After four seasons, drama series Killing Eve came to an end on April 10 with a finale so divisive that many are comparing it to the ending of Game of Thrones.
Starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, Killing Eve, which is based on the Villanelle novel series, centres on the complicated relationship between Villanelle (Comer), a notorious assassin, and Eve (Oh), the bored MI6 agent who is tasked by an intelligence agency to hunt her down. What starts as an obsessive cat and mouse game soon shifts into a romance, with the dark love story between Villanelle and Eve becoming the heart of the TV series, garnering it an army of fans.
With four seasons of longing and near-misses, many were hoping for a happy ending between Villanelle and Eve. For a moment, it looked like that is what was going to happen, as The Twelve were defeated and the pair had a loving road trip in a campervan. But then, their romantic bliss was caught short at the eleventh hour, with Villanelle being killed by a sniper before being quite literally pulled away by Eve by the current of the Thames.
Although you can never please anyone with a series finale, the mood among fans and critics alike was one of outrage. “The last minute of Killing Eve’s finale is void of heart & uses a tired trope carelessly,” one tweet reads. “It feels like a slap in the face & discards Villanelle and Eve’s journey like it meant nothing. I’m disappointed, angry, and it hurts to know a show I loved is tainted for me now.”
The main criticism for fans and critics was that the finale was just another example of the ‘Bury Your Gays’ TV trope, which involves one half of an LGBTQ+ couple dying shortly after finding happiness.
the writers' room when the wlw couple has been happy for 5 minutes after seasons of suffering #killingeve pic.twitter.com/cp7TOC0iqr
— rey l killing eve spoilers (@mentallyjinxed) April 10, 2022
“Just gotta say, the argument isn’t that it’s ‘never’ OK to kill a queer character,” one Twitter user wrote, “What’s played out and tired as hell is withholding love from two queer women, then letting them experience it for all of five seconds before immediately killing one. TIIIIRED.”
killing eve, you’re literally the new game of thrones well done #killingeve pic.twitter.com/sgT8wN9Egx
— aaliyah | ke spoilers (@viilaneille) April 10, 2022
Another asked, “Don’t you love it when the lesbian character you related to the most bleeds to death in front of your eyes moments after she finally found happiness?”
Although Killing Eve is not available on streaming services, it can be streamed on BBC iPlayer in the UK.