THE BAPTISM OF VILLANELLE

My wife and I recently began binge watching the Netflix series “Killing Eve.” This fictional series is about MI-6, the British foreign intelligence service (akin to our own CIA) in general and in particular, two women playing a cat-and-mouse game. The plot, especially in the fourth and final season, becomes so bizarre and outlandish, that “Killing Eve” could be described as a satirical farce, except for the two women at the heart of the series- Villanelle and Eve.

Villanelle, played brilliantly by the English actress Jodie Comer, is a consummate Russian assassin who leaves dead bodies all across Europe. She is psychopathic with no sympathies for her victims. Villanelle was sent to an orphanage as a child by her jealous mother and was recruited there by a mysterious organization called The Twelve, a group dedicated to disruption through murder and other crimes.

Eve Polastri, the title character, is also played brilliantly by Sandra Oh, a Canadian-American actress of Korean descent. Eve is married to a math teacher at an English prep school originally from Poland, hence the source of some confusion during the first season. She is also a bored desk-bound employee of MI-5, the home security service (akin to our own FBI), until she identifies the unknown assassin as a woman. Her superiors are so impressed with Eve’s analysis that she is seconded to MI-6 to head up a team to hunt down the assassin later identified as Villanelle.

The actual “killing” of Eve is not murder, but in the deeper sense of the destruction of her personality and even of her soul as she pursues Villanelle and sinks deeper in the morass of the spy game. She develops a love-hate friendship with the assassin and even stabs her at one point. Villanelle later shoots Eve in revenge. Alas, both women survive. Eve’s marriage ends as her husband cannot endure the stress and tension stemming from his wife’s obsession with Villanelle.

By the beginning of the fourth season Villanelle has murdered dozens of people. By then even she begins to question why she is in the assassination business. She decides she wants to be a better person and in the process she affiliates with a small Anglican parish in London and seeks baptism. She also becomes best mates with the rector’s daughter and they together help serve the community through the parish.

Villanelle invites Eve to her baptism to demonstrate she is now a better person. Eve questions Villanelle’s sincerity in the matter, rips up her written invitation to the event, and does not attend the church service. Villanelle is indeed baptized but is very disappointed with Eve’s lack of attendance. So much so, that Villanelle attempted to drown the rector’s daughter by pushing her face in the baptismal font.

About this time Villanelle began seeing a Christ-figure which had many of her features which I interpret as her conscience. This so-called Christ-figure appeared to be offering Villanelle good counsel, so when she was counseled to make amends with the rector’s daughter during a church camping retreat, Villanelle did so. When the two renewed their friendship, the rector’s daughter shared a secret with Villanelle in that her father was a hypocrite. Some years ago her father the rector was driving while intoxicated and in the process wrecked the family car and killed her mother. The daughter then swore Villanelle to secrecy.

Later that evening the church members gathered around the campfire sharing what was going on in their lives.  It did not take long for Villanelle to share the rector’s family secret before the entire church camp. The rector and his daughter fled in shame and the camp participants told Villanelle that they did not appreciate what she shared with them. So, Villanelle left the campfire and went to the rector’s tent. After hearing the rector and daughter lamenting Villanelle’s behavior, she entered the tent and savagely murdered both of them. When she returned to her own tent and killed the Christ-figure.

Villanelle then departed the campgrounds and found her way to Eve’s residence. When Eve came home, Villanelle requested that Eve permit her to spend the night. Eve allows it but not before asking sarcastically. “Have you talked to Jesus about this?” That was the end of the subplot about the baptism of Villanelle.

What about all this? Why should serious-minded Christ followers reflect upon Villanelle and her baptism? At the risk of attempting to find nuggets of gold in an otherwise field of fools’ gold, I offer several reasons to the readers of this essay:

·       Villanelle was not honest with herself and her newfound Christian community. In addition to her spiritual darkness, Villanelle was a psychopathic killer showing little or no remorse for her victims. Granted, we have a dilemma in which many viewers of “Killing Eve” will find her sympathetic for at least recognizing that she needed to change. Yet Villanelle failed to grasp that what we needed was a conversion of her inner most being rather being totally reliant on the outward sign of baptism, as important as baptism is as an act of obedience. Also, Villanelle failed to share with the rector or any others in the parish, including the rector’s daughter her best mate, about the lifestyle of violence she was seeking to leave behind. The parish if they had been told the truth about her previous choices could have provided medical and mental treatment for her broken heart.

 

·       The rector was not honest with Villanelle. Although the rector was not informed about Villanelle’s past, he did see her obsession with baptism as almost an act of magic to cure her of her spiritual darkness. He did warn her on one occasion about how she was understanding the sacrament but we the viewers did not see any follow-up instruction from him. If he had done so, perhaps she would have waited to give herself more to reflect and mature in the faith.

·       Eve and others did offer their genuine support to Villanelle during her moment of need. Villanelle made a special effort to invite Eve and perhaps a few others from outside the parish to her baptismal service. They however saw Villanelle’ action as phony. Everyone who claims Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior needs a community of believers for spiritual nurture and support and a group of friends, colleagues, etc., who do not necessarily share our faith but respect and understand what we are trying to do.

·       What shall we make of the Christ-figure that Villanelle imagined on several occasions? Although I was initially put off by such imagery, after I gave some thought to it, the Christ-figure reminded me of Peter O’Toole’s 1972 film “The Ruling Class” in which he played an English aristocrat who thought he was Jesus Christ. When asked why he so thought, O’Toole’s character replied that when he prayed, he found he was talking to himself. Villanelle’s Christ-figure, as I have come to believe, was a projection of herself. If this was the case, then Villanelle’s baptism was doomed to fail, as it indeed did. Our strength as Christians is a paradox- we must admit that we are too weak for the journey to the New Jerusalem and so we must totally rely on the “Holy Other” to travel with us and not on the “self” who got into the trouble to begin with.

Although I will not issue a spoiler alert and reveal the ending to “Killing Eve” I will say that both Villanelle and Eve continue the downward spiral into the darkness of the international spy game. Interested readers may find the trilogy of Villanelle novels by Luke Jennings of interest.