Slow Dancing in A Burning Room (or the most romantic and on brand “I love you” Eve could have said to V)
Since this is a huge scene, and their most genuine and vulnerable interaction so far in the series, I will basically just pour out my thoughts (this is just purely for me at this point, haha). The bridge scene is pivotal too - because it’s cathartic for Eve to finally be able to accept who she is with the only person who would understand - Villanelle.
But this scene - I just rewatched it. And the way I have melted. It is overwhelmingly beautiful, and really traverses their entire journey to THIS moment in an extremely poetic way. After watching this scene, I am 100% sure (to Sally’s 99.99%) that V knew (with almost crushing certainty) that Eve would turn around in the last scene.
This is the BEST possible response SH and LN could have given to all those people who said Eve doesn’t show that she cares about V/ Eve is so cold and distant with V. The way in which Eve cares for V is astoundingly clear in this scene. Will come to that in a bit.
*Eve enters the room*
So, I love how they contrast both Vs expression when she sees the Albert Hall (”scoffy impressed”), to Eve’s immediate and always present curiosity and wonder for V, “why did she call me here? What does this mean?” I also loved the setting of this scene - V took from Carolyn’s books and chose a place with an external expression of emotion (which is how they both find it easiest to express them) but V actually puts emotional relevance behind this place.
She asks Eve to come to the place where Oksana, in a way, birthed Villanelle. It is such a deeply private thing to have done - to bring Eve deep into her space in the middle of her current mental breakdown. This is her finally trying to grieve with someone she wants to grieve with (not Dasha, not Konstantin, not Helene). So she is already extremely vulnerable and she lets Eve in.
And Eve for the first time, is the one to come to visit her (the dance floor representing where Vs kitchen could have been). Also, the detail of how before she sits down, Eve takes off her own (emotional) outer layer (the jacket), of her own volition, with no assistance by V (S1E5, S2E8).
Eve immediately sees a vulnerable V and she responds to that - Vs hair is down! It’s the first time both of them are being honest with each other because neither is reacting with anger or for a need to be in control anymore. They both feel so out of control (and yet strangely free) that there is sheer exhaustion and acceptance in this room. It’s so cool to see this side of them - how once they both allow anger and the need to control the other fade to the background, their connection is so palpably deep, that it is no wonder that they keep coming back for this - how do you walk away from something like this?
Eve was so fundamentally caring in this scene, that I was shook. We get to see it in just the sparsest but most revealing dialogue, direction, and acting. They didn’t make Eve overcaring and overbearing, and yet they show us how deeply she cares, and how she has accepted V as a given part of her life now.
*Table conversation (where they finally sit next to each other)*
As soon as they start talking, V is so starved to talk about her feelings (like K in S2E7), she immediately gets right into it - she gives Eve context, talks about regrets from the past - missed opportunities - and then suddenly in the middle of all this, Eve ADMITS that V gave her heartache (!!!) - the best part is that it comes out of her naturally, almost as a half joke - it’s how she actually responds to V, when she isn’t holding herself back and has no anger. But Eve then immediately recognises it, and moves for deflection with Niko - and, V just…. ignores her - the space they create for Eve’s indignation at that is special, lol!
I am actually confused about whether V heard Eve or not - I feel like she did, but she ignored it (though I can also see why it may be the other interpretation). But I feel like she ignored the first statement because though Eve may view it as a first almost admission, but V doesn’t think of it like that - she always knew how Eve felt. But V doesnt react because Eve still calls it heartache. And she probably doesn’t care about the Niko-Dasha story in this moment (Dasha is already dead anyway as per her) which is much bigger than all of that - she is talking to Eve about who she really feels she is (’Oksana’/her past).
“Do you think about the past?”
I am not sure if my read is correct - but, I think Eve is talking about Rome here (what do you all think?) - when she says “All the time. That’s all I can think about” because that bears out in what they show us in episodes 1-4. And the beauty is, V is talking about her own past with her family (dancing was a strong theme there), and Eve immediately picks up on the fact that this is NOT just about them and she still cares enough to ask her “What happened?” (A beautiful parallel to how Eve asked V this in S1E5, “What happened to you?”). Again, Eve being shown to accept that V can have emotions for things beyond just Eve.
And the look on Sandra’s face - when Jodie looks like she is about to just fall apart - both of them are so brilliant in this scene. Sandra looks at her with such deep concern, it was like being gutpunched - and Jodie just plays that reaction to first genuine and real concern that someone has shown for her so beautifully.
*To the Dancefloor*
And then this is where the brilliance of the writing comes through - Eve knows what that them being close to eachother will make V feel better, so she immediately grabs the opportunity to dance (she also listens to how V says she wants to feel this joy). This is such a casually beautiful way of showing us that she cares - she is willing to put herself out of her own comfort zone, move past the awkwardness of this really happening - and she just indulges the moment.
Also - did Eve just do a version of Vs shimmy from S1 finale (did V remember it and smile, or did Sandra improvise?) Oh how far have we come. We did have a party or something, finally! But it got gate crashed :(. These parallels resonate so much and show us the distance they have walked.
So Eve’s leading her to the dance floor, with nervous confidence - and Jodie plays Vs absolute thrill at this unexpected turn of events in a dreamlike way, with both eagerness and sheer nervousness - she does the same jiggle she did before dancing at home in Russia. I love that we are brought back for just a few seconds to that “clash” in their dynamic that comes from the need for control (S1-S2), but Vs hair is down, and so she admits “I have no clue” as to who is leading (first admission ever by V, of not having control) - and then they immediately settle into a rhythm where neither is leading or following. As long as neither knows who controls their dynamic, they’re both in sync.
After a season of showing us how uncomfortable V feels when her personal space is invaded without her consent, the way she just melts into Eve, and settles in for the smallest of snuggle - her hand and her face in her hair which she smells - and how Eve just gives in and this is the first source of comfort either of them has received all series long. It’s just devastatingly beautiful how they each in part caused this pain, but they’re the only ones that can soothe one another because no one else sees them.
And then the dialogue (a complete flip on the script of S2 finale and done so brilliantly):
V: “Do you want to be like that?” [S2 finale - we’ll be a normal couple - she ASKS Eve what she wants this time, doesn’t just assume it]
Eve (face is not even a mm away from Vs): “Not anymore” [she rejects what she said she wanted in the last finale - home]
V: “Why not?” [Why? I want this, this feels nice]
Eve: “We’d never make it that long. We’d consume each other before we got old” [you and I mutually destruct - but you and I are now a we - we are in this together. This is also Eve telling V what kind of a couple they’d be (Bonnie & Clyde/normal couple?) - she is showing V that she has thought about it, and while they wont survive this together, but they ARE together.]
V: “That sounds kinda nice” [This is also huge - because V immediately likes the idea of this, thus showing us that it is not “normal” that she is after, but it is being with Eve that matters most – but before she gets too hopeful, she immediately reverts back to what made Eve reject her the last time - “you dont understand love” (because I kill a lot of people/Do you accept me?)]
V: “I have killed a lot of people, Eve” [Confession. Fear. Do you know what you are getting into? My past is still there.]
Eve: “I know” [and she pulls her in closer and Sandra puts so much weight of understanding and acceptance into that I know, that Villanelle does not need to hear anything else. This is the I love you she needed, and she got it. That smile that she has on her face, of finally being accepted for who she is, and of Eve choosing to see beyond her psychopathy and being here with her despite everything, is everything to her. This is absolute relief on her face right there but they BARELY let it linger because Rhiane!]
This was so good. And the cinematography, the direction, the way the actors played it - the comfort and warmth in this scene. It’s literally like being transported to a different show that is KE concentrated into a microcosm. Everything feels like a culmination.
Also, I just love how V had to force Eve to get out of there - she was refusing to go! “Why!” Hahahaha. V knows Eve chose her. Eve walking away with protest, from her, and her looking on in amazement, as Eve looks back again and again– I think is also what allows her to finally kill again in the next scene (because now she has something to lose again + they needed to show us that V could still kill, haha).
Her entire emotional reaction to the weight of being accepted comes through in this scene (and not the bridge scene, where I feel like she already knows). KE crams in drama in a special way because it doesn’t over-linger on any significant moment too much, but that smile that V gave when Eve says “I know”, is the smile that would have been on the bridge had V not already known.
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