like a product of the world that he's in. So this world of misdirects, this world of deceiving people, this world of tricking people — normally, he's the one doing that, and then the wool is pulled over his eyes, and he ends up on the receiving end of it. Felt really appropriate for his character. There's something I really love about the futility of his death, the needlessness of it. That feels really cruel, but also feels appropriate for Konstantin in and the way he lives his life, and I like the tragedy of his death.
He and Carolyn have this moment on the phone. I think it's in Episode 5, where they sort of say to each other, "We're not cut out for happy endings, people like us." They've sown too much themselves. They've inflicted too much pain on other people to be able to be spared that in their own deaths. There is a real tragedy with Konstantin because he's just opening up emotionally. This relationship with Pam has made him reflect on his life, and it feels like finally, he's kind of making progress — and of course, that's the moment in which he runs out of road.
I love Eve and Villanelle ending up at a wedding in the finale. On the one hand, you have something that's supposed to be a happy event. And on the other hand, it's basically ground zero for the end. What prompted the idea to have them there on the boat, and what was the process behind trying to keep that all under wraps during filming when you're out in the open?
NEAL: The decision to have the endgame at a wedding was in part a cheeky nod to the Eve and Villanelle relationship and where it would end up in the kind of Disney version of the story. I also just love the contrast. I love the bloody violent act that's going on below deck contrasted with this life-affirming, joyous, happy, universal moment that's happening on the top. It also really spoke to me about the difference between Eve and Villanelle. We've seen their similarities so much as the seasons have gone on. We see those similarities more and more as Season 4 goes on. You see the darkness in Eve, and you see the Eve in Villanelle.
For me, that wedding where Eve is dancing and Villanelle is killing is the moment where you're like, "No, but these people are intrinsically different." Eve isn't a Villanelle. Villanelle isn't an Eve. They are not destined to become the same person. They are destined for different things. It just felt like a really clear way of saying [that] Eve is about seeking life at this moment, and Villanelle is about seeking destruction.
In terms of the practicalities, yeah, it is a real boat. It moves, we got it to move. We actually had Tower Bridge raised and shut for us, I think, twice in one night, and we filmed on that boat for a week. It was quite tricky to keep it under wraps, to be honest. We did as much as we could to keep it under wraps, and I think we did pretty well at it. I don't think there are any big spoilers out there about what happens on that boat, but we were sitting there with our fingers crossed the whole time that it didn't get out. That boat really rocks, so spending 12 hours filming on that is quite a challenge to people's stomachs.
When we talked before the season started, you had mentioned writing and rewriting this ending, and there were a lot of different versions. Was the plan always that Villanelle was going to die? And if not, were there any alternate endings that were almost considered right up until deciding to go with this one?
NEAL: We discussed lots of different versions of the ending. We had a version ... This is just in discussion phase. We talked about both of them living. We talked about both of them dying. We talked about a version where Villanelle lived and Eve dies, and we spoke about all of those versions quite seriously. The only version that got to script stage was this version, in that Villanelle died and Eve lived. There was a version that was written where Villanelle more overtly saves Eve, sacrifices herself for Eve. That was a version that existed in script stage for a while, and then we moved away from that because it didn't feel quite true to Villanelle's innate self-interest.
We had another version where the location was different, so it wasn't always on the boat. There was an iteration of that where the same stuff happened, but it was on a kind of clifftop hotel, and there was a hotel jump rather than a boat jump. For various production reasons, we couldn't make that happen. But also, we discovered that we could have that location on the Thames, and it allowed us to have Tower Bridge, and that just felt way more exciting with that in the end.