Sandra Oh On Killing Eve Series Finale Original Ending
“I thought it would be the most interesting ending.”
Last month, Killing Eve’s brutally abrupt series finale left fans pretty upset.
David Emery / ©BBC-America / Courtesy Everett Collection
And now, they are learning Season 4 was supposed to end in a completely different way. During a recent interview with Deadline, series star Sandra Oh revealed what the series originally planned for her character.
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As you know, during the final moments in the show, just hours after they shared their first proper kiss, Villanelle (Jodie Comer) was killed by a sniper, while Eve (Sandra Oh) survived. But now, we’re learning it was actually supposed to be the other way around.
Anika Molnar / ©BBC-America / Courtesy Everett Collection
“I was like, ‘You should kill my character,'” Sandra said in a conversation with Season 4 lead writer Laura Neal. “I thought that would be the strongest and the most interesting [ending].”
Anika Molnar / ©BBC-America / Courtesy Everett Collection
“I felt, emotionally, it was the right place of where I was at. Eve was starting to get into, like, a nihilistic place, and we’re like, ‘Let’s just continue that line and go straight into it.'”
David Emery / ©BBC-America / Courtesy Everett Collection
But when the pandemic hit, production decided they had to move in a different direction for the finale. They told Sandra that her character needed to live.
Olly Courtney / ©BBC-America / Courtesy Everett Collection
“Eve is the way into this world,” production told Sandra. “She’s our everywoman. So it’s kind of really super depressing if she dies.”
Anika Molnar / ©BBC-America / Courtesy Everett Collection
So they decided to switch the storylines around, and Jodie was fully on-board for that. However, fans and even Codename Villanelle book author Luke Jennings, weren’t too happy about it.
David Emery / ©BBC-America / Courtesy Everett Collection
“The Season 4 ending was a bowing to convention,” Luke wrote to The Guardian. “A punishing of Villanelle and Eve for the bloody, erotically impelled chaos they have caused. A truly subversive storyline would have defied the trope which sees same-sex lovers in TV dramas permitted only the most fleeting of relationships before one of them is killed off .”
David Emery / ©BBC-America / Courtesy Everett Collection
“How much more darkly satisfying, and true to Killing Eve’s original spirit, for the couple to walk off into the sunset together?” asked Luke. “Spoiler alert, but that’s how it seemed to me when writing the books.”
David Emery / ©BBC-America / Courtesy Everett Collection
In the books, not only do Villanelle and Eve both live, but they also end up together.
How did you feel about the Killing Eve series finale? Tell us about it in the comments below.
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