This character proves that murder isn’t just a man’s world.
The Big Picture
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Killing Eve
‘s Villanelle challenges the male-dominated world of psychopathy by embodying a unique, flamboyant, and mercenary-like female killer. - Unlike traditional psychopaths, Villanelle begins as an assassin for hire, reveling in the murder of her targets without showing empathy.
- Villanelle’s performative style of killing, paired with her queer identity, unveils relatable human moments and emotional breakthroughs on
Killing Eve
.
We are all simultaneously appalled and enthralled by fictional psychopaths in the media, with many types waltzing on and off our screens. Killing Eve’s Villanelle (Jodie Comer) proves that there are still many we have yet to see, as her flamboyant, cold, yet emotional character carves out her own path in the landscape. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?), psychopathy has become a man’s world, and Villanelle is on a mission to prove that women can also take pleasure in draining the life out of someone. Driven by monetary goals and murdering victims in loud, creative ways, she uproots the notion of what traditionally makes a female killer. It is also interesting that it is her queerness that unravels her psychopathy, leading to more relatable human moments and emotional breakthroughs.
Killing Eve
After a series of events, the lives of a security operative and an assassin become inextricably linked.
- Release Date
- April 8, 2018
- Cast
- Sandra Oh , Fiona Shaw , Kim Bodnia
- Seasons
- 4
‘Killing Eve’s Villanelle Exists in a Male-Dominated Space
Like many fields, female psychopathy is very under-researched in real life, and there are only a handful of women that researchers can pinpoint with certainty as psychopaths. In film, characters tend to be psychopath-coded rather than having a legitimate diagnosis, but even then, fictional psychopathy is absolutely a male-dominated space. The Joe Goldbergs (Penn Badgley), Patrick Batemans (Christian Bale), and Dexters (Michael C. Hall) of the world all have one distinct trait in common that automatically grants them the label of psychopath — taking pleasure in killing. Traits like obsessiveness, lack of empathy, antisocial behavior, or explosive rage tend to be seen in varying amounts.
This sadism is rarely translated to women, who often take on the roles of femme fatales, where their (usually seductive) actions indirectly lead to murder rather than committing it themselves. Even now, more household names like Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) in Gone Girl or Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) in Get Out lean more towards sociopathy instead. As such, Villanelle is truly forging her own path in this psychotic boys’ club, pioneering a different kind of psychopath that now little girls can also aspire to be. Like many psychopaths, she is haunted by her traumatic childhood, prefers her own company and revels in a good old bloodbath. It is not only her sex that differentiates her from her peers, but also the unique flair she adorns her kills with and her mercenary-like goals.
Villanelle Begins Her Journey as an Assassin for Hire in ‘Killing Eve’
Unlike many psychopaths, who often set up and follow their own agendas, Villanelle starts her journey in Season 1 of Killing Eve as a hired assassin. Following the directions of her handler, she is somewhat of a regulated psychopath who relishes the murder of the targets she is directed towards. Joe Goldberg murdered anyone who he deemed was a threat to the object of his infatuation, while Dexter embodied a more chaotic vigilante mainly targeting perpetrators who evaded the justice system. In comparison, there is something far more vulgar and fundamentally terrifying in Villanelle’s structure of killing. She doesn’t care about who she kills — she just loves doing it.
This distinct quality is heightened in Season 3, Episode 4 of Killing Eve, where Villanelle is directed to eliminate the widow of a former Russian agent in order to gain intel on her family. She disguises herself as a gardener and goes about to trim the widow’s late husband’s flowers when the widow hurriedly intervenes. After a grief-stricken conversation and a playful, childlike chase around the garden, Villanelle strangles the widow to death using a hose. With the strength and time it takes to strangle someone, choosing this intimate method of death after the sweet, innocent moment they had is a jarring juxtaposition that completely embodies Villanelle’s close relationship with murder. Whether or not she cares about you, she will enjoy draining the life out of you.
Unlike vigilantism or “love,” her straightforward monetary values and the pleasure she gains from killing feels a lot more traditionally masculine. But, of course, throughout the seasons, she becomes more erratic and reckless with her kills, sometimes acting off impulse, which is more akin to the typical mold of a psychopath. Yet the constant through everything is the icy laughter or toothy grin that accompanies each entralling kill, almost as if we are getting a glimpse of the hidden addict on a euphoric high each time blood is shed.
Villanelle’s Performative Style of Killing Sets Her Apart on ‘Killing Eve’
Apart from being a woman and an assassin, Villanelle distinguishes herself in her field through the performative and flamboyant style of her trade. As the common perception goes, women are more likely to kill for a purpose and through more subtle pathways. There’s the oft-cited quote that “poison is a woman’s weapon,” and history has certainly seen this through, with 17th-century Italian Giulia Tofana, who facilitated the poisoning of over 600 men, or Jane Toppan, dubbed “America’s first female serial killer,” a nurse who poisoned 31 of her patients. But art doesn’t necessarily have to mimic life, and through the undermining of this female killer stereotype, we are gifted with Villanelle’s chaotic and sometimes elegant performances, each unique murder deserving a standing ovation.
Waltzing onto the screen with a friendly exchange with a little girl eating an ice cream, then following up with deftly flicking the ice cream out of the girl’s hand, the eccentric and conflicting character Villanelle could not have a more perfect introduction. A stunning murder follows this, as she gracefully stabs a hairpin into a politician’s eye. From the mutilation of a colonel at a torture fetish appointment to the recreation of a famous painting in Amsterdam’s Red-Light district, Villanelle’s manic attitude towards her poetically curated kills is an art form in itself. Psychopath or not, you can’t deny that she’s got taste.
Villanelle Becomes More Human Through Her Queer Identity on ‘Killing Eve’
Interestingly, it is Villanelle’s queer identity that unravels her psychopathy and results in more humane moments, undermining the outdated views on queerness. The queer community has often been villainized, painted as “unnatural,” or even deemed as a mental health condition that requires psychiatric intervention via a multitude of heinous therapies. As such, the way that psychopathy and Villanelle’s queer identity play into each other in Killing Eve is intriguing and refreshing. Villanelle’s queerness actually ends up rifling through her psychopathy and unearths emotions that are more recognizable to the everyday person.
We’ve seen that Joe Goldberg’s undoing ended up being his relationship with Love (Victoria Pedretti), both the person and the concept. Similarly, Villanelle’s Achilles heel is absolutely her tantalizing cat-and-mouse relationship with Eve (Sandra Oh). In fact, this is epitomized in the Season 1 finale, where she is so entranced by her relationship that she is stabbed in the gut by Eve — a situation the psychopathic Villanelle would never normally let herself get into. It is also what facilitates her lovability. While we like her for pioneering the theatrical female psychopath, we love her for her sadistic relationship with Eve. As such, through her sex, values, stylistic choices, and queer identity, Villanelle becomes a dynamic character that proudly departs from what we would traditionally expect to see from a fully-fledged psychopath.
Killing Eve is available to stream now on Netflix in the U.S.
This article was originally published on collider.com