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Killing Eve ended after four seasons of the BBC thriller with a shocking final episode. Showrunner and writer Laura Neal has shared some insight into coming up with the ending – and the alternate versions that almost happened. Spoilers ahead.
The show’s final episode ends with Villanelle’s (Jodie Comer) death at the hands of MI6 operative Carolyn (Fiona Shaw). The assassin is shot in the back while speaking to Eve (Sandra Oh) after their successful mission to take down The Twelve.
However, Killing Eve season 4 showrunner Neal has admitted this was not the only ending on the table for Eve and Villanelle. Speaking to Collider, she explained there were a lot of "discussions" behind the scenes about how it should end.
She said: "We talked about both of them living. We talked about both of them dying. We talked about a version where Villanelle lived and Eve dies, and we spoke about all of those versions quite seriously. The only version that got to script stage was this version, in that Villanelle died and Eve lived."
Neal revealed there was also some debate about how exactly the assassin should be killed. In the final cut, she’s shot in the back before pushing Eve into the water with her to try and avoid further bullets. But, the writer explained: "There was a version that was written where Villanelle more overtly saves Eve, sacrifices herself for Eve. That was a version that existed in script stage for a while, and then we moved away from that because it didn't feel quite true to Villanelle's innate self-interest."
The show’s writing team also changed the location of the final stand-off a few times before landing on this final version. Neal continued: "There was an iteration of that where the same stuff happened, but it was on a kind of clifftop hotel, and there was a hotel jump rather than a boat jump. For various production reasons, we couldn't make that happen.
"But also, we discovered that we could have that location on the Thames, and it allowed us to have Tower Bridge, and that just felt way more exciting with that in the end."
You can watch Killing Eve’s finale on BBC iPlayer in the UK and on BBC America in the US now. If you’re stuck over what to watch next, here’s our round-up of the 100 best TV shows of all time.
