Killing Eve Showrunner Explains Shocking Cliffhanger

Killing Eve co-showrunner Sally Woodward Gentle explains the shocking Season 2 finale cliffhanger which ended with MI5 operative Eve (Sandra Oh) shot and left for dead by the obsessive Villanelle (Jodie Comer).

"We've sort of toyed with whether or not they'd do a Thelma and Louise, but then we go, well then what do they do?" Gentle told The Hollywood Reporter. "I think Eve would very quickly realize that she had been deluding herself about the reality of what that life would actually be, and I personally don't think that Eve would ever go with her."

Villanelle envisioned life with Eve in Alaska, but her rejection turned dangerous when Villanelle uttered the finale's title: "You're Mine." The twist was decided upon "quite early on."

"I can't remember exactly, but it was quite early on because we always knew that we were working toward this moment where Villanelle would con Eve into killing someone and Villanelle would think that it was going to be this massive romance where they'd ride into the sunset," Gentle said.

The big moment came after Eve was forced to kill handler Raymond (Adrian Scarborough) with an axe. "It's okay if you feel weird," a proud Villanelle said. "You just killed someone for the first time. With an axe."

When asked why it was key for Raymond to be Eve's first kill, Gentle admitted, "Do you know what? I don't know."

"I'm sure we could work it out if we analyzed ourselves, but actually, I think we liked the notion of it because he was so horrible," Gentle said.

"He taunts Eve and Villanelle and he's completely sadistic, and we wanted to create a moment where you'd cheer at the end of it. If Eve is going to kill anybody, you have to think about what it's going to do to her. It shouldn't be about emotion, she doesn't feel anything for him, so it is all about what the action of killing another human being does to her, and the impact that has. So I think that's probably why it happened."

The previously announced third season, under new showrunner Suzanne Heathcote, will take a "bold" direction and explore "big ideas."

"I will say what excites me about the show is that you should, every season, be able to do something that feels bold and different from the one before and you can explore big ideas," Gentle said.

"Plus the fact that you can kill so many people means there's always space to bring in brilliant new people, so you should constantly be surprised by who might end up dead!"