Showrunners 07: A Love Story?

👉 Scene Writing Workshop 👈

Welcome to Episode 7 of our podcast. This week we will discuss the 5 Commandments of episode 5 of Killing Eve titled I have a thing about bathrooms.

Recap for Episode 4 – Sorry baby

Bill’s Funeral
Villanelle is reprimanded for leaving Eve’s name at the fetish shop
Villanelle has to work with a group to kill a British agent
Eve discovers that Frank is the mole
Eve and Elena go to talk with Frank
Villanelle’s team hunts Frank
Nadia kills the third member of the assassin team and Villanelle runs over Nadia
Frank escapes and Villanelle chases him

Review of Episode 5 – I Have a Thing About Bathrooms

Eve stops the car and faces Villanelle, and Villanelle doesn’t kill her
Eve learns Villanelle’s real name – Oxana
Frank gets to a safe house
Frank tells Carolyn about the 12 and his bribes
Eve puts on the perfume and clothes that Villanelle bought
Villanelle breaks into Eve’s house, they talk, they fight, Villanelle steals Eve’s phone
Villanelle kills Frank in the safe house
Villanelle lets Constantin know that she knows about the 12

So, the last episode we agreed that there was a significant sequence that began with:

Inciting Incident: Frank calling Eve and telling her that he is being chased by assassins.
Turning Point: Villanelle is chasing the care
Crisis: Does Eve stop or Does Eve drive away
Climax: Eve stops
Resolution: Villanelle doesn’t kill Eve, but runs off

So the 5 Commandments of the rest of the episode are as follows.

Inciting Incident

Melanie: Frank is eating in the restaurant and he tells Eve learns that Villanelle’s real name is Oxanna. Now Eve has her real name and she sets Kenny to find all her files on Oxanna. Eve knows more about Villanelle. She makes a better analysis of the Villain.

Turning Point

Randall: Villanelle breaks into Eve’s house and threatens Eve and her husband

Parul: The turning point for me is when the husband walks in

Randall: What are the stakes then?

Parul: Good Question

The Turning point is a beat, scene, sequence, act, subplot or Story is the moment when new information comes to the fore and a character can’t help but react. This is where the rubber meets the road in a story. Without clearly defined and surprising turning points, the reader/audience will lose interest. Quickly.

The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne “The Turning Point”

Parul: If the husband didn’t walk in that it’s pure chaos, she’s now vulnerable and so is his husband.

Melanie: I think that the turning point is when Villanelle starts to fake cry and ask for help.

The Crisis

Melanie: Does Eve believe Villanelle’s cry for help or not? Eve’s gift is her psychological evaluation of people, especially Villanelle.

Climax

Melanie: Eve calls Bullshit on Villanelle and Calls her an asshole and calls her by her name – Oksana. Then Eve gives a speech in praise of the villain:

»I know you’re an exceptionally bright, determined, hard-working. I know you are an extraordinary person. I know something happened to you. I know you’re a psychopath.«

Resolution

Randall: Eve fights back, then Villanelle disarms and threatens Eve, then Eve’s husband comes home and she begs for his life, and finally, Villanelle steals Eve’s phone and uses it to track down and kill Frank.

Value Change

It starts with Eve trying to connect with Villanelle to Eve’s life and family threatened and Frank’s death and failure of MI6 to keep Frank safe – the good guys aren’t able to protect their own.

Polarity Shift: +/-

Does this episode work?

Parul: Yes – there’s action and death.

Melanie: the innovation of the genre is very obvious here – the interrogation of Frank is not what you expect, Frank behaves like a child. Eve threatens Villanelle with a toilet brush and Frank threatens Villanelle with a toothbrush.

For an innovative Love Story scene, Villanelle is asking Eve out by drowning her in the bathtub. And Eve gives the Speech in Praise of the Villain to the Villain, which is out of the ordinary.

Randall: As a love story –

Here we see the lovers meet in person, just the two of them. We see the connection between them. Villanelle doesn’t kill Eve

Eve is wearing the perfume Villanelle sent her and the dress she selected for her. Villanelle tells Eve she doesn’t want to hurt her, but when Eve pulls a knife, there is a tense moment when the viewer is in doubt about that. And when Eve’s husband walks in (Triangle anyone), Eve begs for his life.
Is this a lover breakup scene? Maybe so.
It’s also the episode that begins their ‘thing’ of sending each other notes, Villanelle putting one in Eve’s suitcase, saying ‘Sorry Baby.”
We also realize once again that their infatuation can never progress, one is a good guy and one a bad guy, they will never be together.

Question of the Week

We only see the aftermath, but Villanelle ups her badassedness in this episode showing once again how she outclasses Eve in every way. This time, it’s not a couple guys who aren’t expecting anything to happen at a hospital, but an MI6 safehouse with trained operators who are expecting her to come, and she takes them all out before confronting Frank.

What other shows had great Safe House scenes? Basically, not-so-safe houses?

Randall – Safehouse; Hanna (movie and series); Blacklist; 24

Mel -Ninja Assassin 3; The Purge – they are all in their own safe houses.

Parul – Designated Survivor

Can you think of any shows we missed?

Did this episode work for you as a viewer?

Leave your comments on our webpage at storygrid.com where you can also find links and additional material in the show notes.

References:

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Showrunners 07: A Love Story? – Killing Eve Ep5