‘Killing Eve’ kicks off its new season in the most dramatic way possible

If there’s one thing fans of Killing Eve (Sundays, 10 pET, CTV Drama Channel) should be absolutely sure of now that the third season is here, it’s that the stakes this year are higher than ever. There’s no other way to describe the dark and twisty season premiere that included a wedding, a major character death and a throwback to Mother Russia to introduce a new character that may or may not be the OG Villanelle.

In the mood for love

Was there ever any doubt that Eve (Sandra Oh) would survive the season two finale, when Villanelle (Jodie Comer) shot her in Rome after realizing they weren’t going to run away together like star-crossed lovers? Of course not. Her name is in the title, after all. Still, Villanelle doesn’t know her “ex-girlfriend” is alive when the episode begins, and she’s trying to get over her in the most Villanelle way possible: by marrying another ample-haired woman with pocketfuls of cash. It’s a wedding you know isn’t meant to be, but it is a fantastic excuse to kick off Villanelle’s season-three fashion epic style with that seriously rocking suit. Naturally her wedding speech was all about Eve (“I’m so much happier now that she’s dead”) and it didn’t take the killer long to ruin her new cushy situation by attacking the woman from her past who showed up during the cake-cutting. Naturally fans of the show wouldn't expect anything less.[video_embed id='1936265']RELATED: TV doctors & nurses come together to thank real medical professionals[/video_embed]As Villanelle was crashing and burning as a married woman, Eve was settling into her new life as a dumpling-roller in New Maiden, England. In between shaping those endless pockets of dough, she was up to her usual stress-eating habits, filling up grocery bags with wine and instant noodles that she slurped back in her sad apartment. That’s a woman clearly getting over some serious PTSD in the unhealthiest way possible, not helped by the fact that her husband Niko (Owen McDonnell) is in an institution of some sort after the incident at the storage locker last season. It’s no wonder that her number one (drunk) speed dial is Kenny (Sean Delaney).

Oh yes. #KillingEve returns this Sunday, April 12 at 10/7p on @CTVDrama. pic.twitter.com/vMySWueM6C

— CTV Drama Channel (@CTVDrama) April 9, 2020

For his part, Kenny has been spending time trying to uncover more dangerous assassin material now that the MI6 taskforce has disbanded, his mum Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) now has a new guy to report to because no one at work trusts her and Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) is up to something that's no good, but he has reconnected with his family in the meantime. There was a lot to catch up on since that fateful finale in Rome, huh?

The OG Villanelle

Naturally there needs to be a new antagonist to push the story forward and that’s where a 1974 gymnast from Moscow named Dasha (played in the present day by Harriet Walter) comes into play. Viewers met her in the flashback when she performed a potentially bone-crushing bar routine before heading to the locker room to kill one of her teammates. Everything about the scene screamed Villanelle—if you could picture the character having a mother, Dasha would be it.So it was no real surprise when the woman who interrupted Villanelle’s wedding was the same character, and that she had been recruited to bring V back into the game. This time though there’s no creepy dude ready to keep her in line while handing off ominous postcards: Villanelle wants to be a Keeper, and Dasha is supposedly going to help make that happen. Hands up if you think that’s going to work out for her. Because this organization has clearly treated her so well in the past.The important thing for now is that she believes it. Or maybe she realizes it’s a long shot and she’s just bored. Either way it didn’t take long for Villanelle to make her first kill of the season, when she helped a shopkeeper have an epic run-in with a ladder. The killer is definitely back, and this time she has something new to prove: she’s outgrown her mentor.

Farewell to another member of the MI6 crew

Someone else who's outgrown the past is Kenny, who was indeed uncovering shady material in his new gig as a journalist (and trying to get Eve back into the game to help him). Carolyn certainly wasn’t a fan of his new line of work, but things seemed par for the course for those two. Carolyn and Kenny’s mother-son relationship has always been one of the weirdest (but also kind of delightful) parts of the show, and that was amplified in the premiere . . .  for good reason. It was the last time fans would get to see it.When Eve finally reached out to have drinks with Kenny it was a big milestone for her—she was finally ready to come out of her cocoon and face the world. Except drinks weren’t quite the chill kickback she was hoping for. As Eve went to meet Kenny at his deserted workplace, someone got there first and threw him off the roof. At first fans only saw the body fly by the window when Eve’s back was turned, but when she ran down to the parking lot it was confirmed: Kenny is dead. And here viewers thought Bill Pargrave’s death back in season one was devastating.

 

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Hey All, @killingeve so soon Sunday April 12th. I took this shot off the monitor at our photo shoot. How fierce is Carolyn? How gorgeous is Villanelle? Hope you enjoy KE S3.

A post shared by Sandra Oh (@iamsandraohinsta) on Apr 9, 2020 at 10:40am PDT

Will Kenny’s death be the thing that gets Eve back in the field? Who actually killed him and why? How will Carolyn react to her son’s death, and what will that mean for her and Eve going forward, now that they can bond over losing someone they both loved? These are just some of the questions on everyone’s minds heading into the next episode, but one thing’s for sure: if the rest of the season is as intense as this, we are all in for one heck of a ride.Killing Eve airs Sundays at 10 pET on CTV Drama Channel.[video_embed id='1937556']BEFORE YOU GO: Issa Rae is back with more 'Insecure' and it's exactly what we need[/video_embed]