The 'Killing Eve' lead writer isn't surprised by fan theories that Sandra Oh's character could die by show's end

• Warning: There are spoilers ahead for the season four premiere of "Killing Eve."
• New head writer Laura Neal told Insider how she workshopped a line in the premiere with Sandra Oh.

"Killing Eve" lead writer Laura Neal knows viewers are wondering whether or not Eve (Sandra Oh), Villanelle (Jodie Comer), or both of them will survive the show.

"It's not surprising that there are those theories around, considering the show's title," Neal told Insider via Zoom while discussing the show's final season, which premiered Sunday night simultaneously on AMC+ and BBC America.

"I've always taken it as more of a figurative death of Eve. For me, the title is Eve is doing away with [the] old Eve and becoming a new Eve. That, for me, is how I've kind of read it," Neal said of what the show's title means to her. "That's not to say one thing or another about the ending. I'm obviously not gonna reveal anything that happens. But I think that title could be read in a whole load of different ways."

If Eve is to die by the season's end, her death was foreshadowed early on Sunday's premiere during a confrontation with Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) at the episode's start.

After a shot to the hand, Konstantin warns Eve, "You are going to die, you know."

"[Eve] says, 'Thank God,' doesn't she?'" Neal said when we mentioned Konstantin's ominous words. "Konstantin says, 'Whatever this is, you're not gonna come out of it alive.' And she says, 'Thank God.' Me and Sandra talked about that line loads and workshopped it loads."

"What feels really exciting to me about that is it's indicative of Eve being in quite a nihilistic place at the start of the series. And that felt exciting for me," Neal continued. "We talked about it a lot because it actually frees her in so many ways. She's lost so much. She has destroyed so much of her life. She's kind of lit a match and thrown it over her shoulder. It's almost like she can't go back to the life that she had before."

Neal added: "Instead of that being a sad or depressing thing, we chose to take it as a freeing thing for Eve. She can act now without fear of the consequences."

As Eve rides dangerously into the final season, seeking to kill members of The Twelve, Insider spoke with Neal about taking over as lead writer during the series' final season, what challenges the pandemic brought the team, and how Neal came up with the idea to showcase Villanelle as Jesus in drag at the episode's end.

Neal had many discussions with the writers and actors about how to end 'Killing Eve.'

Insider: You took lead writing duties over from Suzanne Heathcote. I imagine there must be a lot of pressure not only in taking over the reins of a show but doing that in its final season. You're the first head writer to have written previous episodes of the series before taking over. I'm wondering is there a pressure you felt to end the show a certain way — obviously, there's a book the show is based on — or a pressure for fans to receive it in a certain way?

Neal: I definitely feel the pressure to deliver a satisfying ending for the show. I was a huge fan of the show before I worked on it in season three. So it feels as important to me as it does to any fan that it ends in a satisfying way.

It was helpful for me to have worked on season three because it kind of allowed me to hit the ground running with season four in a way that felt really good.

We had to really think about the ending and really plan it and really go over it and really interrogate what the right ending should be. There was a lot of discussion about it. It wasn't that it was set in stone from the very beginning. It was a constantly evolving conversation between me, the writing team, and the actors involved, as well. It was definitely all heads together on that.

Did you go over the finale or the final season arch at all with series creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge or kind of get her blessing on the end?

Phoebe's very involved in the show still. She's an executive producer and she's always made it really clear that she's around to help. In terms of the final episode, we didn't run it past her specifically. She's on top of all of the scripts.

I wasn't sure if she like came in to co-write any of the episodes at the end.

No.

There was a third "Killing Eve" book that was released in April 2020. I know the show veers from the books a bit, but I wasn't sure if the latest installment inspired how the show may end at all.

I don't think that had been published by the time that we were plotting out the season. I might be wrong there, but, [author] Luke [Jennings] is very much involved in the show and he came into the writer's room a few times, but I deliberately didn't read the final installment because I didn't want to feel influenced by that novel.

Are you going to read it after?

Oh yeah, for sure.

The pandemic affected 'every stage' of working on the final season.

Were there any difficulties or limitations to filming the final season due to the pandemic? Were there any changes made to things you wanted to accomplish? I couldn't really tell any from watching the first three episodes.

That's great to hear because it was right in the middle of the pandemic and it affected every stage of the process. Really.

We were two weeks into the writer's room when the UK went into lockdown. So we had to switch from an in person room to a virtual room. That was the first big change. Then we were constantly hoping, as everybody would, that this, this would be a short-term thing, hoping that we could film as we usually would.

The scripts were all written with the intention of going abroad, like we normally do, and doing everything how we used to do it. Then, it sort of became apparent that we were gonna have to film right in the peak of lockdown and so things really did have to change.

We had to find quite a lot of creative solutions to some problems. I think there's some very clever trickery going on. So I'm really pleased to hear that it doesn't feel like a COVID show because that was something that felt really important to me. I didn't wanna lose any of the scale and ambition because that's part of what makes "Killing Eve" "Killing Eve" So we always knew that those things had to stay. We just had to find a way to do them without essentially leaving London.

Is there anything specifically that you want to lift the veil on that you guys had to do?

We have a section of the show set in Cuba. We were originally going to go to Cuba. Instead of going to Cuba, we actually went to Margate, which is a British seaside town. We actually shot Cuba in Margate. Anyone who knows Margate will be very surprised to hear because it couldn't be further from Cuba.

Neal says Eve is starting to embrace the sides of herself that echo Villanelle.

The season kicks off with a twist right at its start. A masked assassin gets off a Ducati and marches in to kill Konstantin, or at least get some intel out of him about Kenny's murder. You're under the impression this is probably Villanelle, but when they take off their helmet even Konstantin is surprised to see it's Eve.

What were you aiming for by switching up viewer expectations right from the opening minutes of the season and what does this tell us about Eve and what's to come for her arc in this final season?

I love that misdirect. It was there from really early on. It was one of the really early ideas for that episode and I'm so pleased that we managed to pull it off.

I think it just says so much about Eve and where she is. In the misdirect, thinking it's Villanelle, realizing it's Eve, it says: Here is an Eve who has embraced the sort of Villanelle sides of herself finally and is sort of doing so in a way that's really unashamed. That felt really exciting to me. If Eve is sort of inhabiting a part of Villanelle's psyche, where is that gonna take Eve for the rest of the season?

Making Jodie Comer into Jesus was Neal's idea.

At the end of the premiere, Villanelle sees a fabulous over-the-top depiction of the Lord in her design. It's Villanelle in drag with these amazing gold boots and a beard. Whose idea was that? How did that come up and what should we take away from Villanelle seeing this vision of Jesus? is she losing it? Is this real?

I think it was my idea.

I was really excited at the idea of putting a sprinkling of surrealism into the show. Villanelle, she's ensconced herself in the church and everything that comes with that, the iconography, the glory of it, the grandeur of it, the theatricality of it, it felt kind of right that that would needle away at her brain.

To me, what it represents is, here is somebody who has put herself out of her comfort zone and actually has hit upon a stumbling block at the end of episode one and needs somebody to tell her she's on the right track. Being in this very sort of febrile environment, it didn't feel like much of a stretch that Villanelle would conjure up a religious icon to guide her.

And then Villanelle — so self-absorbed and having a God complex anyway — it felt appropriate that that vision would come in the form of her own self.

We really run with it.

"Killing Eve" airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on BBC America. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.